COLUMN: Fan, player behavior is going too far

By By Tony Krausz / assistant sports editor
Sept. 19, 2004
While most of us had thoughts of Hurricane Ivan swirling through our heads this week, a woman had a chair whirl at her head early in the week.
Jennifer Bueno and her husband took it upon themselves to let the Texas Rangers relief pitchers know how they felt about them.
Rangers reliever Frank Francisco fired back with a plastic chair, which struck Bueno in the face, breaking her nose.
Bueno's husband said he and his wife were heckling the relievers with taunts of, "Which one of you losers is going to blow this thing tonight?"
Of course, the other side to this story has witnesses saying the heckling was abusive, and one witness said the heckling included a racial slur.
Francisco may have put too much stock into his 60 strikeouts-to-28 walk stat, making him believe he would have the same pinpoint control with a chair that he does with a baseball.
It is pretty hard to believe Francisco felt he had enough control to hit a single loud-mouth fan in a sea of people behind the bullpen.
Francisco has received a suspension for the rest of the regular season, and he began serving his timeout on Saturday. He will miss 16 games.
The Rangers' rookie is getting what is coming to him on the field, and he will probably get hit pretty hard off the field.
Bueno is planning a civil suit against Francisco, who posted bail after being arrested on suspicion of aggravated battery after the game on Monday.
With footage of Bueno in the stands with a busted nose and blood drying on her cheek, it would seem to be a pretty hard case for Francisco to successfully defend himself in.
But that's for the real courts to decide.
A bigger issue than Francisco and the rowdy fans has arisen from the tossed chair.
Has it become time in American sports to start making our arenas and stadiums virtual fortresses, separating the spectator from the athlete, a la most international soccer stadiums?
The last few years have brought about a disturbing pattern of athlete-fan interaction.
In the recent past, one fan took it upon himself to reach into the Los Angeles Dodgers' bullpen, punch a reliever in the noggin and run off with his hat. The dude stole the pitcher's hat that's just not right.
There was also a brawl in Fenway Park when a few New York Yankee relievers decided a grounds keeper was cheering the Red Sox just a bit too loud. So, of course, they brawled.
Two years ago, grandpa Tom Gamboa, the first base coach of the Kansas City Royals, was mauled in the coach's box by a shirtless team of father and son in Chicago.
Gamboa forgave the son and smiled when the father received his jail time, but the image of the wrinkled old base coach on the ground with a large gash on his head is nothing to forget and smile about.
A year after the attack on Gamboa, another Chicago White Sox fan jumped on the field and attacked an umpire.
The ump was an ex-Marine and handled himself just fine in the short-lived brouhaha, and the fan received jail time again.
These are just a few of the more fantastic occurrences in the last few years that point toward big problems between fans and ball players.
What has made modern day fans think they have the right to impede the field of play or even the warm-up section of play?
There seems to be an idea of empowerment among fans because they now know so much about those playing the game.
With the intense coverage of major sports and the advent of thousands of sport-related Internet sites, fans can find out virtually anything about anyone in sports even a rookie pitcher for the Texas Rangers.
While some use this information to feel closer to the team they root for or the player they like, others have taken these new nuggets of knowledge has ammo for taunts.
When you can find out that a player's girlfriend in high school dumped him for the third tuba player in the marching band, you are going to use this to get into his head.
Plus, fans believe the price of their ticket which seem to grow higher every year gives them free reign to say and do what they feel like.
Well, news flash fan, it doesn't.
Just because you have dirt on a player doesn't mean you should yell it to him through out an entire game, and just because you paid a good chunk of your weekly salary to see a game doesn't give you the right to act like a savage.
Go to the games, have fun heck, friendly trash talk is more than acceptable just keep it clean, but there is a line that can be crossed.
And if too many people cross it, the line will disappear, and a wall will be erected between the fans and the games that may never come down.