Baumbach: Running on field still haunts fan

A fan runs onto the playing field. Police react. But was it a misguided person trying to have fun or someone who could pose a threat to the players?

Cubs fan John Murray vividly remembers how he got himself in such a mess and was branded an attacker.

At a game at Wrigley Field in 1995, Murray boldly and daringly proclaimed to those around him that if the next guy hit a home run, he was going out for a word with the pitcher.

And then it happened - a tiebreaking two-run home run by pinch hitter James Mouton off Cubs closer Randy Myers.

"All right, big shot," Murray's buddies said to him. Suddenly the bond trader, 27 at the time, had a decision to make. Should he act on his bold words or risk the ridicule he knew would come from chickening out?

"It was a dare and I did it," he said this past week, "and I shouldn't have. It was stupid."

He wasn't Tasered, as a fan in Philadelphia was last week, but Murray was physically punished nonetheless.

When Murray made it to the mound, Myers greeted him with a forearm, knocked him to the ground and pinned him while teammates and security rushed to his side.

Newspaper accounts the next day used the verb "attack" to describe Murray's actions, a word with which he always has taken issue. An attacker? No way would he even think about running out there with that type of crazy intentions, he said. He was just following through on a silly in-the-moment dare.

But of course Myers couldn't have known that. And considering that Royals first-base coach Tom Gamboa was viciously blindsided by two fans at Chicago's South Side ballpark seven years later, it's certainly hard for anyone these days to argue with Myers' defense.

"I don't like to be associated with those people at all," Murray said, referring to the father-and-son duo who attacked Gamboa at a White Sox-Royals game in 2002, "but at the end of the day, none of us belong on the field at all. I've had to learn that, and this latest kid will learn that."

Gamboa was standing in the first-base coach's box in the ninth inning when he was tackled from behind by two shirtless fans. He hit the ground so hard that he permanently lost some hearing in his right ear.

Eight years later, he still describes himself as "an eternal optimist," but he also said the incident has forced him to be more aware of his surroundings. And he certainly is less than thrilled when he sees incidents such as last week's, when the young fan was tasered at Philadelphia's Citizens Bank Park.

"I'm convinced there's a certain deranged mentality that's something that you or me or any normal person would be embarrassed, ashamed and humiliated to be a part of," Gamboa said. "But to the twisted mind, they almost relish it. It's almost like a badge of honor in their mind."

The sad fact is that when fans rush the field, the majority of people in attendance usually cheer for them. Even Gamboa admitted that he used to laugh from the dugout while watching fans run around on the field.

But for those who think it's going to be fun, Murray is living proof that there are ramifications beyond a fine. Every time an incident occurs on a baseball field involving a fan, the list of past fan-athlete incidents gets rolled out. And it usually includes Murray's name.

"That's just something I have to deal with because I did it," he said. "It was stupid and I've apologized for it." He even bought a commemorative brick at Wrigley Field in 2006 and engraved it with "Sorry Cubs fans, Sept. 28, 1995."

Nowadays Murray spends many pregames outside Wrigley Field selling "It's gonna happen" shirts and signs to championship-starved Cubs fans. It's something he's been doing as a side job since 2006, with some of the proceeds going to support pediatric cancer research.

But 15 years later, he's still paying a price for his "embarrassing" split-second decision. When the Cubs learned a few years back that he was the guy behind the slogan, he said the signs stopped being shown as much on television.

While Murray and Gamboa are on opposite ends of fan-athlete incidents, they agree that the selective use of a Taser could deter future fan incidents.

"In fairness to the security guys or the policemen," Gamboa said, "they don't know what the person's intent is when he gets on the field."