DMN: Hecklers (SMU Mentioned Prominently in Article!)
Posted: Fri Sep 17, 2004 11:07 pmSome sports hecklers say heckling gives them a rush, like a comedian doing a stand-up routine. Or it lets them be more active in a game, like when they used to play sports themselves.
But mainly, hecklers say, they do it to give their teams an advantage. Oakland A's fan Craig Bueno, whose heckling helped spur a melee Monday with several Rangers, said that he likes to heckle opposing players to "rattle them."
Other hecklers say they do it because it's fun to get a reaction, any reaction, out of a player.
"If they just ignore us, then we eventually go on to someone else," said Rick Dovidio, a heckler who grew up in Boston and now lives in Waxahachie.
Hecklers, predominantly male, say there is a line that shouldn't be crossed, but they draw that line in different places. And when it is crossed, they say, alcohol is often involved.
Generally, hecklers have little sympathy for highly paid professional athletes, even though they may admire them. Heckling is just part of the game, they say.
Robin Ficker is a Maryland lawyer who once was named one of the "spoilsports of the century" by The Village Voice because of his heckling at Washington Bullets games. He draws the line at profanity, as well as racial and sexual comments, though he does admit calling former NBA coach Phil Jackson "Phyllis" and using the names of Scottie Pippen's ex-girlfriends in his taunts.
Ficker, who now confines most of his heckling to his son's college wrestling meets, thinks anything an athlete writes, or sings, is fair game to use against him.
"Phil Jackson got most exorcised when I quoted from his book," Ficker said in a telephone interview. "I told him if you didn't want to hear it, you shouldn't have written it."
At Texas Tech in Lubbock, baseball coach Larry Hays wrote a letter to the Tech Hecklers, a group formed in 1995, praising them for helping create "one of the nation's best collegiate baseball home atmospheres."
The Tech Hecklers research opposing players in media guides and on Web sites, said founder Chris Snead, who works for the school's alumni association. The group is self-policing, following its own 10 commandments. (No. 2: Thou shalt not insult the mother.)
If a Tech Heckler crosses the line, he is banished to a corner of the stadium for six outs and has to hold a flag so all can see him before he can return to the group.
Still, the intent is as serious as winning and losing. "The second a guy acknowledges me, I own him," Snead said. In other words, the player's attention is on the heckling and not the game.
While many hecklers say the focus of taunts should be on performance without getting personal, there is legal support for getting personal.
In 2002, an Ohio appeals court overturned the disorderly conduct conviction of a Cleveland Indians fan who yelled a remark about a player, using a coarse three-letter word for the player's rear end.
So, heckling may be appropriate behavior, but is it normal?
Christian End, a social psychologist at Xavier University in Cincinnati, said no research has been done specifically on sports heckling, but some other research on fans indicates that those who have bigger allegiances to teams are most likely to think they can help their team by heckling.
Heckling is a form of verbal aggression, he said, and the link with physical aggression may help explain why it's mostly done by men.
"It is normative behavior at ballparks, so you're not shocked," said Dr. End, who appreciates some clever heckling but nothing that gets personal. "Just because a bunch of people are doing it, I don't think that makes it right."
John Hawkins, a Rangers fan, agrees. He admits giving Alex Rodriguez the business about his large contract but says that heckling is annoying to other fans.
"When the beer starts flowing, the cuss words start flowing out, too," he said.
But peer pressure from other fans doesn't slow the hecklers.
Matt Bragman, a former athlete, says he may be the "king of all hecklers" at Southern Methodist University. The senior history and religious studies major says he is still going strong even though he was arrested once for using abusive language – he says he didn't – at an SMU game.
Heckling, he says, allows him to feel he has an active role in games. "We're reading about the prophets right now, and they had their share of hecklers," Bragman said.
If there were a sports heckler hall of fame, Ficker would certainly be a candidate along with the late Leon "the Barber" Bradley in Detroit, the man "with the most venomous tongue" in NBA history, Bill Walton once wrote.
Dovidio would also nominate Paul Williams, a member of the Boston Red Sox grounds crew who scuffled with Yankees pitchers in the bullpen last year.
