My anger is usually mostly reserved for, and directed at, the parents of the brats - perfectly good English word, more than applicable in this case - who bring their little darlings to the ballpark, and then pay no attention whatsoever to their conduct. Their behavior is inflicted on paying patrons, there to watch a Baseball game, not to babysit or to instruct someone else's kids on how to behave in a public place.

When it comes to autograph etiquette, I certainly wouldn't expect a little kid, maybe five or six, to know a player's name, but older than that and a parent ought not to just put a ball into a kid's hand and set them loose to grab anybody in a uniform for a signature. I've seen kids who were old enough to know better - and probably would, had a parent ever taught them - trying to get players on the field to sign during the game. I've seen kids trying to get a starting pitcher to come over and sign while he was engaged in his pre-game warm-up. (Although I must confess that I've seen the odd adult do the same thing, from time to time.) I have seen kids trying to get a fielder to toss them a baseball that was in play.

Last night, at a Fall League game at Salt River Fields, there were more than a dozen boys, aged about eleven or twelve, who spent the whole nine innings charging through the seats, screaming, and only paying attention to the game when a foul ball was hit. Numerous times, I had to tell a kid to sit down or move, 'cause he was standing, glove at the ready, exactly between me and the plate. Once, a couple of kids wandering through the section wanted me to stand up so they could get past me, when there were three rows completely empty behind me and eight empty rows in front of me. Idiots. I simply told them to go away, keeping the expletives in my head.

I was beginning to wonder whether there were any adults there with them, when I heard one of the boys call a man "Coach". This guy was sitting with seven or eight other adults in a little cluster, all paying far more attention to their own conversation and their beers than to either the game or the kids they'd apparently brought. These ostensible adults were in full view and earshot of the chaos and distraction being caused by their charges, and obviously didn't give a s**t. I'm assuming that this assemblage represented some kind of Baseball team; I wonder how they would feel if a dozen adults came to one of their games and acted the way they were acting at the game last night.