A few weeks ago a guy I work with sliced off a fingertip while cutting the label off a can. I didn't scream at HIM for incompetence either, and I'm a baseball fan! HAH! Stick THAT in your tailpipe, Mr. Superbike Fan!

And funny too. It doesn't match the comic vitriol of your rant against "Quite Frankly" with Steven A. Smith, but it's good stuff.

We're going to Florida next month.  Visiting friends, taking the kids to Disney, possibly going to the beach.  But the highlight for me will be attending the Daytona 500.  Eight-hundred horsepower times 43 cars.  That's some serious thunder.  I'm not a big fan (of the many types of auto racing) or anything, but I've talked to others who are, and a big part of the appeal is the noise.  It's a violent noise.  It's a badass noise, and the appeal, I think, is primal in nature.

And if some poor schmo barrel rolls 17 times across the infield grass... well, I won't stand up and cheer, but won't sit there saying prayers either.  My 7 year old son?  He might cheer.

Hockey fighting I'll never understand.  Most hockey fights are incredibly clumsy and/or mismatches.  I can't believe people pay money for that, if that's all they're really interested in.

Superbikes?  are you serious??!!  Good God!.  no wonder you don't understand Baseball(and I assume because of this, the fans).  

Lets see if I can try and explain this to you.  

Fans have often invested DECADES of emotional involvement in their Baseball teams, so they can be boisterous at times.  Unlike the superbikes, where people have spent...uh..years? following the superbike season(is there a season?).  Heck I'd wager a guess that half of the enormous crowd at their events are there because they had nothing better to do.

Nobody screams "You suck!" at those races because nobody cares enough.  There's no risk of not making the playoffs with an over century old history.  There's no history to it at all (barring Evel Knievel).  As a note Pirates fans aren't the only one's willing to shout.  Philly fans are famous for their suckdom repertoire.  Just ask Santa. the "friendly confines" of Wrigley?..ehn...not so much.  The Pirates fans have just had years of mediocrity to hone their "You suck!" chants.

When somebody crashes, there is a risk of injury.  Nobody cheers if there is an injury in baseball or football..(well, most fans don't)

Please stop calling the superbikes/NASCAR/bowling "sports".  the athletecism necessary for these pales in comparison to Football, Baseball, and Basketball.

Do the fans of your (beloved?) Pirates a favor and stick with writing about Superbikes so that your 5 fans can enjoy reading about it.

and just shook my head in amazement.  I don't know who is the greater moron, the writer or the the Trib's editor.

When an org asks the citizens of a city to pay for a stadium through taxes, by default that team becomes our team.  People seem to forget, but it is our buying of the tickets that makes things happen.  When I purchase a product from a store that product is mine.  When I buy tickets to see my favorite team play a game, that team is mine.  End of story.

It is endlessly fascinating to hear football or baseball fans lamenting that "we lost" after their city's team is defeated, when the fan's contribution to the team effort involved chugging cans of Coors Light while munching on bags of Doritos.

I know this isn't the worst thing about the article, but it bugs me the most.  Professional sports could not exist without a fan base...maybe me and my coors light don't affect wins and losses, but the players get paid handsomely for hitting a ball with a freaking stick, and we are the ones who finance it.

just everything that is in this thread.  That article is even far worse than you outline, Charlie.  His arrogance and blatant stupidity just ooze off the screen.

...and yell 'you suck' if he were at a championship race and the winner of the race announced to the crowd that that race and even the season-long championship were fixed by the bike manufacturers?

This is a great post. But I have to say I don't think baseball fans are that different from hockey or football fans... have you ever been at a game when a fight broke out? The crowd LOVES it, they go nuts. I don't think Anaheim fans go for the fights, but I think they get caught up in it just like all fans do. Toronto Maple Leafs fans certainly don't go for the fights, but they don't turn away distastefully during them either, you know? And how much do fans love collisions at the plate, beanball wars, etc...

the appeal of NASCAR and Superbike and the like is along the same lines as the circus coming to town once a year. You don't boo those guys (maybe) because you don't see them screwing up in front of your own eyes 81 times a year (with another 81 possible on TV) while you invest, what, $26 a pop into their screwuppery? I mean, I know it costs a small fortune to go to a NASCAR race, but it's a once-a-year deal, like the Kentucky Derby, where the point isn't so much the race as the enormous party that's going on around it. How can you even see what's going on from the infield at a 2-mile track, anyway? But you can sure drink cases and cases of beer and yak it up with other fans. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, just that if the Pirates only played one home game a year, and you watched it from the parking lot while guzzling beer, you probably wouldn't boo much either.

