The man who kept hanging “Trump Won” banners at baseball games has been barred from MLB ballparks indefinitely.
Dion Cini had gone to Yankee Stadium, Citi Field, Fenway Park, and Citizens Bank Park to hang the banners and was ejected from the stadiums each time, but was told by security he could come back another day.
Cini also posted body-camera footage of his experiences and interactions with security and posted it to Twitter and Youtube. The posts and subsequent publicity seem to have caught the attention of MLB’s offices, as they sent a letter to Cini on Sunday informing him of his ban.
“This activity is prohibited at each of these stadiums, and your fan code of conduct violations resulted in the ejection from each of them,” the letter read.”A review of your public statements indicates that you intend to continue this behavior at other Major League Baseball stadiums, and that you are conducting others to conduct themselves likewise. For these reasons, and effectively, you are hereby banned from all Major League Baseball stadiums and facilities, indefinitely.”
But then on Monday, Cini posted a Tweet telling his followers to follow in his footsteps by hanging their own “Trump Won” banners at MLB stadiums in his absence.
Cini’s acts already inspired a copycat attempt in Florida on Jun 8.
Five people were removed from the Miami Marlins game against the Colorado Rockies after they unfurled a pair of banners from the upper decks at Loan Depot Park, according to NBC Miami. The signs read: “Trump Won, Take Back America” and “Proud Boys Did Nothing Wrong – Free All Political Prisoners 1/6/21.”
Insider has reached out to MLB for comment but has not received a response at the time of publication.
MLB took exactly one month to issue Cini’s banishment from his first stunt at Yankee Stadium on May 27. Cini said he might have been able to carry on the banner drops as long as he did because MLB executives shared his political leanings.
“There’s a reason why they keep me in the baseball stadiums. I’m welcome back at any baseball stadium, even once I’ve already dropped that, any time I want,” Cini told Insider. “The reason, I think, I’m not kicked out of the stadiums is because, I think, the people at the top are conservatives.”
Cini said he originally hung a “Trump 2020” banner at Yankee Stadium in July 2018, and the stunt earned him the former president’s praise. Cini said Trump has reached out to him multiple times since then to thank him and encourage him to keep doing it.
“After I did Yankee Stadium three years ago, which is Trump’s favorite stadium, he called, and he tweeted, and he Instagrammed, and he said, ‘Thank you, please don’t stop,'” Cini said. “I’ve interacted with the Trump family multiple times. I’m not directly part of the Trump Organization, but they know who I am, they know what I’m doing, and they like it.”
*story by The Insider