Dodgers Fans are Not Very Nice

I went to Game 1 of the NLDS between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Los Angeles Dodgers last night at Dodgers Stadium in Los Angeles. It was a great game: the Cards came out of the gates running, with 3 hits and 1 run in the 1st inning, but left the basses loaded to end the inning. Los Angeles answered in the bottom of the 1st with 2 runs, and the Cards just couldn’t seem to recover. Carpenter didn’t have a very good game, and the Cardinals bullpen did okay, but it wasn’t enough to bail them out and the Dodgers won the game 5-3.

I went to the game with my friend Jake, and the minute we walked into the stadium, we were met with all manner of boos and taunts, which is to be expected. But these were very malicious and out-of-line hecklers, saying terrible things about Pujols and his mother, throwing peanuts at us, yelling “Go back to the midwest homos.” This is not what baseball is about. This is bad sportsmanship, and it is just plain rude. Jake was playing the pacifist, and didn’t want to start any trouble, but I’d had enough. I started yelling back at the fans, riling them up a little bit. Then a guy a few rows back from our seats started in on us, and just would not stop. Finally I got up, turned around, gave him the finger, and said “Fuck you buddy.” This made him VERY angry. He began throwing stuff and making threats, so I invited him down to my seats to continue the argument. He declined.

In the middle of the 4th inning, during a piss break, a police officer pulled me and Jake aside; I thought we were being arrested. The cop told us to keep in mind that there were only 2 of us, and 50,000 Dodgers fans, and that we should be cool and not agitate them further, and that he didn’t want to have to throw us out of the game. I told him I wasn’t trying to start trouble and that I was just standing up for myself, and the police officer politely said that if this guy kept throwing stuff at us to come get him and he would handle it. Someone told Jake in the bathroom to take off his Cardinals jacket or he would show him the knife in his pocket. What is wrong with these people? One guy even smiled at us and said, “Hey, if it was us in St. Louis, we’d be treated the same way.” Bullshit. The Cardinals have the nicest fans in baseball. I challenge any of you to go into Busch Stadium this weekend decked out in all blue, and count how many fans heckle you. I’d be shocked if it were more than 2. People have manners in Missouri, and we understand that win or lose, it’s just a game.

On our way back to our seats we were followed by a chorus of boos; I felt like Ty Cobb walking into Yankees Stadium. The asshole behind us kind of shutup for the rest of the game, with an occasional outburst, but we did our best to ignore him. I made friends with an older Dodgers fan sitting next to me named George, and George was very dissapointed in the rest of the crowd, saying “These people are way out of line, this is just a baseball game. I’m embarrassed for the rest of us right now.”

So today I have tickets for Game 2, and I will be wearing all red once again. I hope today I’m treated with a little more respect. People from southern California are supposed to be a bunch of peace-loving, dope-smoking hippies. Start acting like it people!