DPD
After getting home and eating dinner this rather pleasant Bay Area evening, I turned on the television to enjoy a little of "America's Pasttime." The Oakland Athletics were playing the visiting Texas Rangers, an important game in an important series in an AL West rivalry with potential playoff implications. There were two outs in the top of the ninth inning with the score tied 5-5, Ricardo Rincon was pitching and Hank Blalock was batting, the count was no balls and two strikes and no runners were on base. Suddenly, the game came to a screeching halt due to an occurence down the first base line where some Texas relief pitchers were warming up in the bullpen, which happens to be in play in the copious amount of foul terrirtory at the Oakland Coliseum.
I'd like to take this time out to enlighten a few people who might not know so much about baseball. Now, as a fan for the home team, which was in this case the Oakland Athletics, your job is to heckle the opposing team and cheer on your own team. Oakland fans are notorious for heckling, as are many fans in many sports throughout the nation, but baseball fans have their own brand of infamy. Good heckling is not just something drunk fans do to get thier jollies, it's a community experience for the whole crowd to join in and show their distaste for the opposing team, and to try and get into the heads of the opposing players, so as to disrupt their concentration. This is especially important regarding the pitchers and hitters, because what's happening as someone is at-bat plays a very major part in the outcome of the game.
Now, in this particular instance, an Oakland fan was apparently doing an excellent job of heckling one of the Texas relief pitchers who was warming up in the bullpen, and the Texas pitcher decided that they were going to try and fight the fan who was verbally abusing him. The entire bench of Texas ran down the first base line and it appeared as if a brawl was going to break out between the Texas players and the Oakland fans.
Another break for a brief explanation. For those of you who aren't familiar with Oakland. Oakland, as it would appear at first glance, perpetually is living in the shadow of it's sister city across the bay, San Francisco. Although Oakland has plenty of good things going for it, a few being a huge port that creates many jobs and a continuously successful baseball team, Oakland is also associated with its fair share of negative aspects. One of these is one of, if not the highest homicide rate in the United States. Going with this statistic is Oakland's notoriety for being gang-ridden and being home to some of the worst neighborhoods in the Bay Area. Now Texas is famous for their "Everything's Bigger in Texas" and "Don't Mess with Texas" attitudes. In this case, however, the pride of one Texas relief pitcher should've gotten his sorry excuse for a professional punk muthafuckin ass shot.
But back to the story at hand. In the midst of all this commotion, the first player who wanted to fight an Oakland fan was held back by his coaches as well as a security guard. At this point, another Texas player picks up a folding chair and throws it into the stands, hitting multiple fans. Remember, all this started as a result of a little exquisite haggling. After the commotion dies down a little bit, the game ends up being delayed for almost 25 minutes, with the umpires convening with one another, and separately with the managers of both teams multiple times. Also, during the delay the announcer over the public address loudspeaker informs the fans that any fan coming out of the stands onto the field will result in Oakland forfeiting the game. Texas pulled all of its relief pitchers out of the bullpen and had them go into the dugout as well. In addition to this, almost all of the security personnel on the field stood by the place of the ruckus at the request of the Texas manager, even though there were no longer any Texas players present in the area.
A chorus of boos from the remaining crowd showered down during the entire delay and did not cease once the umpire called, "Play Ball!" again. When play resumed, Blalock reached base with a single up the middle on a 2-2 count. Following Blalock's at-bat, Oakland replaced Rincon, who was pitching, with Chad Bradford, because during the 25 minute delay, Rincon's arm had gotten cold and he wouldn't be pitching as effectively as he was before the delay. The following play Michael Young grounded out to second base, ending the inning. I watched the bottom of the 9th inning, where Oakland did not score and thus the game was headed for extra innings when I turned off the TV, more than just a little appalled.
This may not seem like a big issue to many people, but it's quite clear that the whole scenario is bullshit to begin with.
1) Heckling is part of the game. Almost every professional athlete gets heckled by the fans, media, whoever. If you can't stand heckling without losing your poise and composure, don't even go out onto the field, you worthless piece of shit dish it out but can't take it motherfucker.
