"Visible altercations"

[jeffy]

I was there and did not see any altercations, but then I was watching the game not scaning the crowd to get a story. I did see at least three couples where one was a Brewer fan and the other was a Cub fan. So a story on inter-fanbase love could have been written, as well.

 

The section I was in was about 75% Brewer fans which is good to see, I had not been to a brewer-cub game for a few years and the ratio at that time was the reverse.

 

While I am glad Brewer fans are the majority, I actually enjoy having a significant number of the opponents fans at the game. It just seems to make it a more intense play-off like atmosphere. But then I've never seen any problems between the fans. I've been to 3-4 Brewer-Cub games here, a couple at Wrigley, and a couple games with the Sox at Comisky.

[temke]

here is the moment of sanity:

 

we had our 3 year old and 9 month old at the game saturday night in 425. no problems at all. talked with a ticket taker friend as we were leaving in the 6th (darn kids!!) and he said there was a solid fight in section 404 last night. we actually say about 6 cops running by the playground outside our section toward that end of the stadium.

 

i think it all depends where you sit, even in the terrace. my tickets are season tickets and i think that many around me are as well. fans have been generally well-behaved for all the cubs games this year.

 

as you get further down the foul lines in the terrace, you get to tickets that are only sold for that game, hence the fight in 404. these are not your typical baseball fans.

 

i cant imagine having any problems with my kids. if i did, i would remind the people that there are kids in the section (i may have been guilty of a little potty mouth here and there at the game as well, but once i see a kid, i put a cork in it) if they are still rude after a friendly reminder, they dont deserve to be in the game, and i will make sure they are not.

[WisconsinSportsRule]

Stay sober, and remember there are kids, elderly and non-dipwads at the park

I'm sure the Brewers want fans to stay sober http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

[TuesdaysWithRillo]

If you're looking to take your kids to a game, Sunday games are the best to go to. The crowd is a lot more laid back and more family like on Sundays. Friday and Saturday games get pretty wild with lots of drunkedness and foul language. Weekday afternoon games are also good games to go to because they are pretty laid back as well.

[owbc]

There are just some people who go to games to get drunk and are looking to start a fight--on both sides. Remember though, it takes two to tango. There are a number of ways to respond to obnoxious fans--you can get into an altercation with them, you can respond with friendly jokes, you can ignore them, or you can go straight to an usher or police officer.

 

The Cubs fans are paying customers and are equally entitled to be in the ballpark. The Brewers fans can try to scare them away by creating a hostile environment, but this just creates a bad reputation for the fanbase. The better option is just to buy tickets to the games and not resell them to Cubs fans. On Friday night, the majority of Cubs fans were sitting in the field and loge levels. We were in a terrace section with over 90% Brewers fans. If Brewers fans are so great, why are the season ticket holders selling to Cubs fans?

[Bikeage77]

The second home game of the season, my friend got sucker punched by a Cubs fan. He was just walking through the crowd after the game. The guy didn't get in a solid blow, but obviously my friend was furious. After it happened the guy just disappeared through the crowd, and no security was around either.

 

I can't say I've seen anything else, and I've seen worse in the past. I wouldn't say anything was calmed down.

[pretendastronaut]

I was at Friday and Saturday's games this weekend and I did see one fight break out Saturday night, near section 125, during the break when the lights were out. I couldn't really make out the situation on it though.

 

During the homestand in April with the Cubs, I didn't see any fights in the park, but I did see some Cubs fans being arrested outside of the park and it appeared they had been in a fight.

 

I've been to almost every Brewers/Cubs game in the past 4 years, so I think I've seen a decent sampling of how things go normally. There is a large contingent of Cubs fans who only come to these games to get into verbal altercations, while getting as drunk as possible. Almost every game there is at least one group of Cubs fans who comes into a section and immediately tries to draw heat from the crowd. In fact, last night a group of 6 Cubs fans were sitting behind me, 5 of them for about 2 innings total. They actually said that they could care less about the game, they were just here to party and cause some trouble. I was more than happy they didn't stick around. (Their friend who did watch the game was a pretty decent guy it seemed, from the bit I talked to him.)

