Wanna taunt Jones? Be creative.

[sportznut]

On the road, we get yelled at for a living. Most people who are at games are there to enjoy the games, but let's be honest: Some fans go just to give us a hard time.


Believe me, it doesn't bother us. Most of it is the same old stuff: My mom this, my wife that, hey you guys suck. Those don't get any responses from us.


If you yell, you must be creative to have street cred with us. As a general rule, the East Coast is the roughest. Philly, Boston and New York are the standard. They do their homework. They know your family's name and your mom's name. They're usually not creative, though.


The worst is the guy who is with a group of buddies. He will circle around for a minute gathering up the guts to say something. He's usually there two hours before the game, he's had at least five beers, and now he's got his buddies around him chanting his name. Finally, he'll say something that he's worked very hard on.


It's then our job to try to turn his buddies around on him and get the whole section to hate him and want him to leave. It's too easy to get security to throw him out.


Just don't cuss, fans. You sound like an idiot if you just swear at a player. It's not very creative and it's in bad taste. After all, there are kids around. You have no shot of staying in the ballpark if you swear.


If you're going to rag on us, be creative. Like in New York, I've actually been asked after a tough game the night before if I was sure I was a right-handed pitcher. I thought that was a good one, so I tossed a ball to the guy who said it.


I've also been asked in New York for a ball from the bleacher bums in rightfield. After politely telling them that I didn't have one, they said, "THAT'S OK, JONES. I'LL GET ONE WHEN YOU PITCH."


Those are good ones. "Hey, you suck" just doesn't do anything for me anymore.


On the other hand, the fans in St. Louis are so polite they don't rag on you. So if a guy says something to us on the field, he instantly has to answer for his actions to the fans on his right and his left.


Cubs fans do a good job. They're creative and they read the papers. They know who is doing well and who's not.


San Diego fans don't care -- they just want a ball. If you throw out balls, you're a fan favorite.


They're there for the seventh-inning stretch and a hot dog. They are too laid back. L.A. fans -- forget it. Don't even throw them a ball unless you're a star like Pudge or Magglio. They don't want one from anyone else.
Most of all the other parks are fine. Fans are just there to try to get a ball, and for the most part they just want to talk and say "hey." If you talk to even the drunkest guy, he's just there to blow off steam and you just happen to be the guy he sort of sees. You just have to deal with it.



-----------------



The last game I went to was the Tigers/Red Sox game that Jones blew in the top of the 9th.



I had LF seats a few rows behind the bully that night.



As the 9th inning started, the entire crowd stood up, and made perhaps the loudest noise that I've ever witnessed at Comerica.



After Jones blew the save, but the Tigers still had a chance in the bottom of the 9th, a guy began taunting the bullpen.



This is roughly what the exchange was:



fan- "Hey bullpen! You suck! I come here every Friday night, and you guys always lose."



Just then Jamie Walker turns around, finds the guy in the crowd and motions for him to come down to the bully.



fan- "Hey Walker you suck. You're a piece of crap, but you pitched good last night."



Walker still motioning for the guy to come down.



fan- "I've been watching you give up bombs for the last 3 years. You're a piece of crap."






----------



Now as much of an ass that guy was I couldn't help but laugh at the exchange even though I don't know how much Jamie actually heard, and I wasn't close enough to hear him b/c he wasn't screaming like the fan.



That Jones story in NY reminded me of that exchange.

[Spuds]

Went to a Yankees/Tigers games years ago and there was this fan in Kaline corner yelling... "Oneil you retard" all game. He also threw peanut shells at him. Oneil glared at him from time 2 time but never lost his cool. It must have had some sort of an effect because Oneil had an Ofer.

I was beered up so I thought it was funny as shit. So now whenever I see Oneil on TV or hear the name Oneil I think of that game.

The Tigers won btw.

They seldom lose when I am in attendance

[sportznut]

Originally Posted by Spuds

Went to a Yankees/Tigers games years ago and there was this fan in Kaline corner yelling... "Oneil you retard" all game. He also threw peanut shells at him. Oneil glared at him from time 2 time but never lost his cool. It must have had some sort of an effect because Oneil had an Ofer.

I was beered up so I thought it was funny as shit. So now whenever I see Oneil on TV or hear the name Oneil I think of that game.

The Tigers won btw.

They seldom lose when I am in attendance

I have some sort of reverse mojo.

When the Tigers stunk they would seemingly win whenever I saw them.

Now so far this year its the opposite.

I'm still not happy I won't get to see Pujols now though.

[Spuds]

Originally Posted by sportznut

I have some sort of reverse mojo.

When the Tigers stunk they would seemingly win whenever I saw them.

Now so far this year its the opposite.

I'm still not happy I won't get to see Pujols now though.

It was just your love for Tramms managerial skills.

You two had it working.

[Bonderman4CyYoung]

During a twins game once we sat in the bleachers when the bullpen was over there. We kept yelling at Jaquce Jones and he turned around a few times. We also talked shit to nathan when he was warming up for a save. We got to him in the pen and he threw a wild pitch while he was warming up but shut us down. My friend also asked bobby higginson for a refund since he had about 7,999,999 to spare. We also talked shit to manny once in left and he actually missed a fly ball but i think thats just manny being manny.

