Baseball Gets Black Eye, Fan Gets Broken Nose

Frank Francisco is a 25-year-old pitcher with the Texas Rangers, and last month, he was the American League rookie of the month. Tuesday, he was arrested for aggravated battery in Oakland. This wasn't a case of a player gone round the bend on booze or other drugs and then doing something stupid at 3 am in the bad part of town. He threw a chair at fans during the Rangers' game with the Oakland A's, injuring 2, breaking one woman's nose. The commissioner's office is investigating. If things are as they appear to be this early in the inquiry, banning Mr. Francisco from the game for life might not be excessive.

First things first, fans can get rowdy, abusive and down right unpleasant. While American baseball has not had anything near the kind of troubles with its fans that English and Dutch soccer have had with some of theirs, baseball fans are not always on their best behavior. And beer is served at the stadium, which can't help (and which should continue anyway). While part of the fun of baseball is sitting in the stands yelling abuse at millionaires, Rangers Manager Buck Showalter claimed some of the Oakland fans “went over the line. It was a real break from the normal trash you hear from fans. We’ve had problems about every time we’ve come here.”

Precisely what was said hasn't been disclosed, but it is difficult to imagine what a fan might have said that merited a thrown chair in reply. Jackie Robinson probably heard more abuse than any other player in history when he became the first black in the big leagues, but there is no record of him throwing a chair into the stands. Roger Maris received death threats as he approached Babe Ruth's record 60 homers in a season -- no chair throwing came from the North Dakotan.

Of course, that was another generation, when ballplayers were not cosseted prima donnas earning far more for a single game than some fans make in a month. The egos were as big then as they are now, but the egos receive much more pampering than in earlier days. The result is grown men, and women, acting like children.

Baseball as a business owes its fans safety as a bare minimum. Whether charges are pressed against Mr. Francisco or not, the commissioner needs to slap him with a punishment that proves baseball is serious about protecting the fans. When it comes to punishment, the commissioner can be harsh, as with Pete Rose who is still banned for life for gambling on games, or lenient, as with Steve Howe, who was suspended from baseball six times for drug abuse and then finally expelled by Commissioner Fay Vincent (an arbitrator reinstated Howe). Here's hoping the facts warrant forgiveness for Mr. Francisco's actions. If not, let him sit with Mr. Rose.


© Copyright 2004 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.


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