Am I the only one who realizes this is more the fault of the umpires than of the kid?
Forget if the ball is in play. As a fan of your team, you should always do what you can to help your own team and hurt the other team. It's the same concept behind a foul ball in the first row of the stands. Home team hits it, knock the opposing players glove away. Visitors hit it, lean back and let your team catch it.
Similarly, with an opposing team's runner on first, interfere if you can on what would be a double. On a ground rule double due to your interfering, the player is stopped at third.
These are the outcomes of the rules. If fan interference caused something worse, then it would be logical not to do it. But this is just exploiting the rules to help your team, just like a team would exploit the rules in any way they could for an advantage. Maier just got lucky that they called it a homerun. But he shouldn't be penalized for it. Blame the umps...
Bartman on the other hand, was a Cubs fan screwing the Cubs, and people on this board seem to say "It wasn't his fault, blame Gonzalez!" ...I think people need to get their priorities as fans straight.
