A Dodgers fan whose friends and family faced the wrath of Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick for wearing blue shirts says the episode was the worst experience she's ever had at a sporting event and that it left her 7-year-old daughter "scared and confused."
Anna H. contacted us earlier today to tell us her version of the encounter with Kendrick, who in her telling was verbally abusive not only toward her 20-member group, which was seated behind home plate, but also toward several Diamondbacks employees. She says Kendrick confronted her, saying, "The mistake you made was coming in here in those clothes," and demanded the group change into D-Backs gear or be removed by security.
Anna says Kendrick cited a policy on the back of their tickets that no one in the group could actually find, even in the fine print. (She also says Diamondbacks sales manager Tim Martin told her he'd never heard of the policy until that evening.) PR staff sat with them in the suite for the rest of the game, according to Anna.
Ironically, it was the Diamondbacks' group sales department that contacted a member of Anna's group to sell the suite to them in the first place. They'd attended a Dodgers game in the same seats last season, and Anna says there were no problems in 2012.
Here's everything she told us (we've stitched together four separate emails):
Hi Timothy, just wanted to thank you for bringing attention to our disastrous evening. What started out to be a bonus evening (Kershaw pitching) turned out to be the worst professional event we ever experienced. We reviewed the back of out ticket (which Kendrick referred to) after purchasing a manifying glass to read it, nowhere does it state anything about opposing team attire. If Kendrick was correct, why were they bribing us with liquor, field access and a luxury box to another game of choice?
Some articles make us sound like we sold out the Dodgers, not the case, after Kendrick threatened to have us removed by security, we had to change. I had my 7 year old daughter in attendance and she was already scared and confused wondering what was going on and why she had to change her clothes. She actually had picture day that morning and wore her Dodger shirt at school.
His workers heard him. We had 20 people. One of the gentlemen is added on a list. When the Dodger game becomes available AZ PR calls him and he buys all 20 on his credit card. We in turn pay $150 each for the tickets. We sat there last year and did not have a problem. The worst thing he said to me was, "The mistake you made was coming in here in those clothes." We had thought to leave our clothes on, but when he threatened to remove us with force by security we decided not to traumatize our daughter. They even handed me a free night in some hotel suite. I have the letter from DB office at home. The PR staff apologized over and over for his actions. I have the business card, hotel certificate, and game certificate at home. Nowhere does it say we cannot wear our attire. As a matter of fact, Tim of the DB Staff said he was not informed of the rule until 1 hour before the game. As the game progressed they came and said unlimited alcohol.
It was sad because the Marine said he wanted to tell Kendrick I serve my country and have never been treated so badly. Also the security staff told us Kendrick wanted us kicked out so bad he threatened their jobs if they didn't do what he said. There was a waiter, young Hispanic gentleman, who witnessed the whole conversation between me and Kendrick. I got his number but misplaced it. He works in that area. I am trying to locate it. He said, Kendrick shouldn't have talked to me like that.
Also we are so upset because it sounds like we sold out our team, but we were threatened. Kendrick is a bully. 7 of us who were already there. If you look at the clock in the pictures we were there early. Maybe two hours before the game. We watched batting practice. The ushers checked our tickets when we first got there to make sure we were sitting there and no one said a thing about our clothes. When we sat there last year we never had PR staff in our suite the entire game. And Jeff security was also in suite the whole time.