Dodger Fans Call Penalties Excessive

Bill McCarron was roaming Dodger Stadium’s reserve-level concourse, unabashedly demonstrating his feelings about the 19 Dodger suspensions and accompanying fines.

McCarron had a homemade flier taped to his chest that made abundantly clear his disgust.

It spoke volumes for Dodger fans attending Wednesday night’s game against the Cincinnati Reds after the penalties were announced for the Dodgers’ going into the Wrigley Field stands last week.

“I’m a season-ticket holder and I’m pretty [angry],” said McCarron, 31, a podiatrist in Glendale. “It would have been one thing if [Chad] Kreuter had gone up there if the fan had just said something, but he got assaulted.”

Don Farris, 66, agreed.

“I thought the penalties were too harsh,” said Farris, a retiree from Buena Park who took in the game from the top deck with his son. “The real problem is the fans and the alcohol policy at Wrigley Field.”

Don Jr., 42, who has attended Wednesday night games with his father for 20 years, said that Kreuter deserved a stiffer penalty than the others.

“Just for choking the fan, but even that was a pure act of defense,” said the younger Farris, a warehouseman in Buena Park.

Fans sitting nearest the visitor’s bullpen at Dodger Stadium said they’d never try to take property from an opposing player as a souvenir, as the Wrigley Field fan is accused of doing to Kreuter to start the melee.

“He was just protecting himself,” said Tim Cox, 37, an account executive from Riverside. “But actually, I think it was a very good thing that the team went over there to support him. It just shows that there has to be more security to protect the players, or a better system to mediate the penalty phase.”