MLB should ban alcohol at the Rogers Center for the rest of the postseason

[Ohfan67]

They should ban CANADIANS from attending baseball games. Our porous northern border should be closed to all Canadian baseball "fans".

[Odenton O]

They could just serve all drinks in plastic cups. That would eliminate any danger to the players.

This also seems like an isolated incident. We are probably making a too big of a deal about it

Except that as others have pointed out, it isn't an isolated incident. Someone threw a beer can at Nate McLouth in 2013. Last year, a bunch of fans threw crap all over the field in the ALCS because they didn't like a call by an umpire. (And in one of those incidents, I believe, a fan in the stands was actually injured.) And now throwing at Kim while he was trying to make a play. I don't believe in holding the actions of one or two fans against the fan base, but they aren't looking too good right now.

That said, switching to plastic cups would, I think, eliminate the danger to players. Banning alcohol outright is probably unnecessary.

[Tbone83]

The problem of alcohol and sporting events is not limited to the Rogers Centre or the Blue Jays fanbase.

Ever gone to Yankee Stadium as a visiting fan?

Human beings and alcohol is a dangerous mix, and I say this as someone who enjoys to drink.

I've been to many MLB parks as a visiting fan. Toronto is by far the worst. It's more on a par with going to a NFL game as a visiting fan, after the homers have been tailgaiting all day.

I had a Yankees fan sit next to me in Game 1 of the 2012 ALDS at Camden. Somehow I managed not to throw things at him or fight him or swear at him. Because this is baseball, not the NFL or soccer.

[Trackmaster]

The problem of alcohol and sporting events is not limited to the Rogers Centre or the Blue Jays fanbase.

Ever gone to Yankee Stadium as a visiting fan?

Human beings and alcohol is a dangerous mix, and I say this as someone who enjoys to drink.

This obviously wouldn't really address the issue of objects being thrown onto the field, but I think that all sports could benefit from designated visitor sections, especially during play-off games. I guess with secondary markets and online ticket sales it would be hard to police it, but it would be nice if every stadium was required to have a certain block of seats (maybe 3,000 in baseball and 5,000 in football) where the tickets were controlled by the opposing team, and they were continuous. They could give them away to season ticket holders, or mandate that they're bought in their home city at the box office. Something like that. I think that college football does that. That way, if you want to visit a game, you can feel like you're in friendly territory and not at risk of injury, or vice versa.

And while alcohol sales are important to teams, maybe they could put Toronto on notice that one more incident could lead to the forfeiture of alcohol sales for the remainder of the post-season. It could help fans police themselves.

I think a problem with punishing the team for the fans is how do you know which team they're rooting for? How do you know that somebody isn't a visitor causing problems? Nothing is to stop people from wearing other jerseys, if they're even wearing a jersey. Should we be blamed for the Raiders fan who nearly killed one of our fans?

[Satyr3206]

How about the Ushers do their jobs before banning anything else?

[T. Legend]

It isn't bad mix at all. I was in Bavaria and they have alcohol at every place you can imagine and it is one of the safest places in the world. They banned alcohol in this country for a while and it lead to the highest homicide rate in the counties history. Alcohol doesn't make you a bad person. It makes bad people's true character come out.

Alcohol is banned at many football/soccer matches around the world.

[T. Legend]

I went to Game 5 in 2012 at Yankee Stadium in plainclothes. Sat in the bleachers. There was a red hair KID wearing O's gear near me. It was painful listening to adult yankee fans make fun of this kid all game.

[atomic]

The two Orioles fans who beat up a Yankees fan and caused him permanent brain damage got 5 days and 3 days respectively in jail time. Should Orioles fans be banned from all baseball games because of these two fans?

[atomic]

I went to Game 5 in 2012 at Yankee Stadium in plainclothes. Sat in the bleachers. There was a red hair KID wearing O's gear near me. It was painful listening to adult yankee fans make fun of this kid all game.

You could have said something. And by the way I have had some pretty nasty things said to me at Orioles game by Yankees fans at Orioles games when I was just about the only Orioles fan in my section back before the O's started winning. And I am 6'2 and 225 pounds. I don't think the mob mentality has much fear of anything.

[LA2]

They should ban CANADIANS from attending baseball games. Our porous northern border should be closed to all Canadian baseball "fans".

A Grey Monster for which Ontario foots the entire bill.

[beantownrefugee]

I just really want you guys to know that actual good Jays fans (there are some) are unbelievably embarrassed by this. A lot of our bandwagon fans were not even born the last time the Jays were in the playoffs' date=' and know nothing about the game, nor do they respect it. I wanted to be able to freely gloat about the win, but the beer can incident is such a black mark on the game.

