The Real Weenies Weren't On The Field
Hot Dog-Tossing Youth Taint Twins-Yankees Series
By now you've probably seen the unsettling video. Turncoat Twin Chuck Knoblauch, the most reviled Yankee since Benedict Arnold, was showered with all manner of refuse by a handful of hooligans in the left-field seats. Minnesota manager Tom Kelly walked down the line and tried to calm the crowd, even apologizing to Knoblauch on the field. And PA announcer Bob Casey admonishing the crowd to knock it off or the Twins would forfeit the game.
In the end, nearly 40 fans were ejected, the Twins hung on for a 4-2 victory and a series win over the three-time defending World Champs from New York, and the best feel-good story of the season suddenly felt a bit tainted.
The marketing slogan for this year's Twins is "Get to know 'em." Fans have done just that, embracing the first winning team in this region in nearly a decade. But in the process, the Twins have gotten to know a few things about their fans that they'd prefer to be left undiscovered. Namely, that old grudges combined with abundant alcohol and a fan base raised on the ever-pervasive WWF culture of the times is a volatile mix.
The full story cannot be told without a little background.
- Knoblauch was the starting second baseman for the Twins from Day One of his rookie season, 1991, until he forced a trade seven years later. He grew tired of the epidemic of losing that began in 1993, and with no end in sight, he made it clear that he wouldn't play for the Twins in '98. General manager Terry Ryan worked a deal with the Yankees that sent Knoblauch to Gotham for a package of prospects that included pitcher Eric Milton and shortstop Cristian Guzman. Knoblauch has been labeled Public Enemy No. 1 by image-sensitive Minnesotans ever since, because if you don't like it here, well, we don't like you either. Yeah, so stick that in your crack pipe and smoke it, New York!
- The epidemic of losing has finally subsided, at least temporarily, and the 2001 Twins are one of the pleasant surprises of the new baseball season. Young stars-in-the-making -- players like Guzman and Milton -- have helped turn the fates of the Twins, who bolted from the pack to post the second-best record in the majors in April. And the fans have responded in kind -- after averaging just more than 15,000 fans a game for the past six seasons, the Metrodome welcomed more than 160,000 fans for the recent six-game homestand vs. the Orioles and Yankees.
- In the front office, the Twins are knocking themselves out trying to win back the young fan base that never formed an attachment with the team during their eight consecutive losing seasons. One such effort is a Wednesday night promotion that offers unlimited hot dogs for a buck each. Another effort is "Salute To Education Night," in which students 18 and under and college students with a valid ID can purchase a general admission lower-level (i.e. outfield) seat for $3. Both of those promotions were in effect Wednesday night when Knoblauch stood his ground in left field for the Yankees.
"It was crazy -- just a bunch of drunk college idiots chanting stupid things like 'Knoblauch Sucks' -- nothing creative," said Steve Stauff, 21, a student at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minn., who made the 90-mile trip to Minneapolis for the game Wednesday.
From his spot in the front row in left-centerfield, he saw his fellow youth of America distinguish themselves by hurling plastic beer bottles, coins, foil wrappers and even those precious $1 hot dogs at Knoblauch throughout the game. Some even flung toy bean bag bears that were given to students 14 and under, suggesting that college students might not have been the only culprits.
"After Casey made his first announcement, people were booing and they started throwing even more -- it just made it worse," Stauff said. That prompted Kelly to walk down the line and, using hand gestures and an exasperated look on his weathered face to try and calm the crowd.
"But when TK (Kelly) turned around, somebody fired a beanie baby at him," Stauff said.
The problems weren't limited to the lower bowl at the dome, however. "There was one group in the upper deck that had a sign that said, 'Suck My Knoblauch,'" Stauff said. "An usher came up and removed it, and she got booed and bombarded by trash as she was walking away."
Meanwhile, on the field the fans were missing a great game, one that at least most of them had come to the Metrodome to see. "The crowd was paying more attention to the idiots in the stands than the field," Stauff said. "I bet I missed a third of the game because I was watching what was going on behind me."
The Twins broke open a tense game with a tie-breaking three-run rally in the bottom of the sixth. When first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz singled home a pair of runs with two outs, giving the Twins a 4-1 lead, all hell broke loose in left field.
Knoblauch, shifted from second base this spring after battling his well-documented throwing problems, raced in and informed the umpires that he was being pelted with anything that wasn't bolted down, and the men in blue pulled the Yankees from the field.
When the team returned after a 12-minute delay, Kelly escorted Knoblauch back to his position, even going as far to place a hand on his former player's shoulder as he -- one would assume -- apologized for the abhorrent behavior of his team's fans.
As on-field gestures go, this wasn't exactly Pee Wee Reese putting his arm around Jackie Robinson at Ebbets Field in 1947, but Kelly's actions made two statements loud and clear.
- "Chuck, I'm doing everything in my power to stop this nonsense."
- "Look, people, he's a ballplayer, not the walking, talking personification of the ebola virus. If I can dig the knife out of my back and accept him, you can too. So get over it and grow up."
And most of the audience did appreciate Kelly's gesture. As stadium security identified and ejected the hooligans one-by-one and two-by-two, many fans along the aisles in left field cheered the ushers and jeered the goons who had tarnished their enjoyment of the game.
After another brief delay in the eighth inning (more "celebrating" after Mientkiewicz's fourth hit of the night), the night turned even more surreal in the ninth.
