That was messed upl. Just saw it on ESPN. At least the attackers were skinny, which is a good thing for the coach. Looked like two drunk ass Hobbits beating up on Boromir.
I can't believe the first base umpire and the White Sox first baseman just stood there while Gamboa got beat down. That was weak. They say the dudes arrested were father and son.
Only publicity they ever get is bad to begin with, this ain't gonna help. I wish Konerko woulda gone apeshift on them.
With all the players that came in from the dugout, would it have been so time consuming for one of them to grab a bat on his way out?
On the replays you can clearly see the first base umpire back up...unbelievable! Did he think this was some kind of joke? Here you have two shirtless thugs beating down on a 50-60 year old fat coach on his back, and the umpire stands there with a stupid grin for 5 seconds before the team runs out there.
Hopefully those clowns from the stands get the maximum sentence possible. That was horrible. So much for baseball being one big happy family. The Sox 1b (Konerko) and 2B both stood there what a joke to just stand there and watch. And the umpire same thing. To stand there and watch that makes them the 9/19 Pu$$Y of the Day. I know it happend quickly but that was a dangerous situation. Guess it shows who they were looking out for. Times like that when the players need to have emptied the bat rack on the way out and shed some serious white-trash blood on the field. Nothing like taking BP to their skulls. Hope the old man is OK.
2 fans at Comiskey attack coach September 20, 2002 BY DOUG PADILLA AND ANA MENDIETA STAFF REPORTERS Chicago Sun Times Two shirtless spectators, who officials said are father and son, ran onto the field at Comiskey Park and assaulted a Kansas City coach Thursday during the ninth inning of the Royals' game against the White Sox. Royals first base coach Tom Gamboa, a former third-base coach for the Chicago Cubs, suffered a bruise on his left cheek and a cut over his right eye in the incident. A switch-blade-style knife was found at the scene, according to Royals players, but the knife blade was closed. According to White Sox spokesman Scott Reifert, the son will be charged as a juvenile. No ages were given on either suspect. Reifert said the police are looking to charge the older man with aggravated assault--a felony--because he not only struck the Royals coach, he hit a White Sox security officer, who is an off-duty Chicago police officer, as are all Sox security personnel. It was unclear what charges the juvenile would face. "Now it is in the hands of the police and prosecutors,'' Reifert said. The suspects emerged from beyond the first-base camera well in the ninth inning shortly after Sox pitcher Mike Porzio made a diving catch on a bunt attempt by the Royals' Michael Tucker. Gamboa, 54, had his back to the approaching men and didn't appear to hear them coming, with fans still applauding the play made by Porzio. "I have absolutely no idea what happened," said Gamboa. "We were between hitters, and I had my hands on my hips looking at the hitter in the box, and it felt like a football team had hit me from behind. The next thing I knew, I was on the ground trying to defend myself." The first suspect to reach Gamboa appeared to hit him in the face with a closed fist, the two then stumbling over each other. Gamboa was able to fend off the second attacker while lying on his back by kicking him in the chest. The Royals' first-base dugout quickly emptied, with Neifi Perez arriving to Gamboa's aid first and delivering a blow to the back of one of the suspects. Gamboa and the suspects then were engulfed by the remaining members of the Royals. No White Sox players were near the incident as it happened, and none appeared to be in the group that came to Gamboa's aid. "That was very frightful," White Sox manager Jerry Manuel said. "I'm sure without any warning or anything of that sort, it had to be somewhat frightful to him. That's really not the Chicago fans, the White Sox fans, that I have come to know. They have given me some hard times, but I don't think that at all represents Chicago. It's really kind of a sad thing." White Sox security separated the two suspects from the fray and led them through a tunnel under the stands on the first-base side. At least one fan appeared to spit on one of the suspects as he was led away. The Royals' Mike Sweeney, who did not play in Thursday's game, could be seen yelling at one of the men as he was led away. "That's an embarrassment,'' Sweeney said. "Two complete losers." Reifert said he could not confirm there was a knife on the field but said it was possible a weapon might have gotten past security. "You don't go through metal detectors to go the ballpark,'' he said. "It is not typical.'' Gamboa was removed from the game and was replaced in the first-base coaching box by hitting coach Lamar Johnson. Gamboa, a Los Angeles native and a resident of Rancho Mirage, Calif., said he had no hard feelings toward White Sox fans. "I don't know what we can do to eliminate stuff like this," he said. "If people in the stands are going to be on drugs in the ballpark, or drinking, or whatever provoked this thing, there's only so much security you can do. "Kenny Williams, their general manager, [television announcer] Ken Harrelson, their security people, all came to apologize. I'm grateful for them to take the time."
