Pearlman column on fans and sports writers

We had a local little league game end with the umps calling the police to help them get out of the parking lot. The festivities began beforehand, when 5th grader off Team A tossed a warm up throw into the stands for Team B. Which was deliberate, of course, because we know 11-year-olds have awesome control. Next inning, Team A gets one in the dugout.

Got the police report, wrote a column about it, and had local umps and refs stopping by to thank me for weeks afterward. The abuse these guys take is unreal. I really have no clue why anyone does it, especially after what I've seen.

 

Of course, in the past, you would have saved a few minutes by not bothering to write a return address.

 

I know how you feel. I grew up cheering for the Toronto Maple Leafs. :-\

 

Cubs fans know how you feel.

 

The whole thing reads like it's from someone who never had to field a call from a high school or Little League parent.
Fans are not getting more hostile.
They just have a better distribution method for their thoughts.

 

You can have it if you want it.
Not the team you're covering, obviously, but somebody else.
Somebody you grew up with. Somebody you attach yourself to later on.
I've been at this for three decades. I still have teams I follow passionately. It's a choice you make. If you don't "have that," it's because you don't want it. Which is fine if it's your preference, but don't lament its absence like it's beyond your control.

 

Yeah, that's true. It's mostly because I don't really care about NFL, NBA or NHL (never did) and I cover MLB.

I do get excited about my Ohio Bobcats, but they only provide excitement about every five years.

 

I don't agree. I can't be a passionate fan any more - not the way the numb skulls in the bleachers are. I'm happy when teams in my city win, just because it's fun, but it neither ruins my day nor makes it any better. I understand that it's a business, and I tend to think about it almost exclusively in those terms.

I actually like sports better that way, and feel I get more out of them, intellectually, than 99.9999 percent of the meatballs out there.

 

Like I said: You don't want to be.
That's fine.
You're above us. We get it.

 

Is our President a numbskull? Is he a passionate fan?

 

That's not fair.

I don't choose to be dispassionate. It's just happened. I watch sports differently from the average fan because of all my years behind the scenes.

Might as well say someone thinks they're above someone because they have brown eyes.

 

One chooses to be what one wants to be.
I've got 30 years "behind the scenes." I'm as passionate a fan as I've ever been, with the exception of when I was a kid and pretty much my whole life revolved around fandom."
I used to be a huge baseball fan. I choose not to be now because I loathe what Yankees TV money has done to the sport.
I used to follow golf closely. Lost interest. My choice.
I grew up thinking soccer was a foreign sport. Now I love it, probably my favorite sport. My choice.
One can't be a fan of the sport one covers and be a true pro, but there's always something out there to follow if one desires to be a fan.
(And my potshot was directed not at your choice to not be a passionate fan, but at your dismissal of the "meatballs" who are).