The 10 Most Memorable Moments of Fan Interference in Sports History

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Date: 9/7/2013
Contest: Aparecidence vs. Tupi
Fan(s): Romildo da Silva

This is probably the only time in history that you'll ever hear of a team masseur having an actual impact on the outcome of game. Making history here was Aparecidence's Romildo da Silva, the masseur for the Brazilian soccer club who—with the game tied between Aparecidence and their opponent, Tupi—threw himself in front of two consecutive shots to make game-saving deflections for his team. Do we really need to consult with the rule book on this one? Pretty sure this is just flat-out illegal. As a result, Aparecidence—which was supposed to go on to the quarterfinals of the Brazilian fourth-division playoffs—was disqualifed from the tournament due to da Silva's actions. Just stick to the training room from now on, man.

Date: 4/14/2005
Contest: Red Sox vs. Yankees
Fan(s): Unnamed Red Sox fan

The Red Sox and Yankees rivalry always gets pretty heated, but if you start getting the fans involved, that's when things will begin to go a little bit overboard. Fresh off their team's first World Series victory in 86 years, BoSox fans were probably feeling pretty cocky when the Yankees came to town at the beginning of the 2005 season. Fine, we get it. Everyone feels good about their team when they're the reigning champs. But even in the case of the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry, hitting a player from the opposing team is never cool.

Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened to Yankees outfielder, Gary Sheffield, when he ran over to field a triple from Sox catcher, Jason Varitek, in the eighth inning of an early April match-up between the two teams. When he got to the ball, Sheffield was greeted by fist in the face from one of the Red Sox fans sitting next to the ball, who later claimed that he was just trying to go for the ball. For the most part, Sheffield kept his cool, only reacting to the incident by shoving the fan back into the stands, and we give Sheff some serious credit for not going Ron Artest on this guy. But while the fan was ejected from the game by security, the Yankees still went on to lose that night, 8-5. Talk about adding insult to injury.

Date: 11/6/1993
Contest: Riddick Bowe vs. Evander Holyfield
Fan(s): James Miller

It's hard to recall an incident of fan interference more bizarre than the case of the "The Fan Man Fight." Equipped with his own paraglider, Nevada native James Miller, decided that he wanted to head to Caesars Palace in Las Vegas to crash the party on the night of the Riddick Bowe v. Evander Holyfield heavyweight title. And when we say "crash," we really mean "crash." Flying in over the top of the ring, the lines of Miller's paraglider eventually got tangled in the overhead lights, bringing him down to the ground, and into the crowd. While there, fans and security officers gave Miller a serious beatdown, knocking him unconscious and requiring him to to be taken to the hospital. In all, the fight was delayed for 21 minutes, and Miller was charged with dangerous flying and given a $200 fine for his insane stunt. But hey, at least he got a Simpsons cameo out of it, so it wasn't all for nothing, right?

Date: 11/12/1979
Contest: White Sox vs. Tigers
Fan(s): White Sox fans

As the 1970s were beginning to come to an end, the decade's primary pop music genre, disco, started to fade away from the American music scene. But to commemorate the death of one of most-hated genres ever, the Chicago White Sox thought it would be funny to have a promotional event called "Disco Demolition Night," wherein fans could bring their disco records to the ballpark to be blown up together in one, giant grand finale. Plus, if they brought a record, they were able to get in for under a dollar.

Expecting just 20,000-25,000 people, the Sox were instead greeted to at least 50,000 disco-hating fans ready to see the music go up in flames. Things got rowdy, to say the least. With the White Sox playing a doubleheader that evening, the event was scheduled to go off between the two games while the players rested for the second match-up. However, the fanfare ended up starting much sooner than that. Throughout the first game, fans were showering the field with records, liquor bottles, and even firecrackers, causing a stoppage in play multiple times. Then, when the actual promotion took place, the stadium quickly turned into a war zone. The explosion of the records sent spectators into a fury, with some 5,000-7,000 fans storming the field where they ripped up grass, stole the bases, destroyed the batting cage, and even climbed up the foul pole.

With the field in ruins, the White Sox ended up having to forfeit the second game after already losing the first. In total, 39 people ended up getting arrested for disorderly conduct that evening but given the mayhem that took place in Comiskey Park that night, that number probably should've been more in the hundreds.

Date: 6/10/2010
Contest: Panathinaikos vs. Olympiacos
Fan(s): Olympiacos fans

Referred to as the "Night of Shame," by Greek basketball fans, Game 4 of the Greek League championship series between Panathinaikos and Olympiacos certainly earned that title. Furious over what they believed to be terrible officiating from the refs in a Game 3 defeat, Olympiacos fans decided to take matters into their own hands in the next contest. Armed with M-80 firecrackers, the fans responded to the refs in Game 4 by throwing the mini-explosives directly at the during the game. Worse yet, the firecrackers ended up right under one of the team benches, eventually forcing security to come in and calm down the rioters.

Initially, the fans were subdued, and action was able to resume, but later, after they had started back up again, the game was called in favor of Panathinaikos due to safety concerns. As a result, the team won their eighth straight Greek League title. All we've got to say to the Olympiacos faithful on this one is that if you guys were trying to help your team out, then you definitely missed the mark here. 

