Home Field Disadvantage

[jflick1215]

I was at the game on Tuesday night, and I would describe that atmosphere as poisonous. Believe me, I completely understand the frustration that people were feeling. But when you are getting roundly booed...after taking a 1-0 lead, in the first inning you can't tell me that makes the players real happy. I stated at this point that, much like after the first game of the Cubs series, that going on the road would be the best thing for this team. I'm hoping for a split in Philly, and 5-6 wins for the trip. Obviously, not a great start last night.

[JohnBriggs12]

Translation of Corey Hart's statement:

 

We were tight playing at home. It's less stressful playing in front of fans that aren't expecting anything of you.

 

My problem with his statement:

 

It might be less stressful playing on the road but your playing better teams so relaxed or not, winning games isn't going to be any easier so just shut up and play.

 

Going forward I have real concerns about the overall toughness of this group. Maybe the core of young players who, with the possible exception of Hardy, were horrible on this last homestand has been coddled too much by this organization.

[owbc]

Unfortunately, this discussions largely confirmed my assumptions.

 

So this is what a pennant race in Milwaukee feels like? I heard all of these great things about how great it was in '82, and how the city of Milwaukee will embrace the Brewers when they have a good team again

Yep, the Brewers fans hate this team more than the 2002 team. That's not an exaggeration. Instead of hating the 2002 team, people just stopped caring. This year, it's more fashionable to keep caring, but to get really upset when they don't do well.

 

These reactions clearly show that nothing is going to change. I know if Yost called for the fans to stop booing, they would just respond with more boos and "fire yost" pleas. I would like Mark A. to tell the fans to grow a pair and start acting like 5 year olds. Some have said that Corey Hart is acting like a 5-year-old. I think he made some very gutsy and mature comments that most of the team has been thinking but won't say. The fans are the ones acting like children. They are fine and content for the most part, but the moment they don't get what they want, they throw a temper tantrum.

[SeriesFinale]

Booing really does nothing to help the team, but when Gagne comes into a close game and gives up a bomb on the second pitch, fans are going to boo, and boo loud.

Here's the problem: At Miller Park this season, the fans have booed and booed loudly when he has entered the game. That's silly at best.

[endaround]

Fans boo when a player strikes out in the 4th inning with a man at 1B.

[SeriesFinale]

They booed during Opening Day introductions. Mind-boggling.

[secondsith]

I think that booing, in general, is justified. Mind you not for every little thing, but it is justified. How else does a fan voice his/her displeasure with how a team is playing? They certainly can't call up random players on their cell phone and say, "hey, your not playing up to your potential, get with the program." There isn't, as far as I know, a comment suggestion box by the dugout that Ned takes notes from on a daily basis. I think that if a fan wants to start a chorus of boos for Gagne (just an example, you could insert a lot of different names here) after he walks his first two batters and proceeds to get shelled, by all means do it, because no one in the dugout is gonna tell him that he needs to step it up. I don't think that boo means "you suck or you're a bum", its more like a chant to say "hey, we know you are better than this, let's go!"

[Rogee]

I am often embarrassed when I'm at a game and everyone is booing. It seems quite excessive.

 

It's hard enough to get players to actually want to play in Milwaukee. I don't understand why we have to make it worse by creating a bad atmosphere for players.

[giffted1]

I think that booing, in general, is justified. Mind you not for every little thing, but it is justified. How else does a fan voice his/her displeasure with how a team is playing?

http://brewersfandemonium....com?topic=10651?page=115

They certainly can't call up random players on their cell phone and say, "hey, your not playing up to your potential, get with the program."

You seriously think they need to be told they're not playing up to their potential? Right, if Gagne wasn't booed so much this year, he'd probably think he was having a great season.

 

There isn't, as far as I know, a comment suggestion box by the dugout that Ned takes notes from on a daily basis. I think that if a fan wants to start a chorus of boos for Gagne (just an example, you could insert a lot of different names here) after he walks his first two batters and proceeds to get shelled, by all means do it, because no one in the dugout is gonna tell him that he needs to step it up. I don't think that boo means "you suck or you're a bum", its more like a chant to say "hey, we know you are better than this, let's go!"

