LOS ANGELES—Opening Day at Dodger Stadium took a bizarre—yet oddly romantic—turn when a fan sprinted onto the outfield grass to publicly propose to his girlfriend, then endured a jaw-rattling tackle by security.
During the seventh-inning stretch of Thursday night’s season opener against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Ricardo Juarez managed to sprint into the outfield, drop to one knee and hold aloft an engagement ring toward his girlfriend, Ramona Saavedra, in the stands.
The gesture drew cheers from fans, but Juarez paid the price. Seconds after making his intentions clear, a security guard delivered an NFL-worthy hit on the outfield intruder, knocking the cap off Juarez’s head and driving him into the turf.
Other guards quickly surrounded Juarez and escorted him off the field and into police custody. He was cited and released by the Los Angeles Police Department, ABC7 reported. A Dodgers spokesman declined to comment on a report from KCAL9 that Juarez has been banned from attending games at Dodger Stadium for at least one year.
Video of the hit delivered by the guard quickly went viral.
But while Juarez spent some time in custody and likely had to shake off some cobwebs from the tackle, it worked out for him in the end. Saavedra said yes.
On Instagram, Saavedra posted video of Juarez being escorted off the field.
“I love you and yes I'll [marry] you,” she captioned the video.
She also shared a photo with her fiancé later that night, with Saavedra showing off the engagement ring. She noted that the proposal was a “tad bit extreme,” but “of course I said YES!”
Juarez also posted photos and video, captioned, “She said YES.”
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