May 15, 2008 10:09 pm US/Mountain
NYU Grad's Yankee Stadium Stunt A Hit On YouTube
William Lopez Decided To Round The Bases Without His Pants On In Front Of A Packed House At Graduation
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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William Lopez decided it would be fun to try to run around the bases at Yankee Stadium during his NYU graduation. He was dealt with swiftly by security.
CBS
It's a day meant to celebrate accomplishment and the transition into the real world. But now a New York University grad is the talk of campus after he took his moment in the sun, and ran with it – literally.
His little stunt got him charged with trespassing.
The video is a hit on YouTube, and on the campus of NYU -- a senior stunt by this grad who made commencement at Yankee Stadium front page news for all the wrong reasons.
"We got to our seats and I'm like five feet from the field level," William Lopez said.
Lopez said it was a spur of the moment thing, to take the field without his pants on.
"At first I was like, 'Am I really doing this?' Then I could hear the roar of the crowd," Lopez said.
And the roars continued as he stole third and headed for home plate.
"There's a guy waiting for me, the catcher I guess," Lopez said. "I'm like, OK I got to go for it and I tried to plow through but..."
Security tackled him and then benched the grad, as his fans booed the harsh treatment.
"There was no need to have him tackled to the ground by four or five people and arrested on the field," said Allegra Glashousseir, also in the class of 2008.
Most students gave him passing grades.
"I laughed. I thought it was funny," one student said.
"It was a little excitement for the day," graduate Katie Stone said. "Everyone needed it, you know, and I think it wasn't that big a deal."
But others did.
"I thought it was embarrassing," Peter Milano said.
Milano called the scene something you'd see in high school.
"I felt like the kid wanted to be remembered as the kid who ran out during the Yankee Stadium graduation but you know, it's not a story that I'm going to tell," Milano said.
But this grad will, crediting his NYU education.
"The school taught me to be a creative person and to express myself freely and it was definitely a liberating moment," Lopez said.
Lopez's stunt came at an inconvenient cost. His plans to spend the summer in Ireland will be interrupted with a court date come July.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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