Don't. Mess. With. Pagan.

A young man went running onto the field during the Giants-Dodgers game at AT&T Park Friday night, handing flowers to team members during the bottom of the fourth inning, and at least one Giant wasn't having it.

As outfielder Angel Pagan tells ESPN, "The guy was getting close to my teammates. He was handing a flower to each and every one of us so it came to my attention: hand me one." As you can see in the video above, Pagan used the ruse to body-slam the guy so that stadium security could catch up and nab him.

As the AP reports, the guy had a female friend who was more quickly subdued by security, and he also got knocked down by Buster Posey after trying to hand him a flower.


The man jumped up and ran and third baseman Gordon Beckham swiped at him before he took off into left field. Pagan offered a hand as if to accept the round white object before throwing both arms around the man, twisting him and throwing him to the ground.

A "roaring ovation" followed, to which Pagan tipped his cap.

"I was just trying to protect myself and protect my teammates," Pagan said after the game. However, he had other motivations as well, as he admitted. "It was going to take a long time for him to be taken down and [Madison Bumgarner] was on a roll. So I wanted for the game to keep going."

The Giants went on the beat the Bums 9 to 3, and still have a chance at a wild card spot.

Update: It turns out that the two individuals who ran onto the field were protesters with animal-rights group Direct Action Everywhere — the same ones who stormed Chez Panisse the other week. The symbolic flowers were a gesture to highlight the brutality of meat eating, specifically a pig farm that supplies meat to the LA Dodgers' stadium, for their Dodger Dogs. According to a press release, "The activists found rampant disease, extreme crowding, and mass usage of antibiotics at a facility that supplies the world-famous L.A. Dodger Dogs. The activists assert that their investigation shows that violence lies at the heart of American meat and are pleading for compassion from players to support their efforts to end animal abuse."

Another view of the tackle, from up above.