The Innocence of a Child

On Sunday, March 12, 2006, Dan Common, Chuck Strawn, and I attended two games of the World Baseball Classic at Anaheim, CA. On a number of levels, this was great fun! First watching competitive baseball live a month or so earlier than normal was a treat. Secondly, being in a stadium covered with Mexican/Korean flags and not understanding over half the chants and cheers felt like a mix between soccer and baseball. Thirdly, eating too many peanuts/sunflower seeds and other 'baseball snacks' always leads to a good time!

However, the title of this post relates to an experience we had in the first game (USA vs. Japan). We had good seats for the money. First row of the upper deck right above the on deck circle for Japan (first baseline). The stadium was two-thirds full and decently lively (nothing like the night cap between Mexico and Korea though). About midway through, as the adult beverages began to kick in, this guy down the row to our left began hanging over the bar and screaming obscenities , racial/ethnic epitaphs, etc, at anyone who looked Asian. It was disturbing to say the least. At one point he yelled something at the umpire about a pitch being a strike and this is what we heard over our right shoulders from a 6-8 year old boy with his dad, "Dad, do you think they can hear what he says?"

And thus the game went away, and I turned to Chuck and said, this needs to be a blog. First frequent readers of this blog know where I stand on the negative impact alcohol has on our society. However, this experience raised another question in my mind, "Why do people feel they can scream whatever they want at a very loud decibel at a sporting event, sober or not?" Even more disturbing is that this trend moves beyond stadiums to freeways, mall parking lots, street corners, etc. I know that it has something to do with crowd mentality or assumed anonymity, but I think that the movie "Crash" might be getting at the core of the issue. I contend that currently, people feel so isolated from others in our society that it is a form of release when situations like we experienced above happen.

The question I have is what is our role in this? I know my wife has been known to confront people in public who are being disrespectful around children or others (even though we don't have a child :)! The three of us were just about to the point of confronting this guy, then as some would say, 'Karma happened'. After ARod popped out with a man in scoring position, this guy's friend threw his half full peanut bag up in the air and over the rail, showering fans below with peanut shells. The ushers and security immediately moved in and quickly escorted this guy's friend out, and the proceeded to lecture the rest of the party about their behavior, thus issuing a warning. Later after another play not going the U.S. way this guy jumped up and hit his ball cap on the rail in front and losing the handle it dropped below to those same fans who were previously showered by peanuts!

Seriously, though, what this little boy said should be in our minds constantly because he was saying more than "Dad can they hear him?" He was saying, "Dad, if they can hear what he says, will it make them change anything?" Or, "Dad, if they can hear what he says, they will be hurt/sad." Or finally, "Dad, I can hear what he is saying and I don't like it!" Others definitely hear what we say, even when we don't raise our voice. This honest question should be a lesson to us all when it comes to civility and good will to others. I know it struck a chord with me, so I thought I would pass it on to you.