by Paul Semendinger
April 14, 2023
***
A while back, a writer reached out to me to share a study his organization conducted regarding the fans of baseball teams.
The study (according to the site) was conducted in the following manner: "From December 14 - 15, 2022, we surveyed 999 Americans to hear their opinions on annoying Major League Baseball fans. Respondents ranged in age from 18 to 76 years old, and were 26% female and 74% male."
The results of the study don't shine favorably upon Yankees fans. (You can read the entire article HERE or you can click on the graphic below:
I can understand some of the results. As a general observation, a fair amount of people I encounter tend to think of Yankees fans as obnoxious. (I think they're wrong, but that's the initial reaction I get from many.)
The study, though, lists Aaron Judge as one of the most annoying players in the game. I can't agree with that. Judge seems to be a hero of many across the sport. The only reason for fans of other teams to not like Judge (or think he is annoying) would be because he is so good. But he is certainly not annoying. Mike Trout also makes that list which also makes little sense to me.
The last part of the article I found the most interesting. In that part, specific fan behaviors are discussed:
From yelling at the umpire to just being bad sports, here are the top 10 fan behaviors people find most annoying:
Getting in fights at games (with fans of other teams)
Having bad sportsmanship
Being a fairweather/bandwagon fan
Making excuses
Drinking too much
Getting in fights at games with fans of their own team
Heckling opposing players too much
Using inappropriate language
Complaining about umpires
Saying “we” when referring to the team
Take a look at the entire article and share your thoughts.
I have a sense this article will create some lively discussion. (And let's not jump into #6 above.)
Have fun with this!
In my experience, Red Sox fans are the worst, most racist, most violent, most front-running, most petulant group of any fans in any sport (though Flyers fans might give them a run for the money).
And Aaron Judge conducts himself with class and decency all the time. I can only assume "annoying" in that context means "he beats the tar out of us on the field."
let's get straight
to that @#$%^&U*IO number 8
I put very little stock in studies like this. Notice how teams that are consistently successful are near the top of the most annoying and worst behaved and those that aren't are near the bottom. Most fans in cities other than NY hate the Yankees and Mets. Us Yankee fans hate the Astros and Red Sox but in general don't really get worked up too much about other teams. I've been a Yankee fan in "hostile" territory most of my adult life and have had to explain to fans in those cities that while they may have a burning hatred for the Yankees (mostly envy) we don't take much notice of them and they should direct their venom to the…
Like you I’m surprised Judge is #4 on most annoying list! As for Yankee fans I wouldn’t say they are the worst but Yankees are usually a easy target so I’m not surprised. I like the Manager list although its slightly outdated however I wouldn’t put Dusty Baker that high on the list. Otherwise not too much to disagree with.