Littlefield: A Lesson For Ballpark Security

On Wednesday night at an Atlanta Braves game, an adult fan reached out and grabbed a ball from the field of play and gave it to a young fan. But a security guard confiscated the ball. Bill Littlefield offers some advice to the security guard.

Of Southern hospitality I often have heard tell,
And I’ve no doubt that lots of people practice it, as well,
But at a ballgame in Atlanta, maybe not so much.
On Wednesday night at SunTrust Park, a fan leaned out to touch
A batted ball. It was in play. The fan was doubtless wrong.
And he earned boos aplenty from the portion of the throng
That saw him. Then he gave that baseball to a little boy,
Whose smile was large and grateful, and it radiated joy.
But then a guard appeared, restoring order on his mind,
Though chaos wasn’t evident, the fellow wasn’t blind,
The rules said he should heave the man who’d interfered with play.
He saw the boy who had the ball and grabbed the ball away.

Now this was not a riot. It was nothing all that bad,
But what the guard brought to his duty made the whole thing sad.
It shouldn’t be that way in baseball, should it? As in life,
A measured sort of first response can sometimes limit strife.

This story has a happy ending. See, what the Braves did …
They got another baseball and they gave it to the kid.
And I for one am hoping that the guard I cannot name
Got pulled aside and told, "Hey, fella, it’s only a game."