MAY 7, 2010, 6:15 PM
New Arizona Law to Give Diamondbacks Unique Home Field Advantage?
PHOENIX (Ant Farmer's Almanac SportsWire) Many peoples' worst fears over the effects of Arizona's harsh new anti-illegal immigrant law on visiting teams and fans were realized Friday when a player for the Milwaukee Brewers was questioned, detained and deported prior to the evening's game.
Major League Baseball has already expressed its concerns over this law by considering relocating the 2011 All-Star Game from Phoenix to San Diego. In addition, the Phoenix Suns' Cinco de Mayo tradition of wearing jerseys emblazoned with "Los Suns" in honor of the Latino community and diversity of the league sparked unprecedented controversy this year.
It is ironic then, that the visiting team player at the center of this incident was Canadian-born Brewers' catcher George Kottaras.
Chase Field security guard B.G. Ott, who made the arrest, stated that Kottaras' "luminescent paleness" and "over-eager friendliness" were the tip-offs that he "wasn't from around here."
That, and as Ott put it, "His story just didn't add up. A Canadian playing baseball in America? C'mon! Hockey, maybe, but I mean, pffft!"
Ott's suspicions led him to place Kottaras under citizens arrest and forcibly put him on the first bus "back" to Canada.
Team, stadium and municipal authorities were quickly falling over each other to apologize and to point out that the Ott was "overzealous and acted alone, without either the approval or knowledge of anyone from any of their organizations." The Diamondbacks spokesman also emphatically insisted this isn't just a way to psych-out visiting teams with worry about whether their "papers are all in order."
At press time, Kottaras was still aboard a northbound Trailways bus whose first scheduled stop is Salt Lake City. Although he will be "released from custody" there, he will not make it back on time for Friday's game.
There is an unconfirmed rumor that several hispanic Diamondbacks players were also stopped and questioned by stadium security, but managed to get on the field by pretending to be part of the groundskeeping crew.
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