Weekly Hit Ground Ball: The wisdom of the crowd?

Baseball is like any other sport: it’s nothing without the fans.  Unfortunately, sometimes the fans are the ones who grab the headlines and it’s normally not for the right reasons.

Shane Victorino received an unwelcome present at Wrigley Field this week.  He would normally be quite happy to be given a free beer, but it’s not such a treat when it’s being chucked over you while you’re attempting to make a catch in the outfield.   

The Chicago fans were frustrated at seeing their team down 12-2 in the fifth inning and, with half the game gone, some were busy drowning their sorrows early.  When Jake Fox hit a deep drive to left-centre field, Victorino chased after it with the encroaching ivy-covered wall seemingly being the only potential obstacle to avoid.  Yet as he settled under the path of the ball and raised his glove, one Johnny Macchione decided he would give his team a helping hand by chucking his beer at the fielder.  Victorino was showered in the beverage and also had to contend with the plastic cup dropping down on him as well.

Coolness personified, Victorino made the catch and returned the ball to the infield before turning around to look at the bleachers where the offending fan had apparently managed to hide.  The officials grabbed the wrong person at the time, although Macchinoe eventually turned himself in to the Police the next day.

The event provoked much comment, both from Cubs and Phillies representatives and many other onlookers.  The reaction was somewhat reminiscent to the furore that has surrounded the Ashes this summer in the UK.  Aussie cricket captain Ricky Ponting has been mercilessly booed by sections of the English (and Welsh) crowd, prompting much disapproval at the disrespect being shown to one of the best batsmen in recent history.

There are some interesting similarities and differences between the two situations.

Both cases involved fans with reputations for beer drinking and boisterous behaviour.  The bleachers at Wrigley Field are typically filled with people who are not just fans of the Cubbies, but also fans of a beer or five and making themselves heard.  Road players know what to expect from them, as do home players going through a rough patch (Alfonso Soriano, for example, has received the full force of their displeasure at times this season). 

As for the cricket, England’s Barmy Army has become a regular feature of the English international experience, and not to everyone’s delight.  In fairness, they have pleaded innocence in the Ponting ‘Boo-gate’ saga.  It was the prospect of Headingley’s notorious West Stand getting in on the act that had the England Cricket Board Chairman Giles Clarke asking them not to boo prior to the fourth test match.  As Clarke would have known if he had one ounce of common sense (and he doesn’t), that just made the crowd all the keener to jeer their favourite pantomime villain. 

Any baseball fan from the States reading this will no doubt be laughing at the fuss being made over a bit of booing.  Chucking something at a player is completely unacceptable in all sports, but booing is a matter of showing disrespect and the gentlemen’s code in cricket remains strong.  It would be a big story in baseball if Red Sox fans didn’t get on A-Rod’s back; however it’s just not ‘the done thing’ in cricket. 

A baseball crowd isn’t too likely to cheer a grand slam by an opposing player either, but even a Ponting century will always be met by polite applause.  Baseball fans do show respect to opposing players that reach important milestones (players not associated with steroids, that is), yet there’s a harder edge to the game.  If you can upset the opposition with jeers then most fans almost see it as a duty to do their bit for the team. 

But perhaps the most significant difference can be found in the specifics of the Cubs fan’s actions.  Can anyone imagine a Barmy Army member or Aussie ‘Fanatic’ letting a precious beer go to waste in such a manner?  Neither can I.  Beer snakes are as far as they’ll go and most make sure every last drop of the amber nectar has been slurped before the cup is added to the chain.

We can all agree Macchinoe’s actions were a moment of madness, hopefully not to be repeated anytime soon.

Let the players play the game

There was another incident this week involving a fan sitting in the front row of the outfield seats that didn’t receive much attention, but it’s a pet peeve of mine.  In the Yankees-Mariners game on Thursday, a fan reached out and caught a shot by Hideki Matsui, denying Ichiro the chance of making a catch.  Helping the road team get a home run is particularly poor, but there’s a fair chance that he was a Yankee fan.  In any case, fans should never interfere in those situations.

One thought on “Weekly Hit Ground Ball: The wisdom of the crowd?

  1. Joe Cooter

    THe thing about the entire beer incident that was probably the most shocking and ultimately disapointing thing was that Security removed the wrong fan from the game. The actual person who was responsible for throwing the beer turned himself in the next day after local TV Stations showed the footage and and made a fuss about the fact that the wrong man was arrested.

    Now on to the subject of boos, or as they are often called The Bronx Cheer. I think that ultimately, Ponting has to learn to view the booing as a sign of respect from the England fans because it they know that he can beat them. Over hear, most professional athletes take that view of booing by fans on the road and they don’t seem to mind it. That is how star players are treated and as long fans don’t cross the line by doing something like throwing beer at the players things are fine. Most journeymen players on the other hand do NOT get booed unless they do something that the fans view as crossing the line, like throwing at somebodies head or starting a fight. Otherwise they won’t get experience any problems from the fans. Sometimes even star players cross the line.

    An example of this was the Giants Matt Cain throwing at the Mets David Wright yesterday. Cain hit Wright in the head and Wright had to be taken to a local hospital, where he was diagnosed with a Concussion and kept in the over night as a precausion. As Cain left the mound the Met’s fans let him have it by greating him with a cascade of boos. Cain responded by Tipping his cap, which only seems to make the situation worse.

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