Welcome to Snyder's Soapbox! Here, I pontificate about matters related to Major League Baseball on a weekly basis (it might be slightly more irregular during the offseason). Some of the topics will be pressing matters, some might seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things, and most will be somewhere in between. The good thing about this website is that it's free, and you are allowed to click away. If you stay, you'll get smarter, though. That's a money-back guarantee. Let's get to it.
I want to start by taking a quick stroll back to the first inning of Game 4 of the World Series. Gleyber Torres lifted a pop fly down the right field line that was drifting toward the stands. It didn't make it, because Dodgers right fielder extraordinaire Mookie Betts made an outstanding catch. It was immediately overshadowed by the two clowns in the front row who started clawing at Betts like they were part of the game.
We don't need to show the highlight. You all saw it. I'm not going to name names because those buffoons don't deserve any more virtual ink than they already got in the moment. They are a stain on baseball fandom. You absolutely cannot touch the players. The field is their sanctuary and, yes, they are allowed to venture a little over the wall with their gloves without expecting physical harm.
To reiterate, those losers are the absolute worst of baseball fandom.
They are also not the rule.
I realize it gives great comfort to other fan bases to say things like "typical Yankees fan" and to discuss that collective as the worst in sports. We could apply the conversation to basically any team. Dodgers fans think Giants fans are the worst and vice versa, the other NL Central fan bases think the Cubs and/or Cardinals have the worst fans, many people love to paint Phillies fans in a negative light, etc. We could hit on each of the 30 teams here and find a sizable portion of other fan bases who will claim they are the worst fans in baseball for one reason or another.
Despite cherry-picking pieces of "evidence" to prove certain fan bases are worse than others, they aren't. Basically every fan base is the same. They all have morons and smart people. They all behave, collectively, erratically because fan is short for fanatic. Fanatics by definition are emotional and irrational.
I have long said and will now submit in writing that I believe a similar percentage of every fan base is "good" and "bad." Let's say 85% or so are good. That leaves 15% who deserve our ire and scorn. You know, the ones who throw debris on the field, get in fights in the stands, boo good players after one bad game and attack players on social media -- oh, and those who would grab a player by the glove and bare hand.
Notice that we're talking about percentages and not raw totals. Keep this in mind when you start screaming about how many more awful Yankees/Dodgers/Cubs/Phillies fans you've come across in your life compared to some of the smaller fan bases. If the percentages are relatively even -- which, they are, since I'm right -- that means that the Yankees, having the largest fan base in the sport, have the largest number of bad fans.
Of course, we're smart enough to see what else this means, too, right? With the Yankees having the most fans, that means they also have the most good fans.
There's a balance to this, too, which is that no fan base gets to declare itself the best in baseball. Yeah, that means you, Cardinals nation. You have yahoos and jerks, too. Trying to cheer players out of slumps doesn't mean your entire fan base is immune from criticism when due.
Now, this is the most important thing I'll say here: I'm not suggesting people stop saying "[insert team you dislike] fans are the worst" or anything like that. I absolutely love petty sports hatred and disliking a team means also disliking their fans.
Just remember, you're part of a fan base that is no better as a whole. Deep down you probably know it, too.
