Bass: My six pet peeves as a sports fan. If only I knew a coach.
As a sports fan, I have my annoyances or pet peeves. As a Sports Fan Coach, I try to deal with them. Here are six examples.
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ISSUE: Cyberbully fans. They can pulverize you on social media over your view of a team or game. Otherwise free thinkers can turn into a mob, angry villagers substituting gifs and memes for torches and pitchforks. They will attack your loyalty, credibility, looks, gender, you name it. They want to drive you away and a virtual stake in your heart.
Bengals: Bass: I wear my Bengals hat on a cruise. It makes a difference.
Cincinnati sports news: Bass: My column is ‘disgusting.’ I am a ‘stirrer-upper.’ How do you really feel?
Cincinnati Reds: Bass column: Reds fans have choices, too. Are the Castellinis listening?
SELF-COACHING: For the record, I was bullied. I grew up when bullying was more tolerated and even accepted as a rite of passage. Bullying was supposed to toughen you. What a crock. Bullying hurt. Scars from the words could last longest. I think about that when I work with fans now who feel bullied, or who do not realize they are bullying.
As a journalist, I saw how we can change depending on how we communicate with each other. We become more emboldened as we go from conversing in person to video to phone to email. We take that to another level on social media, where we feel empowered to spew unfiltered amid the handles, oblivious to the pain we would see if we ridiculed the person standing next to us. I do not need to subject myself to that unless I choose it now, out of curiosity as a coach. Usually, I find more open fans on social media for conversations. You have choices, too.
The more confident I grew as an adult, the easier it became to deal with criticism, although those old buttons can get pushed at times. These haters did not know me, I reminded myself, and what I wrote would be honest even if not always popular. I spent more time with people who accepted me for who I am. Why waste it being bullied?
I want to be part of the solution. One fan at a time.
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ISSUE: Obstructed-view seats. I’m talking pillars, the bottom of a higher deck, fans, vendors, anything and everything that keeps me from clearly seeing the game. Why pay for what I can’t see?
SELF-COACHING: I tend to research seats before I buy, then remind myself lower-priced tickets come with some risk. I try to remember that the social aspect of the game is part of why I go with friends, and I can always fill in the blanks about what happened via apps. I remind myself vendors have jobs to do.
If wandering fans or ushers block a view, I politely ask if they would be so kind as to move a bit, and that generally works. Before graciously shifting, one fan at watching a bad game for the home team joked to me, “I was protecting you from having to see that.”
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ISSUE: The Wave. I would rather do the Mannequin Challenge with a mouthful of kale.
SELF-COACHING: I appreciate some of you enjoy a harmless distraction enhancing your overall experience. I also can see the fun in a respectful beer snake that does not drench the clothes or block the views of the innocent; are there opportunities for recycling tie-ins?
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ISSUE: Former athletes complaining that players today don’t respect the game and act entitled. This gets old. The game has changed. The world has changed. Deal with it.
SELF-COACHING: I can laugh and put this in context. These ex-athletes heard the same criticism from their predecessors, who heard it from theirs, who heard it from theirs.
My generation heard it – in terms of sports, society, you name it. How dare anyone wear sideburns or Afros … or expect the right to free agency or the equality of Title IX … or question why blacks are not quarterbacks or why Roberto Clemente is called Bob!
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ISSUE: The declaration that a walk is a good as a single. Ever see a runner score from second on a walk – or go from first to third? How entertaining is a walk, a key part of Three True Outcomes snoreball (walk-strikeout-homer)?
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SELF-COACHING: I take a breath to escape curmudgeon mode. Bases-empty walks ARE as good as singles – maybe better, if you work a count and wear down a pitcher. Analytics (and salaries) show swinging for extra bases if not fences can pay. What if new-age thinking beat the system, and now it is up to the system to change?
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ISSUE: Football radio announcers who take too long to give the result of a play, thinking conversational or methodical works.
HELLO? MCFLY? I AM DRIVING! I KNOW YOU ARE OUT THERE; I CAN HEAR YOU MEANDERING! FANS ARE CHEERING! THEY KNOW HAPPENED! TELL ME, TOO!
They can describe the play as it unfolds and the result (such as gain/loss and yard line), then circle back to provide more depth.
SELF-COACHING: I remind myself to be patient and that some announcers are better at this than others. I breathe. I chose to listen to the game in the car. I try to be grateful I can hear the game instead of missing it completely. A few more seconds won’t kill me. Right?
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What are some of your pet peeves and annoyances as a sports fan? Shoot me an email or write to me on Twitter. I look forward to hearing from you.
Email Bass at mbass@mikebasscoaching.com or reach out to him @SportsFanCoach1 on Twitter if you want to be included next week. His website is MikeBassCoaching.com.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: MLB baseball, NFL stadiums and sports pet peeves: Mike Bass
