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Throw things, go to jail
Boston police say they won't tolerate fans acting like felons
Posted: Monday October 18, 1999 06:38 PM
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Pipe down! Boston police are hoping for a more orderly crowd at Fenway Park on Monday night. AP |
BOSTON (AP) -- A day after Red Sox fans hurled debris onto the field at Fenway Park following umpires' questionable calls, Boston police vowed Monday to increase security to prevent another outburst.
"We're very fortunate that no one got hurt. We're not going to allow anything like that to happen again," said Kevin Jones, a police spokesman.
Extra officers would be assigned to Monday night's game, and anyone seen throwing anything onto the field would be arrested, Jones said.
A six-run outburst by the Yankees in the ninth inning and a questionable call against the Red Sox in the eighth put the Fenway crowd in a foul mood Sunday night.
But when umpire Tim Tschida mistakenly called Nomar Garciaparra out at first base in the bottom of the ninth, Sox manager Jimy Williams sprang from the dugout to argue, and umpire Dale Scott ejected him.
Fans answered with a stream of bottles, cups, and debris. The umpires cleared the Yankees players from the field and bullpen into their dugout, and play was halted for eight minutes.
Jones said he knew of no arrests made during the incident, although police and security guards tried to see who was responsible for the deluge.
"You have 36,000 fans there, and a lot of them are standing up," he said. "It's hard to identify the person who is throwing."
Jones declined to say how many officers were at Sunday's game or how many would be added to the security detail for Monday's game.
Mayor Thomas M. Menino said he hoped Sox fans would behave better Monday.
"The inappropriate behavior demonstrated last night by a handful of Red Sox fans was an embarrassment to the city of Boston," he said. "That was not what Boston is about. Tonight's game will give us the opportunity to show the world that we are not only the most loyal and supportive fans, but we are courteous and sportsmanlike as well."
In Amherst, officials at the University of Massachusetts also stepped up security after student roughhousing during the Red Sox's playoff series with Cleveland and New York led to six arrests. One fan was arrested for shouting an obscene anti-Yankees slur in the face of a police horse.
In 1986, racial violence broke out on campus when the New York Mets beat the Boston Red Sox in the World Series. Mostly white Boston fans brawled with mostly black Mets fans, injuring more than a dozen students.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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