CAN'T WE JUST WATCH A GAME?

Thugs not welcome at ballpark
By Kelvin Wade
April 07, 2011

Bryan Stow, a 42-year-old paramedic from Santa Cruz, went to watch his beloved San Francisco Giants open the season against the dreaded Los Angeles Dodgers. After being jumped and pummeled by a couple of Dodgers fans after the game in the parking lot, he is in a medically induced coma with a fractured skull and brain damage. There is a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the perpetrators.

Police believe 100 onlookers witnessed the assault. How can anyone watch something like that and not intervene? A dozen guys could have put an end to the assault. I understand intervening in an assault is dangerous. People are afraid to get involved. They don't know if the assailants are armed. And one thing worse than one person beaten unconscious is two people beaten unconscious.

But 100 people?

Fortunately, incidents of this severity aren't common. But violence at sporting events is all too common. A famous study by Paul Bernhardt at the University of Utah shows that fans watching their team win experience a rise in testosterone levels. Couple that with the irresponsibility of youth and a group mentality among sports fans, add alcohol and it's not difficult to see why fighting is prevalent at sporting events.

Go on YouTube and type a sports team's name and 'fan fight' and you'll see that there are hundreds, probably thousands of these videos online.

Too often, when people shoot video of fights at sporting events, they post them online as entertainment instead of taking the evidence to police. Violent behavior needs to be punished and the participants should be barred from returning to that venue. Even if witnesses don't get directly involved, they can call police, video the faces of participants and take down license plate numbers.

In the Stow case, we can hope one of the acquaintances of the perpetrators picks up the phone and tips off police. They should do the right thing and make themselves $100,000 richer in the process. I believe in loyalty but if you're the type of person who can jump someone, beat them unconscious and leave them for dead, you're not my friend and I don't owe you loyalty.

Sports rivalries are one of the things that make being a sports fan so rewarding. But the battles should be left for the teams on the field and not the spectators in the stands.

It was recently reported that Stow had sent a text message to a friend minutes before being attacked saying he'd felt scared inside the stadium. Scared. This is the national pastime. Some of my fondest memories growing up are of my dad taking me to A's and Giants baseball games, even though I was never really a baseball fan. It's practically a rite of passage.

True sports fans have to be ready to do our part to aid law enforcement to show these thugs, who wear their team colors like gang colors, that they aren't welcome if they're at the park to start trouble.

It will be a shame if the only way families can enjoy a sporting event is in their living rooms.

Please visit http://www.support4stow.blogspot.com/ to find out how you can help the Stow family. Peace.

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ADDITIONAL NOTES: It's sickening. A man can't go to a ballpark and watch his favorite team with friends without putting his life in danger? What's up with that? How can this be?

In writing this column, I had the opportunity to read up on sports fan psychology and it isn't pretty. I know Dodger fans are saying that the thugs who did this aren't real fans but that doesn't hold water. You can be a thug and a fan. But beyond that, the widespread phenomenon of violence at sporting events is better explained by psychology and physiology.

For the hardcore sports fan, they identify with their team. They identify so much that when their team wins, their testosterone levels surge. When they lose, the levels plummet. An example of how this surging of testosterone affects hardcore sports fan on the winning side of the game is the fact that do you notice riots and destruction usually occur in a city where the winning team is from. The losing team can have thousands meet them at the airport or wherever and there's no rioting. Sure alcohol plays a role too but the experts say this psychological identifying with the team ("WE lost" "WE won") plus the surge in testosterone explains a lot. People in groups experience de-individualization. They feel less individually responsible for their actions.

Now I'm not saying any of this applies to the guys who attacked Bryan Stow. I don't know what their deal was. They could be two sociopaths. They could be gangbangers. I don't know. I'm talking about the widespread fighting that goes on at sporting events.

Young + testosterone + group identity + alcohol is a dangerous combo.

I think anyone charged with a violence related crime at a ballpark shouldn't be allowed back in that ballpark. And if they are arrested there AGAIN for violence, I think that prior arrest should ensure they receive harsher penalties. If they're drunk before the game, they shouldn't be allowed in. If they're drunk and belligerent during the game, they should get thrown out. I don't have a problem with someone having some beers and enjoying themselves but if they get crazy, if they get violent....UH UH.

I may want to take my grandson to something in the future and I want it to be a safe environment.