Blue Jays: Beer throwing fan pleads guilty

During last year’s Wild Card game in the playoffs, a fan by the name of Ken Pagan threw a beer on the field. He plead guilty to a charge of mischief in court on Tuesday.

When you make stupid decisions, more often than not there are consequences for those decisions. Case in point, Mr. Ken Pagan will probably think twice the next time he’s got a beer in his hand.

In case you missed it, during last year’s Wild Card playoff game against the Baltimore Orioles, one fan in particular embarrassed the Blue Jays’ fanbase with a poor decision, hurling a beer can on to the field at the Orioles’ outfielders, getting dangerously close to hitting Hyun Soo Kim. It wasn’t just a classless move, it was also a remarkably irresponsible one.

Ken Pagan appeared in court on Tuesday morning and he entered a guilty plea for his actions last October. The charge was for “mischief under $5000”, and the now notorious fan leaves a legacy that I’m sure he’d rather erase.

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The following day after the incident, the police released a photo of their suspect, before the guilty party decided to turn himself in the following day. It’s pretty difficult to get away with a poor decision like that when you’re on camera, so good for Pagan for at least realizing that and entering a guilty plea.

The Blue Jays’ organization apologized for the incident, and responded by getting rid of beer cans at the Rogers Centre for the remainder of the playoffs.

So let that be a lesson to all of us sports fans. You can have a great time at the ballpark, and you’re even allowing to chide the opposition, a favourite past time of bleacher bums all over the place. You can’t, however, throw things on the field. A projectile like that could do serious damage being dropped from that height (and with the potential weight of a full can), so it’s not even the least bit funny.

Next: My apologies to Justin Smoak and the Jays' brass

Pagan will be appear in court again to be sentenced on June 28th.