Biggest idiot of the 2010 WS...?

[cjclong]

Re: Biggest idiot of the 2010 WS...?

I suppose that fans can do whatever they like with a ball. What I resent is fans putting pressure on a fan who had caught a home run ball to throw it back. I go to a number of Rangers games and for some of the games we sit in the home run porch. There are players I like from other teams and if I caught a home run ball hit by someone like Jeter I damn well wouldn't throw it back and would resent people pressuring me to throw it away. I think its silly to throw the ball back, its not going to make any difference to the home team whether someone keeps the ball or not, and it doesn't make you any greater fan. If you want to throw it back fine, but let everyone decided what they want to do themselves and if they want to keep it leave them alone.

[sox83cubs84]

Re: Biggest idiot of the 2010 WS...?

I suppose that fans can do whatever they like with a ball. What I resent is fans putting pressure on a fan who had caught a home run ball to throw it back. I go to a number of Rangers games and for some of the games we sit in the home run porch. There are players I like from other teams and if I caught a home run ball hit by someone like Jeter I damn well wouldn't throw it back and would resent people pressuring me to throw it away. I think its silly to throw the ball back, its not going to make any difference to the home team whether someone keeps the ball or not, and it doesn't make you any greater fan. If you want to throw it back fine, but let everyone decided what they want to do themselves and if they want to keep it leave them alone.

That's why I detest the practice...because such attempts at intimidation by fans at the Unfriendly Confines are the norm for anyone who resists the "tradition". I've seen and been told of senior citizens being scared to keep a home run; fans being doused with beer; one fan being chased out of the ballpark; and even kids having balls ripped out of thier hands by drunken bleacher idiots. Meanwhile, Cubs management not only looks the other way, they even encourage fans to "throw it back". Sad to say, I doubt this practice will end at the Unfriendly Confines until some fan who refuses to throw it back is attacked and injured by bleacher drunks and pot-smokers, and the fan files a lawsuit and gives the Cubs a deserving major PR black eye.

Dave Miedema

[metsbats]

Re: Biggest idiot of the 2010 WS...?

Having been at the 2005 World Series and seeing the Geoff Blum 14th inning "HR Ball" get thrown back on the field, Is anyone sure it was the actual ball? The "Geoff Blum ball" retrieved by the ball boy who sits about 5 feet from my seats was a regular MLB ball (not world series) and had a giant "H" on the sweet spot. This is how the Astros mark their BP balls. So that one obviously wasn't the real ball.....I wasn't watching that close, did a camera follow the ball into the stands and back out? Is there any footage showing the ball once it landed back on the field? Was it a WS ball, does anyone know? They use regular balls for BP even during the WS.

I"ve read a blog that suggested fans take a non gamer ball (like the practice ball you saw) and keep it on them. If they catch a real gamer home run ball they would throw the bogus ball back and keep the real gamer.

[godwulf]

Re: Biggest idiot of the 2010 WS...?

It's a mob mentality kind of thing. The same phenomenon, combined with greed, that seems to make some folks think it's perfectly acceptable behavior to physically attack someone for possession of a home run ball "because it's at the ballpark".

On the subject of greed, I've been going to a lot of Arizona Fall League games these past 3 1/2 weeks, and am always disturbed by the presence of the kids, aged roughly 7 to 14 (and why they're not in school during the day is anyone's guess) who are totally oblivious to the game being played until the second a foul ball is hit - then they scream and dash to where they think it's going to fall, fight over it, or, if an adult fielded the ball, beg for it. In some cases, a parent (usually a father) will be close by, egging them on, and encouraging them to get "another ball".

Yesterday, I was sitting out in the right field stands at Phoenix Muni, and two boys, probably about eight years old, were running around where I was, yelling, hiding under the bleachers, waiting for a foul ball to come that way (as they frequently do) and I said to them, "Hey guys, if you're not careful you're going to accidentally see part of the game." Blank looks, and "What?" "Never mind." I happened to hear them talking on the way out, after the game, and they'd gotten five balls between them that day - but sure as Hell, if they'd been anywhere in the area when I fielded a foul ball in the third inning, I'd have been inundated with calls of "Give it to the kid!"

I've seen kids throw their gloves down and pout for an entire game because somebody else got a foul ball that they wanted. The other night, a foul ball went right to an older guy up in the stands, who didn't offer to "give it to the kid", and I heard the kid tell his friend that "that old guy stole my ball".

It wouldn't be so bad if these little punks were actually watching the game, but most of them are clearly not...or if the parents weren't either totally oblivious or actively encouraging.

[sox83cubs84]

Re: Biggest idiot of the 2010 WS...?

I"ve read a blog that suggested fans take a non gamer ball (like the practice ball you saw) and keep it on them. If they catch a real gamer home run ball they would throw the bogus ball back and keep the real gamer.

Savvy fans do that, even at Cubs games, but a lot of fans feel it somehow gives them brownie points with the team and their fans if they throw the actual baseball.

I had a home run of a common player land 8 feet from me at Comiskey Park several years ago, and the fan who got it wouldn't even consider the cash offer I made him because "I have to be true to my White Sox!"

On the other hand, in the late 1990s, all it took for me to deal for a Richie Sexson home run was to buy beers for the guy who caught it (4 seats away) and his date

The difference between a Sox game and a Cubs game is thast, at a Sox game, the 'throw it back" chant is rarely energetic and even opposed by Cubs-hating Sox fans who yell to the luck fan that "this isn't a Cubs game". At Wrigley, you are, at the least, headed for heaps of cursing and verbal abuse if you don't throw it back, and may be putting your safety in danger.

Dave Miedema

[godwulf]

Re: Biggest idiot of the 2010 WS...?

I saw something yesterday that more than balanced my view on kids at the ballpark, and that - considering my earlier rant - I thought I needed to share.

A foul ball went into the stands a couple of sections to my right, and a boy of about nine, wearing a Twins cap and a Justin Morneau t-shirt, sitting with his father a few rows ahead of me, got up to chase it down. When he got to the ball, there was another kid, maybe a year younger, coming at it from another direction, but the second kid sort of gave up at some point, I guess figuring the older boy would get there first.

The older boy did, but then he picked up the ball and continued walking to where the younger one stood, and handed the baseball to him. 'Morneau' got a nice hand from the crowd, and even an encouraging word from this old curmudgeon. That was sure good to see.