Mom’s the word in the aftermath of last autumn’s chair-tossing riot writes the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s Kathleen O’Brien.
If Sept. 13 were not Doug Brocail’s mother’s birthday, a chair might never have been thrown into the stands that night in Oakland.
“If only … ” is the Rangers’ thought.
The visiting team’s bullpen at McAfee Coliseum, where the Oakland Athletics play, has little separation from the right-field stands, so every taunt and derogatory comment was shouted practically in the Rangers’ ears. Brocail and several other Rangers relievers have said the fans were particularly vocal that night, especially Craig Bueno, and Brocail eventually got so fed up that he caused a scene.
“[Bueno] said, ‘I saw your mother last night,’ and it just happened to be my mom’s birthday,” Brocail said. “I’d talked to the guard, talked to [Bueno], talked to the guard probably four times about him, and nothing had been done. The thing was, if I made a scene, I knew they’d get rid of him.”
So Brocail proceeded to “make a scene,” only it escalated beyond his expectations. Within a matter of seconds, most members of the Rangers were clustered around and behind Brocail, with some angry words flying both ways. Then a chair flew from right-hander Frank Francisco’s hands into the stands, breaking the nose of Bueno’s wife, Jennifer, a scene that has been replayed on television thousands of times.
Without rushing to the defense of Craig Bueno, I’d think the odds of him really having seen Doug Brocail’s mom the previous evening are pretty slim.