While we love our baseball stars, sometimes it’s the fans that create a game’s most memorable moments – for better or for worse. Say what you will about overly enthusiastic baseball fans, there’s no denying they’ve gifted us with some incredibly entertaining moments over the years.
From dressing up and dressing down to decidedly unsportsmanlike conduct in the bleachers, we take a look at the best of the worst spontaneous stadium stars and relive their five minutes of fame.
Catch some of the most infamous stadium interlopers in our slideshow. The full list is below:
Stadium Interlopers - Who Invited That Guy?
1. Colin Grundstrom, aka the Hakuna Matata Streaker, may have had a few worries after getting arrested for streaking across Busch Stadium during a Cardinals-Phillies game earlier this year. The brazen fan garnered almost as much attention for his Lion King-themed tattoo, Hakuna Matata, as he did for his pale white derriere.
2. Basement Burt Tigger doesn’t care how hot out it is. The Detroit Tigers’ superfan religiously sports his well-worn Tigger costume to Comerica Park whenever he cheers on his favorite team. Think of him as an unofficial mascot of sorts.
3. Craig Coakley earned the dubious distinction of becoming Citi Field’s first streaker when he trotted across the field wearing nothing but a stuffed animal. Clearly, he was cheering for the home team: he had “Let’s Go Mets” emblazoned across his exposed back.
4. After getting kicked out of the dugout for arguing with the umpire during a game against the Blue Jays in 1999, New York Mets manager Bobby Valentine infamously snuck back in disguised in street clothes, a fake mustache and dark glasses. Clearly he had been watching too many cheesy detective movies.
5. Now that’s just vile. Matthew Clemmens, a 21-year-old Phillies fan from New Jersey, was arrested after intentionally vomiting on a police captain and his 11-year-old daughter at a Phillies game in 2010. Wondering what prompted such a vulgar attack of bodily fluids? The family had the gall to ask Clemmens and his friend to refrain from shouting profanities around children.
6. Didn’t this guy get the memo that laser pointers are so last year? A teenage Cardinals fan was arrested for shining a green laser pointer at the San Francisco pitcher Shane Loux in August. Authorities followed the telltale green beam all the way to a luxury box, where they caught the 17-year-old culprit.
7. As local sports reporter Kimberly Jones was filming a segment about the “pork chop on a stick” now available at Target Field, a brazen Yankees fan went in for a bite. That’s right: he took a bite right out of her hand. What should have been a routine report wound up going viral, thanks to this bold interloper.
8. Fans may have been wondering just who Billy Ray Rojo Johnson thought he was when the “legendary Venezuelan pitching star” downed a beer on the field at Dell Diamond for a Pacific Coast League Round Rock Express game in 2010. It turns out this bold man was actually comedian Will Ferrell channeling a new character. Think “Ricky Bobby does baseball.”
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