Image via Complex Original
This weekend, the Los Angeles Dodgers play host to the San Francisco Giants in a meeting of bitter divisional rivals. Indeed, as you may remember, the rivalry became so heated last season that it resulted in the death of Johnathan Denver, a Dodgers fan who got in a fatal altercation with Michael Montgomery—a Giants fan—while visiting San Francisco for a Dodgers-Giants series.
Unfortunately, the violence that took place between Denver and Montgomery is one that is no longer unique in sports. Over the years, more and more of these incidents seem to appear in the headlines every season as bad blood and overly passionate fan bases mix together to form a deadly combination.
It never has to be this way—after all, it's only a game. But, for whatever reason, too many fans over the past few years have decided to make wins and losses the reasons to form personal vendettas. In sports like soccer and baseball, these issues have reared their ugly head the most significantly. And as you'll see from A History of Fatal Fan Violence, it's an unsettling trend that needs to come to an end.
Bedlam in Lima
Sport: Soccer
Date: 5/24/1964
It was the final qualifying match for the Tokyo Olympics, pitting Peru and Argentina up against one another in a heated contest. Argentina had managed to grab a 1-0 lead during the match, but with two minutes left, Peru's Bertolotti Andres appeared to hit the equalizer. However, the goal was waved off by the referees, inciting a frenzy within the crowd.
Drunken spectators began rioting and charging against the fence that separated the stands from the playing field. Eventually, tear gas was thrown into the crowd by the police, which escalated the situation from bad to worse. Terrified fans tried to leave the stadium only to discover that the shutters which blocked off the entrance ways had been closed off for the game.
As people were attempting to flee, they funneled into the exit tunnels and were met with these shutters, inducing a whole new anxiety. Trampling and asphyxiation contributed to 318 deaths inside the stadium.
The Luzhniki Disaster
Sport: Soccer
Date: 10/20/1982
On October 20, 1982, FC Spartak Moscow and HFC Haarlem were going head-to-head in the UEFA Cup's second round. It was a cold, snowy day in Russia, and the weather became so bad that fans felt compelled to leave before the end of the uneventful match. As spectators were trying to make their way out, a large mass began to form around Stairway 1, the closest exit to the metro station. However, as this massive group became larger and larger, individuals started getting trampled and run down in the crowd.
It is believed that one woman who had lost her shoe and was trying to pick it back up started a domino effect of victims. Sensationalized figures peg the number of fatalities at anywhere between 66 and 340 people, though accepted wisdom today leans more toward the lesser number.
The Heysel Hellstorm
Sport: Soccer
Date: 5/29/1985
With 39 deaths and 600 injured to its name, the Heysel Stadium catastrophe of 1985 stands out as a day of infamy for all soccer fans. In the lead-up to the 1985 European Cup final between Liverpool and Juventus, a large group of Liverpool fans were anxious to get around the divider separating them from a neutral area within the stadium that contained a number of Juventus supporters. The divider itself was a chain link fence, so the Liverpool supporters spent the pre-match time throwing rocks and other missiles at the opposing side's fans.
In their attempts to escape this abuse, Juventus fans tried to climb a wall to another section. However, their collective weight became too much for the structure and incited a collapse. The ensuing carnage remains a black eye on the history of English soccer, and eventually resulted in manslaughter convictions for 14 different Liverpool fans, as well as a 5-year ban from European soccer competitions for all English clubs.
The Catastrophe at Hillsborough
Sport: Soccer
Date: 4/15/1989
Four years after one of the worst soccer disasters in the history of international soccer, there was the disaster at Hillsborough, a harrowing incident of overcrowding that resulted in 96 deaths and 766 injuries. The incident occurred before kick-off of the Nottingham Forest-Liverpool FA Cup semi-final, and one of the main reasons that the deadly event took place at all was the failure on law enforcement's end to control the masses.
Because of the police's ineffectiveness in managing the influx of spectators, fans crowded together in a tunnel underneath the over-packed standing room area. In the tunnel, they were supposed to be waiting until more space opened up. However, due to the unbearable weight, the stand ended up collapsing on the fans underneath, and the massacre began. As the day wore on, bodies and injuries mounted, making it one of the most horrific moments in sporting history.
Kotoko Goes Crazy
Sport: Soccer
Date: 5/9/2001
In 2001, the Accra Sports Stadium became the site of one of the worst-ever disasters in African soccer history. In a match between Accra Hearts of Oak Sporting Club and Asante Kotoko, a Kotoko loss ended up inciting the rage of Kotoko's sore supporters. Chairs and bottles were thrown onto the field, causing security to respond with tear gas. However, the resulting panic caused a human crush of spectators trying to escape, and stampeding and compressive asphyxiation would end up costing the lives of 127 people.
The Fenway Fiasco
Sport: Baseball
Date: 10/21/2004
At just 21 years old, and with a Boston Red Sox ALCS victory in hand, Victoria Snelgrove should've been having the time of her life at Fenway Park on October 21, 2004. However, tragedy struck Snelgrove in the form of a blunt trauma projectile, shot off by Boston police officer Rochefort Milien who was attempting to manage the boisterous Fenway faithful.
The pellet hit Snelgrove straight in the face, and then exploded behind her right eye, damaging the right side of her brain. While the injury did not immediately kill Snelgrove, the celebrating crowds made it impossible for medical attention to reach her. 12 hours later, she died in a Boston hospital. Officer Milien was suspended for a mere 45 days for his involvement in Snelgrove's death.
