OK, so I’m a tad late with my Gulf Wars post, given that I’ve been to an event since that point 🙂

I caravaned down with HRM Tristram, Caillin, Duncan Fathmbjorn, Seonaid, Maximus, and Genevieve. An interesting bunch. The trip was pretty uneventful, but in Sikeston an omen for the reign occurred. We passed Lambert’s to go to a Chinese buffet. It seems Tristram is partial to Chinese trough. It’s a good thing I like Chinese.

We got there on Sunday night and slept in the parking lot until Monday morning when they let us troll in. I got as much sleep as expected in a packed car. I got set up by noon or so and took a real nap. 🙂

And then was ready for the war. Gulf was incredible for me. It was very different to be in and amongst the royalty. Usually at wars, I figure that royalty is best left alone :).

I also participated in as much stuff as I could. I fought in the Diamond Tourney, which was very interesting. You see, it was a team tourney with two fighters, one of which was a rapier fighter. Each team represented a kingdom or principality. My partner was HE Rodrigo of Northshield. There were six kingdoms represented. At one point, I was the only heavy fighter there. It’s too bad this didn’t continue, I think it would have been hilarious for the only kingdom to be represented in a combined tourney be the only kingdom that doesn’t have rapier fighting. Of course, a lot of Calontir teased me about me becoming a fencer.

The other individual thing I fought in was the Champions tourney, which really wasn’t a tourney but rather an exhibition. HRM Ansteorra and HRM Trimaris took turns picking a champion and the two champions would fight for the crowd. There were 15 bouts. Thanks to HRM Gunnar of Meridies, who allowed Calontir an extra slot, I was given the opportunity to fight Count Valharic of Atlantia. It wasn’t a long bout, he’s an extremely fast lefty, but I made him work a little bit I think :). Anyway, it was an incredible honor to be out in front of the Knowne World like that. Their Majesties Ansteorra gave me this cool Black Star pin as well, which I have to say rocks.

The battles were a lot of fun this year. It is very strange to me how much fun Gulf has become and how little fun Estrella has become. I don’t know why, either. My first couple of Gulfs were nowhere near as much fun as Estrella, but since they moved back to Estrella Mountain Park it hasn’t been as much fun and Gulf has been great the last two years. I suppose this is a good thing since it’s much more likely I’ll get to go to Gulf as opposed to Estrella for the forseeable future.

Either I have gotten better fighting with 9ft spear, or Gulf Wars spearmen aren’t as good as Estrella spearmen. I had a very good war fighting spear, which I got to do before Katrine fought. I had real good bit getting myself in a sheltered sniper hole in the town battle, and had a couple of other solid runs. I wasn’t quite as effective during the ravine battle, but I don’t like the footing in the ravine much and getting killed four times by archers accounts for a lot of that. Still, at the end, Marcus picked up a scutum and just gave me a veritable buffet of targets. I do like buffets :).

The rest of the war involved fighting with Katrine. Not to pat myself on the back too much, my idea of picking a random fyrdman to partner with me to be Katrine’s guard each day worked real well. I picked my squire brother Alasdair the first day, and he did great, including throwing himself over Katrine after she had been pulled over.

Caillin was fyrded that day, which was well deserved. She had fought incredibly well in the early town, castle, and ravine battles. We as the fyrd basically forced Tristram and Katrine to do her, as they didn’t want to because she’s on retinue. She did very well in the field battle as Katrine’s guard.

Arthur got fyrded so he got to be a part of the guard during the castle battle. Calontir as a whole did awesome defending the castle. In fact, after blowing up the troops assaulting the front gate, Calontir went out and swept around the outside including this silly, wonderful, crazy solo excursion by Ferd. Unfortunately, Katrine got to watch this from the back. We put her in one of the towers so she’d be shielded from arrow fire until she was needed in the front rank of scutums.

Which of course meant that an arrow from out of nowhere hit a 3in x 3in target and hit her in the back. Best laid plans and all that.

Other highlights included walking Katrine and Tristram into Grand Court. Aiden served as Tristram’s champion. They only allowed 3 retainers per crown, so neither of us stood behind the thrones, but we stayed to escort them out. This actually meant that we could escort the Ansteorran War Banner into court so Calontir could give it back. We sang a verse of Non Nobis as we came in, which was really cool :).

I hung around Katrine quite a bit, and we had a lot of fun sitting around the fire on Friday and Saturday singing. Ferd made a scutumhenge on Friday and on Saturday, Rebecca’s tree house was created. Damn it’s good to be Calontir at war 🙂

This was definitely a great war, enhanced by the opportunity to be Champion. I have to say that I’m truly a lucky man.

I’m on my way to Bellewode Symposium and am taking a break from KC rush hour traffic at a Kinko’s.

A couple of small notes. First, isn’t it frustrating how you always have something great to say when you don’t have a forum? And when you do have a forum, you forget what you were going to say.

