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Punch drunk Fans, players start this baseball season out with a swingPosted: Monday April 21, 2003 11:45 AM
We're always searching for trends here. Always on the lookout for something -- anything -- that will give us a clue as to what this baby of a baseball season might hold. Right now, we're thinking black eyes. Lots of 'em. And beanballs. A few more benches-clearing brawls. Maybe a 911 call from right field. Right now we're thinking that this thing, if we're not careful, could get ugh-leeee. It's funny, in a WWE kind of way, how this baseball season has spilled out of the gate. This weekend, for instance, was the perfect little picture of a season off to a swinging start:
There was Tino Martinez, the Cardinals' first baseman, making a beeline for poet and pitcher Miguel Batista of the Diamondbacks. Batista plunked Martinez in the back and, a couple of WWE-like staredowns later, Martinez decided to get even. Then Batista was flinging the ball at Martinez, and Martinez was flinging punches at Batista, and the entire rosters of the Cards and the D'backs were looking for someone to fight. After that, it was Jeff Fassero, the Cardinals' reliever, smacking Arizona's big gun, Luis Gonzalez, with a pitch in the ninth. Retaliation, they call it. "I still believe in the old ways," Fassero said, "settling scores for teams and stuff like that. Protect your guys." That was all Sunday. Saturday in Oakland, Texas right fielder Carl Everett was smacked in the back of the head with a cell phone thrown by a fan, just a few days after fans ran amok on the field in Chicago. Stop. Rewind. Repeat. Player, minding his own business in the outfield. Conked by a cell phone thrown by some moron in the stands. Sheesh. The off-field violence -- the stuff that's spilling onto the field, anyway -- certainly has Major League Baseball spooked. Sandy Alderson, vice president of something high and mighty in MLB, flew from New York to Oakland to check into the cell phone chucking incident. You know that's serious. That's one steep airplane ticket without at least seven days' notice. "As they become more frequent there is a chance they will become more serious. We want to stop these things before they escalate," Alderson told reporters before Sunday's game, talking about fans getting out of hand and onto the field. "When they do happen, we have to set an example for anyone else with the remote idea of doing something like this." As for the on-field stuff -- meaning player on player -- well, that'll be addressed, too. You have to think that Batista and Martinez and Fassero will be grabbing their checkbooks, or at least the closest union lawyer, sometime soon. Sosa, interestingly enough, showed no inclination to go after Torres after getting beaned. Of course, Sosa was still picking pieces of his batting helmet out of his face at the time. That might have had something to do with it. But in the macho world of headhunting in baseball, someone somewhere decided that Torres' pitch was innocent enough. So Sosa staggers off looking for a new helmet, Torres gets the win and players on both benches don't have to fake fighting. It's been that kind of weird start for baseball. Scraps on the field between players. Scraps on the field between fans and umps and players. (That drunk in Chicago who lamely attacked ump Laz Diaz last week was absolutely mauled by a couple of players, and after the dope was down, no less.) Fights in the stands (like that's anything trendy). It's been a little goofy, for sure. A tad scary, too. The scariest part? We're not even out of April yet.
This week, some feedback about the Hall of Fame's decision to boot Nuke LaLoosh (and girlfriend) and some comments on dopes on the field ...
I work in security for the Phils and believe drinking is behind virtually every problem I see. I suggested to our management that we cut down on vendors and make people get up and get their beers, where hopefully drunken and underage fans wouldn't have it so easy. I don't think they will go for it because of the money they may lose. I think MLB has to take responsibility and cut back on pushing beer sales. Drunken fans are a HUUUGE problem, Jack, and have been for awhile. How come baseball only seems to notice when the problem spills onto the field?
White Sox fans want a winner and get a little goofy about it. However, as long as you don't insult Fisk or Harold Baines, and if you acknowledge the guy in the tunnel who bangs on his bucket, no one will beat you up*. White Sox fans aren't all Neanderthal punks, at least not all the time. We don't all deserve the Jerry Springer stereotype. * The guy who bangs on the bucket in the tunnel is just west of 34th street past the "official" parking lots. I have to think that White Sox fans are no worse than any others. I have to think they're no better, though, too.
