CLEVELAND, Ohio– As the Cleveland Indians were fighting for their playoff lives against the Minnesota Twins on Saturday night, three fans began a fight of their own in the stands at Progressive Field, and video of the disturbing incident has quickly gone viral.
A Cleveland police report indicates 56-year-old Jon Rogers of Ravenna and his son, Ryan, 23, got into a dispute with 23-year-old Dale Ross of Geneva.
Season ticket holder Ben Brugler told FOX 8 that as fans in section 537 scurried to get out of the way, others in the stadium looked on in stunned disbelief as the brawl unfolded.
“There were a lot of people there with families and clearly there were upset kids, and when the dust had settled, there were some women in the stands, one in particular that I noticed, that was very upset and it looked like she had been hurt,” said Brugler.
A Cleveland police officer, who was working security at Progressive Field, was rushing to break up the fight and apparently tripped over a seat and fell on the ground.
According to the police report, Jon Rogers, Ryan Rogers and Dale Ross are being charged with disorderly conduct for fighting in public.
Ben Brugler says the toughest part of the night was not watching the Indians being swept by the Twins, it was explaining to his nine-year-old daughter why the adults in the stands were fighting. “She was crying because she didn’t really realize what was happening; she just saw people rolling around, and there were people just screaming and shrieking, like ‘Oh my gosh, is this happening? Stop it, stop it,'” he said.
Brugler is among long-time Indian fans who are asking Jon Rogers, Ryan Rogers and Dale Ross to think about the unflattering image of Cleveland that is now being shared all around the world. “That is so much the exception to what is normally delivered in the game and on the field, you know; that is the part you hate seeing — that we could get that kind of reputation because that is not who we are at all,” said Brugler.
The Cleveland Indians organization declined comment on the incident and referred to it as a “police matter.”