Heckling is a part of sport. I don't particularly like it because it's negative. You would never hear a heckler praising a player consistently throughout a game. By definition a heckler is a person who tries to disconcert others with questions, challenges or gibes. We had an up close and personal experience with a heckler at the Spring Training game between the Rangers and the Oakland Athletics this week.
My only other experience had been seeing and hearing a heckler on television. Robert Szasz, a Ray's fan was so loud he was audible on the Texas Ranger television broadcasts when they visited the Tampa Bay Ray's baseball dome. Over an eight year span, the broadcasters would put him on camera since everyone watching could hear him anyway. I couldn't help but notice every seat around him was empty. Szasz would pick out one opposing player to heckle whenever that player came up to bat. He was never profane, but he knew how to stick the needle in over and over. Otherwise, he was quiet.
Most players just shrug off heckling as being part of the game, but occasionally, a player will react to a heckler. A heckling incident outside the ballpark actually led to Alex Rios, currently the right fielder of the Rangers, being sent from Toronto to Chicago. In 2009, during a game Rios went 0 for 5 - striking out all five times he came to the plate. Later that evening he went to a charity event and upon leaving, rejected the request of a child asking for his autograph. An older fan heckled him suggesting Rios should consider himself lucky anyone would even want his autograph after his performance at the ballpark that day. Rios became incensed screaming profanity over and over at the heckler. Even though Rios apologized the next day, the entire event was blown up, hashed over, and dissected ad nausea by the media. Not long afterward, Rios was released on waivers to Chicago. Of course, there was speculation that the ugly heckling incident was part of the cause. Hecklers have been offered incentives in the form of autographs and signed merchandise by their victims to cease and desist. They've been prominent in professional soccer and drunk, heckling fans have made some games unsafe to attend because of the fear of life threatening violence.
On Monday we went to a Spring Training game against the Oakland Athletics. Recently, the Athletics have fielded some wonderful Cinderella teams using the "Moneyball" model to stock their teams with lower cost players who perform well enough as a team to get into the play-offs. This model, now famous because of first the book and then the movie, is helping teams in smaller markets with fewer cash resources to compete with market giants with plenty of cash. The Athletics have won more than 90 games in the past couple of years. When the Texas Rangers managed to start winning that many games, they built a huge fan base who have streamed into the Ballpark at Arlington making that venue an attendance leader in the league. Perversely, no one really goes to see the Athletics play even though they are fielding an exciting, winning team. According to Drake, they have one of the two worst stadiums in baseball (the other being the Rays). Not only is the Athletic stadium old, but the foul territory is so humongous, no fan is really close to the action no matter how expensive of a seat purchased. Baseball fans like to be up close and personal - one reason Spring Training games are so enjoyable. Thus, you have to be pretty rabid to be an Athletic fan. We ran into one of those.
Our game started really nice with a fun family of three generations coming to their only Spring Training game sitting right in front of us. They had flown in from Chicago with their 17 year old son to visit grandma, get out of their beastly winter weather, and to take in a Ranger game - the son's favorite team. I had snapped pictures of them, and we were enjoying discussing Spring Training and the Rangers. We settled in for the game, and suddenly from the row behind us and slightly to the left, a woman with a voice like a foghorn and a scream that made my ears respond as if I were too close to a jet plane engine, began to heckle - constantly. She could have been tolerated if she had followed the traditional heckler pattern of goading one particular player as he batted, but she had her mouth spewing out idiotic comments punctuated with piercing screams (for no reason I could ever figure out) almost non-stop at every Ranger hitter as well as people on her own club. Initially, I thought, "Well, she'll wind down after an inning or so. She's just excited to be here." After three innings, my patience was wearing thin, and everyone within 50 feet of her were becoming agitated. Other fans began saying, "Can you tone it down?" "Please stop screaming." "You're too loud." Drake confronted her to no avail. Others were giving her 'the glare' which she seemed to feed upon. The more people asked her to modify her behavior, the more obnoxious she became. She seemed defiant as well as triumphant she personally was ruining the game experience for everyone around her.
