new thread
I can't believe there are still people this ignorant around today.
the focus should be on his playing ability, not his hair!
Aloohol + a fan with money bet on the game
Hopefully this rant was an incentive to beat the competition.
(Baseball season ended almost two months ago)
It just sounds like a drunk in a bar crying out about anything surprising. The tone of his voice suggests joking. However, I do admit that people can be very insensitive and rude.
I had a woman in Canterbury stare very rudely at me last weekend in Canterbury. My Bishop did point out that wearing a priest's cassock and cape, and sporting a bushy ponytail would attract attention. He has a point.
We non-conformists just have to develop thick skin, keep calm - and carry on.
Anthony
Yea OK, glad I don't go to live sporting events anymore as dealing with the public is less than stellar.Just as bad as that loudmouth calling out for him to get a haircut was that woman who referred to him as a dirty hippie.Yes, bigotry is alive and well still :( Cheers
Mârk
As a sports fan I would point it most likely is a combination of
alcohol mixing with fans who have a dislike of the opposition
and who have a good chunk of money bet on their team and are anxious to make the point spread.
In my younger days when I got comments like that i'd take it
as a massive incentive to not only keep my hair long but to
go even further and grow it longer. I started growing my hair
in 1964 and for many years it was a driving force for me. Granted I never played sports but the idea is the same.
I would mention though in the case of this ball player it may not be "rude," but more of a case of rooting for the home team
and trying to distract the opposition and rattle the opposition.
When you get these fans away from the heat of the game their
comments turn 180 degrees and they'll say how they admire the player and how good that player is.
So in this case take the comments with a giant grain of salt.
Case in point: all the nice things people had to say about Derek Jeter when he retired. (Even in cities like Boston.)
I used to go to hockey games so I do understand the power of psychological warfare against the opposition teams, especially in playoffs. So that might explain away that loudmouth with the get a haircut comment but that women who uttered the comment, in a much lower tone of voice, calling him a dirty hippie was clearly not doing the warfare role. The only people who heard it were within immediate earshot so she obviously is kind of a bigot. Just my opinion though :) Cheers
Mârk
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Some people will never know how to behave appropriately.......
IMHO the important point to keep in mind is fans will overlook
athletes idiosyncrisies if the team is winning and the players are trying. The 2004 Red Sox proved that.
Fans will turn on players if they team is loosing, if the players are just phoning it in (not trying), or if the player is on the opposing team. Fans also look at how much the player is
paid, how much they pay for tickets, and how expensive parking
and concessions are.
Remember too fans are often fueled by alcohol, and that baseball is a very slow game, so you have fans with lots of time to kill (i.e. harassing opposing players, doing the wave, tossing around iflatable sex toys, etc. And there are fans for whom the sole reason they are there is to harass player x from
team x. (They don't care how the home team does, they travel from city to city following x player so they can get their
jollies harassing x player.)
I would also mention this harassment only applies to players.
For all the years i've had long hair and attended many a baseball game i've never been harassed about my hair.
It is rude! And shouting at him before his sports performance is a psychological trick to influence the game. It's not fair but people do it. Especially protected in a group.
If it happens outside of a sports environment I guess it is because it makes people feel better when they talk other people down.