Anthony Rendon was suspended five games by Major League Baseball on Monday for an incident with a fan after the Angels’ opening-night game.
After the Angels’ loss to the Oakland Athletics on Thursday at Oakland Coliseum, Rendon was seen — in a video that was widely circulated the following day — grabbing the shirt of a fan in the stands and cursing at him as the team walked back to the clubhouse from the field.
The suspension begins with the Angels’ game Monday night in Seattle, unless Rendon appeals. He also was fined an undisclosed amount. Rendon was listed in the Angels’ lineup shared by a reporter in Seattle about 2 1/2 hours before first pitch.
This is the second time in two seasons that Rendon has been suspended. Last season, the league suspended the third baseman for five games for his involvement in a brawl with the Seattle Mariners while he was on the injured list recovering from wrist surgery.
The cause for Rendon’s suspension this season is not unprecedented, as the league has suspended players in the past for incidents with fans.
In September of 2004, the league suspended Frank Francisco of the Texas Rangers and Milton Bradley of the Dodgers for separate incidents with fans. Francisco received 16 games for throwing a folding chair into the crowd at Oakland Coliseum. The chair broke the nose of one fan. Bradley got a five-game suspension for throwing a plastic bottle into the stands and yelling expletives at fans.
Rendon’s agent, Scott Boras, told Times columnist Dylan Hernández that the league “needs to address stadium security” and “this is the only stadium in Major League Baseball where fans have access to players after games.” The Rangers manager at the time of Francisco’s incident in 2004, Buck Showalter — now the manager of the New York Mets — also pointed out the Coliseum’s security back then.
In August of 2010, Nyjer Morgan of the Washington Nationals was suspended for throwing a baseball into the stands in Philadelphia, hitting a fan. His initial suspension was seven games, but after three additional incidents that occurred with other players in games with the St. Louis Cardinals and the Florida Marlins, and two appealed suspensions, he ended up serving eight games in September of that season.
Last season, Tim Anderson of Chicago White Sox and Amir Garrett of the Kansas City Royals were suspended for separate incidents; Anderson in April for directing a middle finger at a fan in Cleveland and Garrett in August for tossing a drink at a fan at Guaranteed Rate Field.
The Oakland Police Department, the day after the incident Thursday, said it was investigating a battery that occurred at the ballpark seen on surveillance video, but did not name Rendon. It also said that no victim had contacted the department.