This doesn't explain the boos before a players enters a game. Is that just a chant to say "hey, we know you're better than how bad we think you're going to do!" Doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

[davego]

I'll agree that booing Eric as soon as he walks onto the field might be a bit excessive, but when he gets pounded...I can see the fans point. To me this connects with the players that get upset if someone 'shows them up''

[wisconsinfan47]

Looking past the "to boo or not to boo" issue, I think Corey Hart takes fans here for granted. It's been said many times, but its worth repeating...to draw 3 mil a season in the smallest market in baseball is outstanding, and the same fans he's criticizing voted him to the AS game over David Wright and Pat Burrell.

 

Corey's still a fan favorite, even when he struggles, and he seems like a pretty laid back guy, so I guess I'm a little miffed as to why he's making these comments instead of Prince or Rickie or Hall or Gagne.

[rluzinski]

You gotta love those boo-happy fans. They can't go 5 seconds without screaming, "It's my right!" but how dare a player express that he doesn't like it. Must be because he's mentally weak! Another reason to boo him!

 

I think Brewer fans are running the risk of giving Milwaukee a reputation for being a bad place to play. We know... IT'S YOUR RIGHT!

[SeriesFinale]

I guess it's that these guys are all teammates, and just because Corey doesn't get rode as often (and I've heard him get booed) doesn't mean he doesn't mind hearing his brothers-in-arms get it bad, or that the booing doesn't permeate the entire team's spirit.

[logan82]

I was very proud of my son at the game Sunday. I turned to him and said, "we don't boo our own players." He said," I know that." I have done all I can to curb the booing. I have taught my kids not to do it.

[StearnsFTW]

You know it's bad when the opposing team feels the need to comment on it as the Padres did on Sunday. Yeah, it's your right. We have a lot of rights that prudence prevents us from exercising.

[DrugBust]

I think you only have to ask one question: is booing going to help a player out? Is it going to make him concentrate more on that throw to first, or hit his spot on the mound, or make better contact at the plate, or run faster or harder into second?

 

Any athlete (or anyone with half a brain) will tell you the answer is no. Athletes put a ridiculous amount of pressure on themselves to succeed. They feel pressure from their coaches and owners and GM and even their teammates. Why, as a fan, would you see fit to add to that?

 

Booing doesn't help a player. So why, if you want to see them succeed, would you do it?

[crewcrazy]

I think Corey spoke up because he IS so well liked by the average fan. If Hall, Fielder, Weeks, Gagne, Turnbow, etc. come out and say "I don't like it when fans boo us" (or in Fielder's case he just wished they wouldn't do it as often), then those booing fans become even more intense because those guys are doing poorly. Maybe they think if a guy like Hart or Braun or Hardy sticks up for their fellow teammates, the fans won't be so quick to jump on them.

 

I, for one, never really understood booing at a baseball game because things go wrong a lot more than they go right. A guy can only get a hit 3 times out of 10 and be considered a very good hitter -- those 7 failures provide a lot of opportunities for fans to boo. I think it's one thing to voice displeasure with an error in the field, it's another to completely rail on a guy every time he isn't perfect.

[giffted1]

It's their right to give Brewers fans the reputation of being a bunch of drunk idiots!

 

It's sad that Miller Park becomes a less hostile environment when invaded by Cubs fans. At least then they only get booed when trying to pick someone off.

[naivin]

You gotta love those boo-happy fans. They can't go 5 seconds without screaming, "It's my right!" but how dare a player express that he doesn't like it. Must be because he's mentally weak! Another reason to boo him!

 

So what's your point exactly? Fans have the right to boo, and players have the right to complain about it. That doesn't mean either one is necessarily a good idea.

 

I think Brewer fans are running the risk of giving Milwaukee a reputation for being a bad place to play.

C'mon! Is Chicago (Cubs) considered a bad place to play? Ever heard of Corey Patterson? Scott Eyer? Jacques Jones? Michael Barrett? LaTroy Hawkins? Sammy Sosa?...

