CHICAGO, April 19 (UPI) -- It wasn't long ago that a major sports event wasn't complete without the sight of Morganna jiggling across the playing field to kiss a ballplayer. Any talk of hefty fines and increased penalties for spectators who charged onto the field would have been considered a joke.
But no one is laughing now in the wake of an incident Tuesday, where Eric Dybas, a suburban Chicago man, rushed onto the diamond at U.S. Cellular Field during a Chicago White Sox game to tackle first base umpire Laz Diaz. Three other fans, one of them naked, ran onto the field earlier just to show off.
Dybas was held in lieu of a whopping $250,000 bail.
When the Legislature returns to Springfield, Ill., in May, members will be rushing to approve a bill by state Sen. Wendell Jones calling for $1,000 fines, a significant hike from the $100 fine that usually results from a charge of trespassing.
"We have to do something to attract the attention of people and let them know this kind of behavior is wrong," Jones said. "We can't wait until they're already drunk."
The bill was originally crafted with high school and amateur sports in mind, because there are few (if any) physical barriers between fans and the players. But Jones said he believes the bill's language is equally applicable to professional sports.
Rep. John Fritchey wants to craft a bill making trespass at any entertainment event a felony, making jail time a possibility. Fritchey said only jail time would discourage people.
Jones thinks such a bill is overkill. "I don't know if (all fan misbehavior) rises to the level of a felony," he told United Press International.
General Manager Ken Williams wishes penalties could be harsher. "First, I run onto the field. Second, I get the crap beat out of me. Number three, I go straight to jail," he said. "That's the way it should be."
During the past two decades, the Atlanta Braves, Chicago Cubs, Milwaukee Brewers and New York Yankees all have had incidents where spectators either tried to attack players or ran onto the field with malice aforethought.
But the White Sox have a special interest in the issue, since the Diaz attack was the second such incident in the past seven months. Last September, a father and his teenage son ran onto the field and beat up Tom Gamboa, a first base coach for the Kansas City Royals. This week's incident also occurred at a Sox-Royals game.
Baseball officials are concerned because the South Side Chicago stadium is the site of the All Star Game on July 15. Officials say they aren't considering relocating, but do want to make sure ballplayers are not at risk.
"When players and coaches focus on the game, they are particularly vulnerable," said Sandy Alderson, a baseball executive vice president. "We need to be able to ensure their safety."
New security measures carried out by the White Sox this week includes additional security officers on the sidelines and more use of the public address system to let people know they do not belong on the playing field.
They also may follow the lead of New York's two baseball teams in not permitting fans without proper tickets to go near the prime seats by the field.
However, Tuesday's incident had unique circumstances that would never apply to most major league teams. The game where Dybas charged on the field came on a rare day when both the Cubs and Sox played at home, at stadiums just a few El stops apart.
Dybas was one of a few hundred fans attending both games. "Basically, he was drinking all day," his attorney, Frank Kastouros, said. By the time Diaz was attacked in the eighth inning of the Sox game, Dybas had a baseball/drinking binge of at least eight hours.
Another part of the problem is that people willing to charge onto the field have a distorted view of what they do.
Al Skutnik, one of the three other people who rushed the field on Tuesday, told WTTW-TV he thought "80 percent" of the crowd of 20,591 people supported him. "They felt some sense of excitement and awe watching us."
So what needs to be done?
While some people cynically joke about permitting police brutality, others talk of putting up screens to separate fans from the playing field.
This may be one area where baseball could learn from football -- particularly from the example of the Philadelphia Eagles.
For the past five years, unruly fans have been taken away and kept in a police wagon until after the game. They are driven to a courtroom -- "Eagles Court" -- at the nearby police station, where Municipal Judge Seamus P. McCaffery presides, giving unruly fans the chance to plead guilty and pay their fines on the spot.
McCaffery, who believes alcohol and the misperception of anonymity are what causes people to misbehave at sports events, thinks knowledge of his court has reduced boorish behavior from acts of violence to mostly public urination. "This is mild stuff compared to what it used to be."
