Someone made a threat by mail against Boston Red Sox players:

The Red Sox received a mailed threat, believed to be postmarked in Memphis, that targeted black and Latin players, citing at least two players by name, the newspaper reports. The named players will have extra security during their time in Florida, even away from Tropicana Field.

They don't believe it's related to the brawl in Boston between the two clubs.

This is just too much:

A woman accused of running down a man in her car after a Red Sox-Yankees argument in a bar never hit her brakes as she accelerated toward the small group he was in, a prosecutor said Monday.

"She never braked, and she accelerated at a high speed for about 200 feet. She went directly at this group of people," prosecutor Susan Morrell said of Ivonne Hernandez, who is charged with reckless second-degree murder in the death early Friday of Matthew Beaudoin, 29.

Appearently, Hernandez is a Yankees fan, and the Red Sox fans at the bar taunted her. Last I heard, being taunted by your foes isn't a reason to run them over. In fact, unless they're standing in the street with a gun pointed at you, I can think of no reason to run over someone. This is just disgusting.

They have laws to cover everything in New York:

A 40-year-old man arrested at Shea Stadium on Friday night is accused of trying to distract Braves pitcher Tim Hudson and shortstop Edgar Renteria with a high-powered flashlight.

Frank Martinez was charged with interference with a professional sporting event and second-degree reckless endangerment, Queens District Atty. Richard Brown said Saturday.

If you ask Red Sox fans, Renteria doesn't need a light in his eyes. And given that Hudson pitched eight shutout innings, he's already seen the light. :-)

I heard about this from one of the commentors during the radio show last night. Ryan Howard was threatened by a fan:

In the last 3 ½ weeks, Ryan Howard, a National League All-Star who won the Home Run Derby, has hit .360 with 10 homers and 28 RBI. In his first full season with the Phillies, he leads the league with 41 homers and 106 RBI, and he is making an MVP run.

Howard has been this good with a morbid threat hanging over him.

Howard yesterday confirmed that, about 4 weeks ago, he was made aware of a letter to him whose sender threatened to shoot him and cripple him.

"He said he wouldn't kill me; he'd put me in a wheelchair," Howard said.

I assumed it was a racial thing, but in fact it seems to be due to the Mets-Phillies rivalry:

The letter, according to Howard, was postmarked Scranton, where Howard starred as recently as last season for the Phillies' Triple A team. Howard said the sender was a Mets fan who opined that Mets third baseman and Derby finalist David Wright deserved to win instead of Howard.

"It didn't bother me," Howard said. "If he's writing letters like that, that dude's got bigger problems than me."

That's the truth. Maybe he lost a lot of money betting on Wright to win ROY.

The fan who jumped from the upper deck of Yankee Stadium into the netting behind home plate is banned from the stadium for life:

Scott Harper, 19, of Armonk, N.Y., pleaded guilty Wednesday to reckless endangerment following last season's plunge at the New York Yankees' Bronx stadium. District Attorney Robert Johnson recommended probation and restitution to the Yankees, but Harper rejected the deal.

Harper's criminal sentence, to be handed down Sept. 19, will depend on the outcome of another case in Westchester County for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, state Supreme Court Judge Troy Webber said.

I think Dean Wormer said it best.

Cubs fans reacted poorly when Ryan Dempster allowed that home run to A.J. Pierzynski yesterday:

With the Cubs so close to winning, fans littered Wrigley Field with plastic bottles, cups, and other debris Saturday after A.J. Pierzynski hit a two-out, ninth-inning homer to send the White Sox to an 8-6 victory.

The game was delayed nearly five minutes as security and the grounds crew came out to pick up the litter. Most of it fell on the warning track in the outfield, although some items, including a baseball, came out of the stands from behind the Cubs' dugout.

"I guess they can voice their opinions however they want to," Cubs center fielder Juan Pierre said. "They shouldn't throw anything on the field. It was sad. It was frustrating for us to lose a game and have the fans react like this."

I would have thought better of the Cubs fans. With the White Sox breaking their World Series drought, it's not as much fun to root for lovable losers in Chicago anymore. Maybe when the fans start staying away from the park, the Cubs ownership will get the message.

Racist hate-mailers need to be more specific:

The letter was mailed to Jeter at Yankee Stadium and called him a "traitor to his race," according to a story in Monday's editions of the Daily News. It warned him to "stop or he'll be shot or set on fire," said a law enforcement source who the newspaper did not identify. It was not clear whether the source was speaking on condition of anonymity.

Which race would that be? Has this idiot ever watched a Yankees game and seen Derek's mom and dad in the stands? Derek is living proof that race is meaningless.

As for being set on fire, Derek has 193 hits and 73 walks while scoring 116 runs from the top of the order. I'd say he's been on fire all year.

I hope publishing this letter and the others sent by this wacko help the police track him down before he hurts someone.

Cabrera reaches on a fielder's choice on what could have been a double play. It wasn't that close at first, but the crowd started throwing things again. The umps have had the stadium make announcements (although Joe Buck is not telling us what they said). I assume they've threatened a forfeit. There's 1 out, a man on first and Sturtze is coming into the game.

Update: The police are coming out to line the stands along the lines in foul territory to keep the fans in line. Very strange.

Update: With the game underway again, Cabrera steals 2nd and Bellhorn walks. Reese pinch runs for Mark. One out, and two on.

Update: Damon pops out to short. No argument on that one.

Update: Mueller pops out to Jeter to end the Red Sox ninth.

Morris Singer of the Massachusetts Daily Collegian, the student newspaper of the University of Massachusetts Amherst reports on riots following the Red Sox victory on Saturday night.

A celebration of the Boston Red Sox's victory over the Oakland Athletics turned ugly on Saturday night as students gathered outside of the dormitories in the Southwest residential area at the University of Massachusetts, lighting fireworks and overturning two cars.

This isn't the first time this has happened. There actually was a riot when the Yankees lost to Arizona in the 2001 World Series! This type of behavior is certainly a black eye for the UMass campus.

It seems that a fan threw a cell phone at Everett that hit Carl in the head. My apologies for putting the previous post in the Baseball Jerk category.

Many years ago I picked up a book that was a collection of short stories from Spitball Magazine. Of course, I can't find the book right now. But one of the stories was set in the future, and was about the last World Series. Fans had become so violent that no fans were allowed at games. They just broadcast the series on TV. They told how over the years fans had to be increasingly separated from players. Large plexiglass barriers were installed between the seats and and field. All in all, a pretty depressing story.

Now, I don't think that will happen because baseball knows that violent fans alienate not only players, but familes who go to games. That's why in most parks, fans can be removed just for spouting obsenities. I hope the apocolyptic vision of the above story never comes true, but baseball needs to tighten security right now to help prevent that story from coming true.