Common Sense, Not Common!

There was an almost ten-minute delay in the bottom of the 8th inning of the Opening Day game at the venue always to be known to me as Sky Dome, in Toronto. The Detroit Tigers were playing the Blue Jays last night and I had watched part of the game, but the Tigers were getting beat in a much more capable and hearty fashion than the Reds game had been, so after finishing dinner, I went to my office to finish up some things I’d started before Cold Squad and then the Tigers game.

David worked a kinda late day, middle shift, and came home around ten. He asked me if I new why the game was in delay. I told him I’d quit watching because the Tigers weren’t looking like they were going to pull it out and I couldn’t bear watching both my number ones lose on Opening Day. We turned on FSN Detroit.

Sure enough the field was empty. The score was 12-5, worse than when I’d turned off the game. It had been 9-1. At least Detroit had scored a few more but they were down 7 with only three offensive outs left and Toronto was still up, er, nobody was. The teams were off the field but the inning wasn’t over.

The umpires cleared the players off the field because fans were throwing things at players. It started as paper airplanes thrown at Maglio Ordonez, then a golf ball near Curtis Granderson and then actual baseballs from the stands at the players. One nearly hit Josh Anderson in left field. When the umps saw another one come even closer to Anderson, they suspended the game. The public address announcer had to tell the idiots that were throwing things that not only could they be arrested for it, but it could result in the Blue Jays forfeiting the game.

That’s what gets me. Your team is ahead, way ahead, and it’s almost the end of the game. What could you POSSIBLY be wanting to be such a violently poor sport about and why would anyone be so stupid as to risk losing a game your home team has almost in bag? Lots of people have been blaming the higher alcohol content in Canadian beer, and yes, drunkenness can cause some really bad judgment, but we’re talking total absence of brain here. Personally, I think it sounds more like gamblers than drunks. If you have money on the home team losing, that late in the game causing a forfeit may be your only chance.

No, I’m not really making the gambling accusation. But it bugs me that some people really are wasting oxygen that people with brains could be putting to better use.

Jim Leyland and Cito Gaston truly represented a meeting of classier minds, and cooler heads, waiting for the field to be safe for the players again rather than allow injury to any players or any tempers to flare with any blame on the field. No one wants to win or lose a game because of a few jerks with a bravado rating of 200 and an IQ of ten.

I’d love to see real fans with the guts to tell the jerks to stop or turn them in to security before the game on the field has to do crowd control. The best way to deter the bully on the playground mentality is to let the child minds in grownup, or almost grownup, bodies know we’re not amused and not tolerating them anymore. Play nice or go home, without a refund.