This column by D. L. Stewart that appears in this morning’s Journal Sentinel explains why my church stopped having group events at Milwaukee Admirals games. We used to do these things called “Dads and Kids Night Out” and we’d go to see an Admirals game. The Milwaukee Admirals offered then, and probably still do, some terrific deals for church groups. But they can’t control the fans. Some of the chants were just too ribald for our taste. Yeah, any kid on a school playground might hear the same thing. But ultimately we didn’t think that the kids needed to hear adults, supposedly role models, doing the same thing.
You mix booze and spectators at a sporting event and you’ll get edgy language just about every time. Camp Randall Stadium can be a wonderful experience–unless you sit in the student section. When our daughter was a little kid we took her to a game there. Our tickets were at the far end of the studium away from the student section. Thankfully, we wer surronded by what appeared to be a gathering of elderly alumni. We only had to explain to our daughter who CrazyLegs Hirsch and Horse Ameche were. (Unfortunately, we didn’t know that the “5th Quarter”, one of the reasons tht my daughter wanted to go to the game, only takes place in front of the student section.)
One of the reasons that I like stock car racing is that I wear headphones and listen to the drivers, teams, and broadcasters. Yeah, they know how to not delete the occaisional expletive. But they use them far fewer expletives than the fans in the stands. Even at Slinger, where scanning radio communication is not very common, the cars are loud enough to drown out the fans obscene chatter. In between the races, I’m amazed that even the fans who drink don’t seem to cuss very much.
My question(s) is or are: Does everything have to be dragged down to the lowest common denominator? Does cheering for the home team have to become an exercise in the obscene? I haven’t been to a Packer game in over 30 years and then it was a rare chance to get tickets to games at County Stadium. But is shouting for women to expose their breasts as common Lambeau Field as at Giants Stadium?
I’ve gone to Brewers games at Miller Park and always bought higher priced seats figuring that folks around me would be less likely to act stupid enough to get thrown from the game. So far I’ve been proven right. But from what I hear, the bleachers can be a place that a Christian parent wouldn’t want to sit with their kids.
Are sports venues now going to become a place where no decent person would be found? Are we eventually going to end up at the point where the neighborhood gossip whispers to a confidant “You hear about Ed Smedly? He goes to Packers games”?
