They were sitting in the bleachers, Section 98, Row 4, in seats 19, 17, and 15. The worst was the guy in the black shirt with his Orioles cap turned back (seat 15), closely followed by the redhead in the purple shirt (which, ironically, says "LOVE") in seat 17. I didn't actually much notice seat 19, orange shirt, screaming, but he was with the other two.
They avoided obscenities, which would have probably gotten them kicked out of the stadium. Instead, they screamed ignorant (and inaccurate) bigoted shit:
"HEY MARTIN (pronounced as an Anglo male's first name would be, MART-in, not as he probably pronounces it, mar-TEEN): YOU LIKE GUACAMOLE?!?"
Confidential to the bigoted scumbags: guacamole isn't a common food in Cuba.
"HEY MARTIN! YOU LIKE SOFT TACOS OR HARD?!?"
Confidential to the bigoted scumbags: tacos also aren't a common food in Cuba.
"HEY MARTIN! WHY ARE YOU JERKING OFF IN THE OUTFIELD!?!"
Martin took the high road, and didn't respond, didn't acknowledge.
Their verbal abuse wasn't funny, wasn't witty, wasn't interesting, wasn't informed. Martin is not an especially controversial ballplayer: he defected from Cuba during the 2010 World Baseball Classic in Taiwan, and signed with the Rangers. This is his first full season in the major leagues. He's hitting .290 this season with 5 home runs and 18 stolen bases.
Confidential to the bigoted scumbags: I don't much care about money, but I bet you care more: Martin is making $3,250,000 this season. In the last year of his current contract, 2015, he'll be making $4,750,000. How 'bout you?
I started out with good seats, but I like to wander, and explore standing room areas. Oriole Park at Camden Yards is not only one of the nicer ballparks I've been to, but it has some awesome standing room just above deep right field. It was marred only by being right over these pieces of trash.
These assholes really made Baltimore look bad. They were as nasty and obnoxious as any fans I've been around in nine different MLB stadiums this season, which is really saying something, considering Oakland, Chicago, and New York. I only listed to a couple innings of it, but I assume they continued throughout the game, until they decided to go crawl back under their rocks.
Earlier in the day I had lunch with my friend K, who grew up near Baltimore, and now lives near Baltimore. We were talking about Baltimore, and I commented how the people just basically aren't nice. They don't much smile, they don't say hello if they don't have to, don't make unnecessary conversation. This is especially striking given that a good chunk of my interactions were with people in the tourist industry: restaurants, hotels, tourist attractions. That said, this was really the only vile, revolting behavior I saw.
Well, that's mostly true. When I was walking away from the game, a street vendor trying to sell some service that seemed to involve his taking pictures of people with a digital camera, said to two women who initially declined his services, but then finally acquiesced and walked back, "Whoa, you guys about as bad as they Jews!" All three laughed. I actually looked back in shock, but nobody noticed my jaw-dropped dismay.
Really the only truly nice people I talked to in my couple days in Baltimore were the guy taking tickets aboard my father's old Coast Guard ship, the cutter Taney, and a bartender (from NYC) and another customer (from Alberta, Canada) at the Pratt Street Ale House. Actually, the other bartender was nice, too.
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