Let’s first be thankful that the one fan in Denver apparently only wanted a photo with Ronald Acuña Jr. and that the second appeared to be armed only with poor judgment.
Had either stormed the Coors Field outfield with malice on his mind and the capacity for inflicting injury, he could well have harmed Acuña, and this would be a very different situation.
And, similarly, it’s a good thing (at least this time) that Acuña responded with calm and peace in a situation that was presumably foreign for him and in which he was vulnerable. A more volatile reaction could have been dangerous for all involved.
Set aside what this could have meant from a sports perspective, that a Braves team with the best record in baseball and pursuing a World Series title could have suffered harm to its best player. The cost would have been the same if it had been the last player on the roster or anyone else in the stadium Monday night.
Not that anyone probably needs it, but the incident in Denver – when two fans evidently climbed out of the stands and managed to reach the Braves superstar, the first putting his arm around Acuña for an apparent selfie and the second knocking him down before they were tackled by stadium security – was one more reminder that the feeling of personal security that most of us are fortunate enough to enjoy is still often a veneer.
First, start with the stadiums and arenas where security personnel are omnipresent. Despite that, fans are in close proximity to the athletes and vastly outnumber the security personnel who monitor them. The perimeters of the fields and courts that security protects is considerable. The probability for a fan brazen and cunning enough to successfully execute such a stunt (or worse) is tilted far more in the fan’s favor than we’d like to think.
It wasn’t even the first time this season that a fan has reached a highly visible target at Coors Field. In April, a fan rushed and tackled the Rockies’ mascot as it was dancing on the team’s dugout during a game, according to the Denver Post.
Ideally, it would never happen, and certainly the Rockies game operations staff needs to conduct a review of how two fans were both able to get their hands on a player on the field. But the reality is that, despite safeguards, it can happen.
On Tuesday, a college athletics director told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that stadium security is at the forefront of event planning.
“You are always examining pressure/stress points of your game operations plan and proactively strengthening,” the AD wrote in a text message.
However, there’s also a recognition that even the best plans can’t always stop the most determined individuals from gaining unauthorized access to a field or court and approaching athletes.
“We don’t operate in a vacuum,” the AD wrote.
Stacey Hall, executive director of the National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security at Southern Mississippi, said Tuesday in an interview with the AJC that fans have breached fields with greater frequency since the pandemic, some of it related to protestors using sporting events as platforms to communicate their messages.
Teams and security companies can be more vigilant, improve training and better communicate fan codes of conduct. Penalties can be more severe. But, while preventing fans from rushing the field is very much on game organizers’ radar, Hall said, “unless you’re linked arm-to-arm, you’re not going to prevent someone from jumping over the fence and getting onto the playing field.”
More broadly, the series of deaths that we suffer in shootings in schools, places of work and worship and elsewhere confirm the same point. And this isn’t about gun control. The incident Monday night in Denver could have been ugly with fists alone. On Tuesday morning, a report of the Coors Field incident shared space on Denver TV station KDVR’s website with multiple acts of malice in the state, including a stabbing of a University of Colorado student and a dentist accused of poisoning his wife.
It’s certainly debatable whether crime is overplayed in the news media and what affect that has on our sense of safety. But the point remains. If someone wants to hurt someone else, it can be really difficult to stop it from happening, whether at a ballpark or a college campus or virtually anywhere. It’s the sad way that our broken world works.
This isn’t meant to prey on people’s fears. The flipside is that Acuña getting rushed by fans was newsworthy because it was so rare. Thousands of sporting events are staged annually in this country and attended by tens of millions and practically all of them end safely.
The videos from Monday night’s game brought to mind the stabbing of former tennis star Monica Seles at a match in Germany. Perpetrated by a deranged fan of a Seles rival (Steffi Graf), the images were horrific. However, that happened 30 years ago.
There have been other attempts by fans to hurt players (or game officials) on the field since – and it’s doubtlessly not far enough in the past for Seles – but these are rarities. When fans do trespass onto fields or courts, stadium security usually does its job and prevents what could well have happened Monday.
As much as we might shudder or rage at what could have happened to a vulnerable baseball player Monday night, we can recognize, too, that enough goodness (or at least common sense) still runs rampant among us to keep us out of harm’s way. And we owe thanks to those whose jobs it is to deter those who intend ill.
What’s the response? For those with the responsibility of staging games and keeping athletes (and fans) safe, make sure plans are solid and that security personnel are vigilant and not distracted by kiss cam. It’s a thankless task, but people are counting on you.
For everyone else, everywhere – watch out for each other and don’t forget to be thankful when we get home safely. After a scary night in Denver, the Braves most assuredly were.
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