Last Updated on May 10, 2007 6:19 pm by admin
NEW YORK (AP) -Two fans were arrested after both ran onto the field at Yankee Stadium, with one of them trying to high-five New York left fielder Hideki Matsui.
One fan jumped out of the left-field seats Wednesday night in the ninth inning of a game against Texas. He ran toward Matsui with his hands – Matsui barely budged and simply nudged aside the fan, who was tackled by security near the mound.
“I wasn’t really concerned,” Matsui later said through a translator. “I didn’t feel like he was going to attack me or anything.”
The other fan later got on the field behind home plate and was quickly handcuffed.
“It’s dangerous. It can break your concentration for one thing,” Yankees manager Joe Torre said Thursday. “When they start going by players, and even casually doing something, you don’t know what’s going to happen. You don’t know what they have in their hands. It’s frightening in today’s climate.”
Police identified one of the fans as Anthony Garcia, 22, of Queens. The other, a 15-year-old boy from Rye, wasn’t identified because of his age.
A police spokesman wasn’t certain early Thursday which of the two had approached Matsui.
The fans were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct, interfering with a sporting event and criminal trespass. Police said Garcia was also charged with resisting arrest. Garcia’s home telephone number was unlisted.
The arrests came little more than a week after a New York Mets fan pleaded guilty to using a high-powered flashlight to try to distract a pair of Atlanta Braves players during an April 20 game at Shea Stadium. Frank Martinez, 40, was sentenced to 15 days in jail and banned from Mets home games for three years.