Column

By now the entire sports world has seen the tape. Gary Sheffield goes to get the ball from in front of the bleachers and is "interfered with" by a fan. Sheffield semi-retaliates but the incident is thwarted before it escalates into violence. Major League Baseball has said it will probably not take action against Sheffield and the fan also will not be punished. This raises an interesting question, where is the line between player and fan drawn? Earlier this year the NBA witnessed one of its most embarrassing moments when a fight broke out between players and fans at a Pistons-Pacers game. At the time I wrote that the blame was to fall entirely on Ron Artest who at the time seemed like the villain. In fact, at the time it seemed like athletes were entirely to blame as it was up to them to keep their temper because of their high salaries. Now that theory is in question. Each of the major sports has witnessed an inappropriate player-fan interaction in the past few years and each has dealt with it differently. While the situations may vary from case to case the underlying question remains. As sports attempt to incorporate fans into the game more and more the line becomes more and more blurred. With that in mind however, here is one solution that may suit both sides. Every single one of the incidents over the past few years have occurred during the late stages of the contest. In every single instance, the fan involved had had something to drink during the later stages of the game. Now I'm all for drinking at sporting events but a line must be drawn. Just as a flight attendant is allowed to refuse alcohol service to an unruly passenger so to should a vendor be allowed to refuse service to an unruly customer. Serving alcohol in the late stages of sporting events, particularly blowouts, can only lead to problems. Fans that wish to drink should be allowed to do but only at the beginning of games. This solution should go some of the way to stemming the problem but one other system should also be implemented. In addition to alcohol being involved in each of the events so too was a controversial on-field player. Ron Artest had been booed for appearing selfish, Gary Sheffield has had his name linked to steroids, and even Frank Francisico, the pitcher who tossed a chair into the seats during a baseball game last year has had his own legal problems. This is not to say that some players are more prone to violence than others rather it is shown to argue that players should be taught what to do in specific situations so that if the situation does arise, the player can consult his memory, not his intuition. There is no doubt that these incidents are the exception, not the rule. For every one violent outburst that occurs on the field, uncounted hundreds do not. While it may not seem fair to criticize every single player and every single fan for the actions of a select few it is completely necessary to do so. One incident is too many and as has become clear over the past two years, this is merely the beginning of a trend, not a burst of random activity. In the end it will be up to the heads of each of the sports to make a decision on how they want to act when something like this happens and what they want to do to prevent it from happening again. In most cases the leaders will hope that the public forgets about the incident and take minor steps to control the problem at the time. This is not a proper solution. Professional sports need to act appropriately and they need to act now. American society has obviously progressed to an undesirable point and it is time to stem the tide. This is not the end of a hiccup it is the beginning of a problem and a solution must be found.