Annoying

[Caveat Emperor]

I always get the guy who is 6' 10" sitting infront of me..it never fails.

If he was wearing an Aaron Boone jersey and a Red Sox hat turned backwards (possibly yelling something at the right fielder) -- I'm sorry. Kick me next time and I'll slump down a little more.

Not that it makes you feel any better, but the seats at GABP aren't exactly the most comfortable for those of us who are in the 6'10" range.

[KittyDuran]

I always get the guy who is 6' 10" sitting infront of me..it never fails.

I seem to always get a "larger" person in front of me if I'm in the lower level because of the row elevation is not so high as it is in the upper deck, bleachers and moon/sun deck.

[Falls City Beer]

If he was wearing an Aaron Boone jersey and a Red Sox hat turned backwards (possibly yelling something at the right fielder) -- I'm sorry. Kick me next time and I'll slump down a little more.

Not that it makes you feel any better, but the seats at GABP aren't exactly the most comfortable for those of us who are in the 6'10" range.

At 6' 6", I always hear people behind me groaning when I sit down. I just shrug my shoulders and mumble something about "hereditary," "Grandpa," and "kissing" a certain part of my anatomy.

[minus5]

he decided he could take no more and used the kid's lower calf as a napkin to remove gobs of excess mustard from his pretzel.

Sorry but bumping into your friend or not, if that was my kid, your friend would have left the park very bruised that day. Not cool.

[Roy Tucker]

This is an interesting thread to read. I have a pretty high tolerance for fan behavior around me. I guess I view a ballgame as a fairly rowdy time and a community event. It's not a movie where you shush people, it's *ballgame* fer cryin' out loud.

About the only think that irk me are drunks and profanity and ushers help with this a lot more now than they had previously.

If there is some loudmouth blathering on about something (other than me), I'll turn around and say "really, you think Dunn is worthless?" and get into it a litte with them. I've got enough social skillz to avoid having it turn into a neck-vein bulging argument type thing.

I've taken more than my share of kids to ballgames so I am generally sympathetic to parents with kids. My kids have been to games since they were mere babes. IIRC, there was probably a gap between infant and about 2 where they didn't go, but after that, I've taken my family to many a game. Sometimes it gets a little dicey, but I just make sure I hit up the money machine on the way in and buy a lot of cotton candy, ice cream, licorice whips, etc etc to keep 'em happy.

If they are wildly out of control, I might get a little grumpy but that seems to be a very infrequent thing. I've got kids so I know kids might talk loud, make fart noises, act silly, booger jokes, spill their pop, etc etc. and that's all OK with me. Half the time I'm being silly right along with them.

But heck, half the fun of a game is the crowd around you and making fun of cell phone usage, stupid dancing on the Jumbotron, shooting hot dogs into the stands, yelling at Puffy, etc etc.

[timmario66]

I was at the game yesterday, and there was a baby near us howling and screaming the entire game. This I don't understand, not only is it dangerous to bring a baby to a ballgame (foul ball screamers were hit at our section several times), but it's unnecessary seeing as the baby doesn't want to be there at all. Every time I see a baby at a ballgame they are crying.

Please folks, get a babysitter or stay home.

Totally agree. I have a partial season tickets to the Blue Jackets and there's a guy who has two tickets next to us and one of them is for his 2 year old kid who does nothing but jump up and down in his seat, kick the glass in front of us, throw stuff, and wipe his food on my friend sitted next to him.

I can't imagine wasting that much money on a toddler who won't even remember the game or even cares if they are there.

[traderumor]

I have 6 kids. We take them anywhere. Seldom are they disruptive, at least for very long. We get the looks from those seated around us when we walk in. The look is "well, there goes any enjoyment of this evening." Before we leave, people are smiling and making comments about good behavior. What is sad is that this type of behavior seems out of the ordinary. I agree that there are many parents who do not enforce respectful behavior of their children, or leave their children unsupervised. But I'm not sure it is a reasonable expectation for the kids described to not be acting...like...well....kids, especially at a baseball game.

