Sports history is filled with instances of fan-vs.-player stupidity. One of the best (worst?) examples happened on this day in 2000 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.
As the Cubs attempted a ninth-inning comeback against the Dodgers, a fan near the Los Angeles bullpen felt the (likely alcohol-fueled) need to reach over the wall and hit catcher Chad Kreuter in the back of the head, then steal his hat. From there, things went about how you'd expect.
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Kreuter and other members of the Dodgers bullpen squad charged into the stands to fight the fan. Punches were thrown. Beer went flying. Other fans got involved. It was ugly.
Watch it all unfold here. The brouhaha begins at the 50-second mark.
The game was delayed for about 10 minutes while ordered was restored. But that obviously wasn't the end of the story. In fact, it would drag on for three more years.
Nineteen Dodgers players and coaches were suspended for their roles in the fan-player stupidity. The harshest suspension — eight games — was reserved for Kreuter, along with coaches Glenn Hoffman, Rick Dempsey and John Shelby. All 19 were also fined. The Dodgers, as you might expect, thought the punishments were too harsh, as did the players' union. The actions, while severe, were justified, some said.
''The penalties are just intolerable,'' Gene Orza, a players union official, told The New York Times. ''What would have happened to these players if they didn't do anything? What would their reputations within the sport have been? I don't know a manager or general manager who wouldn't have fired them.''
Said LA outfielder Gary Sheffield, according to The Los Angeles Times: "I've never seen anything like that in my 12 years in the game. The first thing you think about is the safety of your teammates. You don't know what they (fans) might do to you."
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Wrigley Field security received understandable criticism as well.
"There has to be better security measures down there," Dodgers GM Kevin Malone told the LA Times. "There has to be better protection for the players because there was no one down there to police those fans. "It just kept going on and there was no security there. Our players were at risk, and they were just protecting themselves. That was just self-protection."
Three fans involved in the fight were arrested. The Dodgers later settled a lawsuit with one fan who said Kreuter choked him while other players hit him. In 2003, a Cook County jury awarded $475,000 to the same fan after it found the Cubs and two employees guilty on civil charges of malicious prosecution and false imprisonment, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Meanwhile, Josh Pulliam, the fan who started the whole thing by taking Kreuter's hat, never faced any legal penalties. Years later, he called the incident “a stupid prank gone horribly wrong."
Messy. Just messy.
And the whole thing apparently could've been avoided with proper, non-alcohol-fueled manners.
"If you wanted a hat that bad, be polite and ask for one. We'll give it to you," the Dodgers' Todd Hundley said at the time, according to The Associated Press. "We've got a whole bunch of them."
Oh, yeah. The Dodgers won the game 6-5.
