Idiots Trying to Take Over; Sad State of Sportmanship Growing in Fan Behavior

I am not trying to conjure up stories passed down from generations ago, but do you remember the days when fans were passionate not just about the team they followed, but also the game itself? The whole package needs to be addressed at some point; I am mostly concerned with sportsmanship, respect for coaches and officials, as well as respect for other fans that happen to be within earshot.
The topic is much too large to be discussed in one writing here, but let’s take a look at parts of it. There were two different incidents that I witnessed within a week’s time that really caused the hair on the back of my neck to stand at attention in regard to sportsmanship and fan behavior.

The first incident was last Tuesday at the Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Anaheim, CA. The “Mid-Summer Classic”, as it is known, began in 1933. The game brings together the “best of the best.” Through the many years there have been different means by which players were selected for the prestigious honor. All-Stars have been picked by the fans, the coaches, the players, or some combination thereof.

One of the great traditions to open the All-Star Game is the introduction of the respective rosters—first the non-starters for both the American and National League teams, followed by the starting lineups and coaches for each. With the game being hosted by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim there was a natural home field American League partisanship in attendance. Second to that was a Southern California bias for teams in the general neighborhood; aside from the Angels, there was a swell of applause heard for LA Dodgers and San Diego Padres players.

What stood out more than the natural and very much expected roar of support for the above teams was the incredible cast of loud boos for the Angels east coast competitors from New York and Boston, and to a lesser degree the Dodgers rival to the north, the SF Giants. The players from those teams who were the targets and victims of such poor sportsmanship don’t deserve treatment like that, yet it is commonly accepted today as a normal means of behavior at a ballgame.

Don’t get me wrong, if an opposing player does something to or against my team that is classless, against the rules, or perceived to be bad sportsmanship I say let the boos rip…in fact, that goes for my team’s players, too. But, to shower All-Stars visiting your stadium just because their team may have beaten yours in recent years play-offs? Grow up. A strange twist on this is the fact that All-Star games now reward the winning team and league with home field advantage for the World Series. So, in effect, the Angels fans were booing their own “home team” members when they were booing the Yankees and Red Sox. Nice job folks. No wonder the AL lost to the NL for the first time since 1997. Congratulations.

I find it amazing that parents who watch their children play various organized youth sports—i.e. baseball, soccer, basketball to name a few—stand, applaud and smile as both youth teams perform the choreographed and mandatory lineup to exchange a shake of hands with the opponent at game’s end. These are the same people yelling profanity and booing with their kids alongside at the college and pro games. Maybe the kids can help straighten out the parents.
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The second incident that gave me a World Wrestling Federation kick to the solar plexus was just last night when the Chicago Cubs were hosting the Philadelphia Phillies on Sunday Night Baseball.

The Cubs are struggling through another long season. They are 9.5 games out of first and playing just .452 baseball with a 42-51 mark. They were about to close out a win over the Phillies in the eighth inning when the Phils’ all-star first baseman, and one of top power hitters in the NL, Ryne Howard, lifted a home run into the left-centerfield bleachers. The ESPN cameras tracked the flight of the ball and showed it landing among a group of fans that included a younger middle-aged father and two cute sons, probably between 5-7 years of age, each of whom had their baseball gloves ready for such a lucky opportunity.

It was not clear if one of the youngsters actually caught the ball, but one of them did come up with the ball soon after it splashed down in the crowd. What happened next makes no sense and it is on par with the idiots in the above story.

For reasons that are foreign to me, though I am willing to listen to any sensible, well-grounded individual try to explain it, the youngster was enthusiastically prodded by the throng of Cubs’ fans near him to throw the ball back onto the field of play. As fans were cheering and wildly waving their arms, acting out the verbal message of “throw the ball back”, the little guy eventually fired it back onto the green lawn of the outfield which then sent the bleacher bums into ecstasy. Yes! We persuaded the 5 year old!

Now tell me, isn’t it most fans’ dream to come away from a major league baseball game with a legitimate souvenir? Foul balls are okay, but a home run ball is something special! If not, why is it that there are dozens of kids and young adults who patrol Sheffield and Waveland Avenues outside of Wrigley Field during games just for a chance to chase down a home run ball? Let me get this right, just because the home run was not hit by a Cub we are going to exhort this little kid to throw the ball back, basically saying—“Take that Ryne Howard; we don’t want your stinking home run.”

If that is me and my son there is no way that ball is going anywhere but home to be secured for special exhibitions, like a show and tell for the kid at school. In this case Ryne Howard is well on his way to a terrific career. He just signed the largest contract for a NL player and it is not inconceivable that he could continue to chart a path to the Hall of Fame.

