"Apparently it was very crowded in there, and from that it escalated to a war of words and a physical confrontation," Clark said. "They were all ejected, and then you had the beating and subsequent killing outside of the bar."
One of the three suspects got Sale in a headlock and the others beat and stomped him until he was motionless, Clark said.
Arrested at the scene and charged with murder and related offenses yesterday were James Groves (aka Jim Grove), 45, of Almond Street near Norris, and Charles Bowers, 35, of Bustleton Avenue near Devereaux.
Francis Kirchner, 28, of Palmer Street near Thompson, turned himself in yesterday and was also expected to be charged with murder., police said.
According to court records, Kirchner was convicted on charges of simple assault and recklessly endangering another person in 2007, and was sentenced to four years' probation.
Bowers was sentenced to probation in 1994 after being found guilty of carrying firearms in public, records show. A year later, he was sentenced to six to 23 months in prison for possessing an instrument of crime and simple assault, records show.
The three suspects were part of a group that traveled to the sports complex on a bus from Moe's Tavern in Fishtown.
The bar, a brick-front property next to a playground on Palmer Street near Moyer, was closed last night.
Several residents stood nearby, lamenting how a summer afternoon at a ballgame ended in tragedy.
The neighbors, who declined to be identified, said Groves, Bowers and Kirchner were lifelong Fishtown guys, each with jobs and children.
"I'm sick about this, sick that people I know are involved in this. They're not bad guys," one resident said.
"Their families are hurting. At the same time, our hearts go out to the family of the young man who was killed. They have to bury their son."
