I Coulda Been A Contender

Yanks down 3-0. Just gotta win tonight, Cole on the mound tomorrow, Rodon after that, anything can happen in a game 7.

Simply parroting Red Sox narratives from 2004 won't get you anywhere. This place is death.

Got tickets tonight we gotta give it our all for the boys. Standing ovation every time Judge is at the plate, we need to show him love, the Bronx needs to show out.

Everything inside of you is broken. The Dodgers are a baseball machine created to destroy the greatest memories of your childhood. Paul O'Neill never existed. Your mind has invented Derek Jeter as a concept to make you feel something. The love of a brother, or the most popular kid in school, or even, at your most delusional, yourself.

In high school we could have won sectionals if coach let me pinch run in the 7th. I had the pitcher's rhythm down, I coulda taken second, probably third too. Yeah, I'll have another beer, the fuckin stadium charges fuckin twenty bucks.

Does it ever end? What is a life well-lived? You've given them everything and they don't even know you're alive, blood in your veins, fight in your heart.

Gleyber Torres pops up to right field in the first inning. It's hooking foul, Mookie Betts is tracking, and at the wall now, he rises up and makes the catch. You grab his glove with both hands and hold his arm in place as you rip the glove open. You are a scumbag. You will be lauded for this behavior. You will be profiled in ESPN. You will have professional athletes on television praising your commitment to your beloved New York Yankees. You get kicked out of the stadium but you'll be invited back the next day (update: this invitation was rescinded, because obviously). Your ticket was even refunded. This is probably the best day of your life.

It's finally happened. You've been given air to breathe. If the Yankees win the next three games you will have achieved baseball immortality. Not really, but that's how it feels. You have, in your mind, saved the season. For now.

There are a few famous sports fans from Fireman Ed riling up the crowd at Jets games to James Goldstein, always ridiculously dressed courtside in support of the Lakers. The people who are only famous for being fans tend to be white men and wear hats. I don't know what this means. The most famous sports fan is Steve Bartman, a Chicago Cubs fan who famously interfered with a foul ball causing Cubs left-fielder Moises Alou to not be able to catch it, thus resulting in the Marlins continuing to score runs and eventually win game 6 of the 2003 NLCS. The Marlins would go on to win the series-clinching game 7 and Bartman would be ostracized from baseball. The facts of the case don't actually reflect poorly on Bartman. He didn't grab Moises Alou and the Cubs mostly lost because of a complete defensive collapse. Following the game all of Bartman's personal information was published online and police had to station at his home due to the threats of violence. He also wore a hat. He didn't deserve it.

I will not say the name of the Yankee fan who ripped at the arm and glove of Mookie Betts, for he does not deserve any oxygen. He does not deserve death threats either. He deserves a lifetime ban from any MLB parks and literally nothing else.

In the modern age of sports fans have more access than ever. Most players have social media, many run their own podcasts and some even write about themselves or the game. This is in many ways excellent. Feeling a connection to your favorite players and teams has always been one of the greatest joys in sports, and more of that is generally better. The humanization of athletes is hypothetically a wonderful response to the lionization of those same athletes.

But fans are fucking dumb.

The first professional sporting event I attended was a Browns-Jets game in 2007. The Browns won fairly comfortably and late in the third quarter Cleveland receiver Joe Jurevicius caught a first down pass to extend the drive. A Jets fan screamed out, "Joe! Didn't one of your kids die? None of my kids died!"

This is true. Joe Jurevicius had a child pass away as an infant. It was the most despicable thing I've ever heard another person say.

There are countless examples of fans' bad behavior at sporting events, and to list them would probably restock the Library of Alexandria. So what's the idea here? There will be no stoppage to this behavior as long as sports exist, so why bother worrying about this?

In the political landscape of America there is an understanding that the public should hear both sides of an idea to make the best informed decision about said idea. This also, is a hypothetically good premise. It also-also doesn't really work. I can say anything at all about anything at all when I'm alone in my apartment and it does not matter. The moment I say it to another person and they consider it, however, it is no longer mine alone and it begins to be real. This both-sides way of thinking is what platforms CNN guest speakers to accuse others of being members of terrorist organizations. This is why your aunt or uncle or grandfather, you know the one, no longer has normal thoughts about anything.

There is a moment in talking with someone or reading an interview or watching television that you understand that what you're engaging with simply exists in bad faith. The idea that these bad-faith actors should be given any oxygen at all is wrongheaded and myopic. I do not need to hear out someone perpetuating the idea that you should be able to grab someone at their job and physically do whatever you want to them. That is patently ridiculous.

You will never find moral clarity in fanaticism, that is by nature not its function. You can, however find redemption in your own heart. You can be better.

-Michael Campana