2) A Texas player hit two fans by throwing a folding chair at them. Will the Texas player face legal reprocussions for his actions? Most likely not. Why is this? Because professional athletes, for the most part, are crybaby ass pussies and are so used to being pampered by society that they can't take criticism or taunting and deal with it irrationally. Star athletes are also taught from the time they're in junior high school that they can get away with things that "normal" people would get in deep shit for. *EDIT this morning* A female fan suffered a laceration and a broken nose as a result of the chair being tossed into the stands by Texas pitcher Frank Francisco, and plans on pressing charges.*/EDIT*
3) A fan gets assaulted by a player and after the umpires conference with Texas' manager, there's a public address message stating that if fans go onto the field that Oakland will forefeit??? He threw a fucking chair at the guy. If someone throws a chair at me over some shit I say at a baseball game, they're getting the shit beat out of them. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. And the fans in Oakland would've backed me up, as they would've backed up this guy had he went onto the field of play. However, the fan decided to be the better man and not lead a group of fans down onto the field for some good old fashioned vigilante justice and an Oakland beatdown. It is a sad, sad day when professional athletes can instigate a fight and have their team win if they get an asskicking that they deserve.
4) The media will portray the fans as the "bad guys" in this situation. Touching back on "important people" being above the law, there's no doubt in my mind that if the fans did, in fact, rally around their compatriots and kick the shit out of the fucker that threw the chair, like anyone would have out on the street, they all would've been treated very unfairly by security and the police, and the media would slander the piss out of the Oakland fans for sticking up for someone who was assaulted on regional television coverage. They would've been beaten, maced, ziptied and/or handcuffed, and sent to prison without a second thought. The Texas player who threw the chair was being talked to by a policeman in the Texas dugout after the incident, but that sure as hell isn't how any fan doing the same thing would've been treated. And I guarantee you if the police officer would've treated the Texas player the same way the police would've treated a fan doing the same thing, that the officer would be taken to trial, have had his badge revoked, and his life ruined by way of media slaughter.
If the fans would've "gone Oakland" on the players it would've been viewed as a tragedy and a complete outrage due from the media's point of view, but as a fan, I already do view this incident as an outrage. This is a sad day for baseball fans everywhere, and especially those in Oakland, who were threatened with forfeiture for simply doing their duty as fans and showing their love for their team, and they were threatened with chastisement for exercising their first amendment rights and having someone else overreacting. And this, among other things, is why baseball is in such a sorry state right now, and why Texas fucking blows. Thanks for your time.
I'd like to take this time out to enlighten a few people who might not know so much about baseball. Now, as a fan for the home team, which was in this case the Oakland Athletics, your job is to heckle the opposing team and cheer on your own team. Oakland fans are notorious for heckling, as are many fans in many sports throughout the nation, but baseball fans have their own brand of infamy. Good heckling is not just something drunk fans do to get thier jollies, it's a community experience for the whole crowd to join in and show their distaste for the opposing team, and to try and get into the heads of the opposing players, so as to disrupt their concentration. This is especially important regarding the pitchers and hitters, because what's happening as someone is at-bat plays a very major part in the outcome of the game.
Now, in this particular instance, an Oakland fan was apparently doing an excellent job of heckling one of the Texas relief pitchers who was warming up in the bullpen, and the Texas pitcher decided that they were going to try and fight the fan who was verbally abusing him. The entire bench of Texas ran down the first base line and it appeared as if a brawl was going to break out between the Texas players and the Oakland fans.
Another break for a brief explanation. For those of you who aren't familiar with Oakland. Oakland, as it would appear at first glance, perpetually is living in the shadow of it's sister city across the bay, San Francisco. Although Oakland has plenty of good things going for it, a few being a huge port that creates many jobs and a continuously successful baseball team, Oakland is also associated with its fair share of negative aspects. One of these is one of, if not the highest homicide rate in the United States. Going with this statistic is Oakland's notoriety for being gang-ridden and being home to some of the worst neighborhoods in the Bay Area. Now Texas is famous for their "Everything's Bigger in Texas" and "Don't Mess with Texas" attitudes. In this case, however, the pride of one Texas relief pitcher should've gotten his sorry excuse for a professional punk muthafuckin ass shot.
