A thrill-seeking teenager hoping to make ESPN highlights plunged over 50 feet from the upper deck seats into the netting behind home plate last night in the eighth inning of the Yankees’ 2-1 loss to the White Sox, landing in front of a stunned Yankee Stadium crowd of 53,946.
“That was the only exciting thing that happened today,” a red-hot George Steinbrenner huffed as he left the Stadium after the loss.
The stunt, the third time in recent history someone plunged from the seats, will also likely land him in hot water.
Scott Harper, 18, sat for several minutes, looking disoriented with his head in his hands as he clung to the backstop. Harper landed with a strong enough impact that the net – designed to protect patrons from foul balls -tore. He was ordered to climb up the wire netting and was pulled into Box 321 by a ready-for-anything Stadium security force.
Dazed and confused, he was carted into the Yankee Stadium first-aid office on a wheelchair with an oxygen mask strapped to his face.
The game was halted for four minutes as security restored order while players on the field watched in amazement. Harper was leaning over the upper deck railing for several minutes, pondering what would happen if he went over the edge and if the backstop could hold him.
“Do you think it’s going to hold me?” Harper asked his buddies before going over the edge.
Harper attended last night’s game with three friends – Mike Spadafino, 17, Spencer Rubicco, 18, and Giuseppe Tripi, 20 – who are all from Westchester and attended Byram Hills High School. The four sat in Section 603 before Harper, who appeared intoxicated to officers on the scene, made his leap.
“His exact words, were, ‘Bro, I don’t know, bro,’ ” Spadafino said. “I wouldn’t do it . . . but Harper, for some reason . . . I don’t know.”
As Derek Jeter laid down a bunt in the eighth, Harper plunged, feet-first, onto the backstop to the amazement of everyone in the Stadium. He had planned his leap for several minutes, according to witnesses, and caught the ire of the paying customers seated behind him who could not see the late-game action.
“Next thing you know, he was gone,” Rubicco said. “I looked over and I was like ‘Oh, my god.’ ”
“Every single person sitting there was saying either sit down or jump off,” Tripi said after the three friends were questioned by NYPD officers.
The Yankees may have their fans out on the ledge this season with their erratic play, but last night’s stunt was ridiculous – and could land Harper behind bars. According to a police source, Harper will be charged with “several” offenses, which could range from trespassing to disorderly conduct to reckless endangerment.
Such check-me-out behavior is normal for Harper, his friends said.
“He always makes a scene,” Tripi said after Harper was carted off in an ambulance at 10:34 p.m. and carted off to Lincoln Medical Center.
Police questioned the three boys for almost 30 minutes following the jump. They were asked several times if they bribed Harper to jump or offered him money for the wild stunt. They all denied that and said Harper jumped on his own whim.
“We have to drive him home,” Tripi said. “But obviously not anymore.”