So I think I can speak for all reasonable Jays fans when I say that we are deeply sorry this happened and truly embarrassed by our "fans".[/quote']

Great, but why did not one of those "reasonable Jays fans" point out the jerk who threw the beer can? That was the true disgrace IMO. And if what Adam Jones said about racial slurs being hurled at him and Kim were true, I've been to hundreds of O's games through the years, many vs. rivals, several in rough and tumble, inebriated Section 34 at old Memorial Stadium --- and not once have I heard that from the Baltimore crowd towards an opposing player.

[LA2]

This thread reads like sour grapes about an isolated incident. It was a water bottle. Do we even know alcohol was involved? They should do everything they can to identify the fan, make his name public and ban him from all sporting events in Toronto. Banning alcohol for everyone else is like taking a blow torch when you could use a fly swatter.

It was a beer can, Kim said it almost interfered with his catch, and Jones expresses the disgust:

After Showalter turned to left-hander Donnie Hart with two outs in the seventh, Melvin Upton Jr. hit a fly ball to deep left field that Hyun Soo Kim caught on the run, but not before a beer can was thrown in Kim?s direction from the stands above, prompting center fielder Adam Jones to yell into the stands as Showalter trotted into left field to talk to the umpires.

?I was trying to catch the ball and I thought that was actually a ball, so I thought I missed the ball,? Kim said through translator Danny Lee. ?And then I found out it was a beer can, which was thrown perfectly (at) me. It never happened to me before, so it was surprising. I was kind of shocked.?

Jones came to the defence of Kim.

?Someone threw a beer down at my player. First and foremost, that was about as pathetic as it gets between the lines,? Jones said. ?You don?t do that, I don?t care how passionate you are, how you think you?re passionate. You don?t do that. Yell, cuss, scream, we suck, we?re sacks of (expletive). We know, we?re horrible. We get it.

?We?re the opponent. We completely understand that, but to throw something at a player; that?s just as pathetic as it gets, and I hope they find the guy, and I hope they press charges. He?s not looking. You could hit him in the back of the head. You never know what could happen. That?s a full beer that?s been thrown. That?s not just part of the sport, man. Call us what you want. I?ve been hearing that for the past year, but to put us in harms way when all we?re doing is focusing on the game, that?s not part of the game. Throw an octopus. Throw hats.?

It wasn?t the first time an Orioles outfielder was nearly struck by something thrown from the left-field stands at Rogers Centre. During a regular-season game in 2013, a beer can was thrown behind Nate McLouth as he made a diving catch in foul ground.

https://www.thestar.com/sports/bluejays/2016/10/05/view-from-baltimore-orioles-manager-buck-showalter-defends-handling-of-bullpen.html

[CanadianOriole]

I was at Rogers Centre last week for the Kim home run game and was in full Orioles gear (jacket, shirt, and hat) and had not one derogatory word said to me. The crowd was electric but respectful. A drunken idiot doing something stupid - even a few drunken idiots doing multiple stupid things over the course of a couple of seasons - does not mean anything about a fanbase, a city, or a country. The guy (I'm just going to go ahead and assume guy here) who threw something at Kim should face a criminal charge and be banned from all sporting events for life. You put 50k people together anywhere - unfortunately there are going to be idiots in the crowd. Punish the specific idiots - not the crowd as a whole.

[frankhxp]

They apparently banned the cans from the upper deck after last year's incident. It should be stadium-wide now.

Although there were plenty of jerks in the stands, as there are anywhere, this case was one person who threw the can on the field, who should and will be dealt with in the criminal justice system. That's enough here.

What's missing, though, is punishment for a team when significant numbers of their fans disrupt a game because they don't like an umpire's ruling. As happened last year in Toronto, and IIRC with a similar incident in Atlanta during the 2012 Wild Card game. The fans threw stuff on the field, delaying the game, freezing the visiting team's pitcher, etc., and the home team completely got away with it. The league should step in and take away a draft pick or something when that happens. Right now there is no deterrent. For instance, if the can throwing had happened in the 11th inning against Reimold and the umpires called interference, AND THEN the fans flipped out and delayed the game, causing Ubaldo to get cold and lose his electric stuff, the fans would have gotten away with it under current precedent.

[Why Not?]

If this is the bar you set for banning alcohol from a sports venue, there would be no alcohol sold at any sports venue.

A guy might DIE because he went to a Ravens game last weekend.