Austin Capobianco, one of the fans who maliciously tried to yank the glove off the hand of Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Mookie Betts, said he was angry about being banned for Game 5 of the World Series.
Or, to be more precise, he was “p—ed off.”
Capobianco and his friend, John Peter, grabbed each of Betts’ hands in an attempt to pry his glove off during Game 4. The incident occurred when Yankees second baseman Gleyber Torres hit a foul pop-up in the first inning, which Betts caught while near the padded wall.
The fans were immediately thrown out of the stadium for their efforts. But, they tried telling ESPN that, as season ticket holders, the Yankees were going to allow them back the next night. Turns out, that wasn’t true.
Instead, their tickets were given to a pediatric cancer patient and his family. Which is a super, super-classy move on the part of the Yankees organization.
The two fans called for interference yesterday had their tickets revoked, and the Yankees took those tickets and gave them to Calvin Young, who is battling cancer. 🙏 pic.twitter.com/K7oOWGJm2P
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) October 31, 2024
Yankees Fan Who Accosted Mookie Betts Not Happy With Team’s Decision
Seeing that young man – 15-year-old Calvin Young – get to see a World Series game just absolutely warms my heart. It probably warms everybody’s heart. He’s a real fan.
As for the Yankee fan who grabbed Betts – well, he wasn’t too happy about the decision. What made him even angrier was that he wasn’t allowed to give the tickets to his little brother or his friends.
“The banning to tonight’s game was kind of expected, but the fact my little brother and his friends can’t use our season tickets tonight has really p—ed me off,” he wrote to the Daily Mail.
“It’s not like they can go to the next game.”
Perhaps if he hadn’t acted like a jackass the night before, his little brother and his friends could have gone to the game. Instead, the Yankees made an example out of Capobianco and rewarded a child fan battling cancer in the process.
That is a win-win.
RELATED: Fans Who Grabbed Mookie Betts During World Series Game Claim Yankees Letting Them Back For Game 5
Yankees Respond To The Fans
As Bounding Into Sports reported, Capobianco attempted to tell reporters that they were being allowed back in for Game 5 despite touching a player in the act of making a play during a World Series game.
At the time of that report, the team hadn’t responded. When they did later in the day, they torched the two fans.
“Last night two fans were ejected from Yankee Stadium for egregious and unacceptable physical contact with Dodgers outfielder Mookie Betts,” a team statement reads.
“The safety and security of players, fans and Stadium staff is the foundational element of every event held at Yankee Stadium, and it cannot be compromised.”
They addressed Capobianco and Peter directly, saying, “The exuberance of supporting one’s team can never cross the line into intentionally putting players at physical risk.”
That wasn’t exuberance. As our reporting revealed, the two had planned to do what they did long before it ever happened, thinking that they were defending their territory.
“We’re not going to go out of our way to attack. If it’s in our area, we’re going to ‘D’ up,” Capobianco said. “Someone defends, someone knocks the ball. We talk about it. We’re willing to do this.”
Dude thinks he’s William Wallace.
As for Young, he’s probably hurting a bit today. The Yankees absolutely collapsed after jumping out to a 5-0 lead, and the Dodgers took the clinching game of the World Series.
But he’s got a memory for life. And he had the opportunity to see one of the wildest World Series games in history while Capobianco had to watch it on his La-Z-Boy at home.
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