Finally, I walked to the Sun Dance volunteer manning our aisle and explained the problem. As soon as I began to explain, another woman standing at the top of the aisle joined in. She was standing in the concourse unable to sit in her seat because the woman's non-stop screams were so earsplitting her ears hurt. Within 10 minutes a stadium official came down and asked her to shut up. Innings 5, 6, and 7 passed with only a few foghorn comments and screams; she didn't entirely quit, but she wasn't constantly screaming. She did achieve one of her puzzling goals. Everyone around her was on edge wondering if she would start up again. Then, the 8th inning arrived, and as feared, she cranked back up. I'm sure she figured there was nothing that could be done to her at this point. The woman from Chicago sitting in front of me actually left her seat and went to the concourse to stop herself from punching this stupid woman into next Tuesday. Believe me, we were all thinking about it. At the end of the game, as I was walking up the aisle, I realized she had two elementary school children with her. They both looked miserable. At top of the aisle were two police officers. That's how tense the situation had become. They were there to break up a possible fight. I can tell you it was a narrow thing they weren't needed. I think if she had been male, there would have been fisticuffs.
It takes nerve to fly in the face of a group. After all, humans are a herd animal. Our social groups start with the core intimacy of our families and extend out. The people sitting around one another at a baseball game become a social group because of the shared experience. There's always a lot of verbal communication. Think of the guy who yells, "Hey, Ump, get an eye exam!" when he thinks the strike should be a ball or vice versus. People who cheer for the same team exchange points of view about players, pitches, calls, and managerial strategies. In Spring Training there's usually some good natured, low key ribbing as well as questions about the opposing team's off season moves. People around me ask about how a player has 'done' at the plate over the course of the game since everyone can see me keeping meticulous track of every pitch, hit, run, error and so forth in my score book. It's social; it's what baseball junkies love, and usually pretty quiet so as to not interfere with anyone else's enjoyment of the game. I might needle Elvis Andrus for his Abraham Lincoln beard once while he's in the batting circle, but even he's smiled at my jokes about it as the fans around me have laughed.
The Oakland heckler was a different animal. Her goal was not enjoyment but disruption and discomfiture of the rest of the group. The irony is she really didn't even understand baseball that well. Her comments were repetitive, as well as inane showing very little understanding of the strategies of the game. She actually exhorted her A's to 'score a point'. Drake rolled his eyes on that one. When she couldn't think of anything to say, she just screamed. Literally. She screamed as if she was being stabbed by a serial killer.
Since that afternoon I've thought about what could have possibly motivated her. She seemed to have utterly convinced herself because she bought a ticket she could do anything she wanted. She actually said to the people around her, "You can't do anything to stop me because I bought this ticket." Hmmm. Free speech rights are taken pretty seriously in the USA. Yes, technically, she had the right to say anything she wanted. However, I question her right to negate the value of the seats around her. When does her right of free speech intersect with my right to enjoy sitting in the seat I BOUGHT? Her performance was less about the game, and less about free speech than about her power grab in a social situation. I've always thought people who feed on disruption or making other people uncomfortable or angry must have little control in their own lives. Their self esteem must be so low or their daily situation so debased that these type of stunts are the only way they can exercise their free will and feel any sense of personal empowerment.
What makes this kind of situation so volatile (think of the police officers), is the increasing loss of civility, lack of cultural agreement to a set of overarching societal rules, and our sense of personal isolation. This person was untouchable. On that point she was right even though she really didn't know why. Confrontations among strangers these days can easily spiral into violence. We are only willing to challenge a disruptor when we are sure the peer group around us will give back-up. The 'rules' we all subconsciously agree upon when we are in the herd have dwindled. They no longer include courtesy for others. Once upon a time the courtesy 'rule' was inflexible; now it's optional. Finally, we have all adopted the credo 'not my problem'. We pass the homeless person hoping they don't approach us. We look away when a toddler is yanked around in a grocery store. We ignore people we see who are crying. We don't attempt to soothe anger or frustration in others. We shrug and move away. Thus, when 'trapped' as we all were at the Athletics game, we became the puzzled, frustrated, and finally angry victims of this lone heckler with no real options to control her.
