The term “boo” has been used in many ways. It’s a recent term used to call a significant other, a familiar term that a ghost uses to scare individuals, and even a slang term for marijuana. Since this isn’t an NFL article, we won’t touch on that subject. In this scenario, it’s geared towards the team in Oakland and their fans. Recently, there has been a lot of noise coming from The O.co Coliseum in Oakland, California, the home of the Oakland Athletics. While this is no surprise being one of the loudest fan bases in sports, another loud noise is now being heard: booing.
Booing is a normal part of sports. Whether a fan base is disappointed in an individual athlete for his/her off-the-field shenanigans or a terrible call by an official, it happens all the time. Heck, sometimes I’ve even heard booing from the crowd because of a guys’ walk-up song. It’s not as if this is a first time occurrence. However, booing at a home field, that’s rare. This is where this “issue” (if you even want to call it that) begins.
It stems from a few rough outings from Athletics closer Jim Johnson. The first was Opening Night for the Oakland A’s when Johnson gave up runs. He walked his first batter, gave up a single then a sacrifice fly, followed by a single and an additional run against the Cleveland Indians. Which is fine right? Wrong. It resulted in the “booing heard around the world.”
Johnson, who was acquired from the Baltimore Orioles for Jemile Weeks back in December, agreed to a one-year, $10.8 million contract. The news put a lot of A’s fans at ease since the 30 year old was coming off back-to-back 50-save seasons.
From the time Johnson stepped on the mount, the booing started and hasn’t stopped since. I could post every one of the tweets that occurred, but there is not enough time in the world. Left-handed pitcher Sean Doolittle spoke about the booing, defending Johnson in the process.
Doolittle also said this to NBC Sports after one of the games:
We spent all off season telling the new guys about how great our fans were. And from game one, he got booed off the field. We’re sitting in the dugout looking around. I can’t remember that happening since I’ve been here. We went through some rough patches last year when we were pretty bad, but I don’t remember the boo birds coming out like that.
The question isn’t if booing is good or bad for sports. Truthfully, there is no question whether or not it’s bad for sports, because honestly, it is not going to let up.
Sure, it could be deemed inappropriate to boo a player during a homestand, but the fans believe if they pay the money to have a guy perform, and he’s under-performing, booing should be expected.
This doesn’t mean the fans are bad people because they are booing, but it doesn’t necessarily mean the players shouldn’t be frustrated by some of the things that fans have said.
The Atlanta Braves’ fans have thrown trash on the field before. Streaking, mainly because it’s never an attractive individual who participates, is one of the most disrespectful displays of fandom in my opinion, and there are “fans” constantly disrespecting players on social media. So, the booing is minute compared to the other issues that the sports world faces.
At the end of the day, no matter what role you play, you all have one thing in common: baseball. Whether baseball is paying you, or the other way around, you have to respect the game and every aspect that is involved.
The booing will not end, so we need to stop fighting the issue before a bigger one ensues.
Photo: Off the Record Sports