With teams beginning to welcome crowds in abundance again at MLB ballparks this season, one arguably unfortunate rite of baseball is making its unwelcome return: Fans storming the field.
Evidence that trespassing fans will make their return during the 2021 season arrived Tuesday night at Citizens Bank Park during a showdown between the host Philadelphia Phillies and Miami Marlins. Two fans managed to sneak onto the field of play during Philly’s 8-3 win.
First, one fan leaped over the left field wall and ran across the field.
The second incident of the night came when another fan stormed the field after leaping over the wall, eventually making it all the way to the infield before sliding into second base.
Such acts of disruptive trespassing are of course a common-but-infrequent occurrence across MLB and its ballparks. However, one of the most comical incidents came at the Phillies’ home ballpark over a decade ago. On May 3, 2010, a young miscreant’s joy-run across the field led to him getting infamously tased by police in an incident that continues to live in infamy all these years later.
The youngster was sentenced to probation for his transgressions.
“The fan, wearing a baseball cap, red T-shirt and khaki shorts, hopped a fence and scurried around the outfield, eluding two security officers,” The Associated Press wrote at the time of the incident. “One officer used a Taser and the fan went down in a heap. Several Phillies placed gloves over their faces and appeared to be stifling laughter at the wild scene.”
There’s a good chance that Tuesday night’s trespassers at the Bank could very well suffer a similar fate. Well, the probation part, not the tasing, obviously.
More must-reads: