PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Baseball fans were ready for their first swing at the sport’s new security guidelines.
Forget the $30 tickets, $9 beers and $16 parking charges. Baseball fans have more reason to empty their pockets, only this time of keys, mobile phones – and whatever loose change might be left – before a day at the old ball game.
Major League Baseball told its 30 teams they had to implement security screening in time for opening day. All fans are expected to walk through metal detectors at all entrance gates.
Fans who arrived early for Monday’s game, entering through a gate took faster than a ballplayer jogging to first on ball four. At Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park, fans breezed through when gates opened about 2 1/2 hours before first pitch and then made their way through the detectors without a hitch as first pitch neared.