Oct 29, 2024; Bronx, New York, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Mookie Betts (50) makes a catch in foul terriotory against the New York Yankees in the first inning during game four of the 2024 MLB World Series at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Robert Deutsch-Imagn Images Robert Deutsch
The New York Yankees avoided being swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series, as their bats came alive to lead them to an 11-4 victory in Game 4 on Tuesday night.
However, the story of the game was a pair of fans down the right field line unsuccessfully trying to prevent Mookie Betts from making a first-inning catch off of a Gleyber Torres fly ball. This was rightfully called fan interference, as the duo literally pried the ball out of Betts’ glove.
FOX’s Joe Davis — perhaps shocked by what he was seeing — joked that the fans should get “an A for effort:”
"Well, A for effort."
Fan interference was called on this play where a Yankee fan tried to take the ball out of Mookie Betts' glove after an out. pic.twitter.com/iZ6taImncd
ESPN’s Jesse Rogers caught up with the pair of fans, and seemed to be amused by his interaction:
Meet Austin Capobianco (middle), the fan that interfered with Mookie. I was talking to him at a local bar when a bunch of other fans asked him to take a pic with him and for his autograph. He was a beaut. Story up soon at ESPN: “If it’s in our area, we’re going to ‘D’ up.” pic.twitter.com/0XDpfsifvq
The dominant response from those with 215, 610 or 484 area codes was some variation of “Imagine if this happened in Philly.” To a degree, that response is fair. But it’s also a bit tired.
Have there been examples historically of a few bad apples at Veterans Stadium, Lincoln Financial Field or Citizens Bank Park being used nationally to define entire fanbases in Philadelphia? Yes, and it’s fair to point out when it seems like Philly fans are being held to a higher standard than every other city in North America.
With that said, it’s just dishonest to act like the overwhelming majority of responses last night weren’t in condemnation of the two fans:
This is insane. Two fucking losers and Mookie Betts. pic.twitter.com/ZaNWl0iagE
Mookie Betts goes into the stands to catch a ball and a fan grabbed his glove and ripped the ball out.
He was just kicked out of the stadium after a half an inning.
pic.twitter.com/FkfEeJbBgG
The moron who tried to take the ball out of Mookie Betts’ glove actually said this later: “I patrol that wall.”
This guy who just unacceptably grabbed Mookie Betts’ glove is always at the games—and was a jerk to my kid at a game a few weeks ago. SAME GUY. He’s always a jerk.
Don’t be that guy, kids. https://t.co/k9TFjevQBh
And don’t worry, there were plenty of people happy to use this incident as a way to define the entire Yankees fanbase:
Yankee fans. Biggest assholes to ever do it. https://t.co/yJ92hY1hba
The average Yankees fan pic.twitter.com/miEYUtnARd
Honestly needed that game 4 to remember just how much I %?#@ing hate the Yankees and their awful fans.
For the tiniest nanosecond I almost considered pitying them - now crushing them will feel so much better.
You know what the answer is here? Condemn the actions of the idiots. But also point out how stupid it is to take a few fans and try to say that’s representative of more than 40,000 people in a stadium, or an entire city. Do you really think that the overwhelming majority of fans at Yankee Stadium supported the actions of those two last night?
Whether it’s throwing snowballs at Santa, people throwing batteries at Veterans Stadium or a fan running on the field at Citizens Bank Park and ultimately getting tased, there has been some bad behavior from fans at Philadelphia sporting events. Should that define every person at that stadium or that roots for those teams? Of course not.
So there’s an element here of being the change you want to see. It’s stupid when there have been incidents of fan misbehavior used to define all of Philadelphia. But if you used last night’s incident to try to dunk on Yankees fans, that’s just a continuation of the lowest common denominator sports conversation that you claim to hate when it’s directed at Philly fans.
