Hell is Other People...

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  • godwulf
    Senior Member
    • Aug 2007
    • 1864

    Hell is Other People...

    ...as the philosopher wrote.

    The Arizona Fall League started up last night - something I look forward to immensely every year - and tonight's game was just about ruined for me by some of my fellow attendees. My attitude sucks pretty badly at the moment, and I feel like venting.

    People who bring their kids to the ballpark and then ignore where they are and what they're doing should be slapped and neutered, though unfortunately the latter penalty isn't retroactive.

    Tonight there were roughly a dozen boys, aged probably nine to twelve, running around and screaming in my section, alternately playing some "tag"-like game and whining loudly about how they hadn't found, chased down or been given enough foul balls. Every so often, they would apparently run out of steam and sit down for a few minutes and play with their smart phones (there's a classic misnomer for you). The only time any one of them appeared actually to be watching any part of the game is when a foul ball was hit to any part of the stadium, whereupon they would scream and charge en masse in that direction; unfortunately, they always came back.

    A couple of times, one or two of them would wander over and stand between me and the game, and I would semi-politely ask them to move, and they would comply while looking at me like I'd just grown a ssecond and third head. One was banging on the rail right behind my head with a baseball and I turned around and simply told him, "Knock it off", and he looked as though no one had ever spoken to him like that in his life.

    Unfortunately, there is virtually no League presence at these games - nothing one could describe as an usher, let alone security, and so no one to compain to. It's gotten to the point where I almost dread the night games, now, and think that I just need to take off from work and attend more day games, while the little darlings are in school.
    Jeff
    godwulf1@cox.net
  • abstractheory
    Senior Member
    • Apr 2010
    • 206

    #2
    Re: Hell is Other People...

    Originally posted by godwulf
    ...as the philosopher wrote.

    "unfortunately, they always came back."
    Funny stuff, man...Made my night!

    Comment

    • Jags Fan Dan
      Senior Member
      • Apr 2007
      • 1638

      #3
      Re: Hell is Other People...

      You know what's easier than being an attentive parent? NOT being an attentive parent. Personally, I always make sure that my kids aren't "those kids" that ruin the experiences of others, whether they are at a park, a restaurant, etc. Couth and the ability to empathize are dying concepts, I'm afraid.

      Comment

      • emann
        Senior Member
        • Nov 2008
        • 904

        #4
        Re: Hell is Other People...

        I noticed an annoying trend at games this season. Adults shouting down anyone who catches a foul ball to "give it to a kid!"

        I had a discussion with the guy behind me at a game, who caught a ball and was relentlessly shouted at until he gave the ball up to a kid. Literally for like an inning, just booing and shouting (one really obnoxious woman was egging everyone else one)... He didn't take it from a kid or knock a kid over to get it, he just happened to catch it.

        The guy was telling me it was the first ball he ever caught at a game but wasn't worth keeping for that pressure and he gave it to a kid in the next row to shut everyone up. I understand that most of the ballpark attendees at this point are casual fans and only there to make memories for their kids, but do they need to impose that on everyone in attendance?

        Comment

        • metsbats
          Moderator
          • Nov 2005
          • 3840

          #5
          Re: Hell is Other People...

          Originally posted by emann
          I noticed an annoying trend at games this season. Adults shouting down anyone who catches a foul ball to "give it to a kid!"

          I had a discussion with the guy behind me at a game, who caught a ball and was relentlessly shouted at until he gave the ball up to a kid. Literally for like an inning, just booing and shouting (one really obnoxious woman was egging everyone else one)... He didn't take it from a kid or knock a kid over to get it, he just happened to catch it.

          The guy was telling me it was the first ball he ever caught at a game but wasn't worth keeping for that pressure and he gave it to a kid in the next row to shut everyone up. I understand that most of the ballpark attendees at this point are casual fans and only there to make memories for their kids, but do they need to impose that on everyone in attendance?

          Sad to say this one of the reasons why we have a bullying problem in our schools today. Kids learn from their parents!
          metsbats86@aol.com

          Always looking for 1973,1986,1988,1999,2000,2006 game used Mets post season and Bobby M. Jones and Ed Hearn NY Mets game used bats.

          Comment

          • godwulf
            Senior Member
            • Aug 2007
            • 1864

            #6
            Re: Hell is Other People...

            Originally posted by emann
            I noticed an annoying trend at games this season. Adults shouting down anyone who catches a foul ball to "give it to a kid!"

            I had a discussion with the guy behind me at a game, who caught a ball and was relentlessly shouted at until he gave the ball up to a kid. Literally for like an inning, just booing and shouting (one really obnoxious woman was egging everyone else one)... He didn't take it from a kid or knock a kid over to get it, he just happened to catch it.

            The guy was telling me it was the first ball he ever caught at a game but wasn't worth keeping for that pressure and he gave it to a kid in the next row to shut everyone up. I understand that most of the ballpark attendees at this point are casual fans and only there to make memories for their kids, but do they need to impose that on everyone in attendance?
            Great post, and I couldn't agree more. I have personally witnessed kids getting foul ball after foul ball, after begging balls from the players before the game, and having balls tossed to them over the top of the dugout during the game, running to where an adult has fielded or chased down a foul ball and almost demanding to have it given to them. And certain members of the crowd, as you say, yelling for the adult to comply. I've also noted the parents - usually the fathers - of those same kids are among the ones shouting the loudest for their kids to be given the baseballs.

