[Big Klu]

I have only two teams that I truly cannot stand--the Cubs and the Cardinals. And it is because of the arrogant attitudes I have seen from their "fans" at our ballpark. (Mets fans are also arrogant at GAB, but there aren't many of them, and I simply dismiss it as being wrongheadedly aligned with anything New York.) The actions of Cubs fans at GAB have already been discussed at some length on this thread. The Cardinals, you might ask? Well, I didn't used to have as much of a problem with them, but lately I have seen on more than one occasion that Cardinals fans can be every bit as cocky at GAB as Cubs fans have been. (Though the Cards have been able to back it up on the field better than the Cubbies have--even though the Cardinals haven't won a Series since 1982.) Last summer, I had a row of Cardinals fans sitting behind me, and they spent much of the game ripping on the Reds, the ballpark, and then (and this one still gets my blood boiling) Joe Nuxhall! One of them had bought a Pepsi at the concession stand, and the souvenir cup featured Nux. They started with comments like, "Who's this clown?", "another Reds loser", "He probably sucked as bad as the rest of their team", and so forth. I turned around and said, "You don't make fun of Joe Nuxhall around here, buddy." One guy started to say something, but I interrupted him and repeated, "You don't make fun of Joe Nuxhall." BTW, the Reds won that game. (The Reds have won every Reds-Cardinals game I have ever been to--I'm 4-0.)

I think that there is a certain etiquette that a visiting fan needs to follow. I have been to ten Reds games where they have been the visiting team--once at Comiskey Park in Chicago, once at Miller Park in Milwaukee, and eight times in Pittsburgh (twice at Three Rivers, and six times at PNC Park). Everytime I have worn a Reds cap and cheered for the Reds, and I have never had any problems with the home fans. Why? Well, I think it is because I am respectful of the home team. I cheer for the Reds, but I don't put down the home team, the ballpark, or the city, and generally don't make an ass of myself. I even enter into conversations about baseball with the other fans--I ask them about certain players, and they ask me things about the Reds, and we generally get along just fine. Fans really don't mind if you root for your team--just don't be a jerk about it. This is where Cubs fans (and in my experience, Cardinals fans) have crossed the line at GAB.

Of course, the two managers I dislike the most are Dusty Baker (even in San Francisco) and Tony LaRussa (all the way back to his Oakland days), so that makes it even easier to hate the Cubbies and Cards.