Fans Invested:

If I'm paying for parking, tickets, $6 beer(s), a program, etcetera.  Believe me, I'm invested!  At that rate, I better be able to yell just about anything (Excluding "Fire").  

If I think a guy's mother was unfaithful, leading to a player's conception, I'm should be able to question his mother's fidelity.

If I think a guy is not putting the effort out, I should have the option of telling him in a boisterous manner

Fortunately, I'm not like that...but good to know I have the option

Salutations,

I do not particularly like Chris Rock & Adam Sandler because I once saw them in concert and all they did was swear.  I don't mind swearing; I swear a lot myself.  But don't insult me by suggesting that swearing a lot in a loud voice constitutes comedy in and of itself.

Similarly, I am insulted by that column.  It is absurd and ignorant on so many levels.  He is trying to make a splash and sound tough when he writes that the Bucs "suffer from one of the lousiest fan bases in all of professional sports" and then, as if challenged, writes "There, i said it.  And, no, I'm not about to backpedal or apologize...".  Tough guy then proceeds to offer zero support for singling out Pirates fans.  It is not as if he attempts to provide evidence of argueable relevance; he simply provides no evidence.  Instead, he launches into a comparison of fans of popular team sports v. motocross racers. Apples and oranges with no attempt to link the two together. I was a better writer in 6th grade than this douchebag.

The suggestion that being a good fan means supporting your team no matter what is nieve.  Would he be upset with his supercross boyfriend if he showed up at the Super Bowl of whatever he does riding a Schwinn with a banana seat straight off the shelf from Kmart?

Maybe it is silly and misguided, but we care about how our team does.  We identify ourselves and our community with our team.  So when the Steelers run a draw play on 4th & 40 from their own 12 with 6 second left in a game they trail by 6 points, I'm going to be pissed and let them know about it.  I'm still going to be hoping that the draw play works, but I'm also going to share my feelings.  That is not only being a fan, but an educated fan.  

The importance is obviously much different, but the line of thought espoused by this idiot is the same logic that says that one cannot pray for the safety of our troops while opposing the war.

Ignorant. Incompetent. Nieve. Stupid.

Kudos to Mike Seate for getting a rise out of me.  Next time, support your statements instead of being a shock jock with a pen.

Good day.

Manny Sanguillen, Ed Ott, Dave Parker, Phil Garner, Tim Foli, Bill Matlock, Omar Moreno, Willie "Pops" Stargell, John Candelaria, Jim Bibby, Kent Tekulve...

There...evidence of what memories can bring when a sport elicits REAL emotion

When a superbike isn't a superbike, is it a Clark Kent bike?

Just as a point, I've been a hockey fan for seventeen years now. And while I guess I enjoy fights for the energy it gives a team and the excitement it can add to a tense game, it's a pretty sad state of affairs in Anaheim if all the fans are fight-mongering know-nothings. I'm a Rangers fan (New York, not Texas), and the bloodthirsty bunch are usually not the real hockey fans. Those who are shouting "Fight!" every five seconds are generally the fair-whether fans, or people who are dragged to games and have only heard hockey stereotypes about how that's all the game is.

The best fans in my experience were in Vancouver. New York fans can be a little overbearing, though I love them, but Vancouver fans really knew their stuff and seemed to enjoy the game.

Anyway, point: Hockey is an amazing feat of skill. There's nothing more demanding than being a hockey goaltender, and nothing I more admire than the grace these huge guys can have on skates. If you only view the game through the ESPN lens, you're really missing a lot.

...and, uh, yeah. That was an insanely stupid article. Plus, it bothers me when people complain about saying "We won," or "We lost." I've been throwing time and money into baseball (And hockey, for that matter) for a long time, because I enjoy it. But I reserve the right to say they're "my team."