But back to the story at hand. In the midst of all this commotion, the first player who wanted to fight an Oakland fan was held back by his coaches as well as a security guard. At this point, another Texas player picks up a folding chair and throws it into the stands, hitting multiple fans. Remember, all this started as a result of a little exquisite haggling. After the commotion dies down a little bit, the game ends up being delayed for almost 25 minutes, with the umpires convening with one another, and separately with the managers of both teams multiple times. Also, during the delay the announcer over the public address loudspeaker informs the fans that any fan coming out of the stands onto the field will result in Oakland forfeiting the game. Texas pulled all of its relief pitchers out of the bullpen and had them go into the dugout as well. In addition to this, almost all of the security personnel on the field stood by the place of the ruckus at the request of the Texas manager, even though there were no longer any Texas players present in the area.
A chorus of boos from the remaining crowd showered down during the entire delay and did not cease once the umpire called, "Play Ball!" again. When play resumed, Blalock reached base with a single up the middle on a 2-2 count. Following Blalock's at-bat, Oakland replaced Rincon, who was pitching, with Chad Bradford, because during the 25 minute delay, Rincon's arm had gotten cold and he wouldn't be pitching as effectively as he was before the delay. The following play Michael Young grounded out to second base, ending the inning. I watched the bottom of the 9th inning, where Oakland did not score and thus the game was headed for extra innings when I turned off the TV, more than just a little appalled.
This may not seem like a big issue to many people, but it's quite clear that the whole scenario is bullshit to begin with.
1) Heckling is part of the game. Almost every professional athlete gets heckled by the fans, media, whoever. If you can't stand heckling without losing your poise and composure, don't even go out onto the field, you worthless piece of shit dish it out but can't take it motherfucker.
2) A Texas player hit two fans by throwing a folding chair at them. Will the Texas player face legal reprocussions for his actions? Most likely not. Why is this? Because professional athletes, for the most part, are crybaby ass pussies and are so used to being pampered by society that they can't take criticism or taunting and deal with it irrationally. Star athletes are also taught from the time they're in junior high school that they can get away with things that "normal" people would get in deep shit for. *EDIT this morning* A female fan suffered a laceration and a broken nose as a result of the chair being tossed into the stands by Texas pitcher Frank Francisco, and plans on pressing charges.*/EDIT*
3) A fan gets assaulted by a player and after the umpires conference with Texas' manager, there's a public address message stating that if fans go onto the field that Oakland will forefeit??? He threw a fucking chair at the guy. If someone throws a chair at me over some shit I say at a baseball game, they're getting the shit beat out of them. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. And the fans in Oakland would've backed me up, as they would've backed up this guy had he went onto the field of play. However, the fan decided to be the better man and not lead a group of fans down onto the field for some good old fashioned vigilante justice and an Oakland beatdown. It is a sad, sad day when professional athletes can instigate a fight and have their team win if they get an asskicking that they deserve.
4) The media will portray the fans as the "bad guys" in this situation. Touching back on "important people" being above the law, there's no doubt in my mind that if the fans did, in fact, rally around their compatriots and kick the shit out of the fucker that threw the chair, like anyone would have out on the street, they all would've been treated very unfairly by security and the police, and the media would slander the piss out of the Oakland fans for sticking up for someone who was assaulted on regional television coverage. They would've been beaten, maced, ziptied and/or handcuffed, and sent to prison without a second thought. The Texas player who threw the chair was being talked to by a policeman in the Texas dugout after the incident, but that sure as hell isn't how any fan doing the same thing would've been treated. And I guarantee you if the police officer would've treated the Texas player the same way the police would've treated a fan doing the same thing, that the officer would be taken to trial, have had his badge revoked, and his life ruined by way of media slaughter.
If the fans would've "gone Oakland" on the players it would've been viewed as a tragedy and a complete outrage due from the media's point of view, but as a fan, I already do view this incident as an outrage. This is a sad day for baseball fans everywhere, and especially those in Oakland, who were threatened with forfeiture for simply doing their duty as fans and showing their love for their team, and they were threatened with chastisement for exercising their first amendment rights and having someone else overreacting. And this, among other things, is why baseball is in such a sorry state right now, and why Texas fucking blows. Thanks for your time.