The Associated Press
BOSTON -- By the time Manny Ramirez made his menacing move toward Roger Clemens, Kevin Hallinan was already trying to control the fallout. The fight brewing on the field wasn’t his concern -- it was how the fans would react.
Hallinan, major league baseball’s security chief, met with Red Sox and law enforcement officials and they decided to cut off beer sales at Fenway Park right then, three innings early. Then, he walked from Canvas Alley -- the tarp storage area on the first-base side -- to the concourse to make sure the message had gotten out.
“We went directly to a beer stand and attempted to buy a beer. They said, ‘Sorry, we’re shut down,’” Hallinan recalled Monday as he prepared for the fourth game of the AL championship series. “We went from one (stand) to another and it was: ‘No good,’ ‘Shut down,’ ‘Finished.’ I’m going to say it took five or ten minutes, and it was done.
“If we pull the switch, we want to make sure that the switch works. It worked that day,” he said. “Hopefully it will continue to work.”
In the wake of Saturday night’s bench-clearing brawl between the Yankees and Red Sox players, security officials are re-examining the plans they hope would keep a minor skirmish from escalating into an all-out riot.
Although deployment was already high because of the importance of the game and the nature of the rivalry, security will increase for the rest of the series.
Hallinan declined to give details of the plans, but he confirmed the area in and around the ballpark will be patrolled by the FBI, National Guard, baseball security officers and police on foot, motorcycle and horseback. On Sunday, police in riot gear took up positions in and around the ballpark before Game 4 was postponed by rain.
Also, Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield recorded a public service announcement that will be played on the scoreboard, asking fans to behave.
But much of what Hallinan does is less about being ready to respond to a crisis than avoiding one. Among the key concerns in this area are alcohol management and ticket discipline -- in other words, making sure a bunch of drunken college students don’t storm the gates.
“The point is not to wait until the world is falling apart,” Hallinan said. “We’re not there to arrest people; we’re there for fans to enjoy themselves.
“This is a baseball game between two of the best teams in our league, a great intercity rivalry between the Yankees and Red Sox that makes the sport what it is. It’s a positive thing, not a negative thing.”
Sometimes, though, things can go the other way. In 1999, Fenway fans hurled debris onto the field and delayed Game 4 of the ALCS against the Yankees for eight minutes in response to blown calls against the Red Sox. When the Red Sox earned the right to play the Yankees this year by beating Oakland in the first round, a minor fracas broke out around the ballpark.
That was a road game, but fans watching in Fenway bars spilled out onto the streets and flipped over a car, rocked moving taxis and threw beer bottles from rooftops of nearby buildings. Seven people were arrested and faced charges including disorderly conduct, trespassing and indecent exposure.
In response, the city banned parking around Fenway Park at night on game days -- home and away. Police also vowed to step up pursuit of underage drinkers, many of whom come from the numerous local colleges.
The measures are sure to make the players and fans feel safer. But as the Red Sox are quick to point out, none of that was the problem Saturday night, when the biggest brawl was between the two teams, with the fight between Yankees players and a Fenway employee in the bullpen a close second.
“Frankly, the behavior in the stands was quite exemplary,” Red Sox president Larry Lucchino said. “Usually in these series and important games there are usually a couple of arrests in the ballpark. There were only two, I think, outside the ballpark, and very few ejections. ... The behavior of our fans is not something that is a pressing issue.”
And Hallinan wants to keep it that way.
“You can’t get distracted by what’s happening on the field. You keep looking, ‘Where is this going?’” he said. “What we’ve got to look at during the game is the ripple effect that fights on the field can have. That’s my job. My job is not to get involved with the players on the field. We let the umpires take care of that.”