Chucking baseballs onto the field in disgust

[BeatTheRich]

Spotted last night in The Athletic:

 

"Fans were throwing baseballs onto the field from the Yankee Stadium bleachers to the point where the officials had to stop the game with the Yankees at bat in the bottom of the eighth... It was a display of some baseball fans making an active choice to sever any future sentimentality toward a ball they could display on their office desk, because as the game played out, they didn’t want to remember the experience of watching the Yankees rack up three fielding errors, a total of three hits and allow seven walks to their most annoying division rival. They wanted their ire to be seen, and not just heard."

 

Given the disappointing start of the Twin Cities' own local nine, is there any chance we could see something similar play out on Target Field? I'm nonviolent by nature and don't like to see childish behavior celebrated and embraced. I also worry that some unfortunate outfielder will get plonked on the head. And yet I'm also a fan. I want to see good baseball, the Twins are not playing good baseball of late, several rants on Twins Daily are currently circulating, and this little bit of street theater has caught my eye. It's certainly captured Aaron Boone's attention as well. He's said, "You kind of hate seeing that. Unfortunately, a handful of people end up doing it and it looks bad for everyone."

 

So what say you? A pointless, childish display of lashing out? Or a heartfelt plea to see better baseball played by an underachieving team? Are there better ways of motivating the Twins? What do you suggest?

[Danchat]

No, it'd take a lot more for this to happen in Minnesota... a lot. New Yorkers are passionate, I've been to a couple games there, and it's always loud. Twins games are quiet and I think it's a lot more casual fans who don't care close to as much as the Yanks. We suffered through the Total System Failure season without any of this, so that's why I say "a lot".

[MNT1996]

The fans over in NY are a double edged sword. The tremendous amount of pressure they put on Yankees players pushes all of them to perform at their highest level, but if they don't, the fans do stupid stuff like this. 

 

In general I think Twins fans need to apply a little more pressure to the players and front office when the team doesn't meet expectations, but not in barbaric ways like this. 

[shimrod]

I assume the "Chucking" in the post title is a reference to the infamous dollar dogs demonstration in MN?

[USAFChief]

I assume the "Chucking" in the post title is a reference to the infamous dollar dogs demonstration in MN?

[Rigby]

 

No, it'd take a lot more for this to happen in Minnesota... a lot. 

 

Armen Terzian says hi.....

[cHawk]

 

In general I think Twins fans need to apply a little more pressure to the players and front office when the team doesn't meet expectations, but not in barbaric ways like this. 

 

Do you have any ideas?

[glunn]

The Yankees lost again today.  I don't believe that fan misbehavior causes players to try harder.

[MNT1996]

 

Do you have any ideas?

 

Not really. I just enjoy complaining about it online rather than doing anything about it.

[ashbury]

Not really. I just enjoy complaining about it online rather than doing anything about it.

Well, if you enjoy complaining about it just half as much as I enjoy reading complaints about it, why, then I have enjoyed it twice as much as you!

 

[BeatTheRich]

 

The Yankees lost again today.  I don't believe that fan misbehavior causes players to try harder.

 

How about management and the manager then? Might it inspire a few benchings of slumping sluggers and some early call-ups of highly regarded talents such as, say, Larnach and Duran? Joined to fewer off-days for stars like Buxton, Donaldson, and Cruz, and more innings from frontline starters (itself the subject of another thread)?

 

The team needs a spark. I like Rocco, but I'd also like to see a little more passion and urgency from the guy. Has he ever been tossed from a game?

 

It's the opposite of take my ball and go home. It's more like take your ball, this stinks.

[MNT1996]

 

The team needs a spark. I like Rocco, but I'd also like to see a little more passion and urgency from the guy. Has he ever been tossed from a game?

 

It's the opposite of take my ball and go home. It's more like take your ball, this stinks.

 

Twins need to hire an anger translator for Rocco. Maybe Gardy is available 

[strumdatjaguar]

At least the Yankees are in the field.

[MMMordabito]

"Pick a team and root for their demise" - Lewis Black

 

Bad behavior, bad baseball .... it's all comedy to me when it comes to the New York Yankees and their fans.  I hope it gets worse, because it's entertaining.

[MMMordabito]

 

The team needs a spark. I like Rocco, but I'd also like to see a little more passion and urgency from the guy. Has he ever been tossed from a game?

 

He did get tossed at least once in 2019.  It appeared that he made some kind of condescending analytical remark to the umpire.  There was definitely no pointing or emotion or bases being tossed into the runway.

 

 

 

[ScrapTheNickname]

Chuck a baseball, fine, but don't woo or whistle, please.

[nicksaviking]

 

 

I was at that game; in the cheap seats in the OF too. 

 

I can proudly say my DomeDog was consumed and not wasted on Chuck Knoblauch.

[BeatTheRich]

 

He did get tossed at least once in 2019.  It appeared that he made some kind of condescending analytical remark to the umpire.  There was definitely no pointing or emotion or bases being tossed into the runway.

 

 

Classic. I hadn't seen that before. That's one way to fire up a team without anyone getting hurt.

 

[Dodecahedron]

Sure, Twins fans would do this.

 

There is the embarrassing moment fans decided to throw batteries at Knoblauch.

 

In the mid-80s, the Twins did a calendar giveaway at the gate. Midway through a long, boring game, fans were making paper airplanes out of the pages and throwing them onto the field. People only stopped when the announcer came on and announced they would have a contest later in the year to win a car if people could throw a paper airplane into a car parked on the turf, but only if they stopped tossing things on the field.

 

And of course there has been the odd game where trash and other giveaways were tossed on the field when a game didn't go the right way, for all teams.

 

 

[Craig Arko]

 

Sure, Twins fans would do this.

 

There is the embarrassing moment fans decided to throw batteries at Knoblauch.

 

In the mid-80s, the Twins did a calendar giveaway at the gate. Midway through a long, boring game, fans were making paper airplanes out of the pages and throwing them onto the field. People only stopped when the announcer came on and announced they would have a contest later in the year to win a car if people could throw a paper airplane into a car parked on the turf, but only if they stopped tossing things on the field.

 

And of course there has been the odd game where trash and other giveaways were tossed on the field when a game didn't go the right way, for all teams.

Classic Minnesota passive-aggressive behavior.

[Azviking101]

Yankees fans have always been childish. Nothing new here

[strumdatjaguar]

This can happen anywhere although Philadelphia, Boston and New York seem more likely places than Seattle, Denver and Minnesota. Somewhere someone will bring back the equivalent of Disco Demolition Night - only it would be Autotune Demolition Night for today’s ubiquitous annoying musical device.