 

How about The Yankees...Do they have a reputation as a bad place to play? ARod?! That name alone makes the point.

[jeffy]

I would like Mark A. to tell the fans to grow a pair and start acting like 5 year olds.

I'd like he, Melvin, and/or Yost to suggest that course of action to these players.

 

You know it would be one thing if these babies would say "no we don't like getting booed, but I can't blame the fans for their frustration, we played horribly against teams we should have beaten on that home stand". Instead we essentially get "If the team does not make the palyoffs it's the fans fault. They have been so mean to us that we can not even see the ball through our tears. That's why we are not hitting and make so many fielding mistakes."

 

Maybe Pinella's way is better??? Perhaps when the fans hear the manager abusing his players, they do not feel as much need to do it?

[SoCalBrewfan]

Like the man said, "It's Big Boy Time" -- sac up.

 

If the team would bunt more, the fans would be happier?

 

 

I don't understand why anyone thinks booing is likely to improve the performance on the field...like it will motivate a player to do better. I think it's at least as likely to make the players think, to heck with these guys [to put it politely]...I'm getting paid, these fans don't deserve a winning team, why should I bust my butt for them. And not just the guy getting booed, either.

 

Meanwhile, that moral superiority Brewers fans seem to want to claim over supposedly boorish and classless Cubs fans looks a bit more tenuous.

[trwi7]

Just curious but was anybody at the Phillies/Brewers game on May 17th, 2006? Or does anybody remember watching it?

The game was in the top of the 9th inning with the Brewers leading 7-4. Turnbow was in the game and this is the sequence of events that happened.

David Bell walks
Chris Roberson flies out to CF
Jimmy Rollins singles on the ground ball to RF; Bell to 2B
Chase Utley strikes out swinging
Bobby Abreu singles on a ground ball to CF; Bell scores; Rollins to 3B (7-5 Brewers)
Pitching Change: Brian Shouse replaces Derrick Turnbow

Fans were booing Yost mercilessly as he went to the mound to make a pitching change. And who can blame them? After the walk he got a flyout, a strikeout and two groundballs that weren't hit very well, yet he went and got Shouse anyways.

Here's the next sequence

Ryan Howard singles on a line drive to CF; Rollins scores; Abreu to 3B
Shane Victorino singles on a ground ball to CF; Abreu scores; Howard to 2B
Jose Capellan replaces Corey Koskie pitching and batting 6th; Jeff Cirillo replaces Brian Shouse playing 3B batting 8th

After that pitching change/double switch the fans really got on Yost booing him well into the commercial break on TV and again after the final out was recorded.

Do you think that was justified or should fans have been quiet and not questioned Yost's decision?

 

 

 

 

 

[JJHardy7]

I think it is a fan's right to boo, but I'm not for booing the home team. Interesting to see the views on booing.

 

Down here in TN the big talk is about Vince and Pro Bowl DT Albert Haynesworth was asked on a radio show what he thought of booing. His initial thoughts were that if you can't handle being booed you shouldn't be playing the sport. He said he's been booed many times and fans aren't booing the person they're booing the performance. He also said that when he/the team gets booed a player's thought should be that they're not doing their job and they need to step up and play better.

 

I'm with Hayneworth on this one. I don't like the home team booing and I wouldn't boo, but if it happens and a player can't handle it maybe they should have a different profession. The Brewers are just afraid they could choke away another golden opportunity to miss the playoffs -- don't blame it on the fans blame it on your performance. Not bad guys by any means just some bad performances as of late.

[SeriesFinale]

I love people who use loud non-verbal noise to express their displeasure at something calling other people "babies."

[Brian the Automator]

I guess I'm just astounded to why fans boo their team, if their desire is for the team to play better. Is it as if someone gets booed and said "well, I thought I had an OK outing, but the fans didn't think so, so now I will improve?".

 

Honestly, I think this is just a case where people can't control their emotions, and no matter how you slice it, there IS a negative impact on the players. Maybe they should be "tougher" or whatever, but the reality is that they have a problem with it. So do what's in YOUR power to help the team, not harm it.