At exactly 9:11 p.m. on Friday — the 25th anniversary of September 11 — a 38-year-old man named Kelly Marcucci sprinted from the left-field stands at Yankee Stadium carrying a Palestinian flag. He made it about halfway to center field before NYPD and stadium security tackled him and dragged him beyond the center-field wall.

He didn't make it far. The beer cans got there first.

Fans at the Yankees-Mets game launched drinks and cans at Marcucci as he ran, and the stadium erupted into chants of "USA! USA!" The moment has since gone viral — not because of the protest, but because of the response. Fifty thousand Americans in the Bronx held a snap referendum on pro-Palestinian grandstanding during a 9/11 tribute, and the results were unanimous.

The timing was almost surgically offensive. The disruption came in the top of the seventh inning, with Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor at the plate on a 3-2 count and the bases loaded with two outs. The game itself was part of an elaborate 9/11 ceremony that included pregame appearances by Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, and Mariano Rivera — members of the 2001 Yankees team that played through the worst month in New York's history. Brielle Saracini threw the ceremonial first pitch. Her father, Victor Saracini, piloted United Airlines Flight 175 into the South Tower of the World Trade Center.

That's the ceremony Marcucci decided to interrupt. Wearing a jersey that read "No Kings," he grabbed his flag and ran onto the field honoring the daughter of a man who died on the day he was supposedly commemorating.

Marcucci was charged with two misdemeanors — interference with a professional sporting event and criminal trespassing. The Yankees won 6-4, with Cody Bellinger hitting a three-run homer to seal it. The crowd stayed loud all night.

The reflexive defense of stunts like this usually involves some version of "the right to protest." Nobody is disputing Marcucci's legal right to make a fool of himself. The First Amendment protects speech. It does not protect running onto a private field during a ticketed event on the anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in American history. That's not protest. That's trespassing with a prop.

What happened at Yankee Stadium wasn't organized. Nobody planned it. There was no signal, no coordinated response, no hashtag campaign. A man ran onto the field with a Palestinian flag during a 9/11 tribute, and thousands of ordinary Americans — without consulting each other or checking with anyone — reached for whatever was in their cup holders.

The Yankees won the game. Marcucci won two misdemeanor charges. And somewhere in the upper deck, a half-empty Bud Light finally found its purpose.