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Sports and Sportsmanship
- 07/22/06
- 13
Yesterday my son and I made our annual or semi-annual trip to the Rogers Center to take in a Bluejays game. We chose a good night. The Jays were playing against their arch-rivals the Yankees, and were playing before one of the biggest crowds in recent memory. The last time I was part of a crowd of over 40,000 people must have been during the Bluejays' glory days of 1992 to 1993. It was the first time I can remember that the section I wanted to sit in was sold out, leaving us to sit up in the 500-level. After the first fourteen Yankee pitches, the Jays had no outs and 4 runs. They Jays played well throughout and took the game 7-3. The official recap of the game mentioned that the crowd was rowdy. It was, indeed, a rowdy crowd which tends to add to the overall entertainment value.
But as I watched the game, a question came to mind. The rivalry between Toronto and New York has existed for many years, but continues to heat up. Of course there is lots to dislike about the Yankees and their spendthrift ways. As you may know, their payroll is often greater than the combined efforts of five or six smaller market teams. Needless to say, they always compete and are always dangerous. Everyone loves to hate the Yankees.
While there are always a good number of Yankee fans in the crowd, many of whom travel to Toronto from Buffalo and upstate New York, the crowd was, as we'd expect, clearly in favor of Toronto. And not only that, but they despised New York. Alex Rodriguez, whose massive contract has come to represent much of the absurdity of major league sports, was a particular target of the crowd. He has been having a difficult time in the field of late and continued to disappoint last night, committing one error, losing an easy pop fly and escaping another error only by the grace of the scorekeeper. The crowd was soon chanting "A Rod! A Rod!" Boos reigned down upon him whenever he came to the plate or was involved in a play. Derek Jeter and Jason Giambi also faced the jeers of the crowd. Throughout the game, the upper decks rumbled with the sound of "Yankees Suck! Yankees Suck!" I think there was more cheering against New York than there was for Toronto.
I love this dynamic of professional sports. I love that people can boo a player but yet cheer for him when he is later traded to their team. I love that people can yell and scream and take these things so seriously, and yet not seriously at all.
But I wonder, is this behavior Christians should endorse? Is this behavior Christians should participate in? When a person becomes a player in professional sports, is he inviting this kind of mockery? Or should we be supportive of all players? I can certainly not endorse this behavior in the little leagues, but I wonder if it is just part of the game when playing in the majors. What do you think?
I got to thinking last night...I don't know that I'll ever be sufficiently sanctified to cheer for Alex Rodriguez.
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Comments (13)
Good question, Tim. While I certainly think it's possible to cross the line, I think some good-natured ribbing and booing is all part of the game. And yes, to an extent, I'd say a professional athlete is inviting this kind of mockery.
If I were at a San Francisco Giants game, I'd think it my Christian duty to boo Barry Bonds boisterously. :)
Tim E, it would moreso be your duty as someone with more than 3 brain cells. ;-)
I think that professional athletes invite verbal abuse and mockery. Their job is to entertain (for which they are paid very well). Sports are somewhat of an exception to the entertainment rule. If you don't like musician X, you're probably not going to plunk down $50 to go to his concert. In sports, there's a near guarantee that there will be someone "performing" that you don't like.
If the athlete is not doing his job, or if he represents absolute evil (i.e. he plays for the Yankees), or if he's arrogant, he ought to hear about it. Seeing as how I don't have Giambi's home phone number...
The part about "not doing their job" may even cause boo-ing by the home fans. There's an old joke that during the off-season, Phillies fans go to the airport and boo bad landings. But the reality is, in Philadelphia and other cities with a large blue-collar contigency among the fans, if it's perceived that you're not trying your best to do your job, this is not put up with anymore than if you were laying pipe. But if you are, these are the most die-hard fans in the world. Jim Thome said as much when he left Philly for the White Sox (which to me, spoke volumes about Thome's class -- most athletes aren't even out the door before they start trashing their old city).
I've read that several athletes actually feed off the boo-ing of the opposing fans. So to keep silent is actually doing them a disservice. ;-) The only thing that I find comical is when people boo an opposing athlete, simply because he does well against their team. I have done this in the past, but that's even funny to me.
I would agree with Tim E that there is a line that shouldn't be crossed. But I would tend to think that if you cheer more for your team than you boo the other team, you're probably not gonna cross it.
I don't know that there's any Biblical rationale behind this idea (or its antithesis), but the idea of being supportive of all players sounds awfully self-esteem-ish and headed toward the "let's not keep score" mentality. And Paul did espouse running the race to win.
Tim-
These are great themes you have been dealing with recently - FISH and BASEBALL. By my accounting, this is what life is all about =)
I agree that if booing the Yankees (or Mets) and A-rod is un-Christian-like, then I am not sufficiently sanctified.
I'm much too busy cheering and encouraging my team than booing and jeering the opponent.
Now think about how that applies in life and how we treat our fellow man and neighbor.
I'm not into booing.
The Orioles had Albert Bell a few years ago, and i could not like this guy, even when he hit a homer, I could cheer for him. Did I boo him when he struck out? No. I would simply say, "I don't like this guy. Why does he have to be an Oriole?".The whole sports scene is really fun to talk about for me, I really love sports. And Christians need to be honest, and yet curtious, I would think, and yet passion is part of all this as well. Booing alright I guess, I'm just not into it.
