Milwaukee is getting some bad publicity about rotten fan behavior at public events that made it into the news.
There was a streaker who interrupted at a Milwaukee Brewers game, then a baseball thrown from the stands striking an umpire in the back of the head and also inattentive fans no noise and rude during his show that musician Paul Simon stopped his show and confronted one particularly obnoxious attendee.
"Is this your show or my show," Simon asked after stopping his performance for what the The Journal Sentinel reviewer said was a solid 30 seconds.
I wasn't at the show or either of ball games where fans decided to make themselves the spectacle and the story, and I probably wouldn't have decided to write anything about it if the headline on the Simon review hadn't described some of the inconsiderate fans as "antsy."
Antsy?
How about some of them, including the chatterbox whom Simon called out, being under the influence?
No sober baseball fan takes off his shoes and pants to run out onto the field, nor can I imagine that the criminal who fired a baseball at an umpire wasn't under the influence of an excess of alcohol, or his equally impaired pals, or both.
And if evidence shows me wrong about any of my assumptions, complain directly and I'll retract the specific words and just settle for "you jerks."
This might be a useful moment for the community to have one of those conversations it likes to duck about personal and crowd behavior in Wisconsin, and whether it's different here than in other places.
I've been to concerts and baseball games in other cities and I usually feel that people are there for the event they paid to watch, but too often in Wisconsin, the event is the drinking, while the music or the base running is secondary.
The last two concerts I've attended in Milwaukee were shows by world-famous musicians. The shows were pretty pricey, and yet a substantial part of the experience was ruined by the constant trips by several people sitting in front of us getting up and down for more drinks.
I can remember one man standing up and audibly asking people down the row 'who wants one, what do want, etc.,' then returning, standing, passing people's orders down the row.
After one of these shows I wrote management a long letter or email of complaint. I got a response about all the efforts that are made to tamp down obviously bad behavior, but in the end my observation is that concert venues these days make on-site drinking easier because there's big money in it and many fans expect access to alcohol during the show.
I can remember when that was not the case in some theaters, and I think it's a negative.
As to baseball - - yes I know of the long association between the game and beer in cities which do not have such a brewing legacy or have named the home team the Brewers.
Did go to a Washington Nationals game a couple of years ago. People seemed to manage their beer and their behavior. They weren't any louder or distracted than anyone else, drinking or not.
I kept wondering why so fans at Miller Park I've seen over the years couldn't comport themselves the same way. Seriously, I took a careful look around and did not see or hear a single drunken fan.
Maybe it was because there isn't tailgating at Nationals Park.
Maybe the culture there is different.
Worth noting that I have a friend who is a fan used to go many Brewers' games and now never goes because, as he puts, "the drunks have ruined it for me."
I know where he's coming from.
Since childhood I've gotten completely taken in at a baseball game by the all the sudden on-field action and rising tension and strategy that comes with each pitch, move on the bases or decision by a managers, and it's a bummer if you're trying to absorb and appreciate it while seated next to or behind people like the guy from Madison with whom I attended a game years ago on an office outing to the old County Stadium who lived up to his declared identity as "a beer-an-inning man."
And who became the now-retired "Two-Fisted Slopper" and would have fallen out of our group of seats in the first row of the left field grandstands had I not grabbed him the shirt when he stood up late in the game and lost his balance.
OK: I'm done. For sure this is going to make me out to be the scold, but at my age, I care not.
Feel free to join the discussion.
There was a streaker who interrupted at a Milwaukee Brewers game, then a baseball thrown from the stands striking an umpire in the back of the head and also inattentive fans no noise and rude during his show that musician Paul Simon stopped his show and confronted one particularly obnoxious attendee.
"Is this your show or my show," Simon asked after stopping his performance for what the The Journal Sentinel reviewer said was a solid 30 seconds.
I wasn't at the show or either of ball games where fans decided to make themselves the spectacle and the story, and I probably wouldn't have decided to write anything about it if the headline on the Simon review hadn't described some of the inconsiderate fans as "antsy."
Antsy?
How about some of them, including the chatterbox whom Simon called out, being under the influence?
No sober baseball fan takes off his shoes and pants to run out onto the field, nor can I imagine that the criminal who fired a baseball at an umpire wasn't under the influence of an excess of alcohol, or his equally impaired pals, or both.
And if evidence shows me wrong about any of my assumptions, complain directly and I'll retract the specific words and just settle for "you jerks."
This might be a useful moment for the community to have one of those conversations it likes to duck about personal and crowd behavior in Wisconsin, and whether it's different here than in other places.
I've been to concerts and baseball games in other cities and I usually feel that people are there for the event they paid to watch, but too often in Wisconsin, the event is the drinking, while the music or the base running is secondary.
The last two concerts I've attended in Milwaukee were shows by world-famous musicians. The shows were pretty pricey, and yet a substantial part of the experience was ruined by the constant trips by several people sitting in front of us getting up and down for more drinks.
I can remember one man standing up and audibly asking people down the row 'who wants one, what do want, etc.,' then returning, standing, passing people's orders down the row.
After one of these shows I wrote management a long letter or email of complaint. I got a response about all the efforts that are made to tamp down obviously bad behavior, but in the end my observation is that concert venues these days make on-site drinking easier because there's big money in it and many fans expect access to alcohol during the show.
I can remember when that was not the case in some theaters, and I think it's a negative.
As to baseball - - yes I know of the long association between the game and beer in cities which do not have such a brewing legacy or have named the home team the Brewers.
Did go to a Washington Nationals game a couple of years ago. People seemed to manage their beer and their behavior. They weren't any louder or distracted than anyone else, drinking or not.
I kept wondering why so fans at Miller Park I've seen over the years couldn't comport themselves the same way. Seriously, I took a careful look around and did not see or hear a single drunken fan.
Maybe it was because there isn't tailgating at Nationals Park.
Maybe the culture there is different.
Worth noting that I have a friend who is a fan used to go many Brewers' games and now never goes because, as he puts, "the drunks have ruined it for me."
I know where he's coming from.
Since childhood I've gotten completely taken in at a baseball game by the all the sudden on-field action and rising tension and strategy that comes with each pitch, move on the bases or decision by a managers, and it's a bummer if you're trying to absorb and appreciate it while seated next to or behind people like the guy from Madison with whom I attended a game years ago on an office outing to the old County Stadium who lived up to his declared identity as "a beer-an-inning man."
And who became the now-retired "Two-Fisted Slopper" and would have fallen out of our group of seats in the first row of the left field grandstands had I not grabbed him the shirt when he stood up late in the game and lost his balance.
OK: I'm done. For sure this is going to make me out to be the scold, but at my age, I care not.
Feel free to join the discussion.