Rarely in America, do we still see acts of pure, unmitigated
hatred. Racial bigotry, sexism and religious persecution will
always fill the need for those who seek to identify with a cause or
act as societal vigilantes.
To be sure, they certainly manufacture many conflagrations; but, on
the whole, we as American people have moved to a higher moral
ground. Most true odium has been pushed to the realm of
anecdotal.
One facet of our society still festers with the anger of objective
hate. The fury of a true sports fanatic can go unmatched.
Hate has found a new breeding ground among sports fans: the
Internet Message Board. If you don’t know what I’m referring to,
visit ESPN’s website.
Go to your favorite team’s homepage. They all have a message board,
I guarantee.
Anyway, board posting, as it’s called, starts as nothing more than
a forum for fans to submit their general opinions, an opportunity
to play coach throughout the game, or simply complain about how big
an idiot Tony LaRussa is. The knowledge some of the posters possess
can be truly astounding. Pose any statistical question, recall any
minutia of trivia and someone on the board will be able to inform
in nauseous detail.
Lazy summer nights can be amusingly spent watching a ballgame and
jamming with fans, whose commentary can often usurp an annoying
television broadcast. Then came the Trolls.
As the title indicates, Trolls are the irascible board users who
plant themselves in rival boards, post blatantly to raise the ire
of regular users and continuously affront anyone who would
challenge them.
They start by insulting the team. They move on to users who take
offense.
Here, boorish posters use the anonymity of the Web to spew libelous
garbage. They hide behind insipid pseudonyms and attack without
fear of adequate reprisal.
The following are examples of actual posts that have become all too
prevelant on average message board.
Bertslu: That was a shot by Albert! Tony should move Pujols to
first and get Tino out after this inning. He’s done nothing for us
tonight.
Cubzrule: [Expletive] Pujols, he’s a f*got. I hope he dies. Cards
will rot in the cellar.
This past weekend, binary website hatred manifested itself into
reality.
Saturday night, after a Giants-Dodgers game, a brawl ensued in the
parking lot of Chavez-Ravine Stadium. Bystanders said that the two
involved argued about nothing more than the game.
The Giants fan pulled a gun, killed the Dodgers fan and ran off
into the streets of Los Angeles. A man hiding behind the anonymity
of his team committed the ultimate act of hate.
Fights and violence remain common fixtures of sporting events
around the globe. Colleges riot after big wins or losses. High
school students meet in parking lots to throw fists after
basketball games.
Surpfluous psychological studies try to pinpoint various
manifestations of fan violence but are rarely able to understand
why a game can generate such genuine loathing.
All these men in L.A. knew of each other was that the hats they
wore had different colors, and both were sure that the color that
was not theirs "sucks." That was enough to draw
blood.
Raising this parallel between what may very well be in some cases
mere juvenile humor and murder may seem disingenuous. Yet, such
violence stands as the ultimate act of a juvenile mentality.
Hostility can always be quelled. Hatred, however, generates from
within and feeds on irrational ignorance.
We take our sports seriously but fail to understand carnal rage
they can provoke. The best we can do is to ignore those who aim to
destroy and cheer for the teams we love.
