Some thoughts on how we as fans behave at games

A few days ago I asked how we learned to behave how we do as fans. What is a direct lesson from parents, friends or family, or was it a more indirect lesson, watching how other fans around you behaved and either mimicking them or doing the opposite if you found their behavior annoying?

I posted the question to a couple of the groups I belong to on LinkedIn, and here are some of those responses:

From Alex:

“I learned to behave as a fan by going to games with my father. Early on he taught me about sportsmanship. What is acceptable and what isn’t but more importantly the why behind it. We would always talk about the game afterward. What we liked, what we didn’t like. This would often encompass other fans and how they were cheering, booing or otherwise expressing their opinions. I’ve been lucky enough to do quite a bit of traveling often times for sports and sporting events. The Seattle Mariners fan experience is quite unique. For me it is very much a love/hate relationship. While I genuinely enjoy going to games at the Safe, generally speaking there is a lack of passion and understanding of the game and the team.”

From Robert:

“I attended many games in New York and witnessed fights in the blue seats at the Garden by Rangers fans, bias from Giants and Yankees fans, Drunkenness by Jets fans and stupidity from the Mets fans. I learned not to act like these people when attending sporting events, basically the opposite of how they act. I love New York but the fans are not the best by any stretch of the imagination. When the USA hosted World Cup Soccer in 1996 I lived in Orlando and worked for Disney as annoying as the soccer fans were I have to say they were passionate and lived and breathed their teams. It was a month long party and it was an escape from everyday life for them. Although they have a reputation for being overzealous and sometimes dangerous it was fun to watch. As I said I grew up in New York and have seen baseball played all over the US but some of the best games I have attended were the World Baseball Classic exhibition games. The fans just come to party. They may be rooting for their country and not know the players and may not know our players but they come to party, it’s the only time I am tolerant of ignorant fans. Puerto Rico and Venezuela and Dominican Republic fans are actually entertaining to watch.”

From Tom:

Great question!

For me, it’s an evolving process. I went with my dad to ballparks AAA and semi-pro before finally seeing Joe Torre hit one out at Busch Stadium again the Expos.

I learned to enjoy The Game on TV. Vin Scully and others taught me (NBC before moving near to Dodger Stadium). Now with the net, I am learning still. I am learning from other fans in the ballpark.

There is nothing I have encountered that cannot be explained by Steely Dan, Todd Rundgren or Baseball.

From Ken:

From my experience in playing the game and understanding from a players perspective…it’s what prevents you from shouting explectives even when it might be justified because you remember the fan who yelled them at you when you were playing, what it sounded like and how you felt inside. International competitions are about three things, pride, passion and heart and as evidencedby the sparse crowd at the Team USA games we are lacking in these at times…

From Larry:

“As a child living in New York City, our father took my brother and I to pretty much every Sunday Mets game at Shea whenever they were in town, or to an occasional game at Yankee Stadium. I have watched thousands of hours of MLB baseball, but there is nothing, NOTHING, like watching a game in the Latin Winter Leagues especially when it’s between rivals. The atmosphere pretty much compares to a college football game. Baseball in Puerto Rico, the Dominican, Venezuela and in the Pacific League in Mexico, takes on a life that goes well beyond the chalk lines…it’s a point of identity assumed at birth; it’s a rivalry of one city, one country, one culture over another. Fans in this part of the world are boisterous but not stupid (I was once accosted by a drunk punk at Turner Field at the men’s bathroom because I had a Mets jersey) as you find in a few MLB parks. Teams represent more than their respective clubs, they take the hopes and dreams of the fans in the stands into the field…that’s why the losses’ of the Latin teams were front page fodder and painful reminders of what could have been that will live on for four more years. Finally, it’s a festive environment…music, laughing, cheering, jeering, and dancing…its tension you can cut with a knife, its joy and its painful disappointment. Yankees vs. Red Sox is mild compared to Licey vs. Aguilas in the Dominican League or Puerto Rico vs. the Dominican…it’s simply something you cannot describe…it’s something that must be lived.”

Great responses! Thanks – and keep them coming!