In Iowa there was a news story about an umpire that ejected the entire crowd of over 100 people from the stands at a high school baseball game because they were unruly, yelling and arguing.Over the years, I have played my share of organized sports and attended the games of my children as they played organized sports. I am not an expert on crowd behavior, however, I think I have enough experience at having the crowd around me as I played and now being a fan in the stands as my children play, to at least, give an opinion on the subject.
Playing sports in the 1970's, the crowd added a spark to the players emotion. Rivals were rivals and fan's were loyal to their teams. Crowds got unruly with players, umpires, and whoever else they felt needed to be splattered. As kids, we didn't mind. It was part of the game and part of what made the sport exciting and what drove us to play harder. When I grew up playing little league baseball, we counted balls and strikes, and wins and losses. Kids struck out and we knew that some kids were good and others weren't. Not everyone played the same amount of time and nobody got hugs or were told it was o.k. if they struck out.
As I moved on to high school sports, the intensity in play and crowd involvement only got more intense. The good atheletes played and the marginal atheletes sat the bench if they made the team. Not everyone expected to play and the parents of the kids who sat the bench didn't expect them to play either. It was about winning. The fans expected their teams to win.
Over the years, I have watched in disbelief as the organized sport scene has gone from producing winning teams to having teams where everybody plays, gets hugged and told that's its o.k. to lose as long as you're having fun. No wonder fans get upset. Let's face it, the "Hugger" teams are mostly filled with losers.
As a player, the crowd added to the thrill and the specticle of the sport. They let you know when you did well and when you didn't. They also were experts at calling balls and strikes and at spotting a foul in basketball when the ref had blinders on. They cheered and booed, celebrated in victory, and cried in defeat. Today, fans are expected to remain silent during the game. Don't chide the referee or umpire because "it's all about the kids", not the calls. Don't make noise while an opponent is shooting a foul shot. Remain silent as the coach puts in bench-setter Bobby so he can get equal playing time even if it means the team might lose.
I've been at games when fans have been ejected. These fans grew up in the same sporting era that I did. They remember what it used to be like. All they want is to let the fans be fans and put winning teams on the field and on the courts.
There are winners and losers in life. There's a lesson that our kids need to learn.
