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Friday, January 20, 2006
There’s no reason to go into stands — ever
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Once again, here is a message to all of the knuckleheads out there:
Shy of somebody holding your loved ones at gun point or an extraterrestrial threatening to zap a family member or a close friend to Mars, you have no justification as a professional athlete to sprint into the stands.
None. Zero. Zilch.
That’s No. 1.
As for No. 2., virtually nothing is unprecedented.
Contrary to popular belief, ranging from those still wringing their hands over Philadelphia fans spilling beer on the mother of Washington Redskins’ Clinton Portis to this silliness involving Antonio Davis, folks have encountered The Abusive Fan (verbally, physically or both) forever. It’s just that athletes and most of their acquaintances once understood that the way to respond to The Abusive Fan is not to become The Drama King.
“I think these guys are more sensitive now than they were before, because they don’t have the patience with the fans that we used to have, I guess,” said Tony Perez by phone on Friday from his home in Puerto Rico. He’s the Hall of Fame slugger who starred on Cincinnati’s fabled Big Red Machine.
I called Perez, because his Reds experienced more than a few hostile moments that were underreported during that pre-ESPN era. Since those Reds were so dominating in the 1970s, they produced a mixture of jealousy and anger among opposing fans.
It also didn’t help matters that those Reds had Pete Rose whose belly-sliding, fist-pumping style turned the team into a target for boos and debris.
“Not one time did Pete try to go into the stands after somebody. No, never,” Perez said, before adding with a chuckle, “Unlike what’s happening now with players, Pete wouldn’t have had to fight one guy. It always was a bunch of them, so he wasn’t crazy.”
That’s in contrast to the slew of those in the post-Big Red Machine era who are nuts when it comes to these needless confrontations with fans. Take Antonio Davis, for instance. Earlier this week at Chicago’s United Center, he saw his wife, Kendra, jawing with a Bulls fan in the crowd. He bolted from the New York Knicks bench, leaped the scorer’s table and rushed to the scene. It was a riot waiting to happen, but things stayed calm. This time. Davis was suspended by the NBA for five games without pay, but his penalty should have been twice that much — for stupidity, if nothing else.
After the knee-jerk support of Davis for supposedly trying to protect his wife from a drunk, witnesses said that the fan wasn’t intoxicated, and that the fan was just cheering so fervently for his team that Kendra didn’t like it. The fan said he will sue the Davises, who said they will not apologize. Good. Maybe that will reverse this epidemic that hopefully reached its zenith on Nov. 19, 2004. That’s when the Indianapolis Pacers’ Ron Artest triggered a brawl in Detroit by charging into the stands after he was plunked by a cup filled with liquid from a Pistons’ fan.
But back to those Reds and a potentially explosive situation that many have forgotten or never knew. In the fifth and decisive game of the 1973 National League Championship Series, the New York Mets were three outs away at Shea Stadium from a pennant. Mets fans poured down the aisles in anticipation of storming the field, and along the way, some terrorized the large contingent of Reds family members and team personnel sitting behind the visitors’ dugout.
“They were pulling on the hair of women, and somebody got his coat torn. It was very scary,” said Bob Howsam, the Reds general manager back then, recalling the horror on Friday over the phone from his home in Sun City, Ariz.
In other words, those Reds players were more justified to jump into the stands than Davis, Artest and the rest. Instead, they showed restraint as Howsam had the group flee from their seats to a spot inside of the Reds’ dugout. He asked a group of New York police officers for assistance to a safer place.
“I’ll never forget how the three or four of them responded,” Howsam said. “They told me, ‘We’re here to protect the bats.’ I’m still angry about that. In hindsight, I should have pulled our guys off the field and forfeited the game.”
Not a bad option. Better than having a Reds knucklehead or three trying to battle New York’s wildest.
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