Fansmanship at a High School Sporting Event

Traveling as much as I do, I have the opportunity and privilege to attend random sporting events or famous sports venues. A few years ago, I got to go to a few games throughout the course of a week in Cincinnati. I’ve been on-campus at UConn and  Michigan ( confirming that the Big House is, in fact big). Recently, I got to see the Dodgers on the road in Colorado.

Every game on attends affords an opportunity to see athletic prowess and also to people-watch. A few fellow fans always stand out. Some of these include: the Red Sox fans lobbing obscenities at Wally, the Green Monster; the Rockies fan who had to be carried out by four security guards, because he was so inebriated; Bryce who drinks Windex, who had to go show his belly in left field of a really boring Indians-White Sox game; and the drunk softball fan, who stood behind the backstop and heckled our pitcher throughout an entire coed game.

Every venue has a little different flavor, and that flavor is created by the people that are there. The fansmanship of a place is intangible and yet so apparent and real to the trained eye.

Tonight I was at a game where one guy with a loud voice dominated. I’m sure it isn’t outside the norm of youth sports these days, but the guy was really annoying. Annoying enough for me to write about it and for this fan to be one I’ll remember for some time.

I know the guy couldn’t help it. He was so excited about how well his son was playing and that he was doing so on a really good high school team. His voice echoed as he spouted random stories about how he almost fought a coach when he son was in Little League – over playing another kid in right field who was really bad.

I tried to focus on the game as he kept talking to the three or four parents around him who seemed in awe of his stories of how good his kid was at third base, and how it just happened that he was also an excellent catcher. Fine.

When his son hit a line drive over the center-fielder’s head for his third double of the game, I think a line was crossed.

“Yeah, live that pitch up. That was stupid,” the father said.

Like nails on a chalk-board. Parents and fans from the opposing team started to murmur. they turned around as if to let that guy know that his internal monologue wasn’t really internal. The man’s son had just capped off an amazing game and all he could do was say something derogatory about the opposing pitcher. It says a lot about the character of the opposing fans that some kind of riot or altercation didn’t break out. Maybe the police officer in the stands had something to do with it.

Listen, it’s easy to get caught-up in the moment, especially when a person has so much emotional investment in the individual or team on the field. But when the guy became worse at keeping his thoughts to himself than when Austin Powers came out of the unfreezing process, we have issues.

What really struck me was that this is probably a mild incident compared to many. We know pro sports aren’t the nonstop fun and games they’re purported to be: just look at Dodger Stadium or Oakland during a Raiders game. Unfortunately, youth sports can be, at times, worse.

Nothing stirs emotion like people’s kids and stories surface all the time about unruly fans at youth sporting events. The guy at the game tonight didn’t mean to be unruly. He probably believes in his heart that he’s done nothing wrong. He has no way to monitor himself in these situations

Here’s hoping we can all take a deep breath and not be that guy. And if that guy does show up, here’s hoping someone ( preferably someone who is rooting for the same team he is) tells him to sit down and shut up.