Tuesday night’s American League wild-card game in Toronto saw Blue Jays’ fans make their presence felt—in more ways than one.
For much of the night, the massive crowd on hand at the Rogers Centre was making themselves known in the standard, acceptable ways, cheering loudly for their team and occasionally booing the opposing Baltimore Orioles. That changed in the bottom of the seventh, though, when Jays’ pinch-hitter Melvin Upton Jr. lofted a fly ball towards Orioles’ left fielder Hyun Soo Kim. As Kim tracked back near the wall to make the catch, someone in the stands chucked a can of beer at him:
Kim still made the catch, but he was clearly perturbed by the incident, and center fielder Adam Jones expressed his displeasure with the crowd to the umpires as well. Here’s another angle, which shows how narrowly this missed Kim:
And here’s a close-up showing this was in fact beer:
The TBS analysts expressed their condemnation for the situation immediately, with Ernie Johnson calling the fan in question a “numbskull.” That seems to sum it up pretty well. We’ve seen thrown bottles and cans before, including by Iowa fans at this weekend’s game against Northwestern, and they’re always problematic. However, it gets perhaps even worse when you come close to hitting an athlete trying to make a play.
Moreover, even if Kim dropped the ball as a result of this beer, there’s a good chance the play’s nullified by a fan interference call. (Although, you never know; 20 years ago, the Orioles were hurt by an uncalled fan interference play.) This was not a smart move by the fan. According to Orioles’ fan and blogger Avi Miller, the scene in the sands got ugly afterwards too, with fans directing racial slurs at Kim and Jones:
Not sure what was shown on TV but the scene here at the Rogers Centre is madness and people are yelling racial slurs at Kim and Jones.
— Avi Miller (@AviMiIIer) October 5, 2016
Guy behind me just shouted "go back to your country Kim" in case you are wondering how the night has progressed here in Toronto.
— Avi Miller (@AviMiIIer) October 5, 2016
Of course, the behavior of one fan (or a group) shouldn’t be seen as an indictment of a whole team’s fanbase, but this is still highly problematic from the fan in question, and it could potentially have caused injury. Fortunately, the beer missed. But anyone else considering this should ponder what Canadian legends Bob and Doug McKenzie would think of them for wasting a beer this way. Take off, eh?
[Matt Clapp on Clippit]
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