This ridiculous idea of pressuring fans who, through luck or skill, come up with a major league home run to turn around the throw back onto the field is senseless. Did you ever see any old clips of anyone throwing home runs from Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, and Mickey Mantle back from the bleachers? Absolutely not.

For the poor kid, and even for the father of that youngster who jumped on the band-wagon and endorsed his son’s move, it will be a shame sometime later in life when there is a conversation about the great Ryne Howard of the Phillies. Then they can have an awkward exchange like this, “Oh, yea, we got one of his home runs at Wrigley Field. Really? You have a Ryne Howard home run ball? Well, not exactly; we did have it …but I threw it back. Hey, Dad, why did we throw that ball back?”

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SIGHTS & SOUNDS FROM THE STADIUM

Main Concourse Inside Stadium

NOTE--THIS POST FROM JULY 2010 WAS EDITED AND REPUBLSIHED. SOME THINGS HAVE CHANGED SINCE THEN. DO YOU NOTICE ANY OF THOSE THINGS?

For the second year in a row over the Fourth of July weekend I was able to watch the Yankees play in their new ball park vs. the Toronto Blue Jays.  Here are some sights and sounds that you might find interesting, not so interesting, and/or just a little strange, as I did.

 1.  Last year was the first year for New York in the "new Yankee Stadium".  This year I paid HALF the amount for tickets for exactly the same section and row of seats as I did a year ago. Do you think prices for the opening season at the new place were jacked up a bit?
 2.  I'm not a beer drinker, but would you pay $9.00 for a cold beer?
    3.  You know how every stadium, regardless of sport, has some variety of music playing at strategic points in the contest?  When Brett Gardner hit a grand slam and the crowd was jazzed up, the Stadium music director started blasting "The Venga Bus" and the 48,500 got even more juiced.  Who would have thought that song would do it?
    4.  Young kids were selling bottles of water outside the stadium for $1.  Stupid me, I didn't buy any and ended up paying $5 for just a little larger bottle inside the big house. I could have had five bottles instead of one.
5.  The game we saw was the second in a three-game series with Toronto and the visitors took the opening game.  Fortunately, the Yanks won the game we attended plus the final of the three to take the series, 3-2. How badly would a team named the Yankees feel if they lost their big holiday weekend series to a team from another country?  That wouldn't be very patriotic.
6.  One of the great things about being at a baseball game in New York is that it brings together so many different types of people.  There was a young couple (20s) in front of me and the guy had a big tattoo of "718" the length of his forearm, signifying either Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx or Staten Island, while behind us were two older couples from Canada, cheering for the visitors, and they had strong accents from "across the pond."  One lady kept asking the other throughout the game, "Now is this guy a designated hitter?"  I think she was trying to act like she was into it.  Lady, there is only one DH per team, OK?
7.  It seems like the tradition of the Yankees' ground crew stopping their freshening up of the infield to march in rhythm and execute shaping the letters to "YMCA" during the seventh inning stretch has lost its popularity.  We need to think of a new routine for them.
8.  On the other side of the coin, there is nothing like the original, scratchy recording of Kate Smith singing "God Bless America" to salute those who provide public service to NYC and our country in the middle of the seventh inning.
9.  When are we going to stop having idiots pop a surprise marriage proposal to their significant other over the big screen TV during games?  I'm waiting for one woman to reach back, slap the guy, and stomp on out.

Folks, as Harry Carey used to say, you just can't beat good old fun at the ballpark.

UGLY LATE JUNE CAUSES TB RAYS TO SLIDE TO THIRD IN AL EAST

The Tampa Bay Rays were the darlings of baseball for the first two-plus months of the season as they sported the best record in the game. With their thrifty $70 million payroll they were leading the charge for underdogs and little guys everywhere, fighting the battle to take down took the hated, ugly powers in the Northeast, the Yankees and Red Sox.  Make no mistake about it, the Rays are a talented team, deep in starting pitching, very solid defensively, but their offense has unexpectedly taken the last half of June off, thus causing a swoon.
Back in April the Rays were ringing up runs like a pin-ball machine.  In the last two weeks of that month they posted a sparkling 10-2 record, scored 10 or more runs 4 times, and averaged a beefy 7.75 runs in that span of a dozen games.  June is coming to a close, and for the Rays, they look forward to turning the calendar to July because since June 13 Tampa Bay is 4-9.  What's worse is that in just 13 games they scored one or no runs in six of those contests.  In another, they mustered two scores.  So, two or less runs in seven of the last 13 games...whew! 

Adding salt to the wound, a Rays' pitching cast-off, Edwin Jackson of the Arizona Diamondbacks, came back to Tropicana field to throw a complete game no-hitter/shutout against his old teammates--he did this while issuing eight walks!  How do you not score when someone puts eight of your batters on base for free?

