Why Does No One BOO?

[hose]

How the apologists use the boards rules to enforce their smarmy acceptance of the status quo? "Board rules", "He'll use up his 500 soon enough". Poster made a point about fans here being a little too polite in the face of absolute suckiness. He stepped on (I'm not sure over) a couple of lines. He feels that perhaps making the players less comfortable may motivate them a little more. Many feel that if a team isn't performing, you have a right to boo- and you don't need Ken Burns to tell you this is a right granted fans since time immemorial.

Fans can be irrational, loud, impatient, and take a game far too seriously. Where does the word "Fan" come from anyway? If you want to use the Orioles as a test of your Zen philosophy and acceptance of all that comes your way, more power to you. If you want to use this board as your personal club (pun intended) to hammer anyone that expresses their love for the O's in a way that doesn't please you, then who's making WHO feel unwelcome and is attacking another poster? And defining an intelligent fan as one who shouldn't attend a game rather than actually pay for a ticket and boo when they don't get their money's worth is a discussion at best- not a fact.

And finally, referencing a lot of other threads, let's consider not calling people idiots and their posts stupid. You want to be good citizens, respect those around you. If they haven't done their homework, correct them, ignore them, but let's laugh at them on OUR side of the keyboard. As I am not a board policeman, the aforementioned is a SUGGESTION.....not an edict.

As I said when I turned yesterday's game off, God bless us one and all.

[evenparthrough9]

1) So you don't think that fans not attending games means anything?

2) So you think you can break the board rules?

Not going to games is not necessarily a sigm of displeasure....Tampa for example

Looking at the team without orange colored glasses and then stating an opinion is breaking rules?

[SrMeowMeow]

I could never boo the Orioles...I love like every guy on the team!

I guess I could boo Gregg. Booing Izturis feels like shooting fish in a barrel, though. Oh, and I will definitely boo Vlad. I'm so sick of knowing that every at-bat will last one pitch and that the most probable outcome is a groundout to short.

[Catch 8]

I went to my first game yesterday in a few years. What I saw was a team that looked like they were playing with ZERO heart. They looked like they didn't even want to be out there.

I started to BOO when hitters would swing at terrible 2-0 pitches. Everyone else looked at me like I was crazy... It looked like all the players cared about was themselves.

It's about time these players started to feel accountable for there suckiness. BOO!

At 2-0, the hitter will probably see the best pitch to hit during his at-bat. I do not believe selfishness is in play here at all. If anything -- especially these days -- hitters like drawing walks since it gives them a bump in OBP --> more money. It is different than in a rec league whereby players largely only care about hits and home runs so they can say they got them.

That said, I believe it is appropriate (perhaps not nice) for fans at professional sporting events to boo when they so desire since the athletes are more than compensated for it. And I agree that Oriole fans -- including many on this board -- come off as complacent with where the Orioles are. I love Roy's angry no-BS threads because that is a competitive attitude, which I believe good fans should have. What makes me irate is when someone posts a good critical thread or response and then gets lambasted for being too negative or some other excuse. Fans should be mad as hell with this team.

[paulcoates]

What board rule was broken in his post?

[Steve I]

At 2-0, the hitter will probably see the best pitch to hit during his at-bat. I do not believe selfishness is in play here at all. If anything -- especially these days -- hitters like drawing walks since it gives them a bump in OBP --> more money. It is different than in a rec league whereby players largely only care about hits and home runs so they can say they got them.

That said, I believe it is appropriate (perhaps not nice) for fans at professional sporting events to boo when they so desire since the athletes are more than compensated for it. And I agree that Oriole fans -- including many on this board -- come off as complacent with where the Orioles are. I love Roy's angry no-BS threads because that is a competitive attitude, which I believe good fans should have. What makes me irate is when someone posts a good critical thread or response and then gets lambasted for being too negative or some other excuse. Fans should be mad as hell with this team.

I think many are just tired. Tired of constant losing seasons, tired of over paid aging free agents just not having any success, tired of the general malaise that losing puts into the air. tired of having a cupboard quite bare. Booing takes energy and generally shell shocked fan base just lacks energy. They also lack any semblance of confidence that things will turn around anytime soon. We have apathy among the fan base, not passion.

[Enjoy Terror]

I'm not criticizing the OP for being negative. I happen to think that booing players for under performing is a completely backwards approach to solving the problem, a problem that can't even be solved by fans anyway. Cite for me one instance where booing helped a team turn their season around. If I was a player getting booed, I don't think my response would be that I'd begin playing better; I'd just loathe playing for Baltimore and likely continue to struggle under the stress of being hated by everyone.

[hose]

And I'd think that if you were competitive enough to excel in a sport, AND took booing personally, the normal response would be be: "I'll show these (insert appropriate invective)" As to effectiveness, I can't say- but I'll ask, Which teams fans are considered most like likely to boo? -and- Which teams are considered the best in baseball? Then look for correlation. I'll say one thing- it sure can't hurt.

[wellsk86]

I'm not criticizing the OP for being negative. I happen to think that booing players for under performing is a completely backwards approach to solving the problem, a problem that can't even be solved by fans anyway. Cite for me one instance where booing helped a team turn their season around. If I was a player getting booed, I don't think my response would be that I'd begin playing better; I'd just loathe playing for Baltimore and likely continue to struggle under the stress of being hated by everyone.

If I am not mistaken Mike Gonzalez got booed like crazy the other week. What did he do? He went back to his old pitching style and now look at him, he has been one of the only good pitchers coming out of our bullpen. Sounds to me like booing helped him turn things around.

[evenparthrough9]

And I'd think that if you were competitive enough to excel in a sport, AND took booing personally, the normal response would be be: "I'll show these (insert appropriate invective)" As to effectiveness, I can't say- but I'll ask, Which teams fans are considered most like likely to boo? -and- Which teams are considered the best in baseball? Then look for correlation. I'll say one thing- it sure can't hurt.

Cardinal fans are generally considered the "best", but when Ryan Franklin imploded in the first two weeks of the season, he was booed beyond belief. LaRussa removed him from the closer role, problem solved.

[hose]

Actually I was talking about booing fans and best TEAMS; the Yankees and Phillies come to mind. Cardinals fans ARE among the best- IMO- praise and criticism as appropriate.

[webbrick2010]

Most who would have cared enough to boo, have long ago stopped attending O's games.

[Hank Scorpio]

What board rule was broken in his post?

"MacFail."

But I get his point. I was telling Moose today, I'm just about at "don't give a crap" mode already. With full expectations that at some point in the next few weeks, they'll pull their heads out of their asses.

[paulcoates]

Ok, but that is not slanderous

[paulcoates]

I'm not criticizing the OP for being negative. I happen to think that booing players for under performing is a completely backwards approach to solving the problem, a problem that can't even be solved by fans anyway. Cite for me one instance where booing helped a team turn their season around. If I was a player getting booed, I don't think my response would be that I'd begin playing better; I'd just loathe playing for Baltimore and likely continue to struggle under the stress of being hated by everyone.

At this point, if booing were to occur, I would think it would be more directed towards the warehouse for putting this team on the field. The players are who they are. You almost can't blame them as to what kind of player they are at this point in their career.

The funny thing is how much love there was for Showalter before the season. Many threads on here were praising him. Now you barely read anything on him. Granted he is better than any manager we have had in the past 10 years, but still, the front office has simply not been able to put a winner on the field either via free agency or through the draft in the past 15 years. And the 1 constant with this team over the past 15 years is - PA. Say what you want about it, but the fact is, the day this team is transferred into the hands of another owner, it will be hailed as a sign of hope.