Taunting Is Merely a Bad Sign of the Times, Sociologist Says

Jose Canseco of the Oakland Athletics threatens to go after a fan taunting him from a box seat. Charles Barkley of the Philadelphia 76ers takes it one step further, responding to a heckler by spitting at him. And the Cleveland Indians’ Albert Belle further escalates the burgeoning war between the fans and the players by throwing a ball into the stands, hitting a spectator.

In the old days, the cry was, “Kill the ump.” Now it seems, everybody in the ballpark is fair game. What in the world is going on?

“What fans are doing isn’t any different from what Geraldo Rivera, Morton Downey, Andrew Dice Clay or Roseanne Barr do,” Gerri Husch, an associate professor of sociology at Brown University, told the Washington Post.

“We pay them to be nasty. We’re institutionalizing nastiness. We’re legitimizing it.”

Add taunts: “It’s gotten worse,” Washington Bullet guard Darrell Walker told the Post.

“It’s hard for somebody with a regular job to understand (Boston Red Sox pitcher) Roger Clemens making $5 million or Jose Canseco making $5 million.”

Thoughtful taunts: Heckling by fans isn’t always crude. In Madison Square Garden, the Lakers were being introduced before a game against the New York Knicks in the early 1980s. As each player came out on the court, a group of fans shouted insults bearing a personal stamp:

“Hey, Magic, you still running the team?”

Or:

“Hey, Kareem, you never should have left New York.”

And so on.

But when lesser-known Mark Landsberger trotted out, the hecklers were temporarily stumped for material.

Finally, after an awkward silence, one creative fan yelled, “Hey, Mark, way to go on the haircut.”

Add thoughtful taunts: The Laker-Boston Celtic rivalry was as heated as ever in the mid-1980s. M.L. Carr, a Boston reserve, became more famous for waving his teammates on from the bench with a white towel than for anything he did on the court.

Which led to a line from a fan watching him warm up at the Forum before a game.

“Hey, M.L.,” the fan screamed, “I was you for Halloween, but I got a hernia carrying the bench around.”

Trivia time: The battle with the fans got so bad in one World Series, a star player was removed from the seventh game for his own protection. Name the player and give yourself an extra point if you can name the year and the teams involved.

Trivia answer: St. Louis Cardinal outfielder Joe Medwick was removed from the seventh game of the 1934 World Series against the Tigers when Detroit fans showered him with garbage after an argument over a sliding incident at third base. St. Louis won, 11-0.

Quotebook: In 13 NBA seasons, Wes Unseld had 2,762 personal fouls. Asked once if he could remember his first personal, Unseld replied, “Yeah . . . but it wasn’t a foul.”