Do You Hear What I Hear?

I had watched the Angels -Yankees American League Championship Series and noticed how different each of the stadiums fans cheering sounded. One the one hand you have Yankee Stadium, hand clapping and yelling is the main form of rooting for the home team.(sorry new YS, the old YS was much louder). On the other hand Anaheim Stadium thunder sticks ruled the park. Honestly the thunder sticks suck. Appreciation is shown by clapping your hands not balloons.
Hands Down- Hands win.

Who doesn't like the organ being played at the stadium, too bad its dying out to the DJ mixing beats for each batter.

Did you ever notice that referees use whistles in Basketball, football, soccer, and hockey. Why not in baseball? there a few minor league baseball stadiums in Florida that ban whistles. Geez, if a pitcher can't ignore a whistle, god bless him when he gets to Yankees Stadium. He'll turn into Ed Whitson.

Nothing beats the old Pitch and Catch of the stadium peanut vendor.
Hey get your peanuts here! One bag over here, please.
Best P & C ever- Angels baseball game- thrown 19 rows and caught by lady one handed.
Sign'em up.

Funniest Line I ever heard at the ball park-
"Who cares, its a Dodger Fan" said at Petco Park after a line drive foul ball hit a fan in the head.

When you walk into a ball park, one thing make me smile every time. The "Smack" of the ball hitting the glove- It makes a POP or SLAP sound, I remember wanting every catch I made to make that same sound. That takes me back 35 years, I am sure it will be the same when it takes me back 95 years


Guilty Pleasure: College Marching Bands.
Now I've seen a few marching bands in my day and been to a few Battle of Band competitions. These bands are throwbacks to football yesteryear. If you school fight song is being played there is no way your are not waving your arms, or moving your body along with those playing it. The best college band I've seen is the Morehouse College Band, they are unbelievable.. high stepping, energetic, musically gifted.
2nd place- USC Trojans "Spirit of Troy" - The Greatest Marching Band in the History of the Universe. I love the sunglasses.

I have noticed over the past few years that some of the stadium announcers are having trouble with their timing intoducing players. Padres announcers had trouble getting their intro of the next batter coming to the plate, My advice- don't announce the abtters name when they are still in the on-deck circle, the crowd cheers and then 20 seconds later he gets to home plate to dead silence.
I hear Crickets!
Bucs announcers- They have fireworks booming during player introductions. May work better if the fireworks spelled out the players names instead. Just a suggestion.

Is your football team so bad that your cheer every first down? This is sad.
Idea #1: Stadium announcers says FIRST- Fans say DOWN!

Every sport has a whislte/alarm to indicate the end of a quater, period or half. My beef is with halftime. Why is there no halftime Whistle Alarm to sound the end of Haltime and the beginning of the 3rd quarter/second half- dude sometimes I lose track of time during the half and now I'm stuck in the Turkey Leg line.
Wait for me! Stop the Game!

Where are the new and improved stadium fan chants. CHARGE! has to end.
clap calp clapclapclap is lame oh! See "ilovegamechants.com"
Best chant I ever heard at a game: Yankees Stadium Bleacher Creatures yelling to a Suit in 2nd tier box seats: JUMP! JUMP! JUMP!

Love or hate it: at Minor league/spring training games you can hear a pin drop its so quiet. Love it! You can shout what you want to the players and they'll hear you. The CRACK of the bat is not a canned sound (hello TV)

I wish more professional teams had their own team song, like my favorite: The Houston Oilers Song. How cool would it be to hear your team song blaring throughout the stadium everytime a Home Run is hit or a Touchdown scored or a Goal scored. Thousands of Fans singing. Awesome!

I have an idea for a Golf Tournament. I'd call it the Let's Get Loud Tournament.
Here's how it would work. Cameras are allowed. Noise is allowed. Need I say more.
The fans at the The Americas Cup try and so do the fans at the US Open when played in New York. But they fall way short of what I am looking to do.
There are a lot of younger golfers who would love a tournament like this. Christ the sponsors alone would pay for everything. Just Imagine: Bands at the tee boxes or on the 18th green.
I can see KJ Kim- Teeing off to JayZ blasting through the speakers.
How about Tiger teeing off to Eye of the Tiger!
nuff said


Through his bullhorn, the sportsfreak has spoken.