Yankees right fielder Paul O'Neill grounded a single to right for his 2,000th career hit. The remaining fans -- those who hadn't been tossed -- responded with a standing ovation for O'Neill, a player with no connection to Minnesota and a reputation as temperamental, bat-smashing, surly cuss, almost a latter-day Ty Cobb.
Last year, Cal Ripken's 3,000th hit came in the Metrodome, and a much smaller crowd responded with a standing O in appreciation of the class and dignity of the longstanding 'O.' But a similar reaction to O'Neill's 2,000th hit? This was clearly Minnesota's way of saying, "See Yankees? We're not all a bunch of toothless rubes here."
The Twins had best hope the gesture was not lost on Yankees fans watching back home. The two teams meet for a three-game set in the Bronx next week.
"It really caught us off guard, because the typical baseball fan around here doesn't act like that."
Brad Ruiter is the new Director of Communications for the Twins. In only his third month on the job, the biggest fan-related crisis he's had to handle was running out of hot dogs at a previous Dollar Dog night.
With the Twins suddenly attracting a new fan base -- namely, young people who didn't think it was "cool" to go a baseball game in the past eight years -- he's got a handful of new problems to deal with.
"That's the good thing about winning, you do attract new fans," Ruiter said. "Every team wants to attract the younger fans, especially those who haven't been to a lot of games in the past.
"But there's not a whole lot you can do when somebody has made up his mind to do something stupid. We think it was six to eight unruly fans who took it to another level, and others around them reacted to it."
The Twins increased security in left field each night of the series -- from four ushers on Monday to more than 30 on Wednesday -- and Ruiter indicated that for their next homestand (the Twins return from New York to face the Kansas City Royals on May 11), they will consider cutting off beer sales earlier, selling beverages only in paper cups instead of plastic bottles, and adding more security.
But part of the responsibility clearly lies at the feet of the fans in the left field stands. "Other than assigning 40,000 security guards -- one to watch each fan -- I don't know how you can prevent everything," Ruiter said.
And that's where we get to the "microcosm of society" bit. The resurgence of the Twins could not have come at a better time, because pro baseball has been dying a slow, graceless death in Minnesota.
Consider what Twins fans have had to deal with in the past eight years: labor strife, an ugly stadium, an uglier battle over funding for a new stadium, the premature retirement of beloved superstar Kirby Puckett, an owner who won't invest a nickel more than the minimum in his roster, and loss after loss after loss by a pathetically overmatched team.
It's no wonder that World Series victories in 1987 and 1991 are now nothing but faded memories. As a result, Minnesotans have been staying away from Twins games in droves. Attendance figures are inflated by fans coming to see the other team -- other than Opening Day, the largest crowds in recent years have come when the Twins were hosting the Yankees, Big Mac and the Cardinals, Junior Griffey and the Mariners, Sammy and the Cubs, etc. A typical game against the Devil Rays or Royals would be lucky to crack the 10,000 attendance mark.
All those blue seats were once filled with parents taking their kids to see Puckett, Kent Hrbek, Frank Viola, Gary Gaetti, et al. Now we've got a generation of kids who grew up thinking the NFL and pro wrestling were the end-all-be-all of professional sports. Yes, pro wrestling -- don't forget, this is the state that elected Jesse Ventura governor, after all.
If you've been to a Vikings game in recent years, you know that the upper reaches of the dome are filled with drunken rowdies who think nothing of starting fights, hurling profanities like Frisbees, and staging contests to see who can offend the most people in their section with their antics. Wrestling crowds -- and this isn't a criticism, just a statement of fact -- are encouraged to "participate" with the contestants, with predictable results.
The consequence is that crowds at sporting events are increasingly becoming less spectators and more spectacles. Golf galleries have taken to heckling competitors in a frat-party atmosphere. In the NHL and NBA, despite tickets that run $50 a pop or more, are seeing an increase in unruly behavior.
And baseball -- made even more affordable by ticket promotions and discount concessions -- gives you everything from riots at venerable Wrigley Field to the disaster Wednesday at the Metrodome.
Which brings us back to the plight facing the Twins when they head to Yankee Stadium, birthplace of the flying battery. Will the New York fans be forgiving of the Minnesota crowd, remembering not the airborne hot dogs but the warm ovation for O'Neill's semi-milestone? Will they understand that one bad apple -- or maybe 40 -- doesn't spoil the whole bunch?
Just to be safe, the Twins should place a call to John Olerud of the Mariners, to see if he's got any extra helmets that outfielders Jacque Jones, Torii Hunter and Matt Lawton can wear in the Bronx.
5. Johnny Oates -- Hey Rangers, think you coulda spent some of that $252 million on some pitching?
4. Calvin Booth -- His only bucket of the game sticks the knife in the only eight-man team in the NBA, the Utah Jazz & Referees.
3. Kentucky Derby -- My money's on Invisible Ink -- something Glen Taylor should have used when he signed Joe Smith -- at 30-1.
2. Ryan Sirvio -- A hell of a writer and an all-around good guy. Also, he gave me that line in No. 3.
1. Brad Radke -- Now that's how an ace is supposed to pitch.
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Patrick Donnelly is a national sports editor and columnist for Internet Broadcasting Systems. He's partial to beach balls and paper airplanes. What's your favorite projectile?