Barring any serious injuries the Rays should still be in the hunt all the way through September.  The marathon season has a lot of highs and lows, and it's so long that there is still plenty of time for things to change.  Remember when people were writing off the Red Sox because of their horrible April and early May?  Guess who is just 1.5 games off the pace of the Yankees now?  David Ortiz struggling, washed up?  Not any more.

It's been argued that the American League East has the three best teams in baseball.  A week or so ago the records supported that opinion.  So, we won't be too quick to judge who is in it for good, or out of it for good, until about early September.  But those two week benders that often haunt even the best teams is sure hard on the loyal fans, and it seems like all teams go through it.

KEEP THOSE TUMS IN THE DUGOUT

Try to visualize the television broadcast shots as they pan baseball dugouts--at least the older ones--where the clubhouse man would have the benched stocked with big containers of David Sunflowers Seeds, Bubble Gum, and Tums.


At home, the Yankees have everything they need, and more, in their plush one-year old surroundings. My guess is that they still have all of those necessary game materials, and when AJ Burnett is pitching there is nothing more important than the giant container of Tums. How else would Joe Girardi and staff make it through a game without their insides being overcome with intense stomach acid and heartburn?

Would you rather have Mr. Electric/Nasty Stuff out there causing you to ride the emotional roller-coaster of each pitch, just hoping he can string together a few consistent innings, or someone with decent stuff and from whom you know what to expect when he takes the mound? Forget the fact that he was so mentally in the tank last night vs. the Phillies that he forgot to cover first base on a ball hit to the right side of the infield. As a high-priced hired hand ($16.5 million this year) Burnett needs both a mental and physical adjustment to get to where he should be. In my book he is "Mr. I"--Mr. Inconsistency. Whether it's the manager, the pitching coach, the bullpen coach, the team's sports psychologist, or some combination thereof--Burnett needs correction.

His line last night was 3-1/3 innings, 87 pitches, 4 walks and his obligatory hit batsman, not to mention another adventurous night for the catcher trying to block balls bouncing in the dirt. No matter who the catcher is, the poor guy has little to no chance of throwing out runners with Burnett on the mound. Did I hear that the stealing percentage against Burnett is the highest in baseball? Raul Ibanez, at age 38, stealing? You've got to be kidding.

Yanks manager Girardi is a health freak in terms of workouts and diet, and he has not been around that long for his insides to have a lot of wear and tear. That's why you don't see the drawn face, nor do we feel the severe heartburn pain that Joe Torre wore on his face. When Joe rode the emotional roller-coaster through Yankees’ ups and downs in his day he sucked on his peach pit while staring blankly out on the field. I bet sometimes he may have had a cheek full of Tums instead.

Back to Burnett, if he stays healthy he is due to make about 18 more regulars season starts. For Girardi and staff, keep those Tums handy. It’s a long season.

LONGHORNS BROKER DEAL ALLOWING BIG 12 SHIP TO STAY AFLOAT

These past two weeks in college athletics have been a super-condensed equivalent of the volatile financial markets and world economy of the last two years—an emotional roller-coaster, rumors of break-ups, takeovers, distress, panic, uncertainty, the potential loss of things held dear for so many years that was earned through hard work, sweat and tears.

When the Big Ten Conference set out to acquire at least one more high profile team to give them an even dozen (despite the misnomer, they had 11 teams) and first pursued Notre Dame, then others, the wheels were set in motion for every other major conference, as well as the conference member schools, to look out for themselves. The dust has now settled and the world of college athletics is just slightly different than it was a short while ago, but not without a lot of anxiety and consternation.

The PAC-10 had hopes of beating others to the punch by creating a super-conference of 16 teams, which would certainly have caused a chain-reaction that would turn the conference world upside-down. In order to do so they poured their efforts into recruiting some heavyweights from the Big 12. AS recent as late last week it looked like that conference was dead man walking as Nebraska accepted the Big Ten’s offer to become their 12th team. Also, Colorado decided to join the PAC-10, giving them 11 schools, while the likes of Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State, were rumored to be headed west, too, with the lure of more money stemming from the prospects of a soon-to-be PAC-10 Conference television network, ala the Big Ten’s. The key to all of this happening was Texas.

Folks, there are a couple of famous sayings in the Lone Star State—“Don’t Mess with Texas” and another, “As Big as Texas.” After developments that leaked out Monday night, as Texas essentially saved the Big 12 Conference, we now have a better appreciation of those two expressions.

