Thursday, July 08, 2010

NEW YORK STATE OF MIND.

This is a lengthy, but absolutely fascinating article, by Seattle Times Mariners beat writer Geoff Baker, about the state of baseball fandom in Seattle. I believe it sprung from the horrific fan interference the other night, where yet another idiot fan reaching out to grab a ball in play cost a team the game (at least the Mariners threw him out, which doesn’t happen enough in my opinion), but it’s worth a read because it’s just another world.

The fact that so many people here got defensive when Cliff Lee made his post-game comments to Brad Adam in New York about how fans in that city don’t need a teleprompter to tell them when to cheer tells me I’m not imagining it. Lee may or may not have been taking a subtle jab at fans here. I don’t know, haven’t asked him and don’t care. It was the defensive reaction of people here, borne out of the experience of fans here not clapping until a video scoreboard message tells them to, that was the real story on that subject.

That’s the number one complaint of one of my best friends in Seattle, who’s also a charter Mariners season ticket holder. It drives her absolutely batty. And the thing is, I know I complain about this at Citi Field (and I know I’m not the only one), but it’s not as true as it is out there, where people (to quote my friend Sarah) won’t cheer unless the scoreboard tells them to, and (from my experience) look askance at anyone who does cheer independently. The kind of colorful commentary you and I are accustomed to out here just doesn’t happen out there. But as much as I complain about the Citi Field security, no one would be coming over to tell me to sit down at the second-to-last out in the 9th inning, because no one behind me would be complaining to security, either.

Worth a read on your off day.