Hamilton man charged in beer-tossing incident at Jays game

The man police say threw a beer can at a Baltimore outfielder during Tuesday’s dramatic wild-card game between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Orioles has been charged.

Ken Pagan, 41, of Hamilton, turned himself in to police on Thursday evening and was charged with mischief. He will appear in an Old City Hall court on Nov. 24.

Outside 52 Division, where Pagan was booked and charged, his attorney told reporters he would not have anything to say until his court date next month.

“We’re a little bit concerned because of all the trial by social media that he’s had to endure,” said Tyler Smith of HicksAdams LLP, “But right now, the presumption of innocence applies to him.”

In a statement to CityNews, Postmedia — formerly Sun Media — confirmed that Pagan is an employee with the news organization and that they are “conducting an internal investigation but have reached no conclusions at this time.” They also described him as “an award-winning journalist and passionate baseball player.”

Pagan originally said the police had their story wrong, and pointed out he had been drinking from a plastic cup.

In response to the incident, the Blue Jays said they will be increasing security and banning the person responsible from the Rogers Centre.

“The safety of our fans, staff, players and visiting teams is paramount,” the Jays said in a statement on Wednesday. “We’re cooperating with the authorities to identify the individual involved, and the individual responsible is not welcome back to the stadium.

We will also enact heightened security measures and alcohol policies that will ensure the fan experience and safety of everybody involved.”

The Blue Jays also apologized to the Orioles and Major League Baseball for what it called an “embarrassing incident.”

“On the heels of one of the most competitive and exhilarating baseball games in our club’s history, it is extremely unfortunate that the irresponsible actions of one individual would detract from the game on the field.”

Major League Baseball said it too was “extremely disappointed.”

“Any fan who resorts to dangerous actions like last night’s – in Toronto or elsewhere – will be subject to arrest,” it said. “We ask all fans to alert stadium operations employees if they witness any form of unacceptable behaviour from fellow spectators.”

The incident – which triggered a frenzy online and in the stands – saw the beer can narrowly miss Orioles outfielder Hyun Soo Kim as he made a catch during the seventh inning. In the confusion that followed, Orioles outfielder Adam Jones said he and Kim were taunted with racial slurs.

Major League Baseball has spoken with the Toronto Blue Jays about banning beer cans at Rogers Centre.

“I don’t think there is another ballpark where beer is served in cans,” baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said. “We’ve worked really hard to make sure … that alcohol is served and consumed in a responsible way in all of our ballparks. I think that one of the reasons last night attracted so much attention is it’s an unusual – rare may be a better word – event in one of our ballparks.”

The entire episode was swiftly condemned on multiple fronts and sparked a flurry of crowd-sourced sleuthing to find the tall-can tosser.

Toronto Mayor John Tory called the culprit a “loon-ball” on local radio but noted that the person was just one among about 50,000 fans at the game played at the Rogers Centre.

A number of baseball fans also took to Twitter to express their outrage, and distance themselves from what many called “inexcusable” behaviour. Some fans even broke down broadcast footage from the game online, attempting to identify the culprit, while the Toronto Sun newspaper put up a $1,000 reward to “catch the beer tosser.”

With files from the Associated Press