[HPFGU-OTChatter] The Cubs fan commited mortal sin. was: Re: Damn Yankees

[Iggy McSnurd]

> > Iggy McSnurd
> >
> > ps: What DID the guy do?  I don't follow baseball.  (At the risk of
> > offending some, I personally get bored easily by it...  That's why
> I like
> > football, and can tolerate basketball if I need to... More action.)
>
> You are pardeoned for your blasphemy against baseball if you never
> played or were able to see it ina park.  Unlike American football,
> which is packaged for television, baseball is not conveyed well on
> tv.  There is so much going on, though-- much more than in footbball-
> - that you cannot be bored.  The tv camera focuses only on pitcher,
> catcher and the play with the ball.

Iggy here:

Actually, I've been to a few baseball games as a kid... and wasn't too
thrilled with the game.

I was also on a Little League team in 5th grade, and it was the most
miserable sports experience of my life.  (Part of it was because, as is
often the case in Little League, the pitcher was the coach's son, the
shortstop and first baseman were kids of the two assistant coaches, and the
rest of us were pretty much left to fend for ourselves.  We were also told
we would each get a chance to play every position... well, I got to play
every position in the outfield only.  It's usually the coach's kids, or an
incredibly adept kid on the team, who get all the training and the rest of
the kids are S.O.L...)

On the other hand, I was on a soccer team in 6th grade and, while the coach
and asst. coach both had kids on the team, we all got a lot of training and
got to have fun in the game.  It quickly turned into my favorite sport to
play.  (I was usually fullback or halfback and enjoyed every minute of it.
My favorite moment was when the opposing goalie kicked the ball and it flew
most of the way accross the field directly to me.  I managed to kick it back
so well that it went directly to our forward in front of their goal, and he
scored.)

In high school, I was one of the biggest guys in my class, and everyone said
I should either be on the football or wrestling teams, but by then I stopped
being into sports and was taking performing arts classes.  (In h.s. I was
6'4" tall, 295lbs, and could leg press 3 sets, 20 reps, 750lbs and barely
break a sweat.  My max on bench press was about 110lbs though.  *chuckle*
I'm down to about 225lbs now, which is ideal for me.)

>
> Anyway, that Cubs fan should have known better.  I remember at least
> half a dozen times-- once when I was at the park-- that fans shrank
> back in order to give their own team a play on the ball. The
> televsion commentators were trying to smooth things over when they
> said that any fan would have eyes only for the ball.  Nonsense!
> Fans focus on the play.  The story of this fan in't tragic; there is
> a baseball term tat describes it precisely: bus leagu.

Was that "bus league"? Or "bush league"?

Personally, I think any true fan in a situation like that should pretty much
stay "hands off" until it's pretty much positive that the player has no
chance to make a save.  Otherwise it would be like a ref calling a ball out
of bounds in soccer a good 5 yards inside the line.

Of course, depending on the inning, the guy may have had a few too many
beers in him and got carried away.  (That doesn't excuse him, not by a long
shot, but it might be an explanation.)


So far as my personal perspective on baseball, my boredom and lack of
interest for the sport may very well stem from two things:  The bad
experiences I had in playing the sport itself, and the fact that you hear a
lot more often about whiney baseball players wanting huge salaries to pretty
much sit on their butts and be worshiped.  (That, and I think it's absurd to
charge fans $25 dollars for an autograph when it's the fans who are the
reason you have your job in the first place.  That's one of the things I
liked about Pro Wrestling when I was a kid.  The wrestlers would give you
their autograph for free because they knew that you were why they were
there... not the other way around.  And yes, I know that pro wrestling is
"sports entertainment"... but those guys are just as much hard-core athletes
as any "real" sports player...)


Iggy McSnurd
(Who has no problem with baseball fans, but just prefers the more intense
action of football.)