Show me instances of fans/coaches directly affecting a sports event?

August 15, 2013 4:30 PM

I'd like to see instances of fans or coaches directly (hopefully legally, and positively) affecting a sports event, I know there are baseball catches by fans, and Doc Rivers calls time out.

But like, what if a fan touches a diving basketball player, then that basketball player is out of bounds right? so if the basketball player is on an opposing team and diving to save a ball, a fan might reach out and touch the player and catch him early, and if the diving player is on the home team, a fan might back up and get out of the way. This must come up in some sports, I would love examples, explanations, youtube videos etc.

posted by crawltopslow to Health & Fitness (17 answers total)

Jeffrey Maier (Yankees - Orioles, 1996)

Also this , especially Duke Speedo Guy.
posted by 4ster at 4:41 PM on August 15, 2013

A Jets coach tripped a player

http://www.nytimes.com/​2010/​12/​14/​sports/​football/​14jets.html​?_r=0
posted by Ironmouth at 4:42 PM on August 15, 2013

Response by poster: I really only want things that are legal (according to rules of the sport).
posted by crawltopslow at 4:43 PM on August 15, 2013

Note that link tells of a similar incident in 1954.
posted by Ironmouth at 4:44 PM on August 15, 2013

Golf audiences are considered part of the course, so if a ball hits someone in the gallery the ball is played wherever it landed after it hit them, without penalty. This happens all the time.
posted by The Card Cheat at 4:49 PM on August 15, 2013

Would icing the kicker count?
posted by Etrigan at 4:53 PM on August 15, 2013

Golf audiences are considered part of the course, so if a ball hits someone in the gallery the ball is played wherever it landed after it hit them, without penalty. This happens all the time.

Arnold Palmer has said he used to shoot at the greens with abandon because his legions of fans (Arnie's Army) were surrounding the green forming essentially human bumpers.
posted by Benny Andajetz at 4:54 PM on August 15, 2013 [1 favorite]

It's believed that crowd noise helped the Saints win in the 2010 NFC Championship game and the Superdome is notoriously noisy, it's also mentioned in that article that teams get disrupted in the Red Zone by the sheer volume of noise.
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 4:59 PM on August 15, 2013 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: So golf fans can like hit the ball in the air towards the cup? Seems like there would be documented cases of this.
posted by crawltopslow at 5:15 PM on August 15, 2013

I remember a tournament like ten years ago where Tiger Woods shot his ball into the crowd so far that the camera momentarily lost sight of it and when it was finally located it was in a suspiciously favourable position. There was speculation a fan(s) may have moved it, but there was also no proof.
posted by The Card Cheat at 5:19 PM on August 15, 2013

Ah, it was the 2000 PGA Championship.
posted by The Card Cheat at 5:23 PM on August 15, 2013

So golf fans can like hit the ball in the air towards the cup? Seems like there would be documented cases of this.

Not so much this as they would allow the golfer to use a longer club - guaranteeing he would reach the green without worrying that he would overshoot.
posted by Benny Andajetz at 5:29 PM on August 15, 2013

I guess I should have used "backstop" instead of "bumper".
posted by Benny Andajetz at 5:32 PM on August 15, 2013

at a 49er game in denver, a fan threw a snowball, perfect in time and space, just as the 49ers were attempting a field goal. at a pats game in foxboro with snow on the field, a groundskeeper helpfully ran a snowplow across the field before a pats field goal attempt, right where the ball was going to be spotted.
posted by bruce at 6:26 PM on August 15, 2013 [1 favorite]

A spectator at Wimbledon called 'out' when the ball was close to the line, making the player think it was actually out and not play so he lost the point. There was no replay because crowd noise is not officially interference? This was a couple years ago and I can't remember enough details to find any online references/articles, unfortunately.
posted by jacalata at 6:34 PM on August 15, 2013

In golf, this has become a big deal, because the rules allow observers (including those watching at home) to alert officials to violations, for which penalties can later be assessed. And as you might imagine, the prevalence of golf on TV (plus, I'd guess, the Internet making it easier to look up the right place to call) has made this a common occurrence these days. Many examples - here's one, involving Tiger Woods, no less. And some more detail here:

As soon as Woods made his drop on the 14th hole at T.P.C. Sawgrass after consulting with his playing partner, Casey Wittenberg, Epstein sprang into action. He looked up the general number for the course and called it.

“I tried to get through, but I kept getting rerouted,” he said last week in a phone interview. “I never got through to anybody.”

In desperation, Epstein sent an e-mail to a reporter at the course. Other reporters said they were also hearing from viewers questioning Woods’s drop.

It's possible that in a prior day and age, someone like Epstein might have given up after calling the course. Now, though, it's easier to get a hold of someone who can make a difference.
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell at 7:43 PM on August 15, 2013 [1 favorite]

In 2009, Liverpool lost a Premiership football match 1-0. The goal was scored on a shot that was deflected by a beach ball thrown on to the pitch by a spectator. (YT link). Although the goal should not have stood, it was given and is now a matter of record.
posted by Jakey at 4:06 AM on August 16, 2013 [3 favorites]