The Fan Part 2

Fans are what make sports special.  Players can play all they want but if no one is there to watch them then all that they accomplish is only known to themselves.  It is when the fans stand to their feet and cheer as an outfielder jogs into the dugout after making a diving catch, or when a player comes out of the dugout to make a curtain call because the fans wont stop cheering his home run, that we begin to understand just how important the fan is to the game of baseball.

Not all fans are created a like.  Some are young, some are old; some watch the game because they have loved it all their life, and others are only beginning to love the game; regardless of where a fan is on the scale of love and hate for the game they are still a part of the crowd.  That makes each fan important, but it doesn’t mean that all fans are enjoyable to sit next to.

Although the ‘cheerleader’ fan can at times be a bit annoying, there is no fan that is worse to sit next to then ‘The Know It All’ fan.  Yes, I do know that I call myself the 9 inning KNOW IT ALL, but I am very certain that I am not the ‘Know It All’ type of fan.  The Know It All is the fan who believes that coaching professional baseball is easy and that they could walk right into that job and do just as good a job as the current manager.  This is the fan that constantly whines because the coach wasn’t following his advice.

The Know It All sees no problem with doing a hit and run with the slowest runner in the world on first base and the team’s leader in strike outs at bat, because ‘good things happen when you’re aggressive.’

Before I go any further I want to point something out.  If your thinking to yourself, I’ve never sat next to a fan like this, then you may want to stop and think for a second and realize that YOU just might be this fan.

Here are a few ways to pick out the Know It All type of fan.

Number 1: They read the rule book every year just so they can keep up to date on new rules.  (Umpires and coaches are exempt from this but the every day fan probably doesn’t need to memorize the rule book.)

Number 2: They memorize way too many stats.  If a fan knows a pitchers fly ball to ground out ratio versus left-handed and right-handed batters, then you can bet a shiny nickel that they are the Know It All.

Number 3: If they use statements like “That was stupid, I should be the manager and maybe we would win some games,” “Tie goes to the runner,” or “According to FanGraphs the manager really needs to pinch hit here” then they just might be crossing into the Know It All zone.

Number 4: They give tips to random strangers during the game of how the team isn’t doing the fundamentals right.

Now don’t get me wrong Know It All fans have every right to come to games and have fun like the rest of us, but some times, just some times listening to the Know It All fan isn’t as much fun as listening to the HECKLER!!!! (Hint, Hint guess who the next fan is)