$200G Bond Set In Baseball Attack
A Cook County judge ordered a man who ran onto the field at Comiskey Park and attacked a Kansas City Royals coach held on $200,000 bond Saturday.
During a brief hearing, a prosecutor described how William Ligue Jr. telephoned his sister before Thursday night's attack and told her to watch the White Sox game because he was going to be on.
A short time after that call, said Assistant State's Attorney Colleen Daly, Ligue and his 15-year-old son ran onto the field during the game between the White Sox and the Royals and attacked first base coach Tom Gamboa from behind.
Daly said Ligue, who is charged with aggravated battery - a felony - told police after his arrest that he charged the field because he was angry the White Sox were losing.
But Daly said the attack was premeditated. She said shortly before he ran onto the field, Ligue handed his keys, cell phone and jewelry to another of his sons. She said Ligue was wearing a pocketknife on his waistband when he ran on the field.
Ligue's 15-year-old son has been charged with two juvenile counts of aggravated battery, one for attacking Gamboa and the other for hitting a White Sox security guard, an off-duty police officer. The teenager was initially released to his mother, but was later taken to a juvenile detention center after authorities reviewed the case. He is due in court Monday.
Ligue's sister, Kimberly Richardson, told the Chicago Tribune that she didn't understand why her brother attacked the coach. "I'm so sorry for what my brother did to that man," she was quoted as saying in Saturday's editions.
She said the last year has been difficult for her brother, saying that he lost his job and that his one-month-old daughter died in May.
CBS News Correspondent Frank Settipani, who was attending the game, saw the incident. "They ran on the field and began pummeling him," Settipani said. "They jumped him from behind. He had no idea what was going on. The Royals players converged on the first base coach's box and began hitting the two who had Gamboa on the ground. Then the Chicago White Sox began coming over to see what they could do.
"There was no partisanship once that incident happened," Settipani continued. "Everybody was together and they all wanted to do the same thing: Protect Tom Gamboa."
Gamboa had several cuts and a large bruise on his forehead. He walked off the field to a standing ovation from the crowd.
The attack illustrates the kind of concerns athletes have about the possibility that drunk or angry fans might cross the line. While the field serves as a sanctuary with worries set aside, what happened Thursday raised questions about safety at ballparks around the country.
Suddenly, questions about safety at ballparks abound nationwide.
"We think we're safe at the ballpark," Royals outfielder Carlos Beltran said. "That tells us no matter where we are, we're not safe."
Ligue and his son contend Gamboa provoked them, making an obscene gesture. But the 54-year-old first-base coach insists he had no exchanges with the two before they slammed him to the ground and started punching and kicking him.
"The only thing that's really got me upset even more than the incident itself is the charge that there was something going on between us," Gamboa said. "I have never in my professional career ever responded" to fans.
"At no time, no matter how bad it got, have I ever made a hand gesture or verbally done anything to the fans."
Major league baseball said it would look into whether it needs to make changes in security at ballparks.
"We're going to review all of our procedures in and around the dugouts and bullpens," said Kevin Hallinan, executive director of security for the commissioner's office. "We need to go back to the drawing board because of what appears to be happening in the late stages of games, with fans moving to those areas."
This isn't the first time baseball - and sports in general - has had to confront the safety issue.
Who hasn't seen fans racing around a field until they're tackled by a security guard? It seems like a harmless stunt, and most players don't even move when it happens.
Occasionally, though, it turns ugly, such as when a 23-year-old fan attacked Houston right fielder Bill Spiers on Sept. 24, 1999, in Milwaukee. Spiers ended up with a welt under his left eye, a bloody nose and whiplash.
On Sept. 28, 1995, Cubs reliever Randy Myers was charged by a 27-year-old bond trader who ran out of the stands at Wrigley Field. Myers saw the man coming, dropped his glove and knocked him down with his forearm.
Or in the most horrific incident, a spectator stabbed Monica Seles in the back during an April 1993 match in Hamburg, Germany.
"It is a fear of players," Royals outfielder Chuck Knoblauch said. "Because it seems like the fans continue to get more and more hostile."
So how can incidents like this be prevented in the future? Or can they?
White Sox spokesman Scott Reifert said he couldn't discuss any security changes. But Friday night, there were two uniformed and armed Chicago police officers stationed near where Ligue and his son entered the field.
About a dozen security guards - all of whom are off-duty police officers - already are positioned at both ends of each dugout and elsewhere on the field.
"Whenever something happens, you're not being responsible if you don't at least re-examine what you're doing," White Sox general manager Kenny Williams said.
Security at ballparks tightened after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Fans are restricted from bringing in large bags, and smaller ones are searched.
But like the screenings at airports, they've relaxed with time. And with no metal detectors at ballparks, there's nothing to prevent someone from bringing in a weapon.
Short of putting up glass walls around playing fields and making every park look like an NHL arena, there's no way to keep fans on their side of the game, either.
"You can't monitor 43,000 people," White Sox outfielder Aaron Rowand said. "You can't put security guards out there on the field of play - unless you want to call in the National Guard and have them stand in front."