Violence: Out Of Hand In The Stands

Perhaps because we're so heavily bombarded with dire news and doomsday prophecies, there's a temptation for those concerned with a problem—whether it be viral skin disorders, reading deficiencies of youth or the drying up of swamps—to call attention to it by stridently suggesting that if it isn't immediately solved the Republic will crumble. This is an especially suspect and ludicrous practice when applied to sports. The difficulties of junky jocks, sneaky coaches or greedy promoters are seldom related in any significant way to the substantial ills of society. This should be kept in mind as we consider the subject of this report, fan violence.

Through the ages sporting spectators have been notorious for hooliganism. The original Olympics were suspended because of belligerent crowd behavior. In one three-day period in 532 B.C., during the reign of the Emperor Justinian, 30,000 Romans died in riots at the chariot races. In year 1314 Edward II of England banned "that dreadful game, football," because it touched off such bloody brawls among 14th-century fans. The worst recent outburst of this sort occurred in Lima, Peru, where at a soccer match in 1964, 300 people were killed and 500 injured. There have always been incidents of this kind, but their number and seriousness fluctuate, reflecting, some theorize, disorders in the real world. (The hypothesis that behavior at sports events may serve as a barometer for measuring pressures and tension in society is probably the most thought-provoking aspect of this phenomenon.)

Currently, nearly all knowledgeable sources think there is a rising level of fan violence in the U.S. The consensus is that, in comparison to 20 or even 10 years ago, it's more difficult and expensive to control sports crowds; that they cause more personal injury and property damage and are uglier in manner and mood. Now, this is bad news for sport, but it hardly constitutes a grave threat to public order, health and morals. In any general discussion of violence, that which occurs at sports events is little more than an aside. During the past year, on any number of days in the Middle East or Central America there was more violence than has occurred in all of modern sports history. Spending an evening at Yankee Stadium now may be more risky than going to the zoo or staying at home, but it's still safer than walking for three hours in the neighborhood around Yankee Stadium. What fan violence amounts to may be suggested by the following sampler of happenings in recent years:

•After the WBC California State Junior Lightweight Boxing Championship in Sacramento last summer, a brawl broke out and eventually involved, police estimated, 75 to 100 fans. Before it was over, seven spectators had been stabbed, four requiring hospitalization.

•At a Friday night of boxing in Madison Square Garden in 1978, two men were stabbed, another man was shot (by an off-duty corrections officer) and a woman was treated for a severe head laceration after being struck by a bottle. While the police were carrying the gunshot victim from the Garden, someone lobbed an exploding cherry bomb at them.

•At New York's Shea Stadium during a 1978 Jets-Steelers game, spectators overpowered a security guard and dropped him over a railing to a concrete walkway 15 feet below. He suffered a fractured skull, along with a concussion and various neck injuries.

•At a 1981 Rams-Bears game in Chicago's Soldier Field there were 31 arrests, the principal charges being battery, disorderly conduct and possession of drugs. Two security men and several ushers were attacked by fans, one of whom dropped his pants and shot a moon for the benefit of the Honey Bears, the Chicago cheerleaders, and the ABC television cameras.

•In 1980 the Detroit Tigers temporarily closed the bleacher section in their stadium to retake it, so to speak, from chronically violent spectators. For the same reason, in May, 1981 the Cincinnati Reds asked their players and the opposing players, the Pittsburgh Pirates, to leave the field at Riverfront Stadium until the rowdy crowd could be brought under control.

•During a 1981 American League playoff game at Yankee Stadium, a fan carrying a blackjack ran onto the field and charged and knocked down the third-base umpire, who was saved from injury by the quick intervention of the Yankees' Graig Nettles and Dave Winfield.

•Pittsburgh Outfielder Dave Parker claims to be the No. 1 target of fan violence in America because he's black, highly paid, hasn't performed well the last couple of seasons and is proud, perhaps even a bit arrogant. He has been pelted with apple cores, hundreds of paper beer cups, jawbreakers, transistor-radio batteries and bullets (thrown not fired), as well as obscenities and racial slurs. "You ain't nothin' but a stinkin', lousy nigger" is a printable example of the latter. Once, in his hotel room in Philadelphia, Parker received a telephone call from a man who informed him that if he came down to the lobby he would be killed. Parker did and wasn't. He's among the growing number of sports figures who have received death threats during the past five years.