Turning the Other Cheek at the Ballpark

As much as I like baseball, I'm aware that there are complete degenerates that often attend these games, fully tanked up with beer by the third inning. And given that I don't have the inclination to take out a second mortgage to pay for the expensive field level box seats, I have in the past found myself in close proximity to jackasses who are spewing profanity at the players, and then turning their bile towards anyone who has the audacity to look in their direction.

For example, a few years ago, I went with a buddy Dave (a Red Sox fan) to a Yankees vs. Red Sox game at Yankee Stadium. A group of burly guys sat a few rows behind us and were throwing ice cubes and verbally assaulting Red Sox fans who sat in front of them. Dave and I turned around and were greeted with a menacing "turn the f&ck back around, @ssholes!" We smartly just left it alone, but I wondered whether confrontation would've felt better.

I thought about this as I read a sad episode of fan outside of Philadelphia's Citizens Bank Park who was killed by three men after a spilled beer escalated into a fight. I don't know if victim, David Sale Jr. was culpable in escalating the tensions. Maybe he actually tried to walk away, but still got jumped by this threesome of thugs.

It's disappointing that I won't feel completely safe at a sporting event, and certainly not comfortable bringing my young children. The explosive combination of alcohol and fan passion is a dangerous one, and unless teams are willing to provide greater security for people inside and outside of the stadiums or stop selling beer (which will happen when hell freezes over), I fear that we'll see more incidents like this.

It also raises the question of the Kenny Rogers' "Coward of the County" question of when to walk away from a fight. My good friend the Urban Christian recently wrote about the "code of the street" and how it complicated advice to a son growing up in urban Philadelphia, where walking away from being disrespected could have negative longer-term consequences. This is perhaps where the nuance Kenny Rogers sings of in the chorus of the song - both "You don't have to fight to be a man," and "Sometimes you have to fight to be a man."