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Banning the booze from the ballpark

Wildcat File Photo Arizona Daily Wildcat Chirs Jackson

In defense of the fans of the Boston Red Sox, it's understandable why they got upset in Sunday's loss to the Yankees.

But their subsequent behavior went way beyond that.

Bad calls by the umpires caused a violent reaction from the Fenway faithful, who pelted the field with projectiles and stopped the game until the Yankees and umpires felt safe enough to continue.

It's one thing to yell and scream obscenities, to mock the players and despise John Rocker (and his miserable Braves), but throwing things on the field is a whole other matter.

It's time that a line is drawn.

And it's time for teams to seriously consider the unthinkable in terms of drawing that line: banning alcohol.

It's already done at the college level and, excluding Michigan State, the fans are much better behaved then on the professional level.

This will never happen, though, as beer companies are far too big in terms of their monetary contributions.

So if that's the case, then it's time for security to take a harder line. All the fans who threw objects onto the field at Fenway should lose their season ticket privileges forever.

It's time to ban the fans if it's impossible to ban the beer. There are plenty of good fans out there who are respectful of their teams' opponents, and remember that umpires and referees are humans capable of stupid mistakes, just like the rest of us.

And do it fast, because fan behavior on the professional level, is getting worse by the day.

The frustration of the common man (and woman) has reached the boiling point. Player strikes, owner lockouts, fat free agent contracts and bad officiating have built up in people to the point of where the average American is doing their best "Krakatoa East of Java" impression.

Back in Boston, many people are asking if the umpires cost the Red Sox the game. To an extent, yes. Their calls were terrible, especially Chuck Knoblauch's phantom tag on Jose Offerman.

But one could just as easily blame Boston's inability to hit with runners in scoring position rather than a couple of bad calls.

At least everyone here in Tucson (a.k.a. Apathy, USA) knows they don't have to worry about any of this kind of behavior.

The average McKale Center fan is so old he/she couldn't even lift a battery to throw it.

And since the football fans haven't tried to hang any kickers from the goal posts yet, don't worry about them either, since it's doubtful anything else could make them angry enough to turn into Fenwayites.