Commentary: He built a title tossing peanuts at Dodgers online games. That is a no-no now

You can glance up to the broadcast booth at Dodger Stadium, but you will not see Vin Scully there any much more. Future calendar year, you won’t see Jaime Jarrín there.

You can acquire a Dodger Puppy, but Farmer John does not make them any extra.

And, from the record of disappearing Dodger Stadium traditions, this just in: You can invest in a bag of peanuts from Roger Owens, but he can not toss the bag to you any far more.

This is an “Only in L.A.” tale: the celebrity peanut seller who can toss a bag of peanuts guiding his again, or involving his legs.

Owens has pitched peanuts at presidential inauguration festivities, on “The Tonight Exhibit,” and in two videos and 3 television collection in which his function was often the exact: peanut vendor. His wedding attendees provided Tom Bradley, then the mayor of Los Angeles, and Don Sutton, the Dodgers’ Corridor of Fame pitcher.

“I would have trouble hitting a wall 15 ft away if I tried using to throw a bag of peanuts behind my back,” Sutton advised The Periods in 1976. “It’s absolutely easier to toss strikes with a baseball.”

Roger Owens tosses a bag of peanuts to a fan throughout a activity at Dodger Stadium in 2009.

(Christine Cotter/VFAB)

Owens continue to is pitching peanuts on the loge amount, to admirers who have turn out to be mates around the decades. Various of those people supporters arrived at out to The Instances to say Owens has been purchased not to toss bags of peanuts any much more.

Just hand them to the purchaser, be sure to. The show has long gone dark.

I called Owens to see if this could potentially be legitimate. Indeed, he mentioned, it is.

“I’m so heartbroken about this,” he mentioned.

At Dodger Stadium, he is an attraction in itself. He has pitched peanuts since the stadium opened, in 1962, and at the Coliseum prior to then.

Aged lovers urge him to exhibit off his tricks to new admirers. Adults purchase a bag so Owens can toss it to a kid. Smiles all all around.

Levy Eating places runs the concessions at Dodger Stadium. If followers asked why he could no more time pitch his peanuts, Owens explained he was explained to by Levy representatives to say the determination was created for the protection of the lovers. That, certainly, is what the admirers who attained out to The Situations said Owens experienced advised them.

Owens is not defiant. He is unhappy.

He does not want to choose a struggle with Levy, or the Dodgers. He loves his work. He just struggles to realize why a bag of peanuts is a problem.

“They have time to see it coming,” Owens explained. “It’s not some bullet that goes straight as a result of. I’m constantly wanting to make confident that whoever I am throwing to will catch the bag of peanuts.

“I want them to capture it, simply because they experience a feeling of accomplishment.”

I asked Levy to explain the explanation for the change, and in specific the timing, since Owens has been tossing peanuts for a long time. I asked whether or not Levy experienced regarded any feasible compromise, perhaps a utmost length for Owens’ tosses. I asked whether or not Levy was knowledgeable of any accidents induced by traveling peanut luggage.

Levy spokesman Kevin Memolo did not react, and neither did possibly of the two Levy reps with whom Owens reported he satisfied.

I requested the Dodgers what they experienced listened to from fans about the transform, no matter if the team had to concur to it, and whether or not the workforce had experimented with to facilitate a probable compromise.

Dodgers spokesmen Steve Brener and Joe Jareck each and every did not answer.

To the extent authorized legal responsibility might be at challenge, Levy and the Dodgers have argued in courtroom that admirers presume all risks of attending a video game.

In a situation in which a enthusiast sued since he was injured by scorching coffee spilling on him at a concession stand, Levy and the Dodgers final year cited ticket language that releases the entities from liability from incidents “prior to, for the duration of, or subsequent to, the actual enjoying of the activity, which include but not limited to the hazard of currently being hurt by gamers, other supporters, thrown bats or portions thereof, thrown or batted balls or other objects or projectiles.”

That language also appears in the Dodgers’ 2022 ticket agreement. A thrown peanut bag, a person could argue, is a projectile.

In at least two cases — in 1976 and 1985 — bans on throwing peanuts were introduced and then rescinded.

It is not about Owens’ identification as a peanut pitcher, even if his biography is named “The Excellent Pitch” and his electronic mail deal with consists of the words and phrases “peanut guy.” It is about a small human relationship in this significant city, solid involving one man and many years of peanut-loving followers on the loge level.

“Pitching peanuts to the followers brings a good deal of joy and contentment,” Owens mentioned. “This pleasure and pleasure has not been there.”

Here’s hoping he and Levy and the Dodgers can achieve an agreement that restricts other distributors from imitating him and lets him close his career in his familiar design. Owens is 79 yrs old. He has attained a grandfather clause.