The Dangers of Heckling

Not everyone is as clever or expressive as Vernon Wells. SLAM! Sports goes through a list today of the greatest fan/athlete altercations of all time. Most are pretty recent, but they dig back into the archives, too. It goes from Michael Ray Richardson and his "big-time" Jew lawyers, all the way back to Ty Cobb in 1912.

Some of them don't even count as altercations. Jake Plummer giving the finger to fans, and Davis Love III crying like a little girl. Some are tragic, like Monica Seles getting knifed, and some are sort of bizarrely sad, like the idiot Ligue family attacking a first-base coach. Some, like soccer player Eric Cantona's dropkick of a fan lead to bizarre quotes that I don't even understand.

"When the seagulls follow the trawler, it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea."

I don't have any idea what that means. Really. None. Anyway, here are my two favorites, both of which I'd never heard of before today:

During an on-ice scuffle between the Rangers and Bruins at Madison Square Garden, Boston's Stan Jonathan was sliced open by an object thrown from the stands while Terry O'Reilly was being menaced by a stick-wielding fan. Bruins players climbed into the stands and began scuffling with fans. Mike Milbury actually removed a fan's shoe and beat him with it.

Ty Cobb makes Ron Artest look like a peace activist. In 1912, Cobb waded into the stands to pummel, spike and boot a heckler. "Don't kick him!" fans cried. "He has no hands!" The victim had lost all but two fingers in an industrial accident. "I don't care if he has no feet," snarled Cobb when informed of a suspension.

If either of his remaining fingers was the middle one, I doubt he'd ever show it to Ty Cobb again.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

5-09-2007 @ 1:08AM

Anonymous said...

Pretty cool, except it has already been done before:
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/columns/top10/fan_violence.html#2

5-09-2007 @ 1:47AM

George B Vieto said...

There was an incident when former Major League Baseball player Albert Belle went into the stands in Alabama when Albert was playing college baseball at Louisiana State University to confort a fan who called him "Buckwheat".

5-09-2007 @ 6:12AM

Stacey said...

You can't call yourself a real sports fan unless you've seen someone beaten with their own shoe.

Fortunately, you know me.

Check the bottom of this rather lengthy list of fights.... you can see Milbury celebrate Fan Appreciation Night.

http://journals.aol.com/monponsett/HighAboveCourtside/entries/2004/11/23/great-sports-fights/849

5-09-2007 @ 6:25AM

I must say, though... they missed the best one ever.

Someone else had to have seen this....

There was a prize fight happening in England. One man was taking a terrific beating. Suddenly, there's a flash of activity at the far side of the screen, and you see the losing boxer's mother shoving the ref aside as she storms the ring.

Everyone saw her coming, excpet the guy who was beating up her son. She was about 250 pounds, black, and wearing a dress and a bonnet.

She took off her shoe, much like Milbury, and began to attack the other boxer, using the heel as a point of impact. She proceeded to whip this man like he was slow picking her cotton.

To his eternal credit, the assault victim wound up a punch, saw that he was about to deck a 60 year old woman, then just lowered his hand and took his beating like a man. Order was restored in 5 minutes.

The funny part was that, unlike pro wrestling, no rule exists in English prize fighting for disqualifying a man because his mother entered the ring.

Also, the assault victim was cut, above the eye. For some reason, the fight was then allowed to continue.... with the former loser now refreshed, and going after the cut over the eye of his former tormentor.

The fight was stopped for the bleeding, a protest was filed, the decision was reversed, and this little bit of joy faded back into the obscurity whence it came from.

5-09-2007 @ 1:23PM

David Rosenberg said...

At one time a fight was expected in any Hockey game. I was attending a Ranger/Bruin game when a fight started, flowing into a Bench Clearing melee. At times two other players might start their own show but, what usually happens, players will pair off, holding on to one another. The Goalies in this altercation, both skated liesurely to mid ice, each grabbing the other and continued to watch the main event. It was as if a planned play. After the game ended, the Ranger Goalie was asked about his part in the brawl. He said everyone else was paired off, only he and the other Goalie were by their lonesome. He just started to skate toward middle ice when he saw the other Goalie doing the same. He thought he was going to have to also fight. When they met up, they just shrugged their shoulders and grabbed each other to make it look good.