I attended last night's Rangers-Angels game. More than 31,000 fans showed up along with me. Still an accomplishment for a weeknight game when the home franchise is the Texas Rangers.
There, I was accosted by the typical deluge of douchery and obnoxiousness that comes along with a successful professional sports team.
I have no problems with families. Although they might not be fans of baseball or the Rangers, any time you are actually spending time with kids, significant others and whatnot, that can never be bad.
My problem is with two groups:
The Cool Kids
Typically younger, but you get the ritzy Highland Park-types in this group to. Mostly, they just think going to a Rangers game sounds fun. And they root for home runs. Like, "I hope we hit a home run." This group includes the people that know nothing about baseball and girls. Now, girls I'll take. As long as they don't talk. However, when you have a 50-year-old man call the umpire a "referee," you know you are dealing with someone that could give a shit about the game.
The Bandwagoners
I'd like to clarify: Bandwagoners drive me crazy. Yet, I realize they're a necessary evil. But if someone is will to learn and appreciate a team or the game, I am more than willing to ignore them being completely obnoxious. I kind of think that over time they would have learned to like baseball or the Rangers anyway. It's the people that bought a baseball cap during the World Series and scream for the sake of screaming at a "bad" call by the "referee."
I witnessed several travesties last night. It was the fifth inning. Matt Harrison was cruising, sort of, and he allowed a triple by Peter Bourjos (who is an absolute terror for the Rangers) and Jeff Mathis laid down a suicide squeeze. Then Harrison loaded the bases only to strikeout Torii Hunter.
Well, the entire time Harrison is laboring, there is this soft rumble of just ... talk. Like conversations. Some were either right behind you and you can hear them talk about vacations or work or parties. And you can hear it around the stadium. They were paying very little attention to the game, otherwise they would've been up with every two-strike pitch from Harrison.
Skip to the seventh inning: Harrison gets two outs sandwiching a double and then a single, chasing him from the game. Darren O'Day comes in and gets two runners on before getting out of the inning.
Midway through this (Note: It's a 2-1 game), the fans start the wave. All the while O'Day is trying to get a final out. Fans should be into the game. Not doing the wave.
Finally, the Rangers got quietly in the eighth inning in 1-2-3 fashion with some uninspired at-bats. The floodgates open. Hundreds of fans funnel into the aisles and begin the great exodus to the parking lot. It was still 4-1. If nothing else, you could've seen Jered Weaver keep pitching.
The other day, I opined about how much I just don't love the Dallas Mavericks (as players) and how others are feeling the same way. Midway through game No. 2 of their series with the Portland Trailblazers, I realized I wasn't angry with the Mavericks.
I was angry with the fans.
For whatever reason, the Mavericks have the cockiest fans. Complaining about Dirk Nowitzki not "getting calls" (he's "gotten calls" for years), the Danny Crawford thing and all of the rhetoric surrounding this team.
You can't really tell that this is the same fanbase that witnessed the greatest NBA Finals collapse in history. That witnessed a 67-win team get whipped by an eight seed.
They talk of the Mavericks as some sort of institution, a team that have proven something the last decade. In fact, the Mavs have proven nothing and how fans can ignore or bypass this fact is befuddling. It's the same attitude that fans of the Dallas Cowboys have. A sense of entitlement.
I realize I sound like a complete asshole and that's OK. I've personally paid my dues and to simply lump good fans that just love the game the name on the jerseys with ignorant assholes that make sports knowledgeable is wrong.
I am not on some pedestal by myself. There's plenty of fans that are infinitely smarter and more invested in their teams. And they hate these idiots as much as I do.
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