April 19, 2003
Apologies To Everett
It seems that a fan threw a cell phone at Everett that hit Carl in the head. My apologies for putting the previous post in the Baseball Jerk category.
Many years ago I picked up a book that was a collection of short stories from Spitball Magazine. Of course, I can't find the book right now. But one of the stories was set in the future, and was about the last World Series. Fans had become so violent that no fans were allowed at games. They just broadcast the series on TV. They told how over the years fans had to be increasingly separated from players. Large plexiglass barriers were installed between the seats and and field. All in all, a pretty depressing story.
Now, I don't think that will happen because baseball knows that violent fans alienate not only players, but familes who go to games. That's why in most parks, fans can be removed just for spouting obsenities. I hope the apocolyptic vision of the above story never comes true, but baseball needs to tighten security right now to help prevent that story from coming true.