[sportznut]

Originally Posted by Bonderman4CyYoung

During a twins game once we sat in the bleachers when the bullpen was over there. We kept yelling at Jaquce Jones and he turned around a few times. We also talked shit to nathan when he was warming up for a save. We got to him in the pen and he threw a wild pitch while he was warming up but shut us down. My friend also asked bobby higginson for a refund since he had about 7,999,999 to spare. We also talked shit to manny once in left and he actually missed a fly ball but i think thats just manny being manny.

Yeah the crowd was getting on Manny as well.

He turned around and gestured to the crowd a few times in between pitches.

Like you said just Manny being Manny.

[Bonderman4CyYoung]

Originally Posted by sportznut

I have some sort of reverse mojo.

When the Tigers stunk they would seemingly win whenever I saw them.

Now so far this year its the opposite.

I'm still not happy I won't get to see Pujols now though.

Forgot about Pujols being out. I think i might get to those games. I've been stuck upstate and haven't seen a game yet this year.

[LexingtonSteel]

My buddy and I got on Jose Offerman real bad one night. He's a Boston fan and this was after he sucked it up in Boston and got released then signed with Seattle. We were yelling some standard things like "You should be in AAA" but then we turned it up in the 9th inning with things like "I hope you were just renting in Boston". Then after the game we went to the dugout and just heckled the crap out of him and he made the money sign and then after we kept yelling he signalled us to meet him outside. HAHAHA, then we just went nuts "Ooooo big man wants to pick a fight in front of the kids.... nice role model... " haha That was alot of fun... but no swearing and nothing obsene. Just plain mean. haha

[Bleeding10]

When I was younger, I thought that Rickey Henderson was the cat's pajamas. So I went to a lot of A's games. I always had to sit in left so I could be behind Rickey too. One game I had my camera ready and I kept yelling "Rickey!" until he turned around and I would take his picture. He did that a 2nd time smiling and waved for the 2nd picture. I was very pumped at the time. I was like 9 or 10 and didn't know how much of an ass he was, but still a good memory for me. I still have the picture too. haha

[John3714]

Thought this was fitting here...

Fans turn heckling into an art form
Players don't mind if it's something original
John Niyo / The Detroit News

Ankur Dholakia/The Detroit News

Matt Barranca, 22, of Harper Woods said he has one golden rule to heckling at Comerica Park: "I'll never swear." See full image

