SmartReMarxcom

When a 16-year-old Waltham fan reached over to catch a ball hit by Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz in the game against the Texas Rangers on Tuesday, the umpiring call was fan interference. Ortiz was awarded second base and eventually scored in the same inning. The fan, Steve Falzone, was ejected by Fenway Park security. But according to his family, he wasn’t the one who knocked the ball off of its home run trajectory.

Sox management says the replay clearly shows Falzone at fault, but witnesses nearby claim a 14-year-old fan with a glove was the one who reached out for the ball while it was still in play. Falzone’s family is crying foul over the ejection, not only because it was unfair, but because it was uncalled for.

The game, if you saw it, was a monster. The final score was 17-19 in favor of the Sox. The first inning ended with a 10-0 lead for the Sox. The fifth inning scored 8 runs for Texas and 2 more for the Sox. The outcome went down to the ninth inning, and you could hardly argue that Ortiz’s potential home run could have made a difference. Big Papi scored anyway from second on a home run by Kevin Youkilis.

While no doubt security was following the park’s policies, is fan interference really cause for ejection? And for that matter, isn’t there a time when management should have discretion to modify its own rules, like when the fan being ejected is 16-years-old? And when there was no malicious intent involved (unlike throwing objects on to the field)?

The Boston Herald reported that management’s response was that any other action than the action taken would have undermined the authority of the umpires. That includes, apparently, offering Falzone tickets to another game.

And of course, there’s the nagging issue of whether Falzone was even the culprit in the fan interference call. The upside to the situation is Falzone ended up with the ball as a souvenir, but dare I ask, does ejection come with a lifetime park ban?