FALLOUT BOY

Now that the weekend has subsided we can all get back to normal. Well, as normal as can be after this weekend. Carl Everett is beginning to sound like the Carl Everett of old. Carl nails fans on the head , literally and figuratively.

"This crowd has always been surly," Everett said of the Coliseum fans. "They're worse here than in (winter ball) in Venezuela and Puerto Rico. They're being obnoxious just to be obnoxious."

We submit that Everett is a word that starts with a ‘p’ ends with a ‘y’ and sounds like pushy.

The fans in Oakland are stupid. As stupid as they are anywhere in the United States or anywhere else in the world. You are taking a small percentage of a population from a select group. Sports fans.

We’ve written on the fans in Oakland for some time. There are fervent. They spend as much money on their A’s gear and attention items (flags, drums, banners) as some people spend on season tickets in other cities.

They get kicked and kicked again. And again and again.

Let’s take a brief sample of some things that A’s fans have gone through over the years;

Jose Canseco
Rickey Henderson
Tony LaRussa

That would be enough to drive crazy people sane.

A few more;

Kirk Gibson
Earthquake
The Nasty Boys

Ask an older A’s fan and they will tell you they never got to celebrate the 1989 World Series. Not only did the A’s win, but also they swept the Giants. Their cross-town rivals and Bay Area favorites. Still. There was no joy in the victory and it is a burning issue with anyone over the age of 20.

Just for good measure;

Al Davis then,
Al Davis Again
Stadium renovations
Reluctant ownership
Super Bowl blowout

Al Davis has done more to hurt the A’s than the Yankees. Yet, you won’t find it too easy for some A’s fans cannibalize themselves and hate the Raiders’ owner and Managing General Partner while rooting for the team on the field. It’s like getting permanently brilliant straight, white teeth and not being able to chew with them...ever again.

Oh, then there is;

Yankees, Game 5
Yankees, Game 5
Jason Giambi
Jason Isringhausen
Johnny Damon
Twins, Game 5
Miguel Tejada

That’s enough frustration for any fan for a lifetime and that has all transpired in the last three years.

Ask a fan who ponied up $35 for a seat to the divisional playoff game, a seat that normally sells for $7.

However, the fans in Oakland are smart, and contentious and kind. Name another team that has fans that bring out banners for players hitting under .200 and cheer them as if their last breath depended on the player getting on base. How many other teams can boast that their Fan Fest drew 20,000 plus – each paying $5 a head to get in?

Sure the fans boo the opposing home team when they are announced, a token boo. They yell at the opposing player closest to them. Just like home fans do at every other ballpark in the western hemisphere to opposing players.

The fans yell at older fans who catch balls in batting practice and don’t hand them over to the younger fans. That’s natural. The fans yell at players in batting practice to throw a few balls up. When they don’t, the player gets booed relentlessly during the game. Quid pro quo.

Has it gone too far?

No.

The language is seldom blue.

The comments are often relevant, if not totally inane.

Quite possibly some MLB outfielders just aren’t used to hearing fans in other ballparks. We seriously doubt that, though.

Let’s remember who Carl Everett is and take his comments with the mountain of salt they deserve.

If a bird crapped on Everett’s cap Saturday he would be after the Audubon Society to press charges.

Reading ESPN’s article it is clear that they are more interesting in keeping a non-story alive rather than actually doing any real investigation into the matter. They have yet to mention exactly how far away the fan was and that you can not see the right fielder from where he threw the phone.

The disturbing nature of this incident is that the fan will most likely be able to beat the rap. He is now being charged with assault with a deadly weapon.

A prosecutor will have to prove intent. How many District Attorneys do you know want to alienate 150 million cell phone users in North America by having their favorite electronic communication device being declared a ‘deadly weapon’?

The fan will be encouraged to take a plea bargain for a lesser charge. So, there will be an uproar that more needs to be done.

More can’t be done.

It was an impossible to one shot, if the fan was aiming, and an occurence that is just impossible if he was not aiming.

The fans were booing last night, and will continue to boo Carl Everett, because he nailed an employee in the head with the cell phone and he is not being held responsible (that, and Carl Everett is one of the strangest people to ever play MLB, and that’s a statement).

The media seems oblivious to this and the stance that MLB is taking is quite hypocritical. While he is pressing charges against a fan, an employee has a quarter size gash on his forehead.

This SF GATE article actually makes mention of how far away the phone had to be thrown and the more information that comes out, the more it sounds like he wasn’t trying to hit anyone at all. We can all see an argument between two people getting out of hand or just an angry cell phone user in general toss the thing into the brezze.

Does this forgive his actions.

Absolutely not.

You throw and object in the air and you bare the burden when it comes down and strikes someone…which brings the Carl Everett “free to injure as he pleases” issue full circle. Even if Everett didn't mean to hit the employee, he still did.

The defense is going to have that in its back, front and side pockets.

Imagine a red car hits a blue car. The blue car driver, upset over the incident, drives the blue car into an orange car.

The bar examine is now over; close your test booklets and stare staright ahead, dreaming of freeing guilty criminals and jailing innocent citizens.

Sorry, had to throw that in.

Elsewhere in the article there are generalized comments that are used to make it sound like the A’s don’t appreciate their fans.

Far from it.

A few times every year there will be idiots who just need to blow off steam and yelling at a baseball game is a lot better than road rage.

These are isolated incidents. The trick is to look at the frequency of these outbursts. If it happens once a series, that’s probably too much.
Still, it’s up to the fans in the stands to police their own area.

Last night one of the Stadium workers sat down next to us for the bottom of the ninth and was yelling louder than some of the other fans.