It's a Baseball Game People, not the Beach!

Ok, I have now seen this occur in both Cincinnati and Kansas City and I need to comment. I have a new baseball game pet peeve. It far surpasses my dislike of the Wave. Beach balls.

So when I go to a baseball game, I am there to watch a baseball game, not jack around and play games in the stands. Now, there are times when I am ok with people doing the Wave, such as when your team is winning by like 10 runs or something. That doesn't mean I'm going to participate, but it does not bother me as much. However, if you do the Wave in a close game in the late innings I'm going to give you the evil eye.

Beach balls on the other hand...not acceptable at any time for numerous reasons. \

First of all, every time I have seen people batting beach balls around in the stands it has been in the lower level and down the sidelines. Hello people...just an FYI...the people on the field have bats and they are hitting a very hard ball at very high veolocities and sometimes that ball goes into the stands. You might want to pay attention to the ball that can crack your head open as opposed to the one full of air.

Second of all, why are you even coming to a baseball game and occupying these amazing seats if you aren't going to pay any attention anyways. This really bothers me. I would give anything to be able to sit in these seats up close to the action so that I can really see what is going on. And these people can't be bothered to pay attention because they are too busy playing. Plus in their excitement to bat the balls around they are jumping around and blocking the view of the true baseball fans like myself who are there to watch a game.

Third, and most importantly....eventually some idiot hits the ball onto the field. Then they have to stop play of the game to retrieve it. What if a beach ball is hit onto the field at a key moment? For example the right fielder is trying to concentrate on catching a fly ball and suddenly their view is obstructed by a flying beach ball. The ball drops. What happens now?

So yeah, not a fan of the beach balls in the stands. And the usher in me wanted to go take the balls away every time. But here is the kicker....I have seen not 1 single usher make a move to take the beach balls away. They let it continue until the ball lands on the field. Twice I saw an usher keep the ball from going on to the field and then THROW IT BACK TO THE IDIOTS WHO NEARLY HIT IT ON THE FIELD IN THE FIRST PLACE! Hello! This just kills me. The only time I ever saw them taken away and not given back was when they ended up on the field. However in my opinion it should never get to that point because by then the game has been interrupted. Ridiculous. If you're not going to watch the game then just don't bother coming. Who is with me?