A man who was caught on video throwing a beer can onto the Rogers Centre field during a Blue Jays playoff game last October has pleaded guilty to a charge of mischief.

Dressed in a white dress shirt with a plaid tie and black dress pants, Ken Pagan sat with a woman in a front-row bench in the courtroom at Old City Hall on Tuesday, his parents sitting behind him. Stone-faced, Pagan occasionally glanced around at observers until he was called up to make his plea.

“Guilty,” he said in a barely audible whisper.

Pagan shot to notoriety last fall when a beer can was tossed onto the field during the seventh inning of a tight Blue Jays-Orioles American League wildcard game that Toronto eventually won.

The can narrowly missed Orioles outfielder Hyun Soo Kim and caused a public uproar, drawing the condemnation of everyone from Mayor John Tory to author Stephen King.

The Jays issued an apology to the Orioles, and didn’t serve beer in cans at the Rogers Centre for the rest of the post-season.

An agreed statement of facts, which listed the complainant as the Toronto Blue Jays, was presented in court Tuesday. It said Pagan was sitting in the left-field area of the Rogers Centre — Section 139, Row 3 — during the Oct. 4 game when Jays outfielder Melvin Upton Jr. hit a fly ball to left field at the bottom of the seventh inning at around 10:17 p.m.

“A player from the Baltimore Orioles was about to catch the fly ball when the accused before the court threw a can of beer using a tossing motion,” the statement read.

The can “narrowly missed the player” and “nearly interfered with the play,” the statement said, noting the incident “caused a significant disruption in the game and created concerns for player safety.”

Toronto police and security “immediately attended the area” but Pagan left before he could be identified, the statement said.

Police used security video, television footage and videos and photos taken by the public to get an image of Pagan and released it the day after the game.

Pagan turned himself in at 52 Division on Oct. 6, where he was charged with mischief interference with property under $5,000. He was released on bail with the conditions that he not attend the Rogers Centre or consume alcohol.

The statement didn’t shed any light on Pagan’s motivation for throwing the can.

Pagan was a sports journalist who ran a blog about the Jays, and was working as a copy editor for Postmedia in Hamilton at the time of the beer-can toss. He left Postmedia later that month, but the circumstances surrounding his departure were unclear.

Defence lawyer Tyler Smith declined to comment on the case Tuesday, but said both he and his client will speak to media after Pagan’s sentencing hearing in June.

A conviction of mischief under $5,000 carries a maximum penalty of two years in jail, but Toronto defence lawyer Ari Goldkind, who was not involved in the case, said Pagan is “not going to jail.”

“If he goes to jail, even for five minutes, you could put me on a rocket ship to the moon tonight,” Goldkind said, explaining that mischief under $5,000 convictions “very rarely lead to anything serious,” or even a criminal record.

Typically, he said, the punishment is along the lines of a donation to a charity, community service, a letter of apology or restitution for any property damaged.

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“The only thing that makes this case obviously different is the tremendous amount of public attention on it because it happened in the heat of a very close baseball game,” Goldkind said, Pagan’s guilty plea and the intense public backlash he received will likely work in his favour when it comes to sentencing.

When it comes to the Rogers Centre, though, the Blue Jays vice-president of fan engagement said Pagan is still “not welcome” there.

“We don’t condone that kind of behaviour and we certainly don’t welcome (him) here and want him here as one of our fans and in our stadium,” Sebastian Gatica said Tuesday.

The Jays, he added, have resumed selling beer in cans this season and are “happy to report” there haven’t been any problems.