Sociology at a softball game!

Playing six games this week, I got to see lots of different types of  fans. And let me just say that they are all completely different! Particularly on Friday at our Awareness game. Both teams came together and played to raise money for the Susan G. Komen fund. We had a great deal of cooperation involved among both teams and parents in order to make the game run smoothly and have fun at the same time. A lot of fans came out to show their support and it was really great to see. However, during one of the later innings of the game, there was a play that was made, and the umpire made his call and our coach did not agree. Because of the call, my coach felt the need to defend us and go appeal the call. As soon as she did this, a father of one of the players from the other team became pretty much outraged. He was yelling at our  coach to sit down and shut up and just showing a great deal of disrespect towards her. At this point in the game, we were winning by quite a few runs already and maybe the call did not need to be appealed, but our coach was only doing so to defend our team. It was obvious that both teams and parents and coaches all valued winning just as much as the other, but some took it to drastic measures. I found similarities between the father and my coach because they both valued standing up for themselves and their team because they both wanted to win equally bad. The father just took it a bit too far. As well as their values, the father clearly knew right from wrong and set an example for all the other parents there. Everyone else clearly thought that the dad was a bit out of control and needed to just calm down and be quiet, and instead of telling him to do so, they instead did not mimic his actions, and saw him as a perfect example of how NOT to act. Minus, the one incident, the fundraiser was successful and we all had a good time, with the exception of one poor father....

Sociology at a Sox game!

On Sunday I went with a friend to the Sox game and we had a pretty eventful time to say the least. At the beginning of the game, there were three boys that looked to be about freshmen in college and they thought it'd be a good idea to bring their own cans of beer into the stadium when that is strictly prohibited and they were not even old enough to drink yet. The boys knew that they were breaking the rules of the stadium as well as the law.The security guards immediately came down to the kids and they were escorted out. Later on there were a couple more groups of trouble makers that were also asked to leave by the security guards. Watching the security guards, I could see that they valued doing their job and keeping the stadium as peaceful and calm as possible. They were harsh when they needed to be, but they valued doing their job to the best of their ability in an effort to make the game as enjoyable as possible for everyone else that was there. The other sociology moment I had during the game was when I was during the seventh inning when a woman sung God Bless America. There were four older men sitting behind us, probably about in their forties. One was an ex marine core by the way. In front of us sat 4 Hispanic boys, two were 21 or older and the other two looked about 17 or 18. During the song, everyone stood in order to show respect, however, the boys didn't. Instead, they sat down and began to curse saying eff this country and so on. The older men asked them to please be respectful and silent during this time if they were not going to stand. The boys took major offense and began to start a fight. One thing led to another and eventually the boys were escorted out of the park as well. It was obvious, because we were basically in the middle of all of this, that the boys had no respect for elders, nor for the country that they currently were living in. Their morals were much different then everyone around them and this caused a major conflict. I guess everyone has their own opinions, but there is definitely a time and a place to voice those opinions, and that was not the time. My time at the Sox game was great, minus the fights. It also gave me lots to talk about and I got to see plenty of sociology in action :)