Councilman Protests Ejections of Businessmen From L.A.-Padres Game

City Councilman Ron Roberts said Wednesday the San Diego Padres should reevaluate their security policy in the wake of a weekend incident in which two local businessmen were ejected from the stadium for yelling insults at the visiting team.

“Those men did absolutely nothing wrong, and I say that without qualification,” said Roberts, who observed the incident during Sunday’s 2-1 Padres victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

Bill Adams, the Padres’ vice president of business operations, said Wednesday that businessman Phil Palisoul and real estate developer Michael Alessio were removed from the stands at the request of Dodgers manager Tom Lasorda and Dodgers outfielder Hubie Brooks.

Adams said that Brooks told Lasorda and a security guard on duty in the Dodgers dugout that among the derisive taunts yelled at him during the 8th inning of Sunday’s loss was a racial slur--an accusation that Palisoul and Alessio’s attorney heatedly deny.

Lionel P. Hernholm Jr., Alessio’s lawyer, said late Wednesday that his client, a prominent GOP contributor and a delegate to the 1988 Republican Convention, is contemplating legal action against the Padres, who hire the Chula Vista firm of Pro-Tect Professional Services to manage security at games.

Adams said the Padres’ policy is to automatically remove any fan that members of the opposing team want removed, regardless of the reason.

“It’s important to understand that we have an obligation to protect the visiting team,” Adams said. “When such a situation develops, we can’t get into a trial-by-jury situation. We have to resolve the problem and resolve it immediately. We can’t sit around and debate it.”

But Roberts, a member of the Padres’ fan advisory committee, said the policy is inflexible and irrational and needs to be revised immediately. He said he met with Padres management on Wednesday and suggested that fans involved in such fracases in the future be relocated to another part of the stadium--Alessio and Palisoul were sitting directly behind the Dodgers’ dugout--or at least be able to air their side of the story before being asked to leave.

Adams said he will consider Roberts’ request.

Roberts, who was sitting near Alessio and Palisoul, said that “nothing even remotely resembling a racial slur” was hurled at Brooks, who, interviewed before the start of Wednesday night’s Dodgers game in Houston, stopped short of saying he had been the object of a racist remark.

“The guy (Palisoul) was saying a whole bunch of stuff,” Brooks said. “He was hassling everybody the whole game. I may have heard a racial slur in there, but it was a lot of other things. He was getting on everybody. I just wanted him to stop bothering me.”

Brooks said he complained about Palisoul to Dodgers Manager Tom Lasorda.

“Hubie said this guy was getting on him, so I just told the guard to tell this guy to stop bothering my player,” Lasorda said Wednesday night. “All I did was ask the guard to tell him to lay off my guy.

“I’ve got to take up for my players. As long as they don’t antagonize or bother the fans, I’ve got to stick up for ‘em, and I always will.”

But both Brooks and Lasorda deny that they ever asked the security guards to remove Palisoul or Alessio.

Palisoul said Wednesday he “felt humiliated” over the incident, mainly because he, Alessio and attorney Hernholm had taken to the game their sons, ages 11 and 12. He said the boys play together on a Little League team, and they and their fathers were surprised by the crude language and gestures exhibited by the Dodgers throughout Sunday’s game.

“All during the game, we engaged in what I would call harmless chiding or heckling of the players,” Palisoul said. “But it was not obscene or anything. You know, it was just stuff you would do to the opposing team. There was nothing that you could even remotely construe as a racial slur. That was the furthest thing from anything that was said.

“The final thing that caused the blow-up--that caused Lasorda to blow up--was that, after Brooks popped up (in the 8th inning), I said, ‘Nice hit, Hubie,’ and then he said something to me. Well, then, Lasorda jumped out and started screaming at me, and it was very profane stuff.

“I said, ‘Geez, you’re a little tense, aren’t you?,’ and then he got the guard and came out and pointed at me and Mike Alessio. But racial slur? That was patently untrue.”

Palisoul said he and Alessio were taken to “a cage” beneath the stadium. He said they were told to enter the cage marked “ejection.” He said the other cage was labeled “detox.”

“They kept us in there about five minutes and then escorted us out of the stadium,” Palisoul said. “He said if we came back in we would be in violation of municipal law. So, we waited outside for Chip (Hernholm) and our boys.”

Attorney Hernholm said that, after Palisoul’s “Nice hit, Hubie” remark, Brooks “came back out, threw a bat and helmet and started cursing and calling us names in front of our children.

“We all said, ‘Nice talk, nice language, watch your mouth’ and ‘What a great way to talk in front of Little Leaguers,’ but never ever was there anything like a racial slur.”

Times Staff Writer Bill Plaschke contributed to this report.