Regular CSTB readers will recall earlier this month, an Asbury Park, NJ gent was charged with impersonating Yankee P Joba Chamberlain. Undaunted by his brush with the law, Ryan Ward couldn’t resist the lure of the Bronx’s baseball cathedral yesterday reports Newsday’s Anthony Rieber.
Ryan Ward was spotted outside the press gate – the entrance the players go into and out of – between games of yesterday’s day-night doubleheader against the Rays.
Ward spoke briefly with Rays pitcher Jason Hammel, who was amazed by Ward’s resemblance to the 22-year-old Chamberlain. Some fans also were fooled by Ward, who started the week by appearing on the Howard Stern satellite radio show and referred to himself as “Fraud Joba Chamberlain” in an e-mail to a Newsday reporter.
Ward had a pair of tickets to last night’s second game of the doubleheader but was not allowed in until the gates opened at 5:30 p.m. He asked Hammels to help him go in through the players’ entrance but was told by a Yankee Stadium security official that he had to go wait in line “with the regular people.”
Said Ward: “I’m not trying to look like Joba, he’s trying to look like me. I’m 29.”