Top Fan Moments in History

I enjoy the MLB Network.  One of their "top" lists is a show about the top fan moments in history.  I love baseball fans and how they fit into the fabric of a game and into the mosaic of history.  When I'm at a game, I pay special attention to fans.  I'm a people watcher.

As a participatory fan, I love to see how other fans and fans in general contribute to baseball.  One of the things I think is most lacking about how baseball is viewed throughout history is the lack of attention paid to fans.  We always hear about great players and the Hall of Fame.  We hear about great managers, great ballparks, great seasons and pennant races, great personal achievements.  And yes, we hear about fans, but only sometimes.  We hear about how nasty Yankees fans can be and about how early Dodger fans can leave a game.  How knowledgeable Cardinals or Red Sox fans are, or how few Expos fans there are.  Or were.  But overall, there is relatively little said about fans as compared with other aspects of baseball.

And this is why I really enjoyed a MLB Network countdown on the top fan moments in baseball history.  There were some really great ones.  Tiger fans pelting Ducky Medwick with fruit, vegetables and bottles in game 7 of the 1934 World Series after Medwick slid hard into 3rd base.  Steve Bartman and Jeffrey Maier were also featured.  Chris Chambliss' pennant winning home run through the mob on the field.  Nickel beer night in Cleveland where the drunken fans went wild, storming the field and causing a near riot, forfeiting the game for the Tribe.  A female fan goes nuts after Ichiro reached into the stands for a ball and touched her.  Reading her lips, it was easy to tell that she called her mom from her cell phone to tell her all about it.  Or the fan in Houston that ducked out of the way of a foul ball at the last second, only to have the ball clock his girlfriend.  And of course, the two guys that ran out on the field to congratulate Hank Aaron on his 715th home run during his home run trot.  There was a great video clip of a ten year old kid who made a spectacular catch of a foul ball, only to catch a second one a few pitches later in the same at bat.

But the fan moment that took the cake as the most memorable of all time was the Bill Veeck stunt gone bad: Disco Demolition night in Chicago's Comiskey Park.  Fans got in for a discount if they brought a disco record to be blown up between the games of a double header.  Chicago rock radio DJ Steve Dahl was there to officiate the destruction.  A box of the records was exploded, and rock music fans went wild, storming the field and completely destroying it.  You could see fans from the upper deck slide down the foul poles to the field.  The White Sox had to forfeit the second game of the double header.  Yeah, gotta love the fans.

MLB Network

This year we moved to a new city, which meant a different selection of channels on the cable TV.  The city in which we currently live has the MLB Network as a cable channel.  This, I'm guessing, would be an equivalent of the NFL Network so talked about?  I don't know.  But, it does have some really interesting shows.  First, it's all baseball, unlike ESPN.  Second, although it does seem to have some of the east-coast bias, it's not as bad as the Red Sox Network, uhm, I mean ESPN.  Or is that the Yankees Network?  Well, ESPN is often the Yankees vs. Red Sox Network.

MLB Network has panels of a sports journalist and former players that discuss the day's games, the winter meetings, the hot stove league.  They also have something I really love: lists.  The top 50 this, the top 25 that, the top ten other.  The greatest finishes, the greatest home runs, the best pitching performances, the best fan moments, the best ballparks.  It's fun to count these things down and try to guess what is number one.

One thing it has against it is the repetition of programs.  Like the Sports Center/Baseball Tonite/ Sports Center/Baseball Tonite merry go round of ESPN.  Sometimes a show will repeat for a week or so, with player moves in between that aren't reflected in the repeating show.  Overall, though, it is a good channel to have and it covers so many aspects of baseball and its history.  If you love baseball and have a chance to get this channel, do so.

Most Memorable Game of 2010

I saw MLB Network's list of most memorable games in 2010.  There were quite a few games at Coors Field that were see-saw battles that ended 12-11 or some such thing.  Halladay's no-hitter in the NLDS was also on the list.  But the game they listed as number one was game 6 of the NLCS between the Giants and Phillies.  It truly was a great game - not only because of the outcome, hehehe - but the way it all came down.  Starter Johnathan Sanchez was chased in the 3rd after a shaky outing.  His exit - hitting Chase Utley with a pitch - ended in a bench clearing incident.  Great ball was played by both teams, each turning a memorable double play.  The Giants pen pitched 7 innings of scoreless relief, while Juan Uribe hit the go ahead homer in the 8th inning.  Wilson's ninth came nearly unglued until he caught Ryan Howard looking for the last pitch of the NL season.