Lakeland Mirror

Issue date: 4/24/03 Section: Sports

If you believe sports is indeed the fun-house mirror where society goes to see its reflection, then it can't surprise you that what America saw while watching its pastime last week was too much violence.

Gone are the glorious days where men and women run through center field nude, or seeing a large-breasted lady seduce Derek Jeter or an umpire for a kiss. Instead it's now funnier to see drunk and high fans attempt to put there grills on TV trying to beat up a first base coach or umpire. Baseball isn't the only problem. Every sport has some hostile arena that's less civilized than it once was.

If it isn't a Miami of Ohio football coach resigning after punching and knocking out a fan celebrating on the field, it's pepper spray being set off under the Celtics' bench.

If it isn't Browns fans littering the field with beer bottles and trash after a referee's call, it's a deranged Steffi Graf fan literally backstabbing Monica Seles with a knife in Germany.

If it isn't J.D. Drew being pelted with batteries or Everett getting hit in the back of the head with a phone of all things (what's next, a small grill or maybe a pizza oven?), it's a CFL playoff game being interrupted by players kicking and punching a fan who has attacked a player on the field. Again, this news isn't new. Ty Cobb once ran into the stands and beat up a heckler who had no hands.

TV has learned that just running onto the field skins rewards people the attention that their hoping to get. So, that means morons have to do things that are so out of line, they force ESPN and our local news to give them coverage. The other day when the miscellaneous person attacked the line umpire, he had 12 16-oz. beers, not 12 oz. beers! So in fact, with the extra 4-oz. per beer, that means 16 beers. He had his first six beers at Wrigley Field for the Cubs game earlier in the day and topped his tank with another six at the White Sox game.

TV is a prime problem in what is going on with society's sports rage. Without TV who would know that championships are being celebrated with riots. Or who would have actually cared that Miami of Ohio's football coach punched a fan had they not actually seen it on TV. Being a part of TV to some people is equal to what the MTV show Jackass is all about.

It might be a stretch to suggest our ballparks are more violent because the America that surrounds them is more violent, too. That guy who threw his cell phone at Everett probably wasn't doing it because our video games, our music, our movies and our daily TV news all feature more blood. The explanation is a little simpler than that, and tastes like beer.

But have you heard interviews with the dopes who do things like attack the coach or the ump? These people are one crutch short of a telethon. They could trip over a cordless phone.

If anyone on this planet is going to be easily and illogically influenced by TV, it's these folks.

How else can one explain that guy who got punched out by the Miami of Ohio coach? This wasn't some teenager. This was a 36-year-old lawyer deciding it was normal to jump a barrier and skip onto the field. You don't want to say a man this old celebrating a regular-season victory over Marshall on the field deserves to get punched in the face, but he deserved to get punched in the face.

And the result when something like this happens, unfortunately, is that sports are beginning to get out of control.

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