Let the players go wild on these jerks. Idiots don't fear minor jail terms. They WILL fear that they'll be shown on SportsCenter getting the beating of a lifetime. No no no no no. I think the players have to stay out of it, Mark. It's ugly enough when they get involved. And all you need is one player smacking a dude who is 19 sheets to the wind ... no good can come of it.
Does it not connect with anyone else that every time baseball players swarm onto the field to retaliate for some mark of disrespect that they are in fact encouraging others to do the same? Is this so obtuse? MAD? Charge the mound! Fights on the field should be dealt with in the same way that this fan was dealt with (minus the punching, kicking and blood-letting). Assault charges. Criminal penalties. That baseball does not recognize this, that baseball writers do not suggest it, implies that they are living in another time and have dual standards. Interesting theory. But fighting has been an accepted part of baseball, at least grudgingly, for decades. Fans fighting players, or umps, never has been. And shouldn't be.
Why is no one calling for discipline against the MLB players who stomped the fan once he was down? Not disciplining the players is an endorsement of vigilante justice, which makes them just as much of a lowlife as the fan. Absolutely. What kind of fight is it between a professional athlete and a drunk? Unfair and potentially dangerous.
The problem is appropriate training of employees and monitoring these employees to make sure they are doing their jobs. Just as a quick example, I see the beer vendors wearing "I Check ID" buttons but I cannot remember the last time I personally saw anyone having to provide their ID. Amen.
If you think the problem is protecting the field and those on it, try sitting next to one of the morons who comes to the park drunk and gets progressively more drunk over the course of the game. It is such a pleasure to spend a week's paycheck to take your family to a game and have them subjected to every profanity imaginable and the threat of physical violence. Amen, again. Listening, baseball?
In America it USED to be permissible to disagree with the president. Now it seems that it is tantamount to treason to disagree. (We're on to the Hall of Fame thing here.) See, that's just what I thought. But a whole lot of folks disagreed ...
Robbins' hypocrisy knows no ends; he is infuriated that his exercise of free speech caused the Hall of Fame to exercise its right of free speech.
These Hollywood types have a right to free speech but they unfairly use their status as stars to get their point across. As a 12-year veteran of the Marine Corps I am proud that someone finally stood up to these people. Whether or not you realize it, comments like the ones that Mr. Robbins used do give aid and comfort to the enemy. They make him fight harder and they steady his resolve. Good job, Cooperstown.
"Free speech" guarantees neither an audience nor a podium. The Hall, from what I've read, at no point told Robbins he couldn't pontificate, only that he wasn't going to use its microphone to do it. Three cheers for the Hall exercising its right to choose speakers. Pontificatingly yours I hear you guys, and dozens more like you, loud and clear.
I hope that Dale (Petroskey, Hall of Fame president) gets it because all the old white rich men that run/own baseball are killing it. I'll be spending more time at the college and AA games this year. Jim, you're letting politics ruin this. That's always a mistake.
Exactly how Robbins (or anyone for that matter) speaking out against war could "ultimately could put our troops in even more danger" is beyond me! Morons. We have morons in charge of baseball's treasured past. Great. Somehow I think Cooperstown, and the game, will survive.
I'll just sit back in my upper deck seats, pay exceptional amounts of money for food and beer, NOT get a day at Cooperstown for myself even though I've been a rabid baseball fan for over 20 years, and laugh at Robbins/Sarandon. They are Mets fans, for goodness sake. Punishment enough, you'd have to think.
The mistake, in my opinion, is having a celebration for this movie to begin with. It simply was not that good. My take: Good movie despite Costner, who's never been one of my favorites.
Dale Petroskey better watch out; a few more comments like that would put him in a tie with the Iraqi Information Minister for the Most Ludicrous Statement of the Year award. Right up there with the guy who said the Mets would contend. Thanks, everyone. John Donovan is a senior writer for SI.com.
Comments? To e-mail Donovan, click here.
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New manager Alan Trammell is such an earnest guy. A little professionalism, he was saying during spring training, can go a long way. Well, the Tigers tried that and they're still going no place. They have scored an average of two runs a game in their first 17 games. They are 1-16. The team batting average is below .200. These guys may well be the worst team to come along in decades. The question: When will Trammell forget the earnestness and start kicking some Tigers tail?
"It's just ignorance and alcohol and probably too much of both. That's what causes this."
