Friday, August 20, 1999
Keep your bad attitude at home
BY PAUL DAUGHERTY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
You are a knucklehead. You, sitting above the center-field wall at Lethargy Field, tossing slurs and N-bombs at Reds centerfielder Mike Cameron. You know who you are. You should be ashamed.
I could talk about the lousy way the local “fans” have reacted to the home team this year, and I will. The Reds are playing like 1990, and their constituency could fit in a tollbooth. Rest in peace, baseball town.
But this goes beyond that. That is fun and games. This is hurtful and inexcusable. Racial epithets at a ballgame. Pathetic.
“I just turn around and stare at 'em,” Cameron said Thursday. “They're heroes behind that big, green wall out there.”
Nice baseball town we have
Cameron declined to get specific about what was said. He said he'd prefer not to “make it a big deal.” Sorry, Mike. It's a big deal.
“I've been at this a long time,” said Greg Vaughn, Cameron's teammate. “I've never heard anybody drop racial slurs on their own players.”
I had come to ask Vaughn if he would give the local apathetics a pep talk. The Reds leftfielder has been vocal about changing the pregame music (and pumping its volume) and has suggested the team would be helped significantly by bigger, more vocal crowds.
Vaughn won a league championship in San Diego last year, where Padres crowds made Qualcomm Stadium sound like the inside of a tornado. He knows what lots of support can mean.
Vaughn cloaks his thoughts in white gloves. “I was looking forward to coming to a rich baseball tradition,” Vaughn said.
Well, the Reds have been to St. Louis, and they have five games left at Wrigley Field.
“But I would never tell anybody what to do with their money. I'm making $6 million. For me to tell somebody, "Hey, come down to the ballpark,' I would never do that.”
For several years, for whatever reason, Reds fans have been apathetic at best and whining gripes at worst. This year, they've been given a team that is exactly what they claimed to have wanted.
The Reds have so many first-kiss types loving every moment of this year — Sean Casey, Aaron Boone, Scott Williamson, Pokey Reese — you don't know whether to applaud them or ask them if they've gotten their class schedules yet.
Every time I see Casey, I want to say, “Hey, Wally. Where's the Beav?”
They're winning like schoolkids, and they're doing it most of the time. Naturally, you're stiffing them.
Rest in peace, baseball town.
So-called fans are worthless
And good riddance, if you're going to behave like the creeps in centerfield.
“Black this. N-this,” said Vaughn, describing what he heard. “It's happened a couple times to Cam.”
“I don't really worry about it too much,” said Cameron, who said he also has dodged quarters and marbles in the outfield. “Occasionally we get a rough group out there. I don't know if it's alcohol-propelled or what.
“It's a small bunch, kind of a young crowd. A majority of them have been pretty good. But when I go to opposing stadiums, it's never as bad as it is here.”
Congratulations, Reds fans. At least you're the best at something.
It'd be nice if the town responded to its baseball team in September and beyond. It'd also be a surprise. Instead, fans will complain about a lack of parking or bad traffic or “millionaire cry-babies.”
The kids will be back in school, the concessions are bad, the ushers are rude, they haven't been back since the strike and blah blah blah.
Do everyone who goes to the games a favor: Stay home. It's easy to park now. It's easy to get to the games. It's easy to leave. I've gone as a fan this year. I live 30 minutes from downtown; took me 30 minutes to get to the game. I parked in the garage at 6:45 p.m., bought Top Six tickets. It was easier than going to the grocery store.
So stay home. And take the heroes in centerfield with you.
Paul Daugherty welcomes your comments at 768-8454.
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