Idiots, Indeed
The Red Sox
have done the right thing and banned season ticket-holder Chris House from Fenway Park. House, you may remember, was the fan who tried to hit Yankee outfielder Gary Sheffield in the face while Sheffield was making a play near the right-field wall. Another charming Red Sox fan then dumped a beer on Sheffield.
Many Red Sox fans are perfectly adequate people. But others are barely human. I love Fenway Park, but too often the fans there are out of control. First there's the charming t-shirts vendors sell to children outside the stadium: "Yankees Suck/Jeter Swallows." Nice. I remember the year when fans in the bleachers started bouncing around blow-up dolls of women...which went on for months, until some female fans complained and the team management finally realized this wasn't funny. Or the early spring game I attended when the temperature was so cold that fans in my section started picking fights just to stay warm. By game's end, at least half a dozen fights had broken out. And this was behind home plate....
The House incident wasn't the first time a Sox fan has attacked a Yankee player. A couple years ago, a Sox groundskeeper picked a fight with pitchers in the Yankee bullpen. The fans thought this was heroic, and the guy became a local hero.
If the Sox didn't take action, sooner or later someone was going to get hurt—either a player would be brutally assaulted, or a fan would get hurt by a player defending himself. It's about time the Sox took action to make sure that Red Sox Nation doesn't become Savage, Primitive, Drunken Idiot Nation. Chris House, wherever he is, should go root for the Boston Bruins....
