Come September, most Americans turn their attention toward one
thing: Football. Whether it be NFL or NCAA, Americans love their
pigskin. This week, through no fault of exciting pennant races,
baseball snatched the headlines away from the true national
pastime.

Monday night is usually a time for great football hosted by John
Madden and Al Michaels. However, this past Monday that all changed
during a baseball game in Oakland, Calif. The Athletics were
playing host to divisional rivals, the Texas Rangers.

The A’s won the game 7-6 in extra innings, but highlights showed
the most important thing that happened that night. In the ninth
inning, Rangers reliever Frank Francisco hurled a folding chair,
Bobby Knight style, into the stands at fans, and struck a woman in
the face.

This was after Rangers’ teammate Doug Brocail had to be
restrained from yelling at the fan. It was later reported the
woman’s nose was broken.

Now sportswriters all over the country are debating. They are
asking, “When is enough, enough?” At what point are fans past their
boundaries? Fans pay for games, but does that admission price allow
them to ridicule opposing players? The answer simply stated, is
yes–to an extent.

I was debating this topic with a friend of mine who brought up a
good point.

“Tom,” he asked me, “if that fan would have seen that player in
a bar would he have said the same things he said during the game,
and not had his head punched in?” He was right, but that is why
people do go to games–to hide behind fa�ade of the ticket
they purchased.

Fans pay outrageous prices to attend sporting events. A family
of four can toss out $100 without blinking an eye.

Fans of the game are entitled to free speech. Does this mean
that fans should be able to say anything they choose to players?
No. Fans have no right to attack ethnicity, sexuality or
family.

But there was no case of any of those being thrown around,
according to bystanders. But I know that inebriated fans, more
often than not, take heckling to a level far beyond decency. I have
to believe these fans pushed these players to a level above and
beyond.

Baseball players are yelled at every day–they have thick skin.
But, when pushed too far, do athletes have a right to go after a
fan? No. Neither the fan, nor the player was right in this
instance.

I remember taunting Jason Kidd when I was in high school. A
friend and I made jeers alluding to domestic violence and would
scream them when Kidd was at the free throw line.

Kidd, every time, nailed both free throws, and eventually we
ceased our heckling. That’s the way to stop a heckler–perform
well, or if you’re not going to get in the game, call security.

If we get into a situation where players are going to go into
the stands after fans, we have serious problems. These men in
professional sports are fine tuned, weight-lifting, steroid-popping
machines. Joe Schmoe does not stand a chance in a fight with a
ballplayer.

That being said, what is the athlete going to prove throwing a
chair at a fan?

There needs to be balance between fans and athletes, and I think
athletes expect to get heckled, especially in Hades incarnate, also
known as Oakland Coliseum.

Twins outfielder Torii Hunter claims he collects at least a
dollar in change that is thrown at him each time he is in Oakland.
Last season, then Rangers outfielder Carl Everett was struck in the
head from the upper deck. THE UPPER DECK.

It is evident that fans go way overboard more often then the
players do, but the players get more publicity when they lose their
cool. Fans have a right to heckle, it’s part of the game, and
ballplayers have a right to yell back, but that is just going to
provoke more. The proper measures are to inform security if the fan
is getting out of hand. That would be the right thing to do. I
commend Francisco for coming to the aid of a teammate; however, his
tactics could have been thought through slightly better.

Fans need to get the message. They have the right to heckle, it
is a part of the game, but only to a certain extent. Ballplayers
need to control themselves, and not let their emotions get the best
of them.

That is hard for any human being to handle, and I defy someone
to tell me that as a fan they could have the restraint that is
expected of our athletes.