I need to figure out a way to get my ideas that I have when I’m driving or lying in bed in the middle of the night recorded. I’m like a genius then.

Anyway, a couple of irksome notes recently. I was watching this stupid ESPN show called First and 10. The premise is two sports media people debate topics. It might be interesting but it has Woody Paige and Skip Bayless, two sportswriters who know conventional wisdom but have never questioned that wisdom. They have no clue whether that wisdom is true, apocryphal, or was true and no longer is, or whatever. They just accept it without looking at it critically.

So it leads to some very stupid stuff. The question came up as to who is the greatest shortstop ever. Bayless said Alex Rodriguez. Paige ridiculed this choice because ARod now plays 3rd for the Yankees. Actually, ARod is a fine choice, not my choice, but a fine one. Paige promoted my choice, Honus Wagner. Why is this humorous to me? Well, Paige’s argument was that ARod isn’t a shortstop because he’s playing 3rd now. Huh. Umm. Apparently Paige is not aware that Honus Wagner played 3rd too. In fact, it wasn’t until Wagner’s 5th year that he began playing short a lot and it wasn’t until his 7th that Wagner starting playing short almost exclusively. All in all, Wagner played about a 3rd of his games at other positions. Most people think of Wagner as a shortstop sure, but for someone who is promoting himself as an expert to not know this? Idiotic.

Bayless’ counter-argument, was to point out that ARod has hit for more power than Honus did. Again, a supposed expert not looking into things critically. Yes, ARod has hit more homers, but Wagner would have hit a ton had baseball of his career been like baseball of ARod’s career. ARod has a career .574 slugging percentage compared to the league average during his career of .436. He’s also lead baseball in slugging once. ARod has been 32% better than the average, which is fantastic.

Wagner? .466 career slugging when .351 was average, or 33% better than average. He also lead the majors in slugging 6 times, including in 1908 when he had a .542 slugging percentage, 90 points better than the next guy at .452.

Again, Bayless, who is commonly clueless, presents himself as an expert but doesn’t do the work to justify his self-aggrandizement. He’s happy criticizing players for being too rich, too good, too this, too that, and in almost all cases better than he is.

Well, almost out of power, probably should go.

Here’s the second post. I separated them because it seemed like the thing to do as I talk about my real life in the first and talk about my hobby in the second.

September is a long way away, but I suspect it’s going to fly by. This is going to be the most interesting reign I will have seen because for the first time I’m seeing it from the inside. I’ve never been part of retinue before.

Yesterday, though, I swore my fealty to TRMs Tristram and Katrine as Queen’s Champion.

Not surprisingly, I am incredibly excited. I have been bouncing since Her Majesty asked me at Estrella. The request came from nowhere, as while I have spent time with Her Majesty and her husband Eric St. Leger at events before, I did not know them very well. I think I’ll know them better in six months, :).

Some early notes. I’ve never dealt with Kingdom regalia before. Now I have in my possession the Champion’s Axe; the Champion’s Circlet, a replica of the circlets that the Warlords of Calontir wore; two Queen’s Favor Gloves, one beaded, one painted; several Champion’s Tabards, including a beautiful embroidered tunic donated by HE Magnus, a great friend, who was Queen’s Champion a few reigns ago. The history that each of these items has is amazing, simply holding these things is an incredible honor and a great responsibility. They’re also a great inspiration. I can already tell that if I even think about relaxing any, a simple look at one of these items and my enthusiasm will be reinvigorated.

The overall responsibility is awesome. I felt a great responsiblity to live up to the ideals of the fyrd when I was fyrded three years ago. This is a hundred times more. I am now a representative of the Crown and Kingdom of Calontir and a missed shot or a crass word or a mistreatment of someone now does not reflect on me but on something much greater than me, something I truly love. I am both terrified and overjoyed at the prospect of living up to this ideal.

More mundanely, I am very glad I went and got gel-soles for my boots last week. After two courts, fighting, and helping clean site, my feet and knees are sore. I shudder to think what it would have been like without the new soles.

Stamina is my greatest concern, in fact. I’m very concerned with being able to keep up at Gulf Wars, but most importantly at Pennsic. Her Majesty’s request has crystallized my goal of exercising into a need, so that’s a positive. And it’s not just feet. The axe that the Queen’s Champion bears is very heavy.

So Coronation is over. Gulf Wars is next week, and I am thanking my lucky stars that I have spent the past two summers up in Ealdormere. Those summers gave me a much better understanding and appreciation of the SCA as a whole I feel, and I am glad for the experience as I approach a foreign war as a person who will interact with Royals and peers of other Kingdoms. It should be one of the most interesting and fun wars I’ve ever been to.

Anyway, much of my LiveJournal over the next six months will consist of me trying to record my experiences as Queen’s Champion. No matter what the next few months entail, I know that I’m going to grow as a person because I’m going to have to to fulfill my obligations.

Well, I realize it’s been a while, but you’re going to get two posts today.

