Idiot columnist of the day

That's because The Big Lead and Deadspin linked to it.

 

Mark Madden read this column and said, "Holy shit, and I thought I was a douchebag."

 

When you wear the "enemy" jersey to a game, you should expect to take a little taunting and trash talking. And it fine for the home team's fans to deliver as much, good-naturedly.

But you shouldn't expect - nor is it acceptable - to be beaten, severely or otherwise.

Everyone's entitled to their opinion, but this goes alongside the one held by the group that thinks men and boys having sex is OK.

 

Went to a Cal game in Knoxville and was amazed how nice everyone was while I was there. The day I left, people seemed a lot more indifferent and then I realized it was because it was the first day I wasn't wearing any Cal stuff. I'll always root for Tennessee because of that.

 

I feel the same way about Nebraska.

 

Not a rivalry, but I wore a Royals hat to the home opener at the old Yankee Stadium a few years ago when KC was in town. I got nothing more than a few amused looks. The typical exchange:

Yankee fan (although not, to my knowledge, YankeeFan): "So, you're a Royals fan?"
Me: "Yup."
Yankee fan (after a short pause): "Huh. Cool."

 

The whole jersey-wearing thing is a legitimate issue for a column, but this one wasn't meant to discuss or even take an informed stand. It was obviously meant to incite.
I can remember when most adults, anyway, didn't wear $80 jerseys to games, and I'm not crazy about seeing 270-pound men or 55-year-olds of any size dressed that way. And there's also the issue of how and where these things are made, and how fans have been brainwashed by advertising and marketing to think they have to dress that way.
Then again, I've also seen young couples holding hands wearing matching jerseys to a game, and that's kind of neat. So it works both ways.
A few years ago, I was at a game in Philly, supposedly ground zero for this sort of thing. A guy in a Howard or Utley jersey was being a jackass, standing up and blocking everybody's view, cursing in front of kids, spilling beer, screaming at his friends and to players. But guess who called security and cheered when he got kicked out? People in Howard and Utley jerseys.
This column was a hack effort because it seems obviously written only to incite, which I deplore. Also, he supposedly got the victim's name wrong, and the critical medical state of the victim should have prevented its being passed through as is.
Still, I can just hear a publisher or editor chortling about the "multi-platform response" this got. Journalism, meet your future.

 

Being a Royals fan (I am one as well) is like saying you root for the Washington Senators.

 

A group of us go to a Dodgers game at AT&T each year. Some are Dodgers fans, some Giants fans. One of the guys wears a Dodgers jersey. One time, this guy starts screaming at him. "Dodgers suck. Dodgers go home."
My friend grabs the guy's hand, gets in his face and yells: "YOU SHOULD BE GLAD I'M HERE BECAUSE IF I WASN'T, YOU WOULDN'T HAVE ANYBODY TO YELL AT."
Both of them started laughing, they shook hands and that was that.

On the other hand, there was a story years ago about a guy driving in L.A. He was wearing a Royals cap. He got shot. Unfortunately, he wound up in Bloods territory wearing Crips colors.

 

I'm a diehard Giants fan and back when games were at Candlestick, if the Dodgers were in town, they had a crew in riot gear at most games.

I remember seeing a vendor selling a T-shirt that said "Fuck the Dodgers" in the parking lot at a game back in 1980 or 1981.

 

I thought you were a Royals fan?