The two fans who interfered with a foul ball at Game 4 of the World Series Tuesday night will not be allowed back into Yankee Stadium for Game 5 on Wednesday, the Yankees said in a statement.
“Last night two fans were ejected from Yankee Stadium for egregious and unacceptable physical contact with Dodgers outfielder Mookie Betts,” the Yankees said in a statement issued Wednesday. “The safety and security of players, fans and Stadium staff is the foundational element of every event held at Yankee Stadium, and it cannot be compromised.”
The Yankees said they and Major League Baseball maintain a zero-tolerance policy “toward the type of behavior displayed last night,” and said the fans would not be allowed into the stadium in any capacity. There was no indication whether the ban would extend beyond this season.
The fans, identified by ESPN as Austin Capobianco, a Yankees season-ticket holder, and his friend John Peter, were ejected from the stadium for pulling the ball from Betts’s glove. It happened in the first inning of Game 4 when Betts, the Dodgers right fielder, jumped into the right-field stands and caught a foul ball hit by Gleyber Torres of the Yankees.
Capobianco pulled at Betts’s glove, trying to pry it open, while Peter grabbed the player’s wrist. After a quick struggle, the ball popped out and landed on the field. But the umpire along the foul line immediately signaled fan interference, meaning Torres was out. The two fans were then escorted out of the stadium for interfering with play, high-fiving fellow Yankees fans as they left.
Neither fan could be immediately reached for comment on Tuesday.
Baseball is one of the few games where fans have the ability to reach into the field of play from the seating area, although they are instructed not to and can be ejected for doing so.
The Yankees, who had lost the first three games of the best-of-seven World Series, went on to blast the Dodgers, 11-4, in the game. The final game at Yankee Stadium this year is Game 5, tonight. If the Yankees win, the series will move back to Los Angeles.
Often, when a fan interferes in a significant baseball game — especially at Yankee Stadium — comparisons are made to Jeffrey Maier in 1996. That play was different in several ways. A Yankee, Derek Jeter, was the batter, and he hit a ball to the wall in fair territory in Yankee Stadium. Maier, who was 12 at the time, reached over the wall and caught the ball in his baseball mitt. The Baltimore Orioles outfielder, Tony Tarasco, was camped underneath the ball and had been prepared to catch it.
Video replay was not in use at the time, so the home-run call by umpire Rich Garcia stood, and the Yankees went on to win that game, the American League Championship Series and then the World Series. It was the first of four they would win between 1996 and 2000.
But Maier, who is now 40, said there is no comparison between what he did and what happened on Tuesday.
“I understand the instinctive reaction to a fly ball coming towards the stands,” he said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. “But I can’t understand grabbing at a ball that’s in the glove and physically engaging with the player. That’s a boundary that you don’t go over.”
Maier went on to play baseball at Wesleyan University. He now lives in New Hampshire and works for Prompt Security doing generative A.I. tech security. He is still a passionate Yankee fan, but he missed the play while putting one of his three sons to bed on Tuesday. He saw replays and said players need to be given space.
“There has to be a safe place for them to play,” he said. “I understand the emotions and the passions that fans have. But there has to be a certain level of decorum and expectations. Now,” he added, “admittedly, people probably don’t want to hear that from me.”
According to ESPN, Capobianco said he and his friend had previously joked about doing what they did.
“We always joke about the ball in our area,” he told ESPN. “We’re not going to go out of our way to attack. If it’s in our area, we’re going to ‘D’ up. Someone defends, someone knocks the ball.”
Betts reacted angrily at the interference in the moment, but after the game he was more concerned about the loss.
“When it comes to the person in play, it doesn’t matter,” Betts told reporters at the game. “We lost. It’s irrelevant. I’m fine. He’s fine. Everything’s cool.”
Torres, the Yankees second baseman, was involved in another case of fan interference in the ninth inning of Game 1 this year that was more similar to the Maier play. With the score tied, Torres hit a ball to the outfield wall in fair territory, and a Dodgers fan reached over and caught it. The umpires called fan interference, and Torres was given a double and did not score. The Dodgers won that game in 10 innings.
As for Maier, he went back to Yankee Stadium for Game 2 of that series in 1996. He said he was also at a Red Sox-Yankees game at Yankee Stadium in 2018, and Betts, then with the Red Sox, tossed Maier’s son, Braden, a ball in the stands.
“Obviously, I’m rooting for the Yankees,” Maier said. “But Betts seems like a really good guy.”
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