Players won't be safe without metal detectors

Sporting News, The, August 21, 1995 by Bob Nightengale

We've shrugged our shoulders watching the violence at European soccer games. We've laughed at streakers running across the field. We've accepted the idea that dozens of beach balls will interrupt baseball games in southern California.

But now, the laughter has died.

Buddy, you think the streets are unsafe?

Try coming to a major league baseball game.

In what has emerged as baseball's most violent season, with nearly daily occurrences of fans and players clashing, you can't help but shudder at what could happen next.

The Dodgers, of all teams, suffered the latest embarrassment when they were forced to forfeit their game last week against the Cardinals when promotional baseballs littered the field in the ninth inning. The Dodgers were down by a run, 2-1, with one out in the ninth when the game was called.

Who knows what would have happened? Considering the Dodgers came back from a five-run deficit two nights later, including a three-run deficit in the 10th inning against the Pirates, who can say who would have won the forfeited game if it had been played out to its entirety?

"I just hope and pray that forfeit doesn't cost us," Dodgers catcher Mike Piazza says. "If we lose the division by a game, man, you're going to have some upset people around here. That's why we've got to get a comfortable lead so we don't have to think about that game anymore."

The Dodgers lodged a formal protest with the National League office, believing Jim Quick's umpiring crew overreacted. Hey, the way things were going at Dodger Stadium, the umpiring crew should be commended for stopping the game before anyone got killed.

Although Dodgers outfiedler Chris Gwynn can laugh about being hit in the head with an apple while standing in the on-deck circle, Cardinals outfielder John Mabry failed to find the humor when he was hit with a couple of bottles. "I wan't too worried," Mabry says, "until a bottle of Southern Comfort flew out of the stands and hit me. I got hit by a rum bottle, too. I finally asked the batboy if I could trade my hat for his helmet, but he said, 'No,' because he was in danger too."

Says Hall of Famer Bob Gibson, Cardinals bullpen coach: "Dodger fans used to be among the best in baseball. I'm afraid you can't say that anymore."

Tragically, you can't say that about baseball fans anywhere.

It's a season that began with the Pirates and Tigers being pelted by objects during their season openers, including nearly twodozen fools running onto the field at Tiger Stadium. In the ensuing months, we've seen Orioles scout Deacon Jones being verbally assaulted with racial slurs; Angels designated hitter Chili Davis jabbing his finger in retaliation at a fan; Yankees pitcher Jack McDowell flipping his finger in retaliation; two Cardinals minor leaguers climbing into the stands in retaliation; Twins second baseman Chuck Knoblauch getting into a scuffle with a fan (who later apologized) in Seattle; Blue Jays third baseman Ed Sprague and Brewers fans flinging tobacco wads at each other; and Red Sox slugger Mo Vaughn getting, well, slugged in a Boston nightclub.

It's time to take serious action, and we're not just talking about ending bat days and ball giveaways. This idea may assault the senses, and some surely will say it's extreme, but it has come time to install metal detectors at the gates.

Why not? We've accepted the concept at airports. It's common practice at several inner-city sporting events. It's popping up more and more at nightclubs.

It's time to install the same security at ballparks before it's too late. If we wait much longer, as much as we cringe at the possibility, someone's going to get killed.

We've seen assassination attempts on our president. Tennis star Monica Seles was stabbed in the back before our eyes. We learned of a crazed fan marching into a hotel lobby with a loaded gun looking for Blue Jays second baseman Roberto Alomar.

It takes just one demented soul to bring a gun into a stadium and fire away. Do we really want to wait?

"God, I hope it doesn't come to that," Pirates Manager Jim Leyland says, "but what's happening now is sad. We're living in a messed-up time. I guess anything can happen."

That's what we're afraid of.

Hitting guru

The Angels unabashedly will tell you they got quite lucky when teams rejected their various trade proposals last winter that would have dealt away first baseman J.T. Snow and outfielders Jim Edmonds and Garret Anderson, but don't forget their good fortune of keeping hitting coach Rod Carew.

The Hall of Famer nearly left the Angels last winter after receiving permission to talk with the Rockies. Instead, the Rockies hired Art Howe. Carew stayed in Anaheim and the Angels are on pace to set club offensive records and chase league ones.

"I picture Rod as this great guru on top of a mountain in the Andes," utilityman Rex Hudler says, "only it's a state-of-the-art mountain where he has videotapes on every hitter and every pitcher and people come all over the world to find a remedy. But think about this. He isn't on that mountaintop. He's right here. He's our own. We've got him to ourselves. How selfish is that?"