Burnitz on the Changing Face of Fan Behavior
We have another player calling out fan behavior. The Chicago Tribune's Paul Sullivan writes in yesterday's paper:
"Believe me, if I'd have been struggling here last year, for sure, they'd have been on me. But that's part of [the job]," [said Jeromy Burnitz].Burnitz, 37, said baseball has changed for the worse in the last few years in terms of fan abuse. Where New York once was renowned for giving struggling players a hard time, Burnitz said that tense atmosphere has pervaded all ballparks.
"Honestly, every single ballpark I go to, the style of people, it seems like a football game to me-the yelling, the screaming and the mean stuff," he said. "It's not one of my favorite things about the sport. I can't stand it. But you deal with it and you do your job."
I have not been to Wrigley Field since 2001, which is much too long. I would be interested in anyone's opinions on whether there are sections of Wrigley Field that are more family friendly (i.e., suitable for children).
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The Booing of Jacque Jones
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Wrigley
I haven't been to Wrigley since 2002, also kind of a long time ago already, but from what I remember the only day that I really saw anything like fan abuse was the day we were in the bleachers. The other two days we were in the seats, once in the upper deck and once in the lower, and no problems. I'd say that the day game crowds were less boisterous in general than the night game crowd, but we only saw one night game - the only one I've ever seen at Wrigley - so take that with a grain of salt.
Burnitz, of course, was struggling for most of the year last season, having one of the worst seasons of his career at the plate. So if he wasn't given a hard time, I think that somewhat undermines his theory.
Burnitz & fan behavior
When we went in 2001, we sat in the lower deck as well without any problems. I've never sat in the bleachers, but it appears that's where most of the problems -- to the extent there are problems -- exist.
As for Burnitz not getting booed, he did have a decent first half of the season (817 OPS pre-All-Star break), so if he wasn't booed when he was struggling it's possible that the fans were still looking at his OK season totals, until his big September drop.
In any event, it appears that Burnitz is complaining about more than just the home-team crowd getting on its own players. He appears to be complaining about the way he and other players are treated on the road by the opposing team's fans.