"Man, I wish I was him," said Dovidio, who says he attended high school with Williams. "I could say I got in a fight with the Yankees in their bullpen."
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent ... cbc09.html
But mainly, hecklers say, they do it to give their teams an advantage. Oakland A's fan Craig Bueno, whose heckling helped spur a melee Monday with several Rangers, said that he likes to heckle opposing players to "rattle them."
Other hecklers say they do it because it's fun to get a reaction, any reaction, out of a player.
"If they just ignore us, then we eventually go on to someone else," said Rick Dovidio, a heckler who grew up in Boston and now lives in Waxahachie.
Hecklers, predominantly male, say there is a line that shouldn't be crossed, but they draw that line in different places. And when it is crossed, they say, alcohol is often involved.
Generally, hecklers have little sympathy for highly paid professional athletes, even though they may admire them. Heckling is just part of the game, they say.
Robin Ficker is a Maryland lawyer who once was named one of the "spoilsports of the century" by The Village Voice because of his heckling at Washington Bullets games. He draws the line at profanity, as well as racial and sexual comments, though he does admit calling former NBA coach Phil Jackson "Phyllis" and using the names of Scottie Pippen's ex-girlfriends in his taunts.
Ficker, who now confines most of his heckling to his son's college wrestling meets, thinks anything an athlete writes, or sings, is fair game to use against him.
"Phil Jackson got most exorcised when I quoted from his book," Ficker said in a telephone interview. "I told him if you didn't want to hear it, you shouldn't have written it."
At Texas Tech in Lubbock, baseball coach Larry Hays wrote a letter to the Tech Hecklers, a group formed in 1995, praising them for helping create "one of the nation's best collegiate baseball home atmospheres."
The Tech Hecklers research opposing players in media guides and on Web sites, said founder Chris Snead, who works for the school's alumni association. The group is self-policing, following its own 10 commandments. (No. 2: Thou shalt not insult the mother.)
If a Tech Heckler crosses the line, he is banished to a corner of the stadium for six outs and has to hold a flag so all can see him before he can return to the group.
Still, the intent is as serious as winning and losing. "The second a guy acknowledges me, I own him," Snead said. In other words, the player's attention is on the heckling and not the game.
While many hecklers say the focus of taunts should be on performance without getting personal, there is legal support for getting personal.
In 2002, an Ohio appeals court overturned the disorderly conduct conviction of a Cleveland Indians fan who yelled a remark about a player, using a coarse three-letter word for the player's rear end.
So, heckling may be appropriate behavior, but is it normal?
Christian End, a social psychologist at Xavier University in Cincinnati, said no research has been done specifically on sports heckling, but some other research on fans indicates that those who have bigger allegiances to teams are most likely to think they can help their team by heckling.
Heckling is a form of verbal aggression, he said, and the link with physical aggression may help explain why it's mostly done by men.
"It is normative behavior at ballparks, so you're not shocked," said Dr. End, who appreciates some clever heckling but nothing that gets personal. "Just because a bunch of people are doing it, I don't think that makes it right."
John Hawkins, a Rangers fan, agrees. He admits giving Alex Rodriguez the business about his large contract but says that heckling is annoying to other fans.
"When the beer starts flowing, the cuss words start flowing out, too," he said.
But peer pressure from other fans doesn't slow the hecklers.
Matt Bragman, a former athlete, says he may be the "king of all hecklers" at Southern Methodist University. The senior history and religious studies major says he is still going strong even though he was arrested once for using abusive language – he says he didn't – at an SMU game.
Heckling, he says, allows him to feel he has an active role in games. "We're reading about the prophets right now, and they had their share of hecklers," Bragman said.
If there were a sports heckler hall of fame, Ficker would certainly be a candidate along with the late Leon "the Barber" Bradley in Detroit, the man "with the most venomous tongue" in NBA history, Bill Walton once wrote.
Dovidio would also nominate Paul Williams, a member of the Boston Red Sox grounds crew who scuffled with Yankees pitchers in the bullpen last year.
"Man, I wish I was him," said Dovidio, who says he attended high school with Williams. "I could say I got in a fight with the Yankees in their bullpen."
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent ... cbc09.html