Golden rules
In 1948, The Sporting News published the "Scientific Rules of Heckling," by Pete Adelis, a vocal Philadelphia fan known as the "Iron Lung of Shibe Park." Not much science here, but his rules stand the test of time:
1. No profanity.
2. Nothing purely personal.
3. Keep pouring it on.
4. Know your players.
5. Don't be shouted down.
6. Take it as well as give it.
7. Give the old-timer a chance. He was a rookie once.
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DETROIT -- The way Steve Rhodes sees it -- or hears it, actually -- his voice is as much a part of the grand ol' game as peanuts or Cracker Jack. In fact, from his vantage point at Comerica Park, hunched over the railing above the visitors' bullpen in center field, Rhodes, 22, a Tigers fan from Harper Woods, is quite sure of it.
So as the Tigers opened a recent home series with the Minnesota Twins, Rhodes reported for duty under the flagpole, where he loudly called balls and strikes for the opponent's starting pitcher, Kyle Lohse, during warm-ups.
He mostly just called the balls, mind you. And lots of them.
"Hey, Lucy!" Rhodes yelled, as others in the stands turned to see what the commotion was all about. "I think I figured out why you've got an 8.33 ERA!"
That drew laughter from the nearby bleachers, and a few swiveled heads in the bullpen. But Rhodes was just getting warmed up.
"To me, heckling is part of the game," he said, smiling. "Especially if it's done the right way."
Just what is the right way? Well, that depends on who you ask, but it does appear to be a lost art in today's major league ballparks, where too often the discourse -- once part of the lifeblood of the game -- amounts to little more than, "You stink, Bonds!"
"Really, with some of them, you're like, 'Come on, that's it?' " Tigers first baseman Chris Shelton said. "I mean, if you're gonna yell something, you gotta come up with something better than that."
When they do, though, it's hard to ignore.
"You go to Boston or New York and you get some pretty good stuff," said Todd Jones, the Tigers' veteran reliever. "One time at Yankee Stadium, there was a guy in right field screaming, 'Hey, Jones, gimme a ball!' "
Jones politely told him no, to which the fan replied, "That's OK, I'll get one when you pitch."
Said Jones, laughing: "I get that a lot."
"But I acknowledge it, gives 'em credit when they come up with something good," he added. "I've had people ask me if they should trade me from their fantasy teams. I had a guy one time ask me if I was sure I was right-handed. That's pretty funny. Something like that, you just throw 'em a ball or something."
Said Shelton: "You've got to pick your spots. I got into it with some fans in Boston last year. They put up where you're from on the scoreboard, and when they saw I was from Salt Lake City, they asked me how many wives I had. I turned around and held up five fingers. They laughed.
"I mean, you can't take it personally, because you know they're up there and they're probably 24 dollars deep in beer, so you just try to have some fun with it. And usually when you do, when you mess around with them a little bit, by the end of the game they're on your side."
Ugly episodes
Ty Cobb took a slightly different tack in his day. In 1912, in one of his more memorable meltdowns, the Georgia Peach went charging into the stands in New York and pummeled a heckler. Never mind that the man, Claude Lueker, had only one hand, or that he had just two fingers on that hand. As the New York Times reported the next day, "Jabs bounded off the spectator's face like a golf ball from a rock."
More recently, ugly episodes between fans and players in major league baseball have raised concerns about heckling.
Two years ago, Texas Rangers pitcher Frank Francisco -- angered by Oakland fans' taunting -- threw a chair into the seats, breaking the nose of a woman, Jennifer Bueno, whose husband had been razzing the Rangers' bullpen. A civil lawsuit is still pending as a result of that incident.
"The biggest thing is, when it comes down to it, you've got to remember that they're up there and you're down here," Shelton said. "Especially when it just gets stupid."
At Comerica Park, stadium security enforces a fan code of conduct that follows a league-wide standard.
The Tigers intend to provide all of our guests with a safe, comfortable and enjoyable atmosphere. Therefore, the Tigers have established the following rules for expected guest conduct. Fans are subject to ejection or possible arrest for "interfering with other guests' ability to enjoy the game" and "using foul or abusive language or gestures."
Tigers Hall of Famer Al Kaline remembers the unfriendly confines of Comiskey Park.
"The worst thing I ever had happen to me was in Comiskey Park, where somebody threw a little penknife at me from the upper deck," Kaline said. "And one time, at Yankee Stadium, somebody threw a bottle at me. But I heard some of the other fans went and beat the hell out of him -- and they weren't even Tiger fans.
"My wife used to get mad at me, because I wouldn't look in the stands to see her," Kaline said, chuckling. "She'd say, 'How come you never wave at me?' But once people see you've got rabbit ears, they'll stay on you. I made it a point to never look in the stands, never to acknowledge the hecklers."
Then again, he didn't have to.
"Me, personally, I knew they were yelling at me because they respected me," Kaline said. "They weren't yelling at me because I was a bad player."
In Aron Amundson's case, it's because he's an easy target. He's the bullpen catcher for the Twins, but as Matt Barranca discovered, you won't find his No. 75 jersey listed on the 40-man roster. Still, that didn't spare Amundson any good-natured ribbing at Comerica Park, where Barranca, 22, also of Harper Woods, joined Rhodes in serenading the Twins' bullpen.
"I had to come back to see my buddy," laughed Barranca, who'd given Amundson an earful when Minnesota made its first visit to Detroit in late April. "We were riding (Twins reliever) Joe Nathan the whole night and finally the catcher came over and threw me a ball and said, 'Thanks for making me laugh all night.' It's always fun when there's a give-and-take with the players like that."
Barranca said he never gives more than he could take, and he holds firm on one cardinal rule.
"I'll never swear," he said. "I won't do it. I mean, just look at all these little kids around here."
Family is where the players draw the line, too.
"Some of them are just flat-out rude, talking about your family and going places where they shouldn't," Tigers third baseman Brandon Inge said. "But for the ones that are funny and keep it family-friendly, it's OK."
The Happy Heckler
Some stadiums are worse than others, all agree. But for Inge, there's one that stands out. Last season, he was victimized by Tampa Bay Devil Rays fan Rob Szasz, a renowned heckler who recently wrote a book -- "The Happy Heckler" -- on the subject. Szasz typically singles out a different player for each game to harass.
"Usually, it's a different guy each game, but I got it for the whole damn series," Inge said, laughing. "I don't know, maybe it was because I was a good sport about it. He was picking on me for the way I wore my pants, how short I was, everything. He was extremely loud, but he never cussed once. He was a class act, for a heckler."
Instead of responding verbally, one of Inge's teammates, backup catcher Vance Wilson, decided to pass Szasz a note.
"(Wilson) put a $20 bill in an envelope and wrote a message that said, 'Why don't you take this $20, go buy you and your wife a hot dog and shove it in your fat pie-hole.' So the guy takes the money, goes and gets a couple hot dogs, waves at (Wilson) and laughs.
"But then he sends the envelope back with $50 inside it. And he wrote a note, 'I don't know what you guys eat up in Detroit, but here in Tampa we like filet mignon and that costs at least $50.'
"It was a great comeback. And Vance just tipped his cap and then we gave the $50 to the clubhouse kid."
Szasz doesn't always get the last laugh, however. Last summer, the Devil Rays honored Szasz with a special promotion: Heckler Day. The first 5,000 people through the turnstiles at Tropicana Field were handed Happy Heckler megaphones.
And fittingly, the fans used those megaphones to boo Szasz when he threw out the first pitch.
You can reach John Niyo at .


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