LOL!
I heard that the family claimed the guy had "only" three beers during the game.
Here's an article from the Chicago papers about it. E was correct in her report that he called home on a cell phone and told them to watch the game (or the news).... OTOH, he had a tough year, including the death of a one-month old daughter in May (for whom he had reportedly just purchased a headstone):
chicagotribune.com
Man, son charged in Comiskey attack
By Michael Hirsley and Rudolph Bush, Tribune staff reporters. Tribune staff reporters Jeff Coen and Philip Hersh contributed to this report
Published September 21, 2002
William Ligue Jr. may well have gone to the ballgame to try to get away from his troubles, which his sister says have become abundant.
But by the time he left Thursday night's White Sox-Kansas City Royals game at Comiskey Park, Ligue had added to his woes exponentially.
The 34-year-old Alsip man, who took two sons, two nephews and one of their girlfriends out to the ballgame, faces a Saturday bond court hearing after being charged with aggravated battery for charging the field and attacking Royals first-base coach Tom Gamboa.
His 15-year-old son is to appear in Cook County Juvenile Court on Monday, charged with aggravated battery against the coach and aggravated battery against a non-uniformed Illinois state trooper who was providing ballpark security.
Because the ballgame was televised, images of Ligue and his 15-year-old son, both shirtless and pummeling Gamboa, have been shown dozens of times on myriad TV news and sports telecasts nationwide. In most cases the footage also showed father and son being set upon by a swarm of angry Royals rushing to the defense of the 54-year-old coach.
As Ligue's sister, Kimberly Richardson, watched one of those many replays Friday on her living room television in Alsip, she felt confused and contrite.
"I have no idea why he would do this," she said. "I'm so sorry for what my brother did to that man."
She said her brother has never been "much of a sports fan," let alone a Sox fan, and that the ballpark outing was intended as a treat for the family group that included her 10-year-old son.
The past year has been hard on her brother, Richardson said, citing a lost job, the death of his month-old daughter in May and a subsequent break-up with his girlfriend.
Richardson would not elaborate, but added, "There's nothing that excuses this. My mother is so ashamed she won't even come out of the house."
Ligue told police he did what he did because Gamboa made an obscene gesture, an allegation Gamboa vigorously denied. Ligue's arrested son made a similar statement to a WGN-Ch. 9 camera crew Thursday night as police led the handcuffed pair from Comiskey to the District 9 police station at 35th Street and Lowe Avenue.
The four others in their group went with them to the station and were picked up by a relative early Friday.
Police did not perform toxicology tests on Ligue or his son, nor did their report reflect the father's possession of a pocket knife clipped to his belt at the time of the incident, saying neither was relevant to the charges against him.
Family members said Ligue had three beers at the game and was not drunk, and that his son was not drinking.
Ligue, who complained of pain in his ribs and arm after being struck by players, was treated and released from St. Anthony Medical Center. Court records show he was convicted of burglary in 1985.
Attacks by sports fans on athletes have been rabid if rare over the years, although Chicago is somewhat sensitive because three of the most recent have occurred here. Before the Ligue incident, Cubs reliever Randy Meyers tangled with an irate fan who charged the mound at Wrigley Field in 1995. In 2000, catcher Chad Kreuter led a platoon of Dodgers into a tussle in the stands at Wrigley Field after a fan snatched Kreuter's cap.
Elsewhere, rioting spectators attacked players and forced the Cleveland Indians to forfeit a 1974 game against the Texas Rangers on a "10-cent Beer Night." A 1958 free-for-all at San Francisco's Kezar Stadium was sparked by a fan who ran onto the field and tried to punch Bears coach George Halas. Fiery Jimmy Piersall fought off two attacking fans on the field in Yankee Stadium in 1961 when he was a Cleveland Indians outfielder.
If history is a gauge, the same news accounts that remind of past fan intrusions--sometimes individuals and sometimes rioting crowds, sometimes violent and harmful--inform that the perpetrators do not make a lasting name for themselves.
All but forgotten are the identities of the man who accosted and stabbed tennis player Monica Seles on the court in 1993; the two protesters whose intention to burn an American flag during a 1976 Dodgers-Cubs game was foiled when then-Cubs center fielder Rick Monday snatched the flag away from them and gave it to a security guard; or the "fan man" who crashed his motorized parachute into the boxing ring at the 1993 Riddick Bowe-Evander Holyfield heavyweight title fight.
Kevin Hallinan, Major League Baseball's senior vice president for security and facility management, said Thursday night's incident at Comiskey Park would be investigated. His staff will interview security personnel and fans with seats in the area to determine how, when and where Ligue and his son moved into position to charge the field in the ninth inning.
Of particular concern is "increasing security in the dugout and bullpen areas as we get into the second half of the game," Hallinan said.
"I think we'll look at the issue of fans moving down from cheaper seats," Hallinan said. "We have systems of keeping areas close to the field clear of people. We call that `ticket discipline,' and we've gotten better at that over the years."
Nonetheless, he conceded, "fans, often well intentioned, try to, and do, move closer to the field in late innings when they see that seats further down are empty."
As inane as the two attackers' actions were, their approach was apparently well disguised. "They got to the spot where they could reach that coach very quickly. They took the shortest path," Hallinan said, adding, "I never want to give the devil his due."
Whether security personnel, including off-duty police officers, need to be repositioned will be discussed, Hallinan said. Members of his staff attend games at ballparks throughout the league, including Thursday's Sox game, he said.
"What we want to do is fully understand what took place--why did they do it?" Hallinan said.
"Did they want to make some sort of statement, win some sort of bet? How did they get access? Was an usher or security person vulnerable?
"You only learn by mistakes." |
