Some of us do it that way. Before he was a star, I watched Willie Hernandez blow too many big leads -- my theory was that he was put in to reduce the lead to small enough that Lee Smith could come in to get the save -- to not boo him when he came in. Same for Donnie Moore before he became a mild star. There comes a time when your team just disappoints you so much that booing is a must. And the cheering is all that much harder when the player turns it around.
That Philadelphia is booing Gabler in the first week of the season is ridiculous.
And, who knows?, booing could help someone at the plate. It was by from other teams and fans, rather than his own fans, but Bryce Harper seems pretty energized by taunting, as did Michael Jordan in his day. I could see Stanton thinking, "I'll show those idiot fans," and hitting it to Boston. I could also see him thinking "F you. I make millions," and striking out. And I can see it having no effect whatsoever. Depends on the player.
I feel very differently the lower the level of league, by the way. Booing at college games is questionable. High School and lower is right out....unless it's the Cardinals.
Kidding!
v3
spazmatastic wrote:
C'mon now! You're a Cubs fan and I'm a Cardinals fan. We both know that's not how we do it. It's still not NY though. What I meant by helping is this: Booing a player at the plate isn't going to help him focus on getting a hit.
Either way, I'm not going to boo my own team. I'll boo the other team sometimes, but not my own. It was kinda funny and a bit startling at my first live Cardinals game against the Pirates when the whole crowd in my area was chanting at Starling Marte after he dropped an easy fly ball. That part of the stands was split almost exactly in half b/t STL and PIT fans, so I was shocked that the PIT fans joined in the chant against Marte. The funny thing was that he hit a HR in the 2nd inning before he dropped that ball later in the game. Actually, it was even funnier that his HR ended up in the net just below the 1st row of outfield seats (over the PIT bullpen). A drunken fan jumped over the rail to get that ball and he and his 4 friends all got tossed from the stadium. All 5 of those guys were staying in the same hotel as me and my sister and her two young children. They basically caused us to leave the pool area earlier that day b/c they showed up there with beer and profanity at 2pm. At the game, I got to stay for the whole 14-innings while they only got to stay about 1.5 innings!
Vvvergeer wrote:
I agree with the first half of our post, spaz. But it's not about helping anything. It's about expressing your views of what's going on. Part of the fun of going to a live sporting event is letting loose a bit, perhaps behaving a little like a moron -- some cities take this to extremes -- and booing and cheering. For whatever they paid to get in, partially to see their new slugger impress them with his prowess at the plate, if the guy not only goes 0-5, but strikes out every time, yes, the fans get to boo. They don't pay to see him catch fly balls.
v3
