If you haven’t been reading this site lately, perhaps you missed the ongoing debate between myself and Another Cubs Blog regarding the appropriateness of booing.  Well Bleacher Nation took an interest in that story, and ran its own little story about whether fans should boo or not.  The blogger who initially personally attacked me on Another Cubs Blog decided to comment on Bleacher Nation’s story.  Here is the entire ridiculous scathing comment painting me personally as the reason baseball fans cannot take their families to games anymore:

That’s not true, Norman. Think about it. Do you honestly think the Cubs care if you pay for a ticket, buy drinks and merchandise and then boo? They’ll take your money every day and let you boo. They couldn’t care less since you’ve paid them money. They’re laughing all the way to the bank. The only real way to show your displeasure is not buy tickets, not purchase any merchandise and not watch the games. That would actually hurt the Cubs in a way they might care about. I can’t stand booing as you know, but if you want to pay me $50 to come into my place of employment and heckle me and and boo me every day, I’ll gladly take your money, and your abuse.

You want to boo someone who isn’t trying, fine. I don’t like it, but it’s at least understandable. The only problem is that we really can’t tell when someone is trying or not. If Soriano jogged after a fly ball we might think he’s not trying, but then we might find out he has a sore knee and has played through it for a month and rather than be subjected to abuse, we might praise the guy for playing through pain. Simply put, as a fan we have no way of knowing what is actually going on down on the field when it comes to effort. We don’t have enough information. What we do know is that MLB players bust their ass more than the average person and in more ways than the average person just to get there and to stay at that level. That we know for a fact. We know for a fact that they all bust their ass and in reality, work harder than any of us in perfecting their craft. What happens in an individual game we don’t know why it happened and unless we know why it happened it’s kind of silly to boo, don’t you think?

You may think you’re booing someone who isn’t trying, but as I already pointed out with Soriano, we didn’t know the whole story and despite not knowing it, he’s showed little sign of it. He’s busted his ass in ways that the average person simply could not do. and you know what? He’ll get repaid for that by fans booing the next time he fucks up.

What annoys me most of all about booing isn’t that it’s ridiculing or abusing the players. It’s that I have a reasonable expectation of going to the ballpark with my family and being able to enjoy the game. i don’t ask for much. I’m not asking for anything other than the people around me to consider that I may find that behavior atrocious. Unfortunately, I no longer have the reasonable expectation that will happen. I can now reasonably expect the fans around me to be complete assholes and not care at all about me. It’s selfish. It’s rude. It’s annoying. It’s childish. And a whole lot more. Most of all, I can no longer go to a game because people feel they must pay lots of money to a team and then show their displeasure in the way that has the least amount of impact.

You may feel as though I went too far as you said in your response, but it was you who went too far. It was you who disregarded how others feel about obnoxious behavior. It was you who then justified those childish actions. It was your selfish actions that makes me think two or three times about actually going to a game. It was your actions that have made me not attend a game in Chicago in 8 years (I go elsewhere to watch the Cubs because of you). It was you who told me flat out that you didn’t care if you ruined the experience for me and others around you. You’re like the person at the movies who keeps talking. you don’t care about the people around you. I didn’t feel as though I owed you an ounce of respect at that point. You’re the one who has to look in the mirror and justify childish, obnoxious and unruly behavior. You’re the one who said Fuck You to me.

I simply pointed out how much it irritated me that someone would have no disregard for others around them.

Ok let’s take this apart piece by piece:

Point 1: The only way for baseball fans to express displeasure is to not buy tickets or merchandise and stop following their team.

Really?  You’re telling me I have to either stop being a Cubs fan or pretend to be happy when a player I paid 100s of dollars to see dogs it on the field?

Point 2: We don’t really know if someone is trying or not or whether they are just hurt.

Fair enough, but we work with the knowledge we have and if Soriano doesn’t want to let on about an injury, then he needs to be man enough to withstand the criticism when it appears he isn’t putting forth full effort.

Point 3: Baseball players bust their asses more than the average person.

Ummm, what basis is there for that?  Baseball players are just people like the rest of us, they aren’t gods.  Just like in any other profession or in school, there are some people who are gifted and don’t put forth a ton of effort but get great results.  There are also others that bust their ass and have less natural talents but succeed anyways.  Why are baseball players different?

Point 4: The fact that I, Stormin Norman, personally boo at games is “childish…selfish” and that booing is a big “fuck you to me”.  This has prevented him from attending a baseball game in Chicago in 8 years.

Wow.  First of all, I do not approve of using foul language or saying horrible things to players.  Calling someone a bum or yelling at a player to run out a pop up is acceptable, but I never said anyone should have a right to use profanity or be inappropriate.  As Ace said in his post on Bleacher Nation, we should be able to express displeasure with a modicum of decorum.  If you are afraid to go to ballgames because people might boo, maybe you should consider not leaving your mom’s basement.  I’ve got news for you: people have a right to express displeasure in appropriate ways, and I think it’s pretty clear that booing at a ball game is not all that abhorrent according to our societal standards.

As a final note, I would like to point out once again that I rarely if ever boo anyone, so it isn’t actually me personally that is ruining your experience.  By the way, be careful if you leave your basement today, I heard it might rain, and we wouldn’t want God to disrespect you so horribly by making it rain on YOUR Saturday.

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Tags: Alfonso Soriano, Booing, Douchebag Blogger, How I Ruined Baseball