There have been utterly bizarre scenes in game four of the World Series as two Yankees fans tried to rip a ball out of the hands of Dodgers star Mookie Betts after he made a catch.
Betts was in the outfield as LA defended its 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning when New York’s Gleyber Torres sliced a foul ball out to right field.
Betts tracked back with the ball and made a clear catch as he jumped into the fence with the ball in his glove on top of the barrier.
A Yankees fan immediately grabbed Betts’s glove and desperately tried to rip the ball out of it, wrenching the 32-year-old’s arm at an awkward angle in the process.
A second fan draped in the famous Yankees pin stripes joined the tussle, grabbing the ungloved right wrist of Betts as he battled to maintain possession of the ball, which eventually popped free and back into the field of play.
“Yankees fans are doing anything they can to try to help their team beat the Dodgers,” Dodgers beat writer Noah Camras wrote on social media.
“I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Betts remonstrated with the fans as umpires and security arrived on the scene. (AP: Ashley Landis)
Umpires and security quickly arrived on the scene to call a fair catch as Betts angrily pointed to and shouted at the fans.
Footage emerged later on social media that showed security removing the fans, who were wearing the number 99 of Aaron Judge and the retired number 42 of former relief pitcher Mariano Rivera.
Fans are entitled to catch and keep balls that come into the stands, but if they reach over the barrier or disrupt the fielder’s ability to make a play, it can be called fan interference.
The most famous such incident is the case of Chicago Cubs fan Steve Bartman, who became something of a recluse after disrupting a potential catch by Cubs player Moisés Alou during a 2003 playoff game. It was viewed as an extension of the ‘Curse of the Billy Goat’, during which the Cubs failed to win a World Series between 1945 and 2016.
The Yankees are trying to dig themselves out of a 3-0 hole in the seven-game World Series.
The Dodgers and Yankees have a long-standing rivalry, with this their 12th meeting in Major League Baseball’s World Series but their first since 1981.
Los Angeles has only won three of the previous 11 series, dating back to 1941.