Losing the Powers
Sport: Baseball
Date: 4/6/2009
Opening Day is supposed to be a celebration of a new season, both weather-wise and in sport. However, nothing good was in the air when the Angels and the A's squared off in their Opening Day match-up back in 2009. At the end of the game, after the Angels has defeated the A's, a fight broke out between two men near a stairwell in stadium's right-field pavilion.
During the brawl, a third man approached one of the fighters—Brian Powers—from behind and struck him on the head, sending him to the ground and causing his head to hit the concrete steps. By midnight, he was pronounced brain dead. The two men eventually surrendered to the authorities.
The Beer Brawl
Sport: Baseball
Date: 7/25/2009
A spilled beer is never worth someone's life, but it inexplicably cost Philadelphia Phillies fan David Sale his own in July of 2009. Sale—who was with a group of his friends at a bar near Citizens Bank Park after a Phillies-Cardinals game—got into an altercation where he was held down by two men and kicked to death by a third.
This all occurred after spilled drink set off a brawl between a group participating in a bar crawl and Sale's friends. Sale's group was a bachelor party, and his brother was the groom-to-be, but the night gave the men no cause for celebration. Instead, Sale was pronounced dead later that evening at the hospital. The three men were later charged with involuntary manslaughter.
A Header Gone Wrong
Sport: Soccer
Date: 2/6/2010
In attendance of a match between the Blackburn Rovers and Stoke City, Blackburn fan John Taylor was likely thrilled to see his side on the pitch that day. However, his excitement was quickly snuffed out after an errant trash can thrown by a fellow Blackburn supporter struck him dead in the stands.
The specifics of the incident remain hazy: spectators claim that Taylor was attempting to "head" the 25 lbs trash can and was then killed by the impact. His family disputes the claim and says that Taylor was the victim of another fan's carelessness. Whatever the case, the incident remains tragic. While the man responsible for throwing the trash can was arrested at the scene, no further action was taken against him.
The Port Said Massacre
Sport: Soccer
Date: 2/1/2012
The massacre at Port Said was so violent that the Egyptian government called for a ban of all domestic soccer matches in the aftermath. Why? Because the casualties that sprang out of fighting between the Al-Masry and Al-Ahly supporters was so severe that 79 people were killed, over 1000 were injured, and 47 others were arrested.
After Al-Masry won 3-1, their fans stormed the stands with knives, clubs, stones, swords, bottles, and fireworks, laying waste to the Al-Ahly side in medieval fashion. The violence was deemed to likely be politically motivated, and after seeing the horrific effects of this incident, it's safe to say that politics have no place on the pitch.
Service Station Shootout
Sport: Soccer
Date: 8/19/2012
It isn't uncommon for fans to shuttle to an away stadium when a large group is trying to support their favorite side. However, one of these supporters became a perpetrator of gun violence when his bus stopped at a service station in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil en route to Joao Havelange Stadium for a match between Flamengo and Vasco de Gama.
The fan was a Vasco supporter, but a group of Flamengo fans were hanging out at the service station, and didn't take kindly to Vasco's intrusion. Immediately, the two sides began to fight, and in the ensuing chaos, a 21-year-old Vasco fan by the name of Tomas Coelho was shot down.
Bad Blood
Sport: Baseball
Date: 9/25/2013
Johnathan Denver—a Los Angeles Dodgers fan and son of a Dodgers security guard—was stabbed to death in the closing games of the 2013 regular season after words were exchanged with a group of Giants fans outside a liquor store. The event took place after a 6-4 Giants victory in AT&T Park that same day. The main Giants fan in question was Michael Montgomery, who claimed that Denver jumped him while yelling, "Giants suck!" In court, Montgomery's claim was self-defense, and after investigators were unable to disprove his claim, no charges were filed by San Francisco prosecutors.
Payback
Sport: Soccer
Date: 5/12/2013
After a derby between Galatasaray and Fenerbahce in May of last year, one Fenerbachce supporter found himself stabbed to death by two Galatasaray fans as he was making his way back home after a 2-1 Fenerbache victory. Burak Yildirim was knifed in the heart by two men wearing Galatasaray gear while he was waiting at a bus stop. Just 19-years-old, Yildirim was rushed to the hospital, but was couldn't be saved.
Losing Your Head
Sport: Soccer
Date: 6/30/2013
You may not hear a stranger story than the Brazilian soccer fiasco involving referee Octavio da Silva Catanhede Jordan and the gruesome beheading he suffered after stabbing a player during a match. Yes, you read that correctly: the young official stabbed a soccer player right on the pitch, and was then beheaded for it.
Apparently, Silva had expelled Josemir Santos Abreu from the match, which incensed Abreu and caused him to push Silva down to the ground. When Silva got back up, he came back at Abreu with a knife, putting it right into Abreu's chest. Of course, it doesn't end there. When players and fans started to rush Silva, Luis Moraes Souza became involved, hitting Silva over the head and smashing a bottle of rum on his face.
From there, Souza's brother used a sickle to cut off Silva's legs, arm and head, the latter of which he place on the middle of the field on a stake. Though Souza was detained, his brother and another man involved allegedly involved in the incident remain at large.
Down the Drain
Sport: Soccer
Date: 5/2/2014
In terms of ways to die, getting struck to death by a toilet has to be the least ceremonious method. However, after a recent match at Arruda Stadium in Brazil between Santa Cruz and Parana set off a brawl, Paulo Ricardo Gomes da Silva found himself the victim of such a bizarre fate when rioters ripped a toilet up from its foundations and threw it outside the stadium from the stands.
Unfortunately, it was just another incident in the long string of Brazil's passionate, but brutal history with the game. Let's hope that the violence doesn't carry over to the upcoming World Cup.