Dodgers/Giants Dugout Clearing

As mentioned in my last post, I wanted to spend more time on this issue of how far is too far when it comes to the Dodgers/Giants rivalry.

I find this issue to be pretty polarizing, but especially up here. If you listen to the radio, those guys wish the rivalry was more intense. Apparently when the Giants played at Candlestick, the fans were borderline nasty and really let the Dodgers and their fans have it. I guess one of the worst areas was along the foul lines when opposing pitchers would come in from the bullpen. That’s when the jeers rained down. They feel that there are too many Dodger fans at the game and they want us to feel less welcome.  So that is the one extreme.

The other is a comment from my Manny the Man and What a Blowout post, copied here:

Its one thing to be happy for your team and cheer them on, and quite another to rub things in people faces. I have to say I am disappointed in the spirit of it.

This is from a Giants fan friend of mine who is all about the purity and sportsmanship of baseball. He loves to talk the game, watch the game, and truly is in on every pitch. He loves the strategy in each situation, and randomly is a really good whiffle ball player. He is a huge Giants fan but won’t go to a Dodgers/Giants game because he feels it is too harsh even still. It isn’t sportsmanlike, the rivalry is too in your face and uncomfortable, and thus he won’t have a part of it. It’s for those reasons that when I said I would raz my co-workers that he felt it was too far.

I find myself in the middle. I don’t like when the fans are drunk and can’t respect fans of other teams. I was at the Dodgers/Cardinals playoff game a few years ago and watched a Dodger fan dump a beer on a guys beautiful new Cardinals jersey. There was some taunting, but it didn’t deserve the damage to the jersey.

From what I hear though L.A. is worse than AT&T park for the rivalry. You know this is true when people are dying and getting beat up at the game. Again, that obviously is too far.  I think there should be the fun of razing, but with mutual respect.  Both sides know that it is a pendulum and you may win one game but lose the next, so why rub it in one game and then look like a fool the next.

So what should the rivalry look like? Should Dodger fans fear going to AT&T? What’s your take? Take the poll below and leave your comments.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 19th, 2009 at 11:47 pm and is filed under 2009 Games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.