I visited the Sky Dome a few years back when the O's were playing the Jays. It was Cal's final year. I bought third base seats, and looked forward to getting some great photos of Cal. BUT, he was sitting out this game! Man, was I mad! Oh well, I had a nice time watching the Birds lose to the Jays 2-1. Right.
A-Rod attended a Christian high-school in Miami. While this doesn't necessarily mean he's a Christian, I have heard that he is.
Does this change anyone's opinion about him being "un-Christian like"? I know that we all often falter and seem un-Christian like in our lives, but how can we claim someone isn't living a Christian lifestyle because of how much money he makes?
edit:
I misread an above post. I read that A Rod himself was un-Christian like. I should have read that booing A Rod was un-Christian like.
Oops.
I think booing is acceptable in the context of some sports while others it is totally unacceptable. I have been to a number of golf tournaments and it seems that everyone cheers for all of the players. I remember at a US Open one time where Greg Norman was jeered by someone in the gallery and he came after the guy after a fairway shot.
Personally, I don't have a problem booing as long as it is not personal. I remember a few years ago where Vernon Maxwell went after a guy in the stands who was making fun of his daughter's death. Play on the field is fair game, personal attacks are not acceptable.
I was 100% with you guys until I started thinking about how much professional sports impacts kids sports growing up.
Since professional sports IS the pattern for all the little leaguers in the world, right down to the "grabbing of yerself" and "spitting on the field" of your "Big League Chew", I wonder what example the booing sets for childrens' sports.
How would you feel if your son/daughter was/is the object of the booing ??
Just another dimension to think about ?
I never really got into the booing myself, espicially your own players. It just seems spiteful to show your displeasure in that way.
Of course, I'm not sure A-Rod was being booed just because he was away. I'll be the Yankees fans were letting into him as well - from what I hear in the general sports world, that's what seems to be happening.
At the risk of sounding like some full-blown situation ethicist, can we not consider that there are "situations" in which behaviors that are unacceptable elsewhere are perfectly acceptable? Since sports is our topic, I've thought at times about the fact that deception is at the heart of many sports. How? Well, there's the curve ball--designed to deceive the batter into swinging in a place where the ball isn't; there's the play-action fake (in fact, save the brute force goal-line plunge, isn't every play in football generally filled with deception of one kind or another? The defense attempts to disguise its intentions; men are sent in motion to distract; etc.). I act deceptively when I play many board games; I do not tip my hand when playing cards, wishing to keep opponents in the dark. No, I'm not being "honest" in a strict sense, but all parties recognize that "deception" is part and parcel of the game. I'm sure that there are other analogies that would work as well or better to illustrate other "vices" that we all understand play a role in the game.
Booing, one could argue, is not "part of the game"---and perhaps they'd have a point, but perhaps they wouldn't. I show displeasure to my congressman by writing him a letter or voting for his opponent in the primary. I show displeasure to a retailer by taking my business elsewhere. And booing is the accepted way to show displeasure for ballplayers, be they, generically, the other team, or be they individual players.
There are limits to booing, of course; personal attacks have their limits (the Cornbread Maxwell example being one). But we understand that we enter an arena in sports where certain behaviors are acceptable that might not be in other places (booing the stock clerk). I believe that Barry Bonds embodies so much of what is wrong with baseball today, and I'm thinking seriously about seeing him in person Friday night when the horrid Bucs play host to the Giants. I have a few thoughts of "personal encouragement" that I will likely pass along when I go. I will say nothing of the death of his father--that'd be WAY out of bounds, nor will I chide him for any personal relationship issues he may have. For his being a cheater, and helping to ruin what used to be my favorite game, the practice of booing seems to be, in context, an appropriate response. And unless I'm persuaded otherwise, one I will likely employ...
I usually don't post these things, but here goes...I would disagree that professional athletes "invite" booing simply by being good enough to be professional athletes. Being an avid Red Sox supported, I had done my fair share of booing the Yankees, but I see things from a different perspective now. We talk so much about salaries and how much the guys in the majors make. But what about the guys in the minor leagues? They're "professionals", too. Most don't see their families for weeks and months on end and can't afford all the wonderful things that being in the Bigs affords you. I do understand that it's a game. Most of us would give our right arms to be where they are. It's hard to see things from their perspective.
But being at a minor league game this weekend with my daughter, it takes the booing to a whole new level when they started booing my brother's team and some of the remarks about his friends became quite personal. It's so hard to hear those things about people you know and love from ignorant fans in the stands. We were just there to watch my brother play ball - not to hear him and his friends berated. I think that the Christian thing to do is to run the race to win. One of the readers before me was right - if you cheer for your team more than you boo the other - it's going to okay.
Yeah, blame the athletes for the amount of money they make. I'm sure if your goody-twoshoes Christian self was offered $25.6 million per year, you'd snap it up in a heartbeat.
Blame the owners and the agents for the ridiculous amounts of money athletes make, not the athletes themselves. They earn every penny of what they make.