I’ve been to baseball games in St. Louis, Cincinnati, Los Angeles, and San Diego. I never saw any fans of the visiting team getting disrespected or worse. I have been told, though, that Wrigley Field fans (Chicago Cubs) routinely give visiting fans a real hard time. My brother said, “If you wear a Cardinals hat to a Cubs home game, you won’t have it by the end of the game.” :eek:
What’s it like in other cities, and in other sports? We’re going to some games in San Francisco in April, and I need to know if we’ll have to wear neutral clothing.
If you are a Michigan fan, don’t go anywhere in Ohio anytime during, shortly before, or shortly after football season. Not only will you be given a seriously hard time, you are in actual physical danger.
Boston. I’ve heard stories of Hab fans getting beaten up pretty badly, unprovoked after playoff games and cops standing there watching it. Doing nothing. In Montreal, quite often Bruins fans will pick fights with Hab fans too, which is a VERY bad idea, I think. I remember being at a playoff game in Montreal, and there was this Bruins fan in the top row in the nosebleeds, taunting some hab fans after a Bruins goal, that were sitting on the other side of a pillar. I thought he was gonna get his ass beaten pretty severely, because they started chirping at each other a little bit. My guess is that those Hab fans were probably taunting the Bruins fan earlier after a Canadien goal, so he was just getting revenge.
I think there’s a proneness to that kind of behaviour in most cities. Especially in those cities where there is a big rivalry between the teams. I would imagine in NY and Boston, that the Yankee and Red Sox fans aren’t very nice to each other.
Philadelphia is known for some pretty rough sports fans. Cowboys fans get it pretty bad at an Eagles game. Ditto for Braves at a Phillies game. But mostly it’s harmless. Wearing a Devil’s jersey to an important Flyers game, however, takes a set of brass ones.
I once drove down to Indianapolis for a card game, and since I’m not much of a morning person I didn’t even think about it when I threw on my Pistons hat on the way out the door. This was only a few months after the infamous Pistons-Pacers brawl. A few hours later, I was standing in a McDonald’s wondering when the hell someone was going to take my order, and I realized what was wrong. Luckily it was still morning, and I ditched my hat before I ran into any more fanatical fans.
I’ve heard that from Ivylad. Cops will go out of their way to ticket those driving cars with Michigan plates.
Is it the same in Michigan with Ohio State fans?
I will tell you, my daughter, who has been thoroughly brain-washed by her father, has worn her OSU jacket while on the Univ of Florida campus. When it comes to the Buckeyes, that girl has no shame.
I’m a diehard Cardinal fan, and I have been to many games in Chicago, always sporting my #51 jersey and cap. And as much as I detest the Cubs, I have actually had some great times in that hobo-shanty called Wrigley. The fans around us are usually in good spirits and everyone is there for the baseball.
Not to say that trash-talking doesn’t occur, but it seems to be good natured.
I’m a Red Sox fan and I went to a game at Yankee Stadium. Never again. Even though we were in pricey seats, almost everyone in the section was an ass, except for the one guy who told the drunk fan to knock it off when he wanted to fight with my friend who was, admittedly, wearing a Sox jersey. The whole situation felt very unsafe, even though we weren’t doing anything other than not being Yankee fans. I’m sure plenty of Yankee fans have had similar experiences in Boston.
Montreal–I wore a Maple Leafs pullover through the airport and got hassled 3 or 4 times, as in “you really shouldn’t be wearing that.” I found that really weird.
Philadelphia is pretty hard core. There was an elderly Redskins fan who used to go to games dressed as an American Indian. He went up to Philly and they broke his leg in the parking lot. The mayor of Philly invited him up to see an Eagles game as a guest of the mayor and one of the mayor’s friends threw a drink in his face.
I was at a soccer game in Moscow, it was Rome vs. Moscow. The foreigner section was surrounded by police. A drunk Russian guy got in by wearing a Rome scarf. He sat down, took out an empty bottle from his coat and proceeded to beat this shit out of the first Rome fan he saw: a middle aged Italian man watching the game with his family, he was looking at the match and didn’t see it coming. The Russian cops then proceeded to beat the drunk until their arms got tired and them threw him down the steps of the stadium (we were very high up in the stands), to the next bunch of cops who beat him some more and then hauled him away.
I have, just for shits and giggles, worn a Yankees hat to Fenway, and a Red Sox hat to Yankee Stadium. Other than some good-natured ribbing, nothing came of it. I concede that being a chick might factor into that.
A number of years ago, we accompanied my die-hard 49ers fan brother-in-law to a 49ers-Browns game in the old Municipal Stadium. The Browns fans around us were absolutely obnoxious. This was not good-natured ribbing. It was nasty insults and invective.
Last spring, my son came home from school (6th grade), having been pushed and shoved by some other kids hard enough to make him fall. The reason? It was the baseball playoffs, and my son happened to be wearing his “I [heart] NY” t-shirt. The thought that the shirt might be problematic never even crossed my mind. When I told some other people about the incident, their reaction was, “Well, what did you expect?”
Gainesville, Florida is pretty bad when Tennessee comes to town (lots of fights, even one murder back in ~1999). Actually, this is one reason they moved the Florida/Georgia game to Jacksonville. I’ve never seen any similar hostilities at Florida State.
Norman, OK, has a pretty bad reputation. I’ve been verbally harassed pretty badly by Sooner fans for wearing an OSU shirt under a jacket to a football game, and they were ugly to my girlfriend who helped me get the ticket too. I’ve heard plenty of stories of physical violence too.
The only Browns game I have ever gone to was a season finale against Atlanta in, I think, 2004. While hanging out in the parking lot before the game I saw some Browns fans perched up in a parking deck pelting people with Falcons jerseys with ice balls.
I was in the Dawg Pound for the game itself so I didn’t see any Falcons fans there, but I thought the physical harming of Falcons fans in the parking lot was pretty lame.
I can see doing it to Stillers fans…but Atlanta? Come on!
I was also at one of the Indians/Red Sox games this last season and there were a couple of Sox fans in front of us who didn’t get taunted much, but I heard a lot of nasty tales on the post-game radio shows about poor treatment of Red Sox fans. Most of the callers from Cleveland called to apologize to the Red Sox fans and say that the “taunters” were most likely not “real” Indians fans - more the sort of fans that have never been to a ballgame in their life until someone hooked them up with pricey playoff tickets, and just don’t know proper etiquette.
Not quite the same thing, as this is college sports and the rivalry is merely crosstown…
I’ve been harassed at various locations in my (northern LA county - 70-80 miles from UCLA and USC) town for daring to wear a UCLA sweatshirt. I have lost count how many times someone has tried to talk trash or get in my face because I happen to be wearing the sweatshirt of the university I attend. Twice I was yelled at by people on shift at their jobs in the service industry. I’ve gotten to the point that I am about ready to throw down next time it happens. A few times, kids on field trips to campus have come wearing USC gear; one couple of 14-15 y.o.'s proudly carrying a USC sweatshirt right by Royce Hall during Blue and Gold week. I’m not sure if doing that was brave or stupid. They got ribbed by passersby, but that was about it. I noticed their teacher made them knock it off after one guy chewed them out, though.
I have to say however that the USC students I have met are about a million times classier than the fans that have accumulated recently due to the football program’s success.
It’s been years since I went to a Phillies game, so I don’t know if they do any sort of give-aways any more. In the past, batteries, refrigerator magnets, anything small enough to be hurled on the field, en masse, has been thrown there by Philly fans.