Violence in the Stands is Ruining it for the Fans

In my 37 years of attending, and a decade of reporting baseball, I have never been to an Opening Day game until this year when I had the privilege of attending both the Angels' and the Dodgers' home openers. Not only was I treated to a win by both home teams, they were exciting games to boot with Joe Saunders throwing a shutout in a 3-0 Angels win, and Orlando Hudson hitting for the cycle in an 11-1 pounding of the Giants. But that joy was tempered after hearing that violence at each stadium, left a man dead in Anaheim, and another with stab wounds at Chavez Ravine. I used to think of going to the ballpark as an escape from the difficulty of life, but that difficulty seems to have invade this haven.

Violence in the Stands is Ruining it for the Fans

By Mike Takeuchi

"My son was killed at Dodger stadium in 2003. Please stop the violence and enjoy the sport."

— Char Antenorcruz, mother of Marc Antenorcruz to the L.A. Times

People gotta chill. It is bad enough that Southland baseball lovers have had to weather the sadness of the death of Angels' pitcher Nick Adenhart, but violence at or near opening day Games for both Los Angeles area teams made the first week a lot less joyous.

The latest incident occurred during Monday's home opener at Dodger Stadium. As the fans cheered their team to victory courtesy of second baseman Orlando Hudson hitting for the cycle, something unfortunately more common was about to occur.

A man was stabbed several times after a confrontation in the parking lot with a group of men in a pick-up truck.

This happened one week after Buena Park resident Brian Powers, who while fighting with one man, was punched from behind by another after the Angels' home opener. After hitting his head on concrete during the fall, he was declared brain dead that evening and died April 8.

Far too many incidences of violence have occurrenced in the past few years.

Perhaps the worst occurred nearly five years ago at Dodger Stadium the night the San Francisco Giants clinched the National League West pennant. Shortly after the game, Marc Antenorcruz was shot.

Two years later, security personnel scuffled with unlicensed merchandise vendors in the stadium parking lot. Although there weren't any fatalities, four people had knife wounds.

At Oakland Coliseum in 2003, some yahoo thought it would be funny to throw a cherry bomb from the upper to the lower deck. It burned an 8-year-old boy and damaging his father's eardrums.

Over the years, despite beefing up security, going to the ballpark seems less safe — even without the aforementioned violence.

In 2006, before they were eliminated by the Mets in the playoffs, I lamented to my seat neighbor Jose that the Dodgers Cam never showed the fans in the pavilion or the upper deck.

"It's because they are always fighting," Jose laughed.

How true he was. Sure enough as the Dodgers were going down, no fewer than five fights occurred around us.

Even last season, when fans momentarily forgot their anger towards each other thanks to Manny Ramirez and a magical year, Game 4 of the NLCS was marred not only by the Phillies' comeback win, but several brawls — not to mention verbal abuse that reduced a petite college-aged woman to tears because she had the audacity to wear a Philadelphia cap.

Short of imposing martial law in the stadium, there seems to be no perfect solution. Because of the famous bottom line, teams would never consider cutting off beer sales earlier or distributing drink tickets to limit quantity. The only things I can think of are to beef up security, make them more proactive and not just reactive, and not allowing already drunk fans into the stadium.

Self policing would help, but it can't be relied upon. While it is noble for fans to come forward to complain, oftentimes fear of repercussions prevent this from happening.

There seems to be no clear cut solutions — only an acceptance that things are getting worse. And that's bad news for the true fans.