A recent conversation thread on the EWC fantasy league site–in which my lowly Stinky Tofu Brigade is slowly making its climb up from 19th place out of 20 teams to the middle of the pack–brought up a good reader’s poll topic: Which team has the most annoying fans? There’s some stiff competition: Yankees fans’ obnoxiousness, ‘what have you done for me lately’ attitude and general whining certainly make them a front running candidate, although they are knowledgeable about the game in spite of their self-aggrandizing behavior.
Red Sox fans have to be considered top candidates, espeically for the way they cling to the lovable ‘we know baseball’ underdog persona despite a Yankees’ lite payroll that’s garnered them a mercenary roster of high-priced talent for hire. The Red Sox Front-Runner Nation their two titles spawned certainly doesn’t help anything.
I might nominate Giants fans as a dark horse candidate for their general cluelessness (“hey, who’s pitching today?”…”Uh, I dunno brah”), pinot noir and sushi concession stands, and the annoying PA woman that announces the players’ names like it’s the circus. It kind of says a lot when dude who got Bonds’ home run ball was buying a hot dog when the ball rolled to him by chance. (Yes, Grammar Crank, I’m eagerly awaiting your reply to this one). Disappointingly, Cubs fans tarnished the legend of Haray Caray and boosted their chances significantly when they made this deplorably racist t-shirt a best seller in recent weeks. Mets fans booed Santana recently, immediately boosting giving them a shot at the title.
Anyways, I now turn the floor over to thee, EWC readers.Fire Away.
13 responses so far ↓
1 Westbaystars // Apr 23, 2008 at 10:32 pm
There have been a number of incidents where Hanshin Tigers’ fans have shown to be less than hospitable.
The first one was a game I saw at Tokyo Dome. The Giants took over the lead with a home run to the Hanshin fans in left field, and fans started throwing things onto the field, including a radio cassette player. Plastic megaphones may hurt when hurled at you, but that boom box travelled a good distance and could have done some real harm.
The second was a Yokohama Stadium (I caught this one on TV). A flag waving Hanshin fan got a potential home run ball caught up in his flag that was over the fence and in fair territory. The umpire ruled it interference, and the home run was disallowed. Hanshin fans vented their anger by throwing all kinds of junk on the field, the BayStars’ left and center fielders having to come in for safety. The game was suspended until order could be restored and the field cleaned up.
Are Hanshin fans the only ones to do such a thing? No. Pretty much all of the teams have had similar incidents of junk being thrown onto the field, including the BayStars. But those instances from the heated 1960s are just black and white footage to me, and none in recent history have been at the level of Hanshin fans.
Finally, when I went to Game 1 of the 2005 Nippon Series at Chiba Marine Stadium, the Hanshin fans there were not only high spirited, but they didn’t feel that simple courtesies like waiting in line or throwing trash in the proper containers applied to them.
Not only do they not feel that waiting in lines to get into stadiums applies to them, but the simple courtesy of allowing people to get off the train before shoving one’s way on also seems to be an alien thought to them.
2 Barnetto // Apr 24, 2008 at 1:40 am
Whenever I’m at a game, regardless of the city, and I see someone “ASSING-OUT,” it’s almost always a Red Sox fan.
3 Shannon // Apr 24, 2008 at 1:40 am
This is cliche, but I have to say Red Sox fans. The last Red Sox game I went to included a dude shimmying up a pole that supports the upper deck and barely hanging on over a bunch of folks. When he was dragged down he was clueless why everyone was so upset. At the same game everytime I went to the bathroom there were ridiculous chants, “Yankees suck, Yankees suck”…it was an Orioles game. The Red Sox are not the Twins or A’s like their fans seem to believe. Also, my inlaws are all Red Sox fans. But on the bright side, their fans don’t show up straight from the meth lab, jump on the field and stab old dudes.
4 Ironchef // Apr 24, 2008 at 2:19 am
If we’re not limiting it to baseball, then it’s probably Arsenal fans for obnoxiousness, or Italians for general racism and violence.
