THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 29, 1996 TAG: 9605290555
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Bob Molinaro
LENGTH: 63 lines
You, the sports fan, are under indictment again.
The charges this time have a familiar ring. You have been accused of not knowing the difference between real life and fantasy, of being a troubled loser with low self-esteem, of displaying dysfunctional behavior fit for the Ricki Lake Show.
It's said that you scream insults at players to make up for your own inadequacies. That you've turned extremely ugly. That you are a coward who hurls obscenities from the safety of the bleachers.
It is open season on you, the sports fan. And why? Because the other night in Milwaukee, Chicago White Sox outfielder Tony Phillips punched a fan who Phillips' teammates said had been taunting him with racial slurs.
That was all the social commentators needed to hear. For them, it was just one more exhibit in an open-and-shut case.
The athletes are only too happy to pile on, too. For a few years now, they've accused you of inciting confrontations, of not knowing your place, of confusing games with reality.
The athletes talk trash to one another, but don't want you, the paying customer, to join in. Your taunts, they say, have gotten too personal.
It's all part of the conspiracy to paint you with the broad brush of fanaticism.
What's more, you are being used as an example of the general decline of etiquette in society.
All of you are being lumped in with a 23-year-old lout in Milwaukee, as if he and every other serial heckler represent the majority of Americans who want nothing more than to shell out good money to be entertained.
As a sports fan, it might surprise you to learn that your reputation is taking such a beating. Best you can recall, you've never screamed racial epithets, or hurled batteries from the upper deck, or thought of yourself as anything but a spectator.
You are being characterized as somebody in need of greater self-control. But this accusation ignores the world-famous restraint practiced by fans in stadiums and arenas all over America.
Most of you understand quite well that the role of the sports fan is to get involved. You are a big part of the show. You shout about injustices, real or imagined. But your cheers always are louder and more frequent than the boos.
For you, sports are a release from everyday life.
But almost never do you breach the etiquette of sports. You respect the barriers between you and the athlete at least as much as the athlete does.
Maybe the social scientists are right. Perhaps our society has grown a little meaner. But this can hardly be proven by a few incidents here and there of sports fans going too far.
It is Europe which still holds the franchise on sports hooliganism. In America, you sometimes paint your face in your favorite team's colors. At a football game, you may take off your shirt in sub-freezing temperatures. But you don't set off rockets or start riots in the stands like the Euro-soccer trash.
You, the sports fan, know all about taunting, abusive spectators. But you don't follow their lead. Millions of you stay in your seats, happy to express joy or disappointment as a sane, anonymous part of the crowd.
The rare boors and obnoxious drunks are giving the rest of you a bad name. This is going to happen from time to time. But take heart.
If the case against the sports fan should ever go to court, it would be dismissed very quickly for insufficient evidence. by CNB