Gamboa attacked by two fans in ninth inning By BOB DUTTON The Kansas City Star CHICAGO - Royals coach Tom Gamboa, bloodied but standing, had more questions than answers Thursday night after surviving an on-field assault by two fans at Comiskey Park. With one out in the top of the ninth inning, two shirtless fans left the stands and jumped Gamboa, who was coaching at first base, from behind. "I didn't have any clue what had happened," Gamboa told a crowd of reporters in the Royals' clubhouse after a 2-1 victory over the White Sox. "I just felt I had gotten blindsided, and I had no idea by whom. Because I knew we weren't having a problem with the other team." Gamboa said one of the men was yelling something, but it was incoherent. "When I rolled over and saw that there were two of them, I tried to kick one guy to keep him abreast," he said. "Then the other guy kind of smoked me on the side of the face. "Luckily for me, by that time our team had got on the field to protect me." The Royals arrived like the marines hitting a beach. The two assailants were mauled by the angry players before security personnel restored order. "I was thinking they were just going to run onto the field like fans do sometimes," said shortstop Neifi Perez, who led the charge. "When I saw they jumped Gamby, I said, `What's going on?' I'd never seen this before." Chicago police later identified the assailants as a father and son. Names were not released pending charges. White Sox director of public relations Scott Reifert said police intended to seek an aggravated felony charge against the father for striking Gamboa and an off-duty Chicago police officer who was a security guard. Reifert said police intend to charge the son as juvenile. "Beyond that," Reifert said, "the matter has been turned over to the Chicago Police Department and the Cook County prosecutor." Gamboa, 54, is completing his second year on the Royals' staff. He served last year as bullpen coach before changing duties before this season. The incident occurred in the top of the ninth with Raul Ibanez on second. Michael Tucker then tried to bunt but popped the ball to White Sox pitcher Mike Porzio. "The next thing I know, all (heck) broke loose," Tucker said. The two men came over the wall along the right-field line. Several players said they saw a knife, but accounts differed as to whether it was opened or not. "There was a knife, but it was closed," Perez said. "If they had wanted to use the knife, they had plenty of time to do it. I think the knife fell from his pocket." Gamboa was pinned under a swarm of bodies but eventually made it to his feet and walked to the clubhouse under his own power. "I'm sore," he admitted, "because I was in the bottom of the pile. When they managed to get everybody off, I realized I'd been hit on one side of my face and pushed into the ground on the other side. "I saw that I was bleeding, then I heard one of our players yell, `One of them has a knife.' I was stunned. So I was checking to see if I'd been stabbed and just didn't realize it. "I was watching that tennis tournament when Monica Seles got stabbed (in Hamburg, Germany in 1993). I'm just so grateful that I didn't get stabbed." Gamboa had abrasions on the right side of his face and a bruise beginning to form on his left cheek. "When somebody comes at you from behind," he said, "there's nothing you can do." The two assailants were also bloodied as they were escorted from the field to loud boos from the crowd of 10,354. Mike Sweeney marched alongside one of the two men and delivered a verbal assault. "I wanted to kill him," Sweeney said. "I've never seen anything like that in baseball. That stuff just doesn't happen here in the United States and major-league baseball. "It's embarrassing that there are two people on the earth who are that shallow." After the game, players grouped around TV sets in the clubhouse to watch replays of the incident. "This is baseball," outfielder Carlos Beltran said. "This is not wrestling. What happened today, I never saw anything like that before in my life. "What that tells me that no matter where you are, things can happen. You're not safe anywhere. As players, we think we're safe at the stadium. What happened today, that tells us that we're not."
I agree, pychos are going to find a way. No amount of security will be ready for a psycho. A buffer between the field and fans isn't a bad experiment tho'. It would be hard to do and it would do three things. 1) prevent crazy fans from reaching the field, 2) prevent fans from grabbing a fair ball, and 3) prevent players from crashing into an inflexible wall.
Bullcrap. The first basemen could have helped. I think he and the umpire just froze. I'd be ashamed if I were them.
$70 for two field/dugout tickets $10 for two hotdogs $100 for a lot of beer You and your son in the middle of a good ole-fasion, doonybrook, bench-clearing basebrawl imbroglio at the game priceless
I was watching SportsCenter just a while ago and they showed the father being escorted into a police car and a female reporter asks, "sir, why did you do what you did?" The guy answered, "he flipped us off, he got what he deserved." I seriously doubt he could have flipped the bird to those two idiots without anybody else seeing it.
Hmm....a classic case of Napolean Complex. Little man was hallucinating from all the beer he drank and thought he was dissed so he had to show his son that no one flips him off. Especially old men. I doubt he would have rushed the field if Frank Thomas took a crap on his mom's face.
Actually it was the Sox 2nd baseman that watched. The first baseman had just charged a bunt and was way down the first base line and the 2nd baseman was covering. Just to clear up that confusion. Having said that though, THe Ump and 2nd baseman should have most definitely come to the rescue and helped out. CK
