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2 Yankees fans who interfered with Mookie Betts catch banned from Game 5 of World Series

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2 Yankees fans who interfered with Mookie Betts catch banned from Game 5 of World Series

The Yankees went on to win Game 4, 11-4, and Game 5 is set for 8:08 p.m. ET on Wednesday.

Los Angeles leads the best-of-7 series, 3-1, and Wednesday night’s contest in the Bronx will be the Yankees’ last home date of 2024.

“Tonight marks the final home game of year, and we want every ounce of our fans’ passion on display. Yankee Stadium is known for its energy and intensity, however the exuberance of supporting one’s team can never cross the line into intentionally putting players at physical risk,” according to the club.

“The Yankees and Major League Baseball maintain a zero-tolerance policy toward the type of behavior displayed last night. These fans will not be permitted to attend tonight’s game in any capacity.”

The first fan to interfere with Betts, 38-year-old Connecticut resident Austin Capobianco, said the Yankees’ action didn’t surprise him.

“The banning to tonight’s game was kind of expected, but the fact my little brother and his friends can’t use our season tickets tonight has really pissed me off,” he said in a text message to NBC News. “It’s not like they can go to the next game.”

Capobianco is a longtime, diehard Yankees fan, according to the man’s college pal Rob Gronkowski, the former Arizona Wildcats, New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers tight end.

“He is all in for his teams, he is all in for the Yankees. I remember him talking about the Yankees all the time, how he loves them so much,” Gronkowski told FanDuel TV’s “Up & Adams” show. 

“He’s a fun dude. It is unacceptable, definitely, in the world of sports,” Gronkowski said of the catch interference. “But when you’re that big of a fan, that’s what fans do.” 

Fan interference is surprisingly common in professional baseball and has played key roles in recent games and some of the sport’s most infamous contests.

  • In Game 1 of this series, Torres hit what looked like a go-head home run in the top of the ninth inning at Dodger Stadium. But umpires ruled, correctly, that a fan in the front row had reached over to catch the ball and Torres was limited to a double. The Yankees didn’t score and the Dodgers won in 10 innings.
  • In Game 1 of the 1996 American League Championship Series in the Bronx, Derek Jeter hit a score-tying home run in the bottom of the eighth inning against the Baltimore Orioles. Replays clearly showed that 12-year-old Jeffrey Maier reached into the field of play to help Jeter’s ball over the fence. But umpires missed the call and awarded Jeter the home run in a game the Yankees would win in 11 innings before eventually capturing the World Series.
  • And back on Sept. 23, 1908, New York Giants fans stormed the Polo Grounds diamond after their team appeared to score a walk-off, ninth-inning win over the Chicago Cubs. But those invading fans prevented Giants baserunner Fred Merkle from touching second base, thus leading to a force out and wiping out New York’s win. The blunder came to be known as “Merkle’s Boner” as Chicago won a tie-breaking game with the Giants for the National League pennant two weeks later.

The Cubs would be on the bad end of a play that was close to being fan interference in 2003, when scapegoat Steve Bartman might have prevented Chicago left fielder Moisés Alou from making a spectacular catch in Game 6 of the NLCS.

Cubs fans wrongly blamed Bartman, who appeared to be on his side of the rail, for that play that keyed a game-winning Florida Marlins rally as they went on win the National League flag and World Series that fall.

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