            I believe the next person who shouts at me to give up the baseball - he and I are going to have a conversation. With age, I find that I'm starting to lose a lot of my diplomatic skills.
            Jeff
            godwulf1@cox.net

            Comment

            • gingi79
              Senior Member
              • Aug 2007
              • 1195

              #7
              Re: Hell is Other People...

              Children have developed the disease of obnoxious entitlement because we live in a "Cult of the Child" Kids get everything, they never lose in sports, never have to deal with disappointment and they therefore become spoiled and unappreciative.

              Let me throw a clue out to the parents of these precious snowflakes. Failure, losing and mistakes THEN getting off your butt and succeeding are what make those successes not only worthwhile but ingrain a sense of accomplishment and personal pride. It's time for children to get much less and earn much more.

              (I'm a teacher, does it show?)
              Bieksallent! My Player Collections:


              http://sami-salo.webs.com

              Comment

              • rufusandherschel
                Senior Member
                • Mar 2011
                • 159

                #8
                Re: Hell is Other People...

                Originally posted by gingi79
                Children have developed the disease of obnoxious entitlement because we live in a "Cult of the Child" Kids get everything, they never lose in sports, never have to deal with disappointment and they therefore become spoiled and unappreciative.

                Let me throw a clue out to the parents of these precious snowflakes. Failure, losing and mistakes THEN getting off your butt and succeeding are what make those successes not only worthwhile but ingrain a sense of accomplishment and personal pride. It's time for children to get much less and earn much more.

                (I'm a teacher, does it show?)
                +1 I couldn't agree more! ! !

                Comment

                • BHawk
                  Member
                  • Apr 2009
                  • 61

                  #9
                  Re: Hell is Other People...

                  I caught a ball at a Spring Training game and a kid ran over and asked me for it, with his parents eyeing me. I told him I was taking the ball home to MY OWN kids, who didn't get to stay up late enough to go to the game (while looking at the parents). That seemed to shut them down.

                  Comment

                  • sox83cubs84
                    Banned
                    • Apr 2009
                    • 8902

                    #10
                    Re: Hell is Other People...

                    My response to these bossy louts during a couple of BPs this past season:

                    "Hey! You want the kid to have a ball? Then YOU catch one and give it to him!"

                    Dave Miedema

                    Comment

                    • godwulf
                      Senior Member
                      • Aug 2007
                      • 1864

                      #11
                      Re: Hell is Other People...

                      Took off from work yesterday to go to a day game, and it didn't matter - there must have been twenty kids there, in a crowd of not more than a couple of hundred. I asked one kid why he wasn't in school, and he just shrugged and said, "Well, it's October..." I have no idea what that even means.
                      Jeff
                      godwulf1@cox.net

                      Comment

                      • r_phelps
                        Senior Member
                        • Sep 2007
                        • 300

                        #12
                        Re: Hell is Other People...

                        Idiot parents make idiot kids. I prefer to smile at the parents while I refuse just to let them know I humor their stupidity. It's funny really.

                        Comment

                        • cjclong
                          Senior Member
                          • Feb 2006
                          • 936

                          #13
                          Re: Hell is Other People...

                          For years I was probably like the man who gave in and gave away a ball he wanted to keep. Now that I'm older I don't care what what some jerk thinks of me. The guy should have confronted the woman. Told her it was the first the ball he had caught, wanted to keep it for his own memory and if she didn't like it he could care less (and maybe tell her where to go).
                          The other side of the coin, there was a young boy who was obviously a huge fan of the Orioles Markakus . He threw a bat in the stands a fan caught. The fan wasn't a huge fan of Markakus and gave the bat to the kid on his own. Nobody forced him to, he didn't really want it saw someone who did. And he caught hell from fans who said he should have kept the bat even though he didn't really want it. So it works both ways.

                          Comment

                          • godwulf
                            Senior Member
                            • Aug 2007
                            • 1864

                            #14
                            Re: Hell is Other People...

                            Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I gave a Barry Bonds home run ball to a kid at a Spring Training game in 2001. I hate Bonds - different discussion - and there was this little African-American kid, maybe 7 or 8 years old, wearing a Bonds jersey, whom I figured would probably treasure that ball forever - it was a no-brainer. That kid thanked me, as did his Mom, but I've given foul balls to kids in the recent past who acted like it was something owed to them; so now, I keep them, get them signed and display them, and it's a fun hobby; running down some of those baseballs is about the only exercise I get these days.
                            Jeff
                            godwulf1@cox.net

                            Comment

                            • joelsabi
                              Senior Member
                              • Aug 2005
                              • 3073

                              #15
                              Re: Hell is Other People...

                              I would email or write a letter to the president of the Spring league and tell your concerns and focus on the liability of the ballpark if any of those kids got hurt while horsing around in the stands, the necessity of posting signs to this fact, and making periodic announcement over the PA system for consideration factors for enjoyment for all attendees (ie. control your kids but better wording). or even be more proactive and get other people to sign a petition at the ballpark while in the stands.

                              Good Luck.
                              Regards,
                              Joel S.
                              joelsabi @ gmail.com
                              Wanted: Alex Rodriguez Game Used Items and other unique artifacts, 1992 thru 1998 only. From High School to Early Mariners.

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