Fan in Boston gets g/u bat taken away

[mattmueller]

All:

Yes, there is a written rule, or perhaps several rules or laws about a fan taking a bat that ends up in the stands. Just look to your local, state, and federal laws under theft. It is not your property, so if the team or any of their employees or agents determine they want their property back, they have the right to do so. It is their property, period. Just because there is no sign posted saying that you can't take the bat home doesn't mean it is yours. Is there a sign at Walmart that says you can't take things home without paying for it? No, because everybody knows that is theft.

Matt

[metsbats]

Why are you so worried about this?

Chances are, it will never happen to you and the situation will not come up.

I totally agree. I"ve never caught a foul ball in my 40 years of attending games and the bats don't fly up to cheap seats.

[murfsteve25]

All:

Is there a sign at Walmart that says you can't take things home without paying for it? No, because everybody knows that is theft.

Matt

I see the point you are trying to get at Mattmueller, but your example is totally irrelevant. This situation has nothing to do with a fan walking into a stadium and knabbing bats or other equipment off the field or out of the dugout.
A fan sitting in his seat (that he paid for) watching the game and all of a sudden a bat flying out of the hands of a professional athelete hitting him is WAY different than some jerk walking into wal-mart and grabbing items off a shelf and walking out. At no point are the 2 situations related.
The example you gave involves the intent to steal at a store. The situation the rest of us are talking about on here is something being thrown at a fan at a baseball game.

[NYCrulesU]

All:

Yes, there is a written rule, or perhaps several rules or laws about a fan taking a bat that ends up in the stands. Just look to your local, state, and federal laws under theft. It is not your property, so if the team or any of their employees or agents determine they want their property back, they have the right to do so. It is their property, period. Just because there is no sign posted saying that you can't take the bat home doesn't mean it is yours. Is there a sign at Walmart that says you can't take things home without paying for it? No, because everybody knows that is theft.

Matt

Pretty much the point of my post. The bat is the teams property. If they say they want it back, you'll give it back or they'll escort you from the stadium empty handed. This entire thread has turned into a senseless arguement because a few don't seem to get reality, they are obsessed with the whole "finders keepers" mentality. Which, btw, doesn't not apply in this or many other facets of adult life.

[yanks12025]

Man this past weekend showed why the red sox and their fans are the least classy organization/fans in the game. First they rip a bat from a fan without seeing if he was alright. Then the fans still chant "You Took Steroids" to A-rod, this is after we now learn that David Ortiz took steroids. And i guess they sell t-shirts at the stadium that says A-rod likes to take it up the a**. What a joke of franchise and fan base.

[suicide_squeeze]

Pretty much the point of my post. The bat is the teams property. If they say they want it back, you'll give it back or they'll escort you from the stadium empty handed. This entire thread has turned into a senseless arguement because a few don't seem to get reality, they are obsessed with the whole "finders keepers" mentality. Which, btw, doesn't not apply in this or many other facets of adult life.

Where's your proof, NYCrulesU?

You guys can come up with all of these rediculous examples that are completely unrelated to the act of a bat flying into the stands.....and you can state whatever your feelings are about logic, theft, the theory of relativity, whatever......but you have yet to show one shread of evidence that there is a written rule that states if a bat flies into the stands, you HAVE TO give it back.

It is NOT theft. That's absurb. You didn't jump the fence and run into the dugout and grab it out of the rack and take off with a trail of security on your tail. It is an incident of pure chance at a baseball game. And I say if the player is inept at hanging onto his own bat, thereby placing the fans in danger by hurling it into the seats.....the least he can do is walk over to the batboy who, having just grabbed another $60.00 bat out of the rack, will hand him another, and try a little harder to do his job without endangering the very fans who pay him his fat contract.

If a security guard comes at me because I am hanging onto a bat that was just airborn into the seats......right at me......they will NOT be taking if from me, PERIOD. I don't care what your perception is, what law you THINK I'm breaking, or how attached the overpayed multi-millionaire baseball player is to his game prepared bat.....it's MINE! That's the way it goes, and it is a very rare occurance. So for the last time, the player, the team personal, and security, should just back off and allow the fan to keep the bat. Otherwise, they should have the snot sued out of them.

I can't wait for that to occur one day so we can get our answer once and for all, since no one here has supplied anything but an opinion.

In law....."possession is nine tenths of the law". Once it's in my hands by no act of my own, thereby completely eliminated any "intent" on my part of possessing it, it's a public relations play. You want to take it from me?......get ready for the grief it will cause. Add to that the danger involved with a bat coming at you like Tommy Lasorda coaching third base......

Cold dead hands, baby.

wake me up with you guys prove me wrong.....

[TFig27]

Here's how to keep a bat:

1) Catch bat

2) Stick bat in your pants

3) Smile and say "come and get it"

[suicide_squeeze]

Here's how to keep a bat:

1) Catch bat

2) Stick bat in your pants

3) Smile and say "come and get it"

THAT'S what I'm talkin' about!!!! That's the American way of doing things!!!

[Bobby Jenks]

Well my understanding that it at the players discretion to keep or let the fan have it. I was at the Braves/Marlins game yesterday and Adam LeRoche let go of his bat. The bat hit someone, the usher took the bat to the dugout and the same bat went back up the stands and they had to chase down the guy who had been hit because he was getting medical attention.

[camarokids]

Instead of all the back and forth talking/bickering... How about someone contact the stadium(s) and ask for their policy?

I know this would be too easy but it would settle the question once and for all.....

Then we can kill this thread which has turned into a waste of space......