The Unspoken Rules of Heckling
Fun at the Baseball Park
1.Profanity is not a part of the game. Remember that baseball is a sporting event for families. Moms, dads, sons and daughters all attend games and nobody wants to hear expletives being spurted from your mouth. Anything that requires censoring should not be yelled out in public.
2.Don't get violent. Everyone knows that heckling is a part of baseball but if you get violent you ruin the game for everyone else. Plus the players have bats and you don't.
3.Don't overdo it. Just because it was funny the first time you said it, doesn't mean it's going to be funny every time. Screaming the same cheesy line towards the dugout over and over is eventually going to get on everyone's nerves.
4.Be sensitive to the other people around you. Making jokes about overweight people, bald guys or a player's mother is not only uncalled for but it's offending and rude. Keep your heckles light and funny, not insulting and disgusting. Don't make your heckling personal; it's just a game.
5.Never drink and heckle. Alcohol loosens the tongue and disintegrates inhibitions. When drunken people let anything and everything that passes through their liquor pickled brain come out of their mouth, it usually ends up being insulting and/or stupid. Even if you are sober enough to talk without slurring you'll probably still sound like an idiot.
6.If you can dish it out you better be prepared to take it. Heckling other hecklers is just as much a part of the fun as heckling the players. Expect to get heckled, laugh it off, we all say something funky from time to time.
7.Watch your hands. If you talk with your hands be aware of what your hands are doing while you are heckling your favorite (or least favorite) team. Don't annoy the people sitting next to you or behind you by waving your hands in their face or worse accidentally smacking them. If you have a soda or beer in your hand watch what you do with it and don't spill it on your neighbors.
There's nothing better than a great baseball game during the 3rd inning with the bases fully loaded, the potential for the ever elusive triple play, on a summer Sunday afternoon. Don't ruin it for the rest of us by being an inconsiderate jerk.
Published by Kelly Spies
I'm just a chick with a lot to say about different things. I've been writing for most of my life and aspire to someday be a published novelist as well as content writer. View profile
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- Baseball is a family event.
- Drunken behavior is inappropriate.
- Heckling can get you kicked out if you go overboard.
12 Comments
Post a CommentI engaged in some heckling at a SF/Cincy game back at Candlestick. Didn't use any profanity and got a few laughs. Unfortunately the lady in front of me had a bug up her butt and had us moved. Which wouldn't be all bad except she was reading a friggin book! Seriously who buys a ticket to a ballgame only to bury their nose in a book? On the way out of the park a couple SF fans got on my case about my hat (Reds) and not in a good natured way either. Not a fan of SF fans. Worse than Yankee fans.
A much needed look at heckletiquette.
Great advice, I love heckling myself but get annoyed by the guy sitting behind me that doenst know when to stop....and keeps spitting on my hair, grr
Very nice outline.
I think GOOD heckling is quickly becoming a lost art. I hate that it's sometimes so obnoxious that it ruins it for other fans, but heckling CAN BE very beneficial (not so much at the major league level) for the home team. Our baseball team has tons of Left_Field fans that are really great out there. I hate when parents of female athletes say you shouldn't heckle females. It's part of being a college athlete people!!
And for heaven's sake, if there are kids around you quit with the heckling, or move to another section.
A good set of guidelins to follow, well-written.
This was great! Nice work. I enjoyed. :-)
hehe heckling subjects always remind me of that commercial with Tom Glavine. The heckler is taunting him with: "pitcher's got a rubber arm". Glavine goes over to him and says: "it's has. Pitcher HAS a rubber arm" then walks back over to the mound.
Hear, hear!