 

But it's not just Cubs fans either, there are plenty of drunken, annoying Brewers fans as well. Case in point, Saturday night, I was flanked on both sides by Cubs fans in my row. The group to the left of me disappeared maybe half way through the game. At one point a lone drunken Brewer fan came and sat in the seats, and after about half an inning he was talking trash to the Cubs fans in front of me, and they all got going at it. The group in front of me hadn't acted up once the entire game until that point. The whole episode was triggered entirely by a Brewers fan trying to pick a fight.

 

The biggest difference for me is, age doesn't seem to be as big of a determining factor between the two fan bases, for how people act. For the most part, the obnoxious Brewers fans are drunken college type kids, but the same doesn't hold true for many of the Cubs fans who come to Miller Park. There are a lot more middle aged Cubs fans who come to the game to be a tool, than I see of middle aged Brewers fans.

[pretendastronaut]

On Friday night, the majority of Cubs fans were sitting in the field and loge levels. We were in a terrace section with over 90% Brewers fans. If Brewers fans are so great, why are the season ticket holders selling to Cubs fans?

 

My season tickets are on the field level, and Friday night wasn't to bad, but Saturday was just brutal. To call the crowd a 50/50 split, would be being generous to the Brewers fans I think.

A lot of them come in with emailed tickets though too, so it's not entirely season ticket holders there. However, if you stand and watch people come through the gates, you can't help but notice how many Cubs fans come in with the nice full color printed tickets that full season seat holders get.

[homer]

Sec 209 was almost all Brewer fans except a handful on Friday.

 

My friend saw a pretty gnarly fight on Opening Day. Some guy got his fash mashed in pretty good - don't remember if a Cub fan was the masher or the mashee though.

[bucks2281]

There are a lot more middle aged Cubs fans who come to the game to be a tool, than I see of middle aged Brewers fans.

 

I agree. I sat in the bleachers for the July 28, 2008 game (the most competitive game in that series), and there was an older man causing trouble. He wore a fake WI license plate around his neck that said, "Wrigley North", and he held a sign that said, "Welcome to Wrigley North." That pretty much epitomizes why I hate the Cubs. I though it was pretty funny/sad that a 50-year old man got off on pissing off the Brewer fans like that. It's been said time and again, but I believe that the atmosphere would be less hostile if the CHC fans realized that they're the guest, and if they acted like it, too.

[brains and braun]

Gotta agree. Maybe it's just me, but I wouldn't go to Wrigley (or any park for that matter) and act that way.

[naivin]

I know I have -- In a large part the only difference between the Brewer fans and the Cub fans are the shirts they are wearing. I think both fan bases are virtually identical.

This is 100% correct, and it is the reason I no longer go to Brewer-Cub games. It draws in the wrong element from both sides, both primarily intent on simply making their presence known. Its not fun, its just plain stupid.

[Invader3K]

I remember the ChiSox games at County Stadium being way worse in the late '80s/early '90s in terms of fights in the stands. We were in the loge level yesterday (section 215), and I didn't notice anything. There were a handful of Cubbie fans in our section, and of course they were bellowing when the Cubs won, but other than that weren't that bad.

[Patrick425]

I would never attend a Cub/Brewers game and sit anywhere outside of the Family section. We were at Saturday night's game and for all the comments I'm hearing here about fights and other happenings at that game, it was relatively calm in our section. We had two cub fans sitting next to us. They were in and out of their seats all night. When they were they they cheered loudly for the Cubs, but nothing different than any fan for any team would do. There was also a whole row of cub fans about 3 or 4 rows in front of us.

Many of the cub fans I saw in our section didn't seem to understand or know that they had seats in the family section (or just tried to get away with it anyways). However, I didn't see any big arguments once the usher informed them of the rules. They just got up and finished there beer in the concourse. I think the guys next to us were not in there seats a whole lot for this reason. The most obnoxious fan I saw was a Brewer fan who was yelling obscenities at our usher. I'm guessing he either didn't have tickets for our section or was drinking and didn't like being told that he couldn't.

I was a little worried when the lights went out. I was worried that there would suddenly be a complete blackout. That would not have been good.

