A plea for courtesy, decorum

If sports mirrors society, we should be alarmed at fans' increasing boorishness

This is an expanded version of a column I wrote for the June issue of The Columbia River Reader.

I grew up a die-hard New York Yankees fan and attended many ball games in the old Yankee Stadium. I usually purchased cheap, nose-bleed seats.

But I often had a front-row view of the abuse that “Crankees” fans heaped on opposing players and fans.

Once I was seated near a group of college-age Yankee fans who used a cigarette lighter to ignite a pennant waved wildly by a row of like-aged Boston Red Sox rooters. These groups all were stewed, yet somehow they avoided starting a melee.

During pregame batting practice, I’d often slink down to the dugouts to get a closer glimpse of the players and perhaps shag a foul ball. Often, I’d hear a Yankee fan verbally accost an opposition player on the field: “Hey! Johnson! You suck.”

I was reminded about these instances recently after learning that a 22-year-old Chicago fan was expelled for taunting Katel Marte, an all-star second basemen for the Arizona Diamondbacks, on June 24. The fan harangued Marte from behind a dugout and finally told him he had messaged Marte’s mother, who died in a 2017 car accident.

The incident brought Marte to tears. Marte, a native of Venezuela, later said he would pray for the offender but that the young fan had crossed a line he could not tolerate.

Sports is often a mirror of society. This type of nastiness, abuse and disrespect shouldn’t be surprising to hear at ballparks, hockey arenas and other venues because it is so common everywhere now.

Abusive fan behavior became an issue during the recently completed Stanley Cup hockey playoffs. Dallas Stars head coach Peter DeBoer blamed his team’s elimination from the playoffs to disruptive and unsportsmanlike conduct from fans of the Edmonton Oilers. DeBoer objected to the intense booing and jeering from the home crowd, claiming it affected his players’ focus and performance.

There are some sour grapes here, to be sure, but DeBoer’s complaint is telling about the growing boorishness of audiences at athletic events.

What, really, justifies booing when the visiting team takes the field or court? Fans don’t know about the sacrifices that athletes entering the stage have made, what personal or family tragedies they may have overcome (like Marte had to), what abuse they have endured just to make it to the competition.

Most athletes we see on television or live on diamonds, hardwood or pitch are young people just trying to have fun, challenge themselves and — perhaps —fulfill dreams of earning college scholarships, invitations to the pros or more lucrative contracts. What’s to boo about?

I agree that there are some sports figures — perhaps many — who are boorish, selfish and full of themselves. Is it a spectator’s job to upbraid them? How far should the displeasure go?

Seattle fans still boo former Houston Astros players over the 2017 sign-stealing scandal, in which the team was fined $5 million but all players dodged discipline in exchange for cooperating with the investigation. Should this albatross still hang around the necks of former and current Astros players? Sign stealing used to be considered a baseball art form, although years ago it wasn’t aided by cameras, as it was in the Astros’ case.

There’s little doubt that increasing hostility toward athletes is driven by online sports betting, but a losing wager is the bettor’s fault, not the athlete’s.

Sports, of course, has always thrived on tribal loyalties, and there’s a primal instinct at play here that distinguishes “us” vs “them,” good versus bad. But the abuse and invective in sports is all the more troubling because there already is enough tribal hate in the world of our politics.

Plenty has been written about the loss of public decorum and how the rise of social media, decline of religion, eroding standards in the entertainment industry and other trends haver contributed to all this boorishness — and the divisions it intensifies.

There’s no room here to explore such a broad topic, but there is space enough to remind ourselves to be more courteous fans. Perhaps awareness of behavior at the ball park will rub off into other areas of our lives.

We can be loyal and cheer for our team without jeering, taunting and belittling the opposition. I think it is fine for the home team to drive up noise levels to disrupt the center/quarterback exchange. Just don’t let it cross over to abuse — like the foul-mouthed UW Husky season ticket holder who shared a section with us for several years.

Learn to be a fan of the sport, not just of a team or player. Cheer when the opponent makes an exceptional play.

That’s so much more enjoyable than lighting fire to an opposing fan’s pennant or dragging a player’s painful memory out on to the playing field.