Security guards employed by the Yankees, who travelled with the team to Toronto this weekend, pointed out and requested the ejection of a pair of Jays fans who had heckled the Yankee bullpen, according to a ticket holder in the section, who says Toronto police and Rogers Centre security complied with the request from the Yankee muscle.
“It was disturbing to see representatives of another organization be the on-point security for that situation,” said Justin Jackson, 30, who was sitting in row 3 of section 108 — just above the visiting bullpen — on Friday night.
One of the Yankees’ security guards, Mark Kafalas, told the Star on Sunday afternoon that the fans were not only heckling, but throwing peanuts into the Yankees’ bullpen as well. He added that later in the game someone threw a full beer from the second deck.
“Heckling is heckling; it’s baseball,” Kafalas said. “But when people start throwing things, it becomes dangerous.”
The Blue Jays say an usher also witnessed the men throwing peanuts, according to the incident report.
Jackson, who was sitting just two rows behind the men who were ejected, said he didn’t see anyone throw anything into the bullpen. He says that when Yankees reliever Shawn Kelley began warming up in the eighth inning, two fans seated in the front row in his section started yelling down at him.
Jackson says it was standard baseball heckling, nothing out of the ordinary at a ball game.
“You know, the usual ‘Yankees Suck!’ type of stuff.”
Then Jackson says he saw two men in Yankees jackets and wearing Yankees ID badges walk into the section and clearly point at the fans before jotting something down in their notebooks.
The two men left the section and returned shortly thereafter with two Toronto police officers, who forcibly removed the men.
Jackson said the Jays fans were neither profane nor did they seem to be bothering anyone else in the section. “I didn’t notice anything untoward that would cause them to be removed from the game that way.”
After witnessing the ejection, Jackson approached the Yankees’ security guards and asked them what they were doing. They refused to answer, he said, and told Jackson to return to his seat or he too would be removed from the game.
Jackson filed a formal complaint with the Blue Jays on Friday night. He has yet to receive a response, but plans to follow up with the organization on Monday.
He also wrote about the incident in a widely circulated blog post, titled “Hired Goons: How the Yankees Keep the Home Fans Quiet, which was published online Saturday.
A Yankees spokesman confirmed the team travels with two of its own security guards, who are responsible for ensuring the safety of Yankees players, staff and families, both inside and outside the ballpark.
Kafalas said that during games, he and his partner go back and forth between the section of seats where the players’ families sit and the seats closest to the bullpen.
“I don’t eject anybody,” he explained, saying he and his partner simply inform ballpark security of unruly behaviour.
Asked if the kind of behaviour they’re watching for couldn’t be dealt with by a home team’s existing security, Kafalas shrugged. “You’d hope.”
The Jays’ director of team security, Ron Sandelli, also travels with the team. But his tasks primarily involve transportation and logistics. He does not police fans in opposing ballparks.
Kafalas admitted what the Yankees do is uncommon.
“But we’re the Yankees,” he said. “Sometimes we draw attention.”
Acting Staff Sgt. Joe Matthews of the Toronto police said decisions on whether someone should be ejected rest with Rogers Centre security, not police. “All we do is keep the peace and facilitate that.”
The Blue Jays did not respond to a request to clarify what is considered ejectable behaviour.
Jackson said the strangest thing about the incident was that another team’s security guards seemed to be the ones in charge.
“They were the ones directing traffic in terms of who would be removed,” he said. “As a fan you feel a little bit infringed upon. It seemed odd. We have our own security staff and our own police force that is definitely capable of handling these kinds of issues.”
Source: thestar.com
Author: Brendan Kennedy
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