Every now and then, fans manage to bypass security and present themselves in the field or court, whether we’re talking about baseball, football, soccer, basketball or tennis. It has become such a common event that unless they’re wearing something outrageous, or being outrageous by not wearing anything, the other fans on the field or the organizers don’t pay the moment much attention. But one fan, named the Batman Streaker was banned from Orioles Camden Yards for life.
The Batman Streaker is a man wearing adult size Batman undies and a cape. During Orioles’ Opening Day victory, the Batman Streaker tackled security and ran onto Camden Yards. As he would later confess after being arrested, his performance act was just an attempt to make the other fans laugh at a time of joy, the Orioles Opening Day victory and his own birthday.
Batman Streaker’s real identity is Mark Harvey and if at the beginning there were no charges against him, that doesn’t mean Orioles officials didn’t have something to say about it. There was a miscommunication that pointed out that there were no criminal charges for trespassing on the field, but then Orioles officials and State’s Attorney added that the 26 year-old Batman Streaker doesn’t have a clear bill.
Mark Chesire, spokesman for State’s Attorney Gregg L. Bernstein, emphasized “it is a crime to trespass on the field at Oriole Park at Camden Yards and we will prosecute individuals who go on the field in violation of the law in the future”.
Monica Barlow, spokeswoman for Orioles, said that Batman was banned for life and added that the team “would always want anyone who trespasses on the field to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Otherwise you’ll have more people doing this”.
Orioles’ banning of Batman for life has issued intense debates. Some say that Harvey’s sanctions were not enough for what he did and some even argued he should have been sentenced to a month in jail. Meanwhile, other people argued that perhaps baseball fields throughout the United States might be taking this type of stunts a little bit too seriously.
In the end with such stunts, the team and the field have a lot to win, as videos of people trespassing on the field go viral on the internet over night.
