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Two, four, six, eight, who do we emasculate!

By Walter G. Meyer

February 6, 2006

San Diego--“Fucking faggot! Fucking faggot! Fucking faggot!” The drunk yelled it over and over until it became a meaningless mantra—a very annoying one. This wasn’t at a Wyoming gay pride parade, but at a UCSD hockey game in UTC. At first, the comment was directed at Fresno State’s goalie, who chose to ignore it, as well as the drunk’s invitation to perform oral sex on him.

But after the drunk started addressing comments to the ref—by name (which was on his striped shirt)—the ref skated over to the glass and told the drunk he’d be happy to wait for him after the game. The feedback seemed to make an impression on the drunk, who now started hollering “Great call, ref!” every time the whistle blew. Whether this was sarcasm or sincere was hard to tell through the slurred speech.

Hey, he might be. But who cares?

Yelling at the competition and the refs is part of the game, but when it’s that obnoxious and doesn’t have a crowd of thousands to absorb it, it is particularly irritating. At a SDSU hockey game a week later, a player from UC Irvine kept mixing it up with the Aztec goalie. Attacking the other team’s goalie is a big no-no and earned the UCI player a number of hard hits. Each time the player and the goalie connected, the contingent of drunken SDSU fans would cheer for a fight to start. “Drop the gloves!”

(I could tell they were drunk by the way several of them kept saying, “I am so wasted,” or “What quarter is it?”)

After the game, as the teams shook hands, the UCI player and the goalie hugged and the fans hooted their disapproval. They wanted blood, not a reconciliation. I learned later that the goalie and player were friends, and they just liked to play hard. So what appeared to be their impending fight was just their physical style of friendship, and hockey. It was a shame that the fans wanted violence instead of good, hard hockey among friends.

In the course of researching my novel, which takes place on a high school baseball team—and my next will be about hockey, hence my attendance at the UCSD and SDSU games—I spent many hours watching many innings of high school baseball and last year saw one of the worst performances I have ever seen on a baseball field.

I have watched a lot of baseball over the years, and never have I seen such a bad show. I’m not referring to the play of the young men on the diamond, but to the actions of one of the team’s coaches and some of its “fans.”

After observing many high schools, American Legion, college games and even thinking back to my high school baseball team, I don’t think I have ever seen such unsportsmanlike conduct as I witnessed last week at a game between two San Diego area high schools.

The rude actions and comments of some of the players cannot be blamed so much on them as their coaches, particularly one who must have trained under Bobby Knight. The other coaches, as well as the team and fans, were clearly taking their cue from him. I’m leaving out the names of the teams so as not to embarrass the players, but see if you recognize yourself in these bleachers or this dugout and if you think such conduct is appropriate.

The complete lack of respect the coaching staff and players showed the umpires, opposing coaches and players was atrocious. The head coach persistently harassed the umpire about what he considered a bad call at the plate, which would have put his team up 2-0. Two innings later he was still harping about this, claiming the umpire was on the other team’s side. The umpire yelled back, “The score is 1-0,” to which the coach replied, “And you’re working hard to keep it that way!”

At that point, when it was clear the coach was going to keep up the constant complaining, I would have thrown him off the field if I’d been calling the game. His abuse was not limited to the men in blue. When the opposing coach took too long deciding on a line-up change, the coach yelled, “Know your players!”

This coach was also leveling personal verbal attacks against the rival pitcher. Trying to rattle the competition, particularly the pitcher, is part of the game, but the comments he was making went beyond what is called for within the ethics of sport. After the pitcher gave up a walk, the coach yelled, “Atta girl!” (continued)

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