Texas spurned the PAC-10’s offer and pledged their support to maintaining the remaining Big 12 because the PAC-10 would not allow Texas to keep their local television rights (Don’t mess with Texas). The Longhorns are now planning to have their own network (As Big as Texas), as well as share in what is promised to be more conference television revenue based upon the Big 12 negotiating a new lucrative contract among several suitors. The ‘Horns felt the Big 12 gave them a chance to have their cake and eat it, too. For that, the schools who were about to be orphaned—Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, Missouri and Baylor—are thankful. Yet, they and the other member schools fully realize who calls the shots in the conference, and who will be poised to be the boss for years to come, on and off the field.

So, as it stands now, with Nebraska joining ranks the Big Ten has 12 teams. Minus the Cornhuskers and Colorado the Big 12 is down to 10. The PAC-10 has 11 and needs to recruit one more (hello, Utah) to get their twelfth, thus providing a conference championship game. OK now, anyone want to play the “Name That Conference Name Game”?

What had the potential to be, and was feared to be, a period in our lives that would bring total restructuring of the college football landscape—all because of the need to grow bigger conferences for TV revenues—has now passed, at least for the short term. Stay tuned, fans.

YANKS NEED SLUGGER IN THE 3-HOLE

A-Rod is obviously stumped by Tex's troubles, too.
Photo by Stephanie Quartaro

The Yankees need a slugger in the three-hole.  I am a Mark Teixeira fan, and want nothing more than for him to find his stroke.  But, until someone invents a GPS to track down such a thing, or hitting coach Kevin Long and Tex combine to find a solution, it's increasingly harder to watch what is happening with The Bronx Bombers’ third-place hitter.

I'm fully aware stats can be spun any way you like to make them work in support of an argument you are trying to make. Extreme example--if NY wanted to put their top two batting average guys in the lineup, strictly based on stats, they'd have pitcher CC Sabathia, who is hitting .500, and minor league/temp fill-in Greg Golson at .400.  Of course, that's ridiculous. So, please hang with me.

Shouldn't sluggers have a decent slugging percentage? Slugging percentage is a simple, yet meaningful stat, which takes the total numbers of bases and divides it by the number of official at-bats—in other words, how productive a hitter is per plate appearance.  As you might expect, Robinson Cano, who is 4th in the AL in slugging percentage, is leading the Yankees with a lofty .611 mark.  Citing stats for just the regular players, all of whom have 100+ at-bats, the following in order are: Jorge Posada (.542), Nick Swisher (.532), Alex Rodriguez (.491), Derek Jeter (.433), Brett Gardner (.421) and Curtis Granderson is at .420 before we finally get to Tex.

In putting a yellow highlighter through his .363 slugging percentage, Tex is just .013 ahead of Francisco Cervelli's .350....and Cervi has a bagel in the HR column!  How's that for a slugger?  You know what I am getting at. In all fairness, despite the extremely low batting average (.212), Tex has still managed to drive in 34 runs, which tie him with Yankee lead-off hitter, Derek Jeter.  Feel free to interpret that as you like...your lead-off man and #3 hitter with the same amount of RBI.

In the super long marathon of a baseball season there are still 95 games to go.  But for those residents of Pinstripe Land, the sooner the three-hole hitter gets those slugging and batting average numbers up, the better they’ll sleep at night.

WHERE IS WALDO? WHAT ABOUT UBALDO?

Everyone knows Waldo from the "Where Is" fame.  But, what about Ubaldo?

Ubaldo Jimenez is a 26-year old right-handed pitcher for the Colorado Rockies. Maybe that's why he doesn't sound familiar.  Well, start taking note because the talented hurler is putting up the most impressive pitching stats this side of Bob Gibson in the late 60's.  Early this season, in just his second start, Jimenez fired the first no-hitter of the 2010 season vs. Atlanta.  But that achievement just fits in nicely with the rest of the staggering numbers, evidence of his total dominance.

Coming into this season Ubaldo's career win-loss mark was a respectable 36-28.  Pitching in hitter friendly Denver can be most pitchers' nightmare, but this season the Dominican Republic product isn't buying that theory at all.  He has yielded only one home run.

Just like you should act when you are served your favorite delicious meal--take your time, chew slowly, enjoy and digest these delicious stats.  Games Started: 11. Record; 10-1. Earned Run Average: 0.78.  Innings Pitched: 80.1  Hits: 46. Opponent Batting Avg: .172.  Strikeouts: 70.  Walks: 26.  His WHIP, average of how many base-runners reach via walk or hit per inning, is a paltry 0.90.  Unheard of in this modern age.

If you don't know Ubaldo, get to know him.  He is one of the greatest stories of 2010.  Where is Ubaldo?  He's on the mound in Denver, CO.