MILWAUKEE — Prosecutors grilled Pirates first baseman Randall Simon, then let him off the hook for hitting one of the Brewers' sausage mascots with his bat.
Still, he was cited by the sheriff's department for disorderly conduct and fined $432 for a swing that got more attention than any other around the majors Wednesday night.
Simon said he didn't mean to knock down the woman, who tumbled to the ground and got a few scrapes but wasn't seriously hurt during the popular costume race at Milwaukee Brewers games.
"I thought at the moment they were trying to play with us," he said Thursday. "They were running right next to the players. I'm a fun player, and I've never hurt anyone in my life."
The 18-year-old woman, Mandy Block, was among four people dressed as an oversized bratwurst, a hot dog and Italian and Polish sausages racing past the Pirates' dugout between the sixth and seventh innings at Miller Park.
Simon took a half swing at the Italian sausage character, hitting her from behind. When Block fell, she knocked over the woman dressed as the hot dog.
"It just seems ridiculous — it's like a big sausage getting hit by a bat causes all this controversy. It just seems kind of funny to me," Block told WTMJ-TV.
"It wasn't that big of a blow," she said. "I think just because I'm so small and it's such a big costume that I tumbled, and the reason I couldn't get up right away is because I couldn't get up. I wasn't like hurt so bad I couldn't get up. Luckily someone helped me up."
After the game, Simon was arrested and booked for misdemeanor battery, and told to show up at the district attorney's office the next day.