By Staff
If you haven't seen film from the latest Major League Baseball scandal, flip to ESPN. They've been running highlight, or low-lights, of the infamous chair throwing incident since Monday.
During a Texas Rangers and Oakland Athletics game in Oakland, Calif. that night, some A's fans sitting behind the Rangers' bullpen got a little rowdy. The trash talk escalated, and soon Texas' entire team was holding relief pitchers back from jumping the wall and pummeling the hecklers.
In the melee, Rangers' relief pitcher Frank Francisco thought it would be a good idea to quiet the foul-mouthed fans with a chair. He took it upon himself to launch a folding chair from the bullpen into the box seats, hitting two fans and breaking one woman's nose.
Francisco went way over board and now faces criminal charges, but this type of incident comes when over zealous fans cross the line between good spirited jeering and personal attacks.
Professional athletes are public figures and therefore open to the criticism and heckling of fans. That's fine. It's part of the job.
Athletes, however, are also people with the same emotions and natural reactions as us regular folk. When crude, foul-mouthed fans start bringing players' personal lives, families and even races into their heckling, you can't blame an athlete for blowing up.
Hurling a heavy object that could severly injure someone, or many someones, into a sea of innocent people is inexcusable. However, if a guy insulted your mother or color of skin on the street, you'd probably pop him.
Today's fans feel paying a steep price for a ticket buys them the right to express their opinions concerning the opposing team. It does, to a degree. Fans should feel free to insult a player's performance, but not the man himself.
Big league fans need to learn a lesson from the little leagues. Before every single Babe Ruth, Cal Ripken or any other little league game this summer in Niles, a sportsmanship code is read. The code reminds fans that baseball is merely a sport, a game for enjoyment. It preaches the importance of respecting players, opponents and officials.
For the most part, local fans adhere to this code of conduct. Not just in baseball, either. At the many high school games I've attended in many sports, not a cross word has been shouted to the opposing team. I've never heard so much as a boo directed toward the players.
Maybe its the small town atmosphere, where many times fans in town know players or families on the opposite sidelines. Whatever it is, Niles area spectators are extremely respectful at games.
Last week I was at a girls' basketball game and one particular fan got a little fired up. He was ragging the officials all game and heckling the other team. The referees did not stand for it. The head official promptly alerted the school's athletics director, who had the man removed.
The incident shows the low tolerance this community has for disrespect when it comes to sports.
If only major league baseball could follow suit.