Warholian Solipsism, Or More Booing

A recent piece in the Times talks about how booing at Mets games has been on the upswing, and how sad and regrettable this is, and getting into the details of why this is. As an old hand at denigrating the efforts of the home team, let me weigh in.

It's really not about people expecting to become famous for booing, or even for holding up a sign. Booing is a communal act; it takes thousands of people to do it to be noteworthy.

> No lovable losers. When I was growing up, there were fan bases -- plural -- that prided themselves on rooting for the home team whether they were good or bad. Chicago Cubs, Boston Red Sox, San Francisco Giants, New York Mets... they were all bad much more often than they were good, and it didn't seem to matter. Now, when any of these teams struggle, it's a great hue and cry from the fan bases, because they've paid big money to stink. The only teams that can stink are the ones that don't have big or famous fan bases, which is to say, MLB-.

> Demographic change. It's harder to boo in front of your kids. But it's easier to boo when you've paid a huge amount of money to be there, or you're on some kind of work-related thing where someone else is paying for your multiple beers. So look at the crowd composition now, and you'll see where this is going, has been going, and in all likelihood, will contine to go...

> Road crowd. This isn't something you'd experience in MLB+ markets, but in any stadium that's close, you're going to get the road team's crowd making the audience a less than partsian experience. When I'd go to A's games in Oakland where they played the Yankees or Red Sox, at least a third of the crowd was there for the opposition. When the home team would get on a player, the road fans happily join in.

> Rising irritability. Games are over three hours routinely. Inning breaks take longer due to more commercials. Late innings take forever due to one-batter pitching changes. And the audience is supposed to be as happy as always. This does not compute.

> Acceptable hate and profanity. Blogs. Sports radio. Entertaining rants. Let's face it... it's easier to write angry than it is to write happy, and if you don't believe that, go and look at the lyrics to pop songs about love.

As for profanity, hearing chants of Bullsh*t has become more or less common, especially in connection with NBA games, since the mics are close and the fans really do impact the games. And no one, really, feels bad about the coarsening of the culture in this regard.