I guess all of us old farts can sit around and enjoy the game while the younger generation is too much of a bother to allow into the yard. I'm not sure how wise that is, though, as we try to pass the game onto another generation. But what happens when the fogies start making those awful coughing up goober sounds? Do we go get an usher? Or what about john 25-30 something, who is sitting behind you saying "f this, fthat, gimme another beer beerman (slurred speech and all)" then spills the beer down your back.

BTW, one thing I've found to help with other people's unruly kids is to start talking friendly to the offenders with small talk, show them a little respect, then kindly ask them if they could stop with the bad behavior, they'll usually apologize and stop, or leave. Kids, even ones acting up, deserve to be treated with respect if we want them to learn to do the same for others.

[westofyou]

Kids, even ones acting up, deserve to be treated with respect if we want them to learn to do the same for others.

yep, and I'd rather see 10,000 of them at the ballpark over some know it all with 5 beers in him and a strong voice.

that she needed to apply punishment to her child or the world will someday

Nice, really just precious.

[pedro]

At 6' 6", I always hear people behind me groaning when I sit down. I just shrug my shoulders and mumble something about "hereditary," "Grandpa," and "kissing" a certain part of my anatomy.

That's the equivilent of giving someone a backrub in Philly.

[Falls City Beer]

I have 6 kids. We take them anywhere. Seldom are they disruptive, at least for very long. We get the looks from those seated around us when we walk in. The look is "well, there goes any enjoyment of this evening." Before we leave, people are smiling and making comments about good behavior. What is sad is that this type of behavior seems out of the ordinary. I agree that there are many parents who do not enforce respectful behavior of their children, or leave their children unsupervised. But I'm not sure it is a reasonable expectation for the kids described to not be acting...like...well....kids, especially at a baseball game.

I guess all of us old farts can sit around and enjoy the game while the younger generation is too much of a bother to allow into the yard. I'm not sure how wise that is, though, as we try to pass the game onto another generation. But what happens when the fogies start making those awful coughing up goober sounds? Do we go get an usher? Or what about john 25-30 something, who is sitting behind you saying "f this, fthat, gimme another beer beerman (slurred speech and all)" then spills the beer down your back.

BTW, one thing I've found to help with other people's unruly kids is to start talking friendly to the offenders with small talk, show them a little respect, then kindly ask them if they could stop with the bad behavior, they'll usually apologize and stop, or leave. Kids, even ones acting up, deserve to be treated with respect if we want them to learn to do the same for others.

I seldom have issue with the kids themselves, but rather the parents--the ones arguing with each other or who are on a cell phone while their little anklebiters are busy destroying property value.

And, obviously, drunk idiots are equally, if not more, annoying.

It's just that some people think they get special permission to be irresponsible because they have kids.

[vaticanplum]

When I see kids acting up around me, their parents reactions (or lack thereof) usually bug me a heck of a lot more than the kids. Kids are kids, they make noise, and baseball games are long. But the kids who are acting up seem to rarely have parents who properly deal with it. Funny that.

Kids should be at ballgames, and restaurants and plays and the opera and wherever. They will never learn to behave in public if you never take them anywhere. But they will also never learn if their parents don't teach them.

EDIT: or, alternatively, what FCB said as I was posting.

[bucknutdet]

FYI, babies/kids aren't "thing(s)" they are human beings.

[Falls City Beer]

FYI, babies/kids aren't "thing(s)" they are human beings.

Oh, please spare me your righteous indignation. Have a sense of humor. And as a grade school student, I can tell you, unequivocally, I was more "thing" than "boy."

[Caveat Emperor]

FYI, babies/kids aren't "thing(s)" they are human beings.

I dunno -- I've seen kids as old as 10 do things and create destruction that no human being should be capable of.

Besides, I don't think kids attain "human being" status until they learn that saying/doing the first thing that pops into their mind isn't a proper way to behave in society. Before that point, they're just really advanced stimulus-response creatures.

[vaticanplum]

FYI, babies/kids aren't "thing(s)" they are human beings.

One of my best friends doesn't mind kids, but hates babies. She has no patience for anything that can't hold a conversation with her, and refers to all babies as "thing" and "it". But in a charming way, like.