Earlier this evening I was watching the NBA on ESPN (Knicks vs. Hawks), and when the game was over the New York Knicks and their fans celebrated a big victory. When the buzzer sounded a big cheer went up from the crowd; the only thing was that the game was in Atlanta. The Knicks have always been a fairly popular team, however the ESPN crew doing the game made more than one reference in passing to this "phenomenon." I can remember going to the Capital Centre to see the Bullets play the Knicks as a kid and feeling like a visitor, so this certainly isn't the first time.
This reminds me a lot of the normal "takeovers" of Oriole Park at Camden Yards by Yankee and Red Sox fans. Honestly, I don't like it at all. This is somewhat of an annual rant for me on this topic, but the fact is that it kind of frosts me. Hometown fans shouldn't have to play family feud with visiting fans; it just goes too much against the grain in my opinion. Players shouldn't have to endure getting booed and heckled in their home ballpark/stadium/arena. I get the whole thing about if the hometown fans would buy the tickets this wouldn't be an issue. However the fact is that the hometown fans are being displaced by the visitors. While Oriole attendance has gone down over the years, the O's still do okay at the box office on weekends (generally in the high 20K's to mid-30K's). Camden Yards seats 46K people, and over some weekend series' with Boston or New York I would estimate that there are around 30K visiting fans in the park.
So how can that happen? Most Oriole fans walk up to the box office on gamedays and buy their tickets on the way in. The fact is that the tickets aren't available on gamedays any longer for these series', because the visitors have bought them. They're aware of when Oriole tickets go on sale, and they get online or on the telephone and buy them up. Furthermore, we all have horror stories about our run-ins with Yankee and Red Sox fans, and it seems that every year I bump into someone that swears they'll never come back to see the O's play one of these teams. These people unawaringly add to the problem, but they also figure that they'll have a better time seeing the Orioles play the Royals or Indians than the Yankees or Red Sox. Furthermore, I see many visiting fans in what would normally be called season ticket holder areas of the ballpark. Naturally, many companies have tickets in these areas; go figure, the boss doesn't really care who uses the seats. In fact, if he has a client that's from Boston or NY, or is a fan of those teams, he's probably more likely to give them the tickets for that night.
So I call upon the people of Birdland to make it stop now. The Orioles have a much improved team, a bona fide manager, and a legit shot at having a respectable season. I can't blame the fans of the other teams for buying the tickets and coming, however the reason they keep coming back is because they're able to do so. So I encourage people to buy tickets to games against NY and Boston this year and go out and cheer on the homestanding O's. I wouldn't want someone to be afraid for their safety in coming to Camden Yards, however we don't have to welcome them with open arms either. Don't be afraid to remind them that they're in Baltimore and not Boston! Voice your complaints to the hotels across the street from the ballpark, all of whom sell Camden Yards: the House that Jeter built, and Camden Yards: Fenway Park South t-shirts! The city of Baltimore didn't build the most beautiful ballpark in the world for these vermin to enjoy it. They built it the Baltimore Oriole fans. I'm tired of hearing stories about Oriole fans getting thrown out for heckling visting fans, only to find out that the visitors started it. I'm tired of hearing Boston and NY fans talking about how their team might as well get to wear their home whites and bat last in the innings. I have my own theories about how to effectively discriminate against visiting fans in terms of selling tickets, but that's another story for another day. For now, I challenge Birdland to take back the yard.
I sympathize with the Atlanta Hawk fans who probably felt that they were in NY tonight. As I said above, ESPN made many references to the number of NY fans in the stands; this is another way of saying that Atlanta Hawk fans aren't as loyal as Knick fans. I've seen my favorite teams on the road in the past, and I'll do so again next month when I follow the Orioles to Cleveland. However I sympathize with hometown fans that have to routinely put up with this kind of thing. If you have the Yankees, Red Sox, Cowboys, Steelers, Cubs, Lakers, Celtics, Knicks, or Packers in your division, you know what I'm talking about. I suppose that winning cures all of that, however it's tough to win when you're seemingly playing every game on the road.
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