[Baldkin]

Why is it so hard for people to sit in their own seats at Brewers games? You pay for a ticket, you sit in that seat. I mean, c'mon people.

 

For 3 hours on Saturday night, I was standing up and sitting down while people got kicked out of our row or the row in front of us 4 different times.

 

Of course, then there's the 5 minute "Oh, buuut... I have a ticket"

Yeah, your ticket says row 14, WHY WOULD THAT BE THE FRONT ROW?

 

Sadly, half the time they were Brewers fans. This is happening more and more this year and it just irks me.

[hawing]

The most obnoxious fan I saw was a Brewer fan who was yelling obscenities at our usher. I'm guessing he either didn't have tickets for our section or was drinking and didn't like being told that he couldn't.

Someone went off on awesome usher Bill? Booooo. I'd be ready to eject anyone who hates on Bill.

 

I was a little worried when the lights went out. I was worried that there would suddenly be a complete blackout. That would not have been good.

I speculated on the unfortunate timing of the light problem during Saturday's chat. On a Brewers-Cubs Saturday night, about the last thing crowd control staff need would be a delay of game. A complete blackout would indeed not have been good.

[Invader3K]

Why is it so hard for people to sit in their own seats at Brewers games? You pay for a ticket, you sit in that seat. I mean, c'mon people.

 

For 3 hours on Saturday night, I was standing up and sitting down while people got kicked out of our row or the row in front of us 4 different times.

 

Of course, then there's the 5 minute "Oh, buuut... I have a ticket"

Yeah, your ticket says row 14, WHY WOULD THAT BE THE FRONT ROW?

 

Sadly, half the time they were Brewers fans. This is happening more and more this year and it just irks me.

Yeah, I hate that too...if you're going to try to sit somewhere else, fine, I guess...but don't pull the whole "I didn't know" act when you get caught. Just get up and move all ready so the rest of us can actually watch the game.

 

Really, with how many tickets get sold at Miller Park these days, I don't know why anyone would bother trying to sit in another seat. Chances are someone else already has a ticket for it. It's not like this is County Stadium back in the dark years where there might be one or two other people in the terrace section you're sitting in.

[sgtcluels]

The cheaper the ticket, generally speaking, the worse the Crowd is going to be. Avoid the bleachers at all costs if you want to avoid confrontation

 

Liz and I were moving this weekend, so we didn't get a chance to go to any of the games. But last series we caught them all. Saturdays game a fist fight broke out in Club around 315 or so. So bad they kicked the entire row out, and you saw Miller Park "hazmat" come out and clean up the place (I assume from Blood). A few other fist fights broke out. Every Cub series you have.. how can I put this nicely.. dipwad Brewer fans looking to defend Miller Park, they drink and fight and well, don't know crap about Baseball. Then you have the dipwad Cubs fan thinking it's fun to have Miller Park North, and bam... fights. I

 

I just ask (And I give) respect for the hosts of the game. Just cheer for your team, feel out your neighbors, if they can't do some light hearted ribbing then do it. But don't cross the line and always keep it in the friend zone.

 

Both sides ruin the series, I go, but generally speaking, I expect my experience to be tainted. But both the dipwad Cubfans and the digwad Brewers fan. (Ohhh and I thank the Cub fans for spending money so we can sign our good players longer. They don't like that http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif )

[Invader3K]

At least now the amount of Brewers fans are clearly overshadowing the Cubs fans at most of these games. I would think this should partly help cut down on the amount of incidents.

[MJLiverock]

I was at Saturday night's game in the 200 level and our section was at least 80% Brewer fans which was nice. It was probably the best Brewer/Cub game I have been to in the last 5 years. (other than opening day) There were really only 2 groups of Cub fans in our section and for once weren't right next to me. The group a couple rows behind me were pretty drunk and made a point of antagonizing everyone around them with yelling and putting down the Brewers but luckily after Counsell and Braun went back to back they pretty much shut up.

 

I will admit, I hate the Cubs and have for my whole life and it is entirely because of their fans. Growing up in southern WI there were plenty of Cub fans around and all through the 80's when they absolutely stunk I couldn't stand their sanctimonius loveable losers mentality and constant in your face garbage about how good their players are despite losing games, it drove me crazy and now it has only expoded super nova style as they finally have some good teams and have really drawn in the obxoxious jerks of their fan base.

