Cub fans bring their lamentation over 1908 to Minute Maid Park in Houston, Is that act, in itself, obnoxious – or is it the falling-down, drunken, discourteous way they try to make their case the total behavior that seals our negative opinion of them?
Friend and Astro usher Bill Hale says the Chicago Cubs fans are the most obnoxious fans that visit Minute Maid Park and he should know, better than most. Dealing with fans, after all, is what ushers are hired to do. Bill says more Cub fans are asked to leave the ballpark than any other.
Up til next season, we’ve mainly been dealing with fans of other National League cities, although we’ve just gotten a preview this past weekend that Texas Ranger fans may be on our list of undesirable home game companions in the future. I personally don’t have any problem with true fans of other cities coming here, wearing their own club’s gear, and cheering like crazy for the visitors. It’s our fault if we cannot answer in kind as Astro fans.
My problem is with the “bandwagon Houston area residents” who line up with the Rangers, or any other team, just because they are winning, and then come to our ballpark dressed as the visitors to cheer against their own home team.
Transplants from Dallas, Chicago, Boston, and Atlanta, for example, are forgiven their support for “the other.” The “pick-a-winner” Houston area people are not. Not in my book, Of course, I may be speaking through the voice of a dead or dying culture that says that loyalty seeds and grows from your earliest experiences. Maybe today loyalty is simply another thing we place as a choice, like picking Apple over PC, or Sprint over AT&T, or Canon over Sony.
After years of watching the Cubs, Braves, and Cardinals bring their fans either to Houston to see the games, or from Houston to see the games in the other team’s gear, we are about to start finding out what awaits us in the American League that may be comparable – or worse. So far, the Red Sox look to be worse than anything we’ve ever seen from any NL club team and its fans. That bunch that came here for a weekend series in 2011 even brought their own songs, Minute Maid Park was turned into “Fenway Park Southwest.”
We’ll see soon enough. 2013 will be here before you know it.
Minute Maid Park, May 19, 2012. – All I care to say is: I hope these two fans didn’t grow up in Spring Branch or Meyerland.
Tags: fan loyalty today, obnoxious fans
The Pecan Park Eagle 
May 24, 2012 at 1:45 pm |
Try to keep the Cub fans out of the Crawford boxes so they can’t do one of their favorite things throw beer on the opposing Outfielders.
Once cancer is cured I hope Doctor’s can turn their attention to finding a cure for the gene that creates Cub fans.
Any Cubs fans reading this please note that the Cardinals have won two championships in their new ballpark as compared to the Cubs winning ZERO in their new ballpark.
May 24, 2012 at 2:05 pm |
When the Astros move to the AL west there is one place where the fans are not a problem. Oakland. With a team batting average of 210
average attendance of 12000 and a stadium as cozy as the Astrodome if you have insomnia this is the place for you.
May 24, 2012 at 2:42 pm |
Bandwagon fans are always going to be bandwagon fans because they are too emotionally insecure to be seen backing a loser. If you see anyone whose “favorite team” includes any two of the Yankees, Cowboys and Lakers, that’s a classic bandwagoner.
That’s not to be confused with a Cub fan who are the antithesis of the bandwagoner because they are always backing a loser if they root for the Cubs.
I think we will soon see that Yankee and Red Sox fans are the worst to endure because a) they have all the class and manners of that region of the country and b) they really do believe Major League Baseball is all about them. In their minds, the other 28 clubs are like the stooge teams that played the Harlem Globetrotters. To them, MLB is the Yankees and Red Sox which is why Fox/ESPN feed that mentality to the rest of the country.
May 25, 2012 at 1:49 pm |
I’d agree with Yankees and Red Sox fans dialing it up a notch, but I disagree strongly that it has anything to do with “the class and manners of that region of the country”. I lived in New York for a few years and have spent a fair amount of time in Boston as well. They’re no different than us – some of their baseball fans are.
For the record, I’ve seen plenty of drunken, mean, or obnoxious Astros fans. We’re not as innocent as people may want to believe.
May 24, 2012 at 3:12 pm |
I am somewhat in agreement with Bob above. The classic teams and gear to see on those shallow front-runners (and yes, it defines their entire personality, not just sports) is the yankees and cowboys. I don’t see how the Lakers fit in there any more than the Heat or Celtics would.
