The History of Sports Should Set a Precedent for the Future
Dom Delgardo
Issue date: 5/4/05 Section: Perspectives
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The worst excuse I've ever heard for such behavior is, "I pay their salaries." Oh well that's wonderful, I didn't know that your bi-annual trip to the stadium was enough to pay Gary Sheffield all the money he's earned. You don't see George Steinbrenner or John Henry throwing foreign objects at their players, because they actually do pay the players salaries. What does that mean, "I pay their salaries," does that give you the right to hurt them?
It's as if people enter through the gate on game day and feel this cloak of immunity come over them, and they can act like complete animals because they're watching a sport. When will people realize that these athletes are just people? No matter how much hatred a Sox fan projects on to Gary Sheffield, they've never even met him, and they have no write to take a swing at him or throw beer on him. The sad part is that as a Red Sox fan, I've gotten in to a few arguments with friends from home that felt the fan in right field was right in what he did.
What the players need to realize, or remember, is that although there are a handful of altercations between the fan and the player every year, there are 40,000 more fans in that stadium that are there to cheer them on. I can't imagine what it must feel like to step into the box at Yankee Stadium and here the entire house chanting my name. We can't let one fan in Fenway, or one relief pitcher in Oakland, diminish that great mutual respect that the fan and athlete once had for each other.
Yes, we do end up spending close to $100 at a game, and the athletes should remember that, but if it wasn't for the amazing skill of those athletes, we'd be paying all that money to watch grass grow. It is a respect that must be reciprocal, because if it wasn't for the fans, the players would be playing for an empty stadium, with only the ghosts of players past to watch them.
It's as if people enter through the gate on game day and feel this cloak of immunity come over them, and they can act like complete animals because they're watching a sport. When will people realize that these athletes are just people? No matter how much hatred a Sox fan projects on to Gary Sheffield, they've never even met him, and they have no write to take a swing at him or throw beer on him. The sad part is that as a Red Sox fan, I've gotten in to a few arguments with friends from home that felt the fan in right field was right in what he did.
What the players need to realize, or remember, is that although there are a handful of altercations between the fan and the player every year, there are 40,000 more fans in that stadium that are there to cheer them on. I can't imagine what it must feel like to step into the box at Yankee Stadium and here the entire house chanting my name. We can't let one fan in Fenway, or one relief pitcher in Oakland, diminish that great mutual respect that the fan and athlete once had for each other.
Yes, we do end up spending close to $100 at a game, and the athletes should remember that, but if it wasn't for the amazing skill of those athletes, we'd be paying all that money to watch grass grow. It is a respect that must be reciprocal, because if it wasn't for the fans, the players would be playing for an empty stadium, with only the ghosts of players past to watch them.