For “we can get the best players in baseball for Roster Filler” category though, Yankee fans, sorry.
5 jackson // Apr 24, 2008 at 5:04 am
Well, if we’re getting into that, they yeah the most well-behaved Italian soccer fans are more deplorable than the worst Yankees/Sox fans. The way overt displays of racism are tolerated and allowed to fester in Eurpoean football matches is inexcusable.
6 EW // Apr 24, 2008 at 7:25 am
OK, I’ll bite.
I haven’t been to a Giants game yet this year, but my guess would be that a lot of the clueless fans have stopped coming to games now that Bonds is gone and the team stinks. Also, why does everyone who rips on the Giants bring up the fact that you can get wine and sushi at the stadium? You make it sound like all the hot-dog vendors have been replaced by tasting rooms and cheese shops. I think there’s maybe one sushi vendor in the whole ballpark. And while I would NEVER drink wine at a baseball game, it’s kind of nice to know there are a few more options than just Budweiser and Miller.
There’s nothing wrong with a little variety in concessions. There are a lot of people in this world who, for one reason or another (heart conditions, high blood pressure, diabetes, vegetarianism), eat special diets. I think it’s kind of cool that these people aren’t reduced to smuggling food into games because all they can buy are beef hot dogs and nachos.
7 EW // Apr 24, 2008 at 7:36 am
Oh, and I would say that A’s fans bug me more than Giants fans. They’re a bunch of unappreciative, ignorant louts and are ridiculously overeager with the boos.
I went to a game last year where Joe Blanton pitched a complete game, giving up 2 runs on 6 hits against Jarrod Washburn, who threw a three-hit sutout. The A’s lost, 2-o, and A’s fans actually booed Blanton when he gave up a solo homer in the eighth. Ridiculous. And I love that when every any former Athletic comes back to pitch against the team that was too cheap to keep him, he automatically gets booed, no matter how awesome he was when he played for Oakland or how much he helped the team win.
Of the two Bay Area teams, I’m much more a partisan of the A’s, but the A’s boo-happy fans make me feel infinitely more embarrassed than the clueless folk who go to Giants games.
8 Ironchef // Apr 24, 2008 at 9:08 am
I was in McAfee when the Sox were swept by the A’s. I was taunted a little, but for the most part they were very well-behaved and very nice about sweeping the road team.
9 Shinsano // Apr 24, 2008 at 9:47 am
DBacks fans for their throwing trash on the field during last year’s NLCS after a solid call by the umps.
I love the DBacks as an organization…a blue print for the future as they contend for the next 10 years, but their night club in centerfield, their swiming pool, and their obnoxious fans, which seem to incorporate the worst aspects of both LA and Vegas, make it hard for me to root for them.
Oh, and their announcers sound like they’re broadcasting a frat party.
10 Matt // Apr 24, 2008 at 11:10 am
This argument begins and ends with cubs fans.
11 Gary Garland // Apr 25, 2008 at 12:30 am
What is ironic to me is that considering all the racial guff that the A’s Fans have given Ichiro in past seasons, now they have a Japanese-American catcher. Of course, they have also had Keiichi Yabu, who recently picked up his second win after coming back to the majors this season, albeit elsewhere.
The thing is, that outside of Sandy Alderson, who is a real tool, the A’s have had a lot of pretty cool people working for them. I have bigtime respect for Billy Beane. But man, some of their fans need an I.Q. tune up.
Raiders fans are the worst in American sports, but nobody gets even close to European soccer fans, especially the Italians (Juventus, what is up with those idiots?) and the Spanish. Spaniards themselves I have found to be generally very nice people, so I guess this is what happens when fascist chuckleheads take over. Maybe General Francisco Franco isn’t dead after all *lol.
12 EW // Apr 26, 2008 at 9:20 am
Hmm… I’ve been to a good number of A’s-Mariners games, and I haven’t recalled Ichiro getting any “racial guff.” Maybe it’s because I usually don’t sit in right field, though.
13 DJ // Apr 28, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Yeah, I don’t see how it could be possible to be a worse human being than to be a Cubs fan.
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