 

Why aren't there numerous fights when the Dodgers come to town? Or the Twins or Cardinals or Tigers, or Phillies? Maybe because their fans don't act like obnoxious holes when they come into town?

 

It reminds me of Ohio State. They play in Madison and all sorts of problems occur and they complain about their fans treatment but they don't acknowledge their groups of fans walking down State Street chanting f the Badgers and getting in the face of people sitting outside at tables. It is like they forget that being on the road means you are greatly outnumbered and people will defend their home turf, it only takes one out off the thousands of the home crowd to get crazy enought to punch your lights out or worse so why make a point of antagonizing the home crowd? Cheer for your team, clap when the score, but purposely antagonizing the home crowd is going to lead to trouble and it completely stupid and the inevitable fight is completely on the visitor who comes in and starts it up.

[BrewCrewWS2008]

Yeah I was in 435 friday night and after the game their was a huge 15-20 brawl right next to me(literally). It started out your normal college drunk kids cheering, some f the cub chants and stuff thrown in there but after the Braun homer things escolated(spelling). After the game one of the d bag cub fans throw a beer which got me a little but more of the people next to me and one of the fans ran up there and the fight just got bigger and bigger. I quickly forced my g/f down the stairs to get out of the way and we watched some of it from down there. I couldn't believe the lack of security up in the terrence level no one showed but to break it up the 5-10 minutes we were up there.

 

People it's common sense that this problem is going to continue to grow the more the rivalury does. Like it or not. If you want to bring your young kids your going to have to spend a little more for better seats were there is less drunk college kids (aka terrence then bleechers you get alot also) I'm a young college kid and I don't mind it at all cause I am young and having fun, enjoying baseball, the whole tension between brewer and cub fans make it that much more fun to be there and watch it. I love the different shirts, sitting out tailgating and listening to the people heckle back and forth. It's great. The fights are a little over board and dumb but it happens at packer and badger games to.

[Bankjob]

I hate these fights as much as anyone, but it when you have a meaningful rivalry and a lot of alcohol, incidents are going to happen. No maybe about it. The only way it is going to go away is if one of the teams become irrelevant for a long period of time and attendance drops in half. These type of incidents are regular at Packer vs Bears or Vikings or Badgers vs Minnesota or Iowa football games.

 

I doubt there was a single fight at the Brewers vs Pirates series in Pittsburgh last week. If we go back to drawing 16,000 on a Friday night and being a bottom feeder of the division year in and year out the majority of these incidents will all go away. If you want to win and fill a ball park with a crowd that likes to over do it alcohol wise this is what you get.

[theavrock]

This happens every year. For the three years or so I have been on this board, we have had a thread about Cubs fans and Brewers fans every year. Its both sides. I hate the Cubs and their fans but Brewers fans are no angels either. I've had great conversations with some Cubs fans and thrown harsh words at the ones who are out of line. I honestly would never act the way some of them do when I go to Wrigley, but I know plenty of Brewers fans who go down there just to antagonize Cubs fans in their home park. The thing I cannot stand is the Cubs fans who come to MP in Cubs gear when they aren't playing and start lets go Cubbies chants when the Chokes are in San Fran or something like that. When people cross the line like that I have no problems telling them to sit down shut up and just enjoy the game thats going on.

[Yount19]

I thought last year was much worse. I remember seeing 3 college age cub fans pushing around a 60 plus year old usher until the Sheriffs came by or the 4 guys peeing on the carpet in the club level. Plus the numerous grills turned over in the parking lot. This year the only incident in my section was a Cub fan who argued with everyone that Sandberg was a better player than Robin Yount and that Yount shouldn't be in the hall of fame. Thankfully a 6 year old girl spilled nachos on his nice white Sandberg jersey, not once but twice!

[homer]

It's funny. I listen to Chicago sports radio and the Cub fans have identical stories to the ones here but theirs have Brewer fans as the instigators. Like FTJ said, same clowns different jerseys.