Oakland and the A’s

More on the Monday (Sept 14-th) night fight at the Oakland coliseum during the A’s game. The Texas Rangers bullpen attacked the fans and their pitcher Frank Francisco threw a chair into the stands. I was watching on TV and I saw the chair hit a woman. Apparently she was the wife of a heckler. The hecklers were making the usual comments at the fat guys like “you can use a salad” etc. And then one guy apparently said to Francisco that his family is waiting outside the Home Depot. This was apparently a racial reference about the Hispanics working at Home Depot. One caller to a talk show said that this is especially true in the East Bay where Hispanics show up in the morning and are looking for a job at the Home Depot. Whatever was said, it was obvious that the fans didn’t cross the line. Even on TV, I had no indication that the fans got onto the field or poured beer on the players. It was the players who tried to get into the stands. So I was actually a little upset with the Oakland PA announcer warning the fans that if they get on the field, A’s would forfeit the game. I was like, why are you saying this? The fans never got on the field to begin with.

This brings up an interesting point. The Oakland A’s fans seem to get a bad rap from the national media. I think most of it is because of the Raider fans. People around the country assume that the A’s fans are as rowdy as the Raiders fan and they are not. I heard such insinuations on the Jim Rome show and all other national shows. But there were quite a few Bay Area callers calling and defending the A’s fan saying they are pretty docile and nice. They made my point and I was happy about that. But for some reason they seem to have problems every now and then. Last year somebody threw a cell phone at Carl Everett and this year we have this and people probably think they are seeing a pattern here. . Me don’t think. Adding to this perception are comments from the Rangers claiming that they always have problems here. They are obviously trying to defend their indefensible acts and I don’t think it’s true.