I think it was more their atrocious play the rest of the inning that lost it for the Cubs. I don’t think there were 8 men on base who scored because of a missed foul ball.
Look, it was a foul ball. Most of the time, these don’t get caught. Yeah, when you’re in the end row you should get the hell out of the way if the fielder has a chance of getting it. Not getting the out should have been a minor setback for Chicago. Blaming a guy who may have prevented Alou from catching it (it wasn’t a particularly easy play, and he may well have missed the ball without interference) isn’t particularly fair.
Oktoberfest, I’m a Cubs fan, and I’ve been to lots of ballgames in lots of parks. Sure, I’ve seen Cubs fans harass opposing team fans (like my SO) – and I shut them up myself. I’ve sat in the bleachers to chants of “left field sucks” and “right field sucks” plenty of times.
But I’ve also been harassed in opponents’ ballparks, like when I wore a White Sox hat to Fenway during a Red Sox/White Sox game. I had to leave because they were swearing at me and my son so much (even though I was only clapping for the WS. I wore a Cubs jersey to a Cubs v. Braves game at Turner, and got yelled at because I stood and clapped for the last out.
Here’s the revelation, dumbass: People are drunken assholes everywhere. Embroider that on a sampler, fucker, and live it.
Poor sap. It may not be fair what happened to him, but he makes a perfect scapegoat (goat, get it?) for the continuing curse. I think the only person in Chicago (besides the Marlins) who doesn’t hate the guy is Alex Gonzalez. If it had just been a regular foul ball, Gonzalez’s error would have been the focal point rather than just another sign of the unravelling.
What makes it worse is that this same thing happened earlier in the Braves series. A guy in the first row prevented the cathcher, Bako I think, from making a play on a foul pop.
Re the OP, I’ve been to Wrigley many times, including the bleachers. I’ve never seen evidence that the fans were any worse than anywhere else. Of course, emotions weren’t running quite as high when I was there. This stands in contrast to my experiences at Comiskey where I was sitting directly in front of a drunken lout who was seriously the loudest person on this or any other planet. One crazed, inebriated jerk can make a huge difference.
So the guy deserves to be driven out of town and also savagely beaten (if I’m interpreting “get what he’s got comin” correctly) because he tried to catch a baseball that was coming at him?
How fucked up are you? Jesus Christ, I hope the Cubs never get into the playoffs again, just out of spite for you.
You might not know it, nor consider it a major game, but cricket can be similarly affected, and internationals, not just club matches.
[/point of order]
Right now I am sure that so many people are saying that if they were in that guys place they would have allowed Alou to make the catch. I’m sure that some people would have, but not everyone. It is pretty much a reflex to try and catch a ball that is coming towards you.
The poor guy had no situational awareness, and while it may suck for the Cubs and their fans, it in no way means that this guy is deserving of a beating or threats of any sort.
Also, I now see this as the perfect built in excuse if the Cubs do lose. Like when Buckner made his famous gaff. Red Sox fans claim that it cost them the series, of course they always seem to forget that there was still the game 7. This series still has game 7, if the Cubs are destined to break their curse, they will win tonight and if they lose, nobody should blame the poor sap on the third base line.
Right field bleachers at Yankee Stadium are an interesting, lawless place. But no one expects them to be angels, and they don’t disappoint. You know going into the game that it’s not a family friendly area. And god help you if you’re wearing another teams cap. If you don’t like it, sit somewhere else, or stay home and listen to it on radio. That way, you don’t even have to see the nastiness. And to reiterate:
Jesus you’re an idiot. As soon as that play was over I said, “Damn I feel bad for that guy”. Not once did I say he deserved a beating.
I’ve been a Cubs fan since I was twelve. I’ve been to over twenty games in the past eight years. My husband frequently sits in the bleachers. NEVER ONCE have I heard the chant “Left Field has AIDS” :rolleyes:
Your suggestion that it doesn’t happen at Sox games is damn near laughable. I was at the Detroit/Sox fight three years ago, where fans were dumping beer all over Robert Fick.
I was called a Fat Fucking Cunt at a Bears game because I was standing in the aisle blocking someone’s view. People are assholes everywhere, and I resent being lumped in to your generalization. Your OP title isn’t “Fuck you select drunken idiots at Cubs fans”, it’s “Fuck you cubs fans” which I can only assume includes the eighty five year old woman behind homeplate.
Kerry Wood will win the game for us tonight.
Philster, I am loyal to a team because I’m not a fairweather fan or a bandwagoner.
Oktoberfest, by my calendar, interestingly, is OVER
Of course the OP is an idiot for grouping all Cub fans into one group. Or course the title should have been: “Fuck you, you brainless Cub fans who chanted Asshole!!! Asshole!!! so loud it could be heard on national television and Fuck you to the 7 fans who were published in the paper as saying this guy should be killed and Fuck you to the idiots who threw beer on him, and fuck you to the dumbasses who spit on the poor guy, and fuck you to the knobs who think he should be run out of town, and fuck you to the neanderthals who don’t understand the fact that there was no “fan interference” and fuck you to the myriad of buttwipes who, like the guy in headphones, reached for the ball too, but then changed their tune and called the guy names for doing what they had done, and fuck you to the guy who ended up with the ball and immediately threw his hands in the air cheering his catch, not realizing a baseball game was going on, and fuck you to the guy himself who made a dumb split-second decision that he will regret for the rest of his life.”
Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t Prior go ahead and strike out the batter anyway? This alone should illustrate the idiocy of blaming the fan for the loss last night. You should have gotten the remaining five outs anyway! On top of that, the Cubs had two games to close this thing out, and failed.
I can’t correct you, cuz I don’t remember. I only meant to imply that the princple of staying out of the player’s way–ESPECIALLY the home team–should have been established by that play.
I agree that blaming the front row fan is silly. After all, no runs scored on that play, anyway. And trust me, if I could’ve gotten the five outs personally, I would’ve!
hey oktberfest. Next time your team goes 95 years without winning a world series and you wait patiently you may complain until then shut your mouth. The Cubs fans are probably the best fans in the world
Want to join a unilateral commission on bad behavior by sports fans? I’m there. I don’t approve of whatever this “such-and-such field is gay” nonsense. I don’t think that fan needs to die and haven’t shouted any obscenities about him.
And I’m a Cubs fan. Have been since kindergarten, lovin’ those losers for some twenty years. And this post-season has been an unbelievable thrill for me, even with a jerk like you lumping me in with the homophobes. None of the fans I’ve been around act in the fashion you’ve described but, again, thanks for passing judgement on all of us.
Alou later said he thought he had a chance to catch the ball but he did not blame the fan.
“I know everybody when they go to a ballpark wants to catch a baseball,” Alou said. “It’s very special, but I hope he doesn’t have to regret it the rest of his life.”
Well, baseball_dude, I think that the Cubs fans that dumped beer on that guy lose out in the “Best Fans Contest” (Everything’s a competition now!) to the fans in Cleveland.