Blue Jays to Fans: Throw Back a Homer, Get the Boot
Baseball as we knew it has been slowly getting leeched out of the game over the years for a number of reasons (good and bad), but the heavy-handed decisions about when to eject fans are certainly among the least popular. Such is the case with the new Rogers Centre / Blue Jays policy to eject any fan from the game who throws anything onto the field.
@F_I_N_K on Twitter alerted us to the story of the fan who got ejected from the park for throwing back a home run ball. A totally sober fan who caved to the pressure of the rest of the fans in the park - and his own sense of proper behaviour when you catch an opposing team's home run ball - to throw the ball back.
It just so happens that (thanks to the opening day fiasco, in which Jays fans littered the field with balls and debris - nearly forcing the Jays to forfeit) the team decided there would be no more throwing of anything onto the field. Including opponents' home run balls.
I'll readily admit two things. First, I don't know how entrenched in Blue Jays lore it is to throw back opposing home runs. It is deeply ingrained in the Bleacher Bums who inhabit Wrigley Field in Chicago and I've gotten the sense at other ballparks that it is often only a loose tradition. But, nonetheless, it happens in Toronto.
The second thing is that it's a bit of a silly tradition. Also part of the Bleacher Bum lore are fans who secretly bring in a spare baseball so they can try to pull a swap, pocketing the real home run. After all, it's the ultimate free souvenir - I don't know a single baseball fan who doesn't want to catch a foul ball or home run.
I get that the Jays want to protect their and the the opposing team's players. Those guys get a lot of money to play a kids' game, and with all sorts of wacky injuries each year, the last one you want to hear about is a trip to the DL because they were plunked by a fan. But the only injury I've ever heard about throwing back a homer is a really sore arm for the fan the next day because he's never thrown a ball so hard in his life.
So do the Jays really help themselves by taking such a heavy-handed approach? Hardly. After so many years of mediocrity the Jays are in the middle of a renaissance of sorts. The old guard are back in charge (the GM excepted, but his future with the team hopefully is bleak), and while this year the team isn't supposed to be good (present standing being a nice surprise), there is optimism bubbling again.
More importantly, it is more crucial than ever for the Jays to get butts in their seats, selling tickets and concessions that will fund the resurgent team. Allowing for a tradition - as odd or shaky as it may be - such as throwing back a home run ball is a crowd pleaser. Whenever it happens, the stadium cheers. In fact, the crowd often chants for it to happen.
I'm not saying give in to every whim of the crowd - Disco Demolition night for the White Sox proves that - but would it have been too hard to make a policy - or at least enforce a policy - with some understanding of how fans safely interact with the game?
Attending a baseball game shouldn't feel like a corporate event. There should be interaction, noise, and yes, there should be the occasional home run ball thrown back. The better way to stop it from happening? Put a great team on the field: there will be fewer home runs to throw back, not to mention more fans in the seats.
Comments (24)
Just another case of Jackasses ruining it for the rest of us, what can you do? we live in a world with uneducated people
Being thrown out of the SkyDome isn't exactly what I'd call punishment. What goes on in there isn't real baseball anyway.
Rogers Centre is notorious for being over-zealous on security. I've had friends ejected for heckling (and I mean the friendly, competitive, non-curse-laden kind of fun heckling that SHOULD be welcome at ball games). Sitting in the 100s is like sitting at a board meeting.
As far as throwing the ball back after a home run goes... I've never seen this happen at the dome, but then again, I rarely watch for it.
There are a couple of issues here
1) The fact that person had to be encouraged to throw the ball back pretty much shows that it's NOT an established behavior here. If it were, like I've seen in NYC and Chicago, the ball comes back right away, where if you weren't paying attention you'd think that it bounced off at something. You wait a minute and then toss the ball back, yeah, it's gonna get you a visit anywhere (even in those cities. I've seen it in Cleveland, another baseball town).
2) Some place are baseball towns: Chicago, NYC, Boston, St Louis. Toronto? Not a baseball town. Sad to say but it's true. The city loves the Jays when they play well, ignores them when they don't. Therefore, you're going to have a lot of fans, and also ushers, who have no benchmark of "acceptable" baseball behaviour. Yes, the ushers should know better, but if the fans are inconsistent in this respect, it's tough to tell lout from bleacher bum.
3) If you hear about this and then think "Harumph, I'm not going to go to a ball game if the ushers throw people out for that", then you probably weren't going to to in the first place.
This is just terrible.. I've been to games in Boston, Chicago & SF where this behaviour is expected... The Jays stadium staff are clueless to what "fun" means & suck the life out of what should be a fun experience at the ball park. Last year I was told to stop heckling an outfielder on the opposing team b/c they had a late extra innings game the day before. What the hell is that?
what the hell are you talking about?
oh, so they play on fake grass and under a roof. that means it isn't real baseball?
well then neither is the hockey they play in the ACC real, because it's not on a fucking frozen pond.
indoor baseball has been around for a long time now. stop being a fucking suck, and either enjoy it, or stop pissing on everybody else's love for the game; indoors or out.
