Article:Sports and Fan Violence: Just Stop

A father was beaten by a man on the Cape with a baseball bat on the Fourth of July because he had New York license plates and may have been a Yankee fan.

What is the matter with some people? It's a GAME, meant to be entertainment. I'd rather see the Red Sox never win another game rather than have one person battered because of the Red Sox.

It's not about sport, sportsmanship, or competitiveness and certainly not about honor or courage. Was the alleged assailant intoxicated or a sociopath? Who knows? But real sports fans everywhere should condemn violence of any kind associated with sports.

How many Victoria Snelgroves must die for us to come to our senses? Yes, we can recite the litany of stupidity on the field ranging from beanball wars to soccer head butts and stick-swinging incidents in the 'heat of battle'. We reminisce over the lunacy of the Rudy T punchout, the ear-biting incidents, the 'Assassin' mentality of Jack Tatum, and so on.

I was recently coaching at a girls summer high school basketball game and a player chose to take a hard foul late in the game up around another player's head. Competitive? No, just idiotic and immature, reflecting poorly on her team, her community, her family, and most importantly, herself.

Real fans of sport should condemn sports-associated violence and threats of violence, whether 'part of the game' or just random acts from Manny Ramirez (pushing the traveling secretary) or Jonathan Papelbon (threatening escalation against the Rays).

It's not part of the game. Just stop.