I do totally agree that the Cubs have the worst fans in the NL. But I think there are several things that belie the notion that the Cubs are “lovable losers”. For decades, the Cubs have drawn a yuppie, party crowd to their park while the White Sox drew much more of a blue collar baseball crowd. Going to Wrigley was just as much about picking up opposite sex fans at Cubby Bears as it was about the game. They expect losing, but not in the way that longtime Red Sox fans epected losing. Those BoSox fans (me included) expected not just to lose, but to have your hopes raised high just before your stomach was kicked and your eyes were gouged out. Cubs fans might want to win, but they are perfectly happy losing as long as there’s enough Old Style. Though most of those “losers” prefer Bud these days. And there is a certain Chicagoan misplaced bravado on top of that, one which once prompted a guy from there to rant at some length one summer that it gets just as hot, if not hotter, in Chicago as it does in Houston.
You want to see it turned up a notch, though, go to the yankee games. It’s all the loud but without the knowledge of baseball that you get with the Red Sox. Yes, I agree with Bob that those two teams believe that they are in a class by themselves, with “class” being quite the misnomer on many occasions. However, don’t equate the two when it comes to knowing and loving the game of baseball. There are only two cities in America where the number one sport discussed on sports talk radio is baseball: Boston and St Louis. And only one where every game of the season has been sold out for many years. Boston. Yeah, loud and relentless, but also passionate for baseball, not just the party scene that comes with it.
Bottom line goes to Bill here- As Astros fans, it’s our job to show up and step up.
May 24, 2012 at 7:11 pm |
Just a reminder that stereotyping is always dangerous. This Cubs fan is hardly a Yuppy. I know plenty of other Cub fans who are older and have been through the Cubs’ travails for a number of years as well. We don’t go to the ballpark to get soused or throw beer on anyone. We simply root for the team which represents our hometown, just as the Houston fans so passionately do.
May 24, 2012 at 8:53 pm |
Thanks, Bill, for stepping up to the plate for Chicago and all its Cub fans on the the North Side. (I never met any Cub fans on the South Side.) I was remiss in my utter failure to point out that all Cub fans making the road trip to Houston are not rude or falling down drunk – and that includes the fan that brought the “cursed” sign with him to a game here three years ago. He was just carrying out his private act of hope in the mire of historic despair.
Any Houston fan who could meet you or a number of other people I know from Chicago would have to back off the totality of their issue with Cub fans as loose cannons. Unfortunately, that would not stop the harm to Chicago’s image that is caused by too large a number of the drunken idiots who throw on Cub Jerseys and come to the games in Houston. Those are the folks causing the stereotyping.
John Q. Public isn’t going to spend this much time sorting out the good from the bad, the acceptable from the unacceptable.
May 25, 2012 at 1:41 pm |
As a native Houstonian and lifelong fan of the Astros who has attended more games than can be counted, I’ve seen my share of obnoxious visiting fans. I’ve also seen the one thing that seems unique to Houston – locals rooting against their own team. That’s a behavior I simply cannot wrap my head around.
My seats are just behind third base, so I see tons of visiting fans every year. Yes, Cubs fans are the worst, with Braves fans running a close second. The rest sort of fall into a tie for third. That said, at the recent Brewers series, I was pleasantly surprised by how civil and respectful the visiting folks from Milwaukee were. They were dug-in fans who had traveled far to support their team, wearing their replica uniforms and hats, but they were there for the baseball. It was a welcome change.
May 25, 2012 at 2:36 pm |
Cub fans may be obnoxious, but there seem to be far fewer of them this year.
I think a more important question will be whether the Astros attendance will suffer next year because, as Lance Berkman puts it, we are being exiled to the American League wihtout muchin the way of an explanation or an apology.
May 25, 2012 at 4:06 pm |
Exiled? It’s the AL – the pitcher doesn’t hit, that’s the only difference. By the way, the pitcher doesn’t hit in the NL either. He just stands there and attempts to bunt without hurting himself. Both are nothing more than two different ways to deal with a pitcher’s inability to hit a baseball.
Personally, I’m glad to be getting out of the bloated 6-team division. Also – it’s been explained several times over. Some people just don’t want to hear the answer. Instead, they continually push some sort of convoluted conspiracy theory.
And since when has Berkman been the spokesperson for baseball – or the team he no longer plays for?
May 29, 2012 at 7:56 pm |
The ONLY difference? AL games are usually very tedious, and terribly uninteresting (remember the agonzingly slow Boston-NY seroes?). The reason for this is,of course, the DH. I suggest that there are very few fans who would willingly want to jettison our 50 year history in the NL for the sake of playing in the AL west, where the shades of Gus Zernial have come to rest. The only explanation for the decision to move the Astros is that the Commissioner could do so when there was nothing the new or old management of the Astros couold do about it.
Lance Berkman has played in both leagues, so I think he knows what he’s talking about.