This is horrible how some of the dumbasses are ruining it for everyone. Between what's going on at the Jays games and the TFC games, its hard to not be embarrassed (and ironically, they're the two teams doing better than the others).
Its a shame when you pay quite a bit of money to see a game and have it ruined by some drunk idiot.
"The better way to stop it from happening? Put a great team on the field: there will be fewer home runs to throw back, not to mention more fans in the seats."
Great theory... except that the team is in 1st place in the division and still drawing 20,000 or less on a lot of nights.
Don't blame the management for the fact that the only people that seem to consistently attend the games (apart from the 5,000 or so actual baseball fans in this city) are drunken idiots who just want to cause a disruption on nights when they can get a cheap ticket.
This is unfortunate, and this policy has changed back and forth.
How it used to be anyways, was that you had to throw it back immediately...not after the next pitch, or AB, which made sense.
I also feel that this is a security manager making this decision. Send an email to Paul Beeston, he's a baseball man and will correct this error.
I completely agree - same with the Marlies game last night...which had very poor attendance (we won tickets) but some grown men at the end of the game thought it would be great fun to verbally assault the opposing players as they were leaving the ice - I understand heckling but foul, threatening language seems a bit extreme. As does throwing anything on the ice except a hat...I couldn't get out of there quick enough.
Word from inside the team...
First and foremost, this isn't a new rule. MLB-wide, fans are subject to ejection for throwing anything on the field - baseballs included. Game staff in certain parks can choose to look the other way on an opponent's homerun ball, but that's up to their discretion.
Second, twerps in the outfield lately haven't been just lobbing the ball back into the gaps in the outfield...they've been taking aim at players - both visitors and Blue Jay outfielders.
As for the person confounded by why fans got thrown out for heckling opposition players, there's no rule that says you can't do that. You can scream at them all game long. What you can't do is swear at them, or stand while you're yelling and block the view of people behind you.
From my point of view, as time has past, The Blue Jays have drawn more and more idiots to their games. people forget how slow the sport is, and just use it as an excuse to get tanked and act belligerent. They have next to no interest in what is happening on the field and probably couldn't tell you who's winning without looking at the scoreboard. Toronto has the bases loaded? *yawn* Jays pitcher has two strikes on the batter? *yawn* The wave is coming around *c'mon everyone, we GOTTA do this!*
I'm a huge fan, and I go to upwards of a dozen games a year but I've been of the same opinion for the last six or seven years: worst fans in baseball.
hahahaha, huge fan....dozen games a year...
sure buddy, 1/8 of the homes games makes you a HUGE fan. further proving the fact that we have truely have terrible baseball fans in toronto
lol 12 games "huge fan" hahahaha.
this will all blow over in a few months, just all that opening day bs. GO JAYS GO.
Good reading skills there Kit..."upwards of a dozen games a year ". Key word in that? upwards.
And unfortunately, that opening day BS has been an opening day tradition for a few seasons running now.
Ah so goes it.
It's like a couple posters stated: Toronto ain't a baseball town. Traditions carried out in large baseball markets (aka Yankee fans yelling ASSHOLE at Red Sox fans throughout the whole game) don't translate well in non-baseball markets.
Same thing with hockey though. I mean even Red Wings management tried stopping people from throwing octopi on the rink, and that's from Hockey Town USA.
b29, my eloquent, witty friend,
I never pissed on anyone's love of the game. I pissed on that awful conference centre/universal sports facility that was obsolete the day it opened. The SkyTHing.
Video games ain't REAL adventure, the cast of "Friends" ain't your REAL friends, and what is played inside the SkyDome is not REAL baseball.
Take a day trip down to Toledo and see the Mudhens. THAT is the real deal. So's Christie Pits, by the way.
And yeah, pond hockey rules. Whoever dictated that games need to be played inside in complicated facilities is a total dick.
Throwing stuff on the field is idiotic. Period. And you have to be consistent with the rules. No homerun balls thrown back. So what? It's safer that way. And I'm sure we'll all survive the embarassment of having that rule. End of story.
yeah, those $8 tickets really set you back sean
the jays are probably very sensitive since that extended period last year where fans started mini-riots in the stands and the fistfight videos got on youtube for all to see
jays are first in the AL and have the second best record in baseball right now. yay.
it just makes more sense to build a multi-purpose building for a sport with such few fans as baseball in a market like this.
saying it isn't "real" baseball doesn't make any sense. the game they're playing in there is baseball. just because it's not in anyplace, USA, in an outdoor dedicated baseball diamond doesn't mean it's fake. if you can't get past that, your loss.
video games are computerized, "friends" are actors. the blue jays? professional baseball players. what a stupid analogy.
Everyone don't panic!
Cito Gaston will get this thing sorted out!
Let's relax and enjoy baseball in Toronto again!
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