Date: 10/9/1996
Contest: Yankees vs. Orioles, ALCS Game 1
Fan(s): Jeffrey Maier

When you're just an 11-year old kid at a ballgame, you're certainly not the first person that anyone would suspect to end up being the hero of the game. However, young Yankees fan, Jeffrey Maier, ended up being exactly that when literally snatched away a win from the visiting Baltimore Orioles in Game 1 of the 1996 ALCS. It was the bottom of the eighth inning, and Derek Jeter had hit a deep fly ball to right field. Going back to the wall to catch it was Orioles outfielder, Tony Tarasco, who appeared to have a clear shot at making the play on the ball. Unfortunately for him, so did Jeffrey Maier.

Reaching out from the stands with his glove to snag the ball, Maier turned a sure out into a home run, tying the game at 4-4 for the Yankees. Orioles manager Davey Johnson protested that the play should've been ruled as spectator interference, thus awarding the out to Tarasco, but the umpires ruled against him. After taking the game to 11 innings, the Yankees eventually won it with a walk-off homer from Bernie Williams, this time free of controversy. In New York, Maier became something of a hero, and the New York Daily News ended up buying him tickets to sit behind the dugout for the Yankees' remaining postseason games. What more could an 11-year old ask for?

Date: 10/14/2003
Contest: Cubs vs. Marlins, NLCS Game 6
Fan(s): Steve Bartman

Fair or not, for the role he played in altering the course of the Cubs' postseason fate, Steve Bartman will forever go down in history as one of the most reviled fans in sports. We all know the story. It was Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS between the Chicago Cubs and the then-Florida Marlins. At the time, Chicago was up 3-0 in the top of the eighth inning. With a victory, the team advanced to their first World Series since 1945, and a chance to break the championship drought that had been plaguing the team for decades. However, fate had other plans. With one out, and the Marlins' second baseman, Luis Castillo, up to bat against the Cubs' ace, Mark Prior, Chicago sat only five outs away from the NL pennant. At a full count, Castillo popped up to the wall in shallow left field, and outfielder Moises Alou made his way over to pick it off for the second out.

That is, until Steve Bartman intervened. Sitting right at the wall, Bartman did what almost any other fan would've done in the moment: he went for the foul ball. Running his hands into Alou's glove, Bartman caused the ball to fall dead in the field of play, neither caught for an out or as a souvenir. As the game unfolded, the moment seemed to kill all the momentum the Cubs previously had going for them. Drawing a walk on the next pitch, Castillo started a rally for the Marlins that inning that ended with them scoring eight runs and securing a victory to force Game 7. Needless to say, the Cubs lost the pennant. Meanwhile, Bartman had to receive a police escort that night in order to get home safely, and was booed into hiding by his fellow Cubs faithful. Whether it's billy goats, black cats, or Bartman, it's safe to say that the Cubs can just never seem to catch a break. #seewhatwedidthere?

Date: 11/20/1982
Contest: Cal vs. Stanford
Fan(s): The Stanford Marching Band

When you talk about trick plays in football, you can't leave "The Play" out of the conversation. This may be the most memorable moment in college football history, period, but, along with that, it's also notable because of the fan interference that took place during the TD. With Stanford up 20-19 against Cal, and a kick return being the only thing separating the Cardinal from the W, defeat seemed all but certain for the Golden Bears. However, thanks to some trickeration by the Cal return team, they instead were able to lateral their way to the end zone and snatch a victory away in the closing seconds.

Maybe Stanford would've been able to catch the final Cal player if the Cardinal's marching band hadn't already started storming across the field? In an act of premature celebration, the band, believing the game to be over, had already spread themselves out across the end zone and the red zone, forcing the Stanford and Cal players to weave through them for the final 15 yards. Could Stanford have caught up with the last Golden Bear had the band not been in their way? Possibly. But, instead, those band geeks helped give Cal the win.

Date: 11/19/2004
Contest: Indiana Pacers @ Detroit Pistons
Fan(s): John Green, Alvin "A.J." Shackleford, and Charlie Haddad

The Malice at the Palace changed the NBA forever. It was the ugliest brawl to occur in an NBA game, and to think it all started from Ben Wallace shoving Ron Artest. After Artest walked away to lay down on the scorer's table, a fan named John Green threw a cup of Diet Coke on him and all hell broke loose. Fans on players, players on players, a true brawl in the deepest sense of the word.

After the melee 10 assault and battery charges were handed out to players and fans. Nine players received suspensions ranging from one game to 86. 

Date: 4/30/1993
Contest: Monica Seles vs. Magdalena Maleeva
Fan(s): Gunter Parche

In 1993, female pro tennis player, Monica Seles, was at the absolute top of her game. She had won three straight French Open titles, as well as back-to-back U.S. and Australian Opens, and even Steffi Graf, the winner of 22 Grand Slam singles titles in her career, had fallen multiple times to Seles in the course of this run. Monica looked like she would go on to win many more Grand Slams—and if not for the incident that took place between her and German native, Gunter Parche, during the 1993 Betty Barclay Cup—it's likely that she would've fulfilled that destiny.

Instead, Seles became a victim of one of the worst instances of fan violence in all of sports. Stabbed in her shoulder blade with a boning knife by Gunter Parche during her match against Magdalena Maleeva, Seles was quickly rushed to the hospital after Parche was detained by security. Though she was able to recover from the wounds within a few weeks, the psychological trauma was incalculable. Seles didn't return to the court for nearly two years and even when she did, her game was never able to reach the levels that she had previously attained. To her credit, Seles did capture one more Grand Slam title before retiring in 2003 but, unfortunately, we'll all still only be able to wonder what could've been with this former world no. 1.