Max Muncy thinks MLB and the Yankees have been way too soft on World Series fans

The World Series is over, but there’s one Game 4 moment everyone’s still talking about. It’s the two of them New York Yankees fans, Austin Capobianco and John Peter, who tried to get out a foul ball that Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Mookie Betts caught him by the hand in the bottom of the first.

The two fans were cheered by their fellow Yankee fans as they were escorted out of the arena. A season ticket holder, Capobianco was originally supposed to be allowed to return to Yankee Stadium for Game 5. That decision was overturned after MLB got involved and contacted the Yankees.

Finally, in a belated but classy move by the Yankees organization, tickets were given to a 15-year-old cancer fighter who had missed a previous Yankees event because of his illness.

All’s well that ends well? Not really. Although Betts was physically fine, what the fans did was extremely dangerous and many, including Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy, believe the fans should face additional punishment.

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The incident brought two-time World Series champion Muncy on “Cursed territory” podcast and had a lot to say about the incident and how he thinks MLB should have handled it.

“First of all, thankfully Mookie wasn’t hurt. You know, you talk about your arm hanging over the wall like that. It’s very easy to hyperextend, to do something,” Muncy said.

The interference could easily have injured his shoulder or wrist. They’re pretty lucky they didn’t injure the former MVP because if they had, they might have faces assault charges. As for MLB’s prescribed ramifications, Muncy wants the league to be proactive to prevent similar behavior in the future.

“It should have been an instant lifetime ban from all MLB stadiums out there,” he said. “If you’re talking about ‘you can’t ever come to another baseball game,’ that’s going to put serious doubt in people’s minds about whether or not they want to do something like that.”

Just because this instance ended without anyone being seriously injured doesn’t mean all cases will have the same relatively positive outcome. The truth is, Muncy is right. Fans need to understand this, this behavior will never be tolerated and the only way to do that is to make an example out of anyone who engages in it.

There is no room in the game to risk someone getting hurt because a fan thinks they can affect the outcome of a game by grabbing a player.