Fans Threw Baseballs and a Bottle at Padres Outfielder Jurickson Profar
Fans in San Francisco were less than hospitable to San Diego Padres outfielder Jurickson Profar, who had multiple baseballs thrown his way from the stands while he was turned in the other direction, facing the infield.
Profar had to seek out an umpire multiple times for assistance:
The Giants-Padres game was briefly delayed after two baseballs were thrown out of the left field bleachers pic.twitter.com/DYg7yk8HH0
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) May 21, 2022
Here’s how Profar explained the incident, via NBC:
“You can talk whatever you want, you paid to watch the game, you can talk,” Profar told reporters. “But these guys are the worst in the league. They can talk but as soon as you try to throw stuff, that’s different.”
The first incident led to a brief stoppage as crew chief Ted Barrett went over to talk to Profar and take a look at fans in the left field bleachers. Profar had been warming up between innings and said he tried to throw his warm-up ball to a Padres fan.
“I think he missed it and some Giants fan caught it and then when I turned around ready for the pitch to be thrown, he threw it back and almost hit me,” Profar said. “I threw it back and then they started throwing more.”
Profar noted that throwing balls in his direction was dangerous because he was looking in at the pitcher’s mound.
“I’m not watching,” he said. “They can hit me in the back of the head. You can get a concussion or something.”
There was also a beer bottle thrown later in the game while Profar was trying to field a ball. Thankfully, the bottle didn’t come particularly close to Profar.
Now a Giants fan has thrown a beer bottle at Profar pic.twitter.com/cTF6GnKhHq
— Talking Friars (@talkingfriars) May 21, 2022
It’s wild to me that this kind of stuff keeps happening, even after the message is very clearly put out: if you throw stuff onto the field, you will be identified by video later on, and you will be banned forever (to say nothing of criminal prosecution). It’s just so disgusting and dangerous, and it’s the kind of thing we just can’t have happening when we want to be able to have fans close to the field for years to come.
