MLB finally takes damning action against smug Yankees fans who grabbed Mookie Betts

The Yankees' lone victory during the 2024 World Series could've been remembered for a couple of different moments — Anthony Volpe's go-ahead grand slam, the Yankees' surge after a Dodgers threat in the fifth, which eventually led to an 11-4 rout that prevented a clean sweep for LA and kept New York's hopes alive.

But two random dudes in right field had to ruin it. In the bottom of the first inning, Gleyber Torres hit a fly ball that curved foul. Mookie Betts chased it down and lept at the wall to make a nice catch, but Yankees fans Austin Capobianco and John P. Hansen were on the other side. Capobianco grabbed Betts' glove hand and tried to pry the ball free, while Hansen grabbed the other to try to stop him from swatting Capobianco's hand away.

Umpires rightfully ruled that Betts had made the catch for the first out, and both fans were immediately escorted from the premises.

Maybe even more outrageous than the incident itself was the media coverage that followed. Jesse Rogers of ESPN even decided that it was responsible to use his nationwide platform to call Capobianco a "beaut" and paint him as a mensch in a follow-up profile.

In that profile, Capobianco said he still hoped to be in attendance at Game 5, and defended his decision to grab Betts, saying, "We always joke about the ball in our area. We're not going to go out of our way to attack. If it's in our area, we're going to 'D' up. Someone defends, someone knocks the ball. We talk about it. We're willing to do this."

And they'll never get the opportunity to do it again. On Jan. 10, the New York Post reported MLB banned both Capobianco and Hansen from all 30 MLB stadiums indefinitely.

Yankees fans who grabbed Mookie Betts' wrist during World Series Game 4 banned from all MLB ballparks

MLB and the Yankees came to a joint agreement to ban the fans from Yankee Stadium, but MLB made the decision to elevate the punishment to include prohibition from all ballparks. If the fans are found at any, they'll be removed and arrested for trespass.

It's hard to imagine what these fans were expecting when they decided to interfere and endanger a player. Even if the interference hadn't been quite so blatant and the out hadn't been called, replay review exists. If the eye test wasn't enough, FOX's broadcast clearly showed that the ball was in Betts' glove before the fans touched him.

Betts responded calmly after the incident, saying "We lost. It's irrelevant. I'm fine. He's fine. Everything's cool," but finally spoke his mind in December to say what every Dodgers fan was thinking: "F— those guys."