USA-365 Commentary:

We Teach Them How to Act

A USA-365.com Special Commentary by Mark Smith

7-31-2005

CROWN POINT (7-31-2005) The harassment that Gary native Latroy Hawkins took when he returned to Wrigley Field as a member of the San Francisco Giants in July was ugly but no more so than the defense of it by many in Chicago media.

The argument that fans have the right to do and say what they want speaks volumes about the nature of pro sports, sports writing and commentary.

Forget for a minute the basic error of the foul-mouthed fans and their media suck-ups: No where is it written or said by the team that fans can say whatever they want at a ballgame. No where is it said or written that the price of admission gives fans the right to make obscene gestures and throw food and beer. Therefore, booing is not a right. It is not a privilege. It is a sign of mental illness. It is a sign of a dangerous individual and we should treat it as such.

It should be obvious to anyone who is sober that folks who make a spectacle of themselves booing a pro athlete are more likely to beat their wives, children or pets than normal people will. To stand up and strain your vocal chords to verbally assault a ball player indicates a Tom Cruise level instability and the lack of respect for the impact of sick adult behavior on impressionable young boys of a Michael Jackson. Fathers who tank up on $4 beers and yell insults with their children sitting next to them, should have those kids taken away from them and given to someone who has moral values.

But, astonishingly, more than one Chicago media manure farmer used the attacks on Hawkins as a chance to attack not only the ex-Cub Hawkins but Cubs manager Dusty Baker, who only stood up for one of his former players. The logic sounded reminiscent of the BTK killer.

To call F-bomb flinging freaks 'passionate fans' is like calling Osama Bin Laden a freedom fighter. It makes no difference how fans behave elsewhere. How do you want your children to behave? To promote actions in a ballpark that would get you arrested on the street is so ridiculous it sounds like a joke. The argument says less about the subject and more about the purveyor of the twisted theory.

I know that talk show hosts and columnists often fake arguments because they need a column or a show. And I know that writers for the Chicago Sun-Times attack the Chicago Cubs because the Cubs are owned by the rival Tribune. In Northwest Indiana, the Post-Tribune often times prints Chicago Sun-Times baseball coverage. So what you read where baseball is concerned is slanted. That's a given.

And I understand the sports media game. Writers and broadcasters are typically very cynical beings who have no feelings or opinions so deep they can't change them if they need to in a week or a month. Sports fans are not known for their ability to remember things. Writers and talk show hosts say ridiculously inflammatory things or give polar opposite opinions on different days and they count on you not to remember what they said. Talk radio has become a bully pulpit, an ivory tower from which you can challenge someone's manhood and intelligence at will, knowing you don't have to face them and hiding behind journalistic guidelines that were meant for reporters, not fiction writers and stand up comedians passing as news professionals.

One Chicago radio side show freak blamed Dusty Baker for playing Corey Patterson using the logic, "Dusty should not have put Patterson in a position where a 12-year-old girl has to boo him!!!" That statement is so wrong on so many levels, it sounds like it came from Karl Rove's office. But at the end of the day, talk radio flushes the toilet and starts over.

Years of truth scandals should tell us that print media people from the New York Times to the Chicago Sun-Times can make things up. Talk show hosts make things up for a living. They spend the entire day dreaming up nonsense trying to get the unstable closet sports geeks or anger-prone, brat-eating alcoholics to call in unarmed for a battle of wits. We live in a society of the sophisticated lie. Plain truth takes a back seat to smooth talking Rush Limbaugh-caliber bluster that has more half truths than the Saturday morning presidential radio address. There are 12-step programs for media spin felons. They can stop anytime once they get some perspective on life.

But I'm worried about the kids in the stands. Your kids. The hundreds that go to basketball and football games at the high school. They see sports heroes getting booed by adults and, since high school is a classroom for life, the kids boo and heckle the other side. Teenagers think that's what they're supposed to do.

Kids throw things from the stands and think it's funny. Parents heckle kids from out of town or referees and think they're defending their babies. It's a bad trend. It's getting worse. And it springs from what they all see at pro events, and read and hear in media justifications.

One day, some fan or athletes will be killed at a sports event. The crowds are much larger than the security forces at almost every game. This inevitable death almost occurred at the Indiana Pacers-Detroit Pistons game last year. It will happen because out of control emotional midgets are told that they are justified in their psycho behavior because they have a box seat ticket.

At high school events, I often see the principal or the athletic director walk over to a bunch of rowdy boys and tell them they must respect the opponents or hit the bricks. Occasionally, and I know it's tough, but I also see high school authorities confront parents who are yelling insults at the game officials or the home team coach.

Loud mouth fans should be evicted at every level of sports in the same matter as folks who commit disorderly conduct in any other private venue are thrown out. Potty-mouth patrons should shut up and take a seat or grab their coat and hit the street. If that seat is empty at the next game, at least the 9-year-old three rows down won't have to ask his mommy why that man is shouting four letters words at the umpire.

As much as I want to see kids attend sports events, 'zero tolerance' fan control is the right thing to do. I support it and so should you. Leave no doubt that you go to games to make noise in support of someone, not to attack someone else. Cheer for your team, not against someone else's. Root for your boys and girls, not against someone else's children. Ignore pro sports fans and media. They have another agenda. Let the message go forth from this day forward that you understand how important sports is and isn't.

We most definitely teach young people how to behave at athletic events. It's just a matter of what we want them to learn.