Indians deal with ticketing issues, brawls during Saturday's doubleheader

CLEVELAND — Due to severe weather Friday, the Indians had to postpone their game against the Twins and schedule it for a doubleheader Saturday. By the second of the two games, things got a little out of hand at Progressive Field.

Ticketing Issues

The chaos all started with ticketing issues and a fan who had driven all the way from Canada to attend the game.

Bryan, @NachoHelmet on Twitter, tweeted about his experience on Saturday night. He claimed that he purchased club seats directly from the Indians’ website last month and that the tickets had been canceled, but he was not told until he had already driven the five hours from Ontario.

After contacting the Indians’ Fan Services Department, Bryan said he was directed to voicemail and it had not been returned, so to salvage his trip to Cleveland he bought lesser tickets from StubHub just to get into the game he had planned on attending.

The Indians replied to Bryan’s tweet, informing him his tickets were revoked due to “broker activity” on his account and referred him to the team’s ticket policies page which states:

Any Broker Activity involving a Ticket, as determined in the sole discretion of the Club, is a Non-Permitted Transfer unless specifically approved by the Club, and shall constitute a basis for (i) termination of the revocable license granted by the Club for the use of the Ticket, (ii) the seizure or cancellation of the Ticket without refund or other compensation, and/or (iii) termination of the revocable license granted by the Club of all Tickets that are controlled by or affiliated with such Ticket Holder or individuals/entities determined by the Club to be associated with such Ticket Holder.

Many fans took to Twitter questioning what "Broker Activity" actually meant. On the Indians website, Broker Activity is defined as any activity by an individual or entity who purchases or otherwise acquires a Ticket with the purpose or intent, as determined by the Club in its sole discretion, to resell the ticket with the intent to make a profit or resell or use the ticket in a manner that the Club determines violates Club policies.

News 5 reached out to the Indians to learn about the issues Bryan had and received the following statement:

Bryan shared News 5's story on Twitter, clarifying that he had resold a few tickets to past games on StubHub, the Indians' official ticket resale partner, when he was unable to attend. He said that many of the times he resold the tickets he did so only after driving to Cleveland from Ontario and the game he was attending was rained out and rescheduled.

It is still uncertain what the specific activity on his account was that got him flagged him for broker activity.

Baseball brawl

During the second game of the doubleheader, a fight broke out in the upper levels on the first base side of the field.

Several men were caught on camera throwing punches and tackling each other down the rows of seating which other fans had cleared out after noticing the fight. At the end of the video, an officer can be seen getting helped up by a fan after he had apparently been knocked down while trying to stop the fight.

The video, posted to Twitter by Nick Newell, received thousands of likes and retweets and hundreds of replies.

News 5 has reached out to Cleveland police about the incident and learned that two officers who were working part-time for the Indians responded to the fight in section 537.

Around 9:20 p.m., officers made their way to the section and attempted to break up the large fight that was already in progress, according to police.

One of the officers attempting to break up the fight lost his balance and fell into emptied seats, police said.

Other officers were able to detain three suspects. One of the suspects, believed to have been the primary aggressor in the fight, made verbal comments to the officers prior to being escorted out of the ballpark, according to police.

A woman who was injured when the men fell onto her during their tumble down the seats was treated at the scene and then transported by the Indians' ambulatory services to Cleveland Clinic. She sustained a minor injury to her knee and bruising on her right side, police said.

One day, two losses

A Twins grand slam ended a five-run eighth inning in the second game of the doubleheader and Minnesota grabbed tighter control of the AL Central by beating the Cleveland Indians 9-5, completing a sweep of Saturday's day-night doubleheader.

The Indians lost the day game of the doubleheader 2-0.

The sweep pushed the Twins 5.5 games ahead of the Indians in the AL Central going into the final game of the showdown series Sunday.

During that showdown, the Indians had a much better outcome. With a 7-5 win over the Twins Sunday, the Indians are back within 4.5 games of the Twins while they chase Oakland and Tampa Bay in the Wild Card race, sitting 1.5 games behind the Rays.

Hopefully Sunday’s win was a turning point for the Tribe after a loathsome Saturday full of losses, fighting and ticket faux pas.

RELATED: Storms force Indians to postpone game, doubleheader scheduled

Camryn Justice is a digital content producer at News 5 Cleveland. Follow her on Twitter @camijustice.