The first post is the basic business post. My applications are still coming back but I’m pleased to have had three acceptance letters this time, so I know I’ll be going somewhere.

The front-runner thus far is the University of Missouri. I had a nice lunch with the prof who’d be my coordinator. She’s a smart, energetic, enthusiastic, very nice person and I think I’d really like working with her. She also would be able to let me work on Anglo-Saxon military stuff, which I didn’t think I would do because of Dr. Richard Abels. Abels is the man when it comes to Anglo-Saxon military history and I would have loved to work with him but he teaches at the US Naval Academy. I had decided that if I could not work with him, it made little sense for me to compete against him. However, it seems possible that I might be able to add him to my committee and receive his guidance with research while at Mizzou so this is extremely appealing.

Probably second is Saint Louis University. I’m still unsure of monetary details so I don’t know exactly where to rank it, but the topic and the prof are not as exciting as at Mizzou.

Third is the University of Arkansas, but the same things I said about Saint Louis apply here as well.

I’m still waiting on apps from Minnesota, Chicago, Toronto, and Ohio State so my list may not be complete yet, but it’s great to know I’m going somewhere in September and awesome that I have choices.

I hate the doctoral application process. This process is worse than writing my thesis and dealing with all of the hoops at the Grad School at Wichita State. That doesn’t seem right to me.

Eight of the 11 apps I’m sending out just went out. They are:
Ohio State, Minnesota, Saint Louis University, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, University of Chicago

The other 3 are:
University of Toronto, both History and the Centre for Medieval Studies. These are waiting because I’m not sure I did the Centre’s reference letters correctly, so I need to double check on that.
Western Michigan University. This one is waiting because they have multiple sets of instructions on their website and forms and I do not know what to send. I’ll call them and figure that out.

But they’re basically ready to send, once I clear those up. I hope to have WMU sent out tomorrow and UT sent out before Christmas, though that’s depending upon profs if I have to get new letters. Worst case on the UT ones, I send them out without the right letter of reference forms.

I’m guessing I’ll know more in late February, early March. Maybe I’ll have everything by Gulf Wars and can start making plans. We’ll see. Anyway, the bread is on the water and here’s hoping something positive comes back, unlike last year.

The process sucks though. I pretty much had to write or enter everything multiple times for each entry. There is no need for this redundancy in this day and age. The online apps are better, but they aren’t fully utilized, I suspect, or it would work better.

Anyway, the process has driven me to drink, or at least given me an excuse to go the Field House.

This is going to be a long post. Hopefully you’ll enjoy it.

While I was driving to Wichita today, I decided to create my all-time baseball team. The rules are of course not simple. This isn’t the player who is the best at each position, rather, this is a team I would create of players in history. To qualify, a player has to have played not only the position, but also the role in mind for at least one year. In other words, I can’t choose Jeff Bagwell to back up Lou Gehrig because Bagwell wasn’t really a backup in the majors. I am also saying that players who are currently extremely young can be chosen for backup roles, catcher will provide the obvious example for this rule.

Anyway, here it is. I suspect there will be a lot of differences of opinion on this. This list was not created from any exhaustive search so I’m sure I’m going to miss someone, but here it is.

Catcher
I’m going to make an exception to my rule of each player fitting their role immediately at catcher, but I believe I can justify it. I’m picking Yogi Berra, but not just at catcher. I’m going to take advantage of his versatility and play him at C, 1B, LF and DH. In other words, he’s likely to be in the lineup most days, just not necessarily in the same position. This allows me to have another starting catcher in my mind because both will get enough playing time that they won’t complain. That other starting catcher is Pudge Rodriguez. I agree that Johnny Bench is probably better, but I chose IRod because I wanted to have one Texas Ranger on the team and because IRod has shown a wide variety of skills, including stealing bases.

This is going to be a long post. Hopefully you’ll enjoy it.

While I was driving to Wichita today, I decided to create my all-time baseball team. The rules are of course not simple. This isn’t the player who is the best at each position, rather, this is a team I would create of players in history. To qualify, a player has to have played not only the position, but also the role in mind for at least one year. In other words, I can’t choose Jeff Bagwell to back up Lou Gehrig because Bagwell wasn’t really a backup in the majors. I am also saying that players who are currently extremely young can be chosen for backup roles, catcher will provide the obvious example for this rule.

Anyway, here it is. I suspect there will be a lot of differences of opinion on this. This list was not created from any exhaustive search so I’m sure I’m going to miss someone, but here it is.

Catcher
I’m going to make an exception to my rule of each player fitting their role immediately at catcher, but I believe I can justify it. I’m picking Yogi Berra, but not just at catcher. I’m going to take advantage of his versatility and play him at C, 1B, LF and DH. In other words, he’s likely to be in the lineup most days, just not necessarily in the same position. This allows me to have another starting catcher in my mind because both will get enough playing time that they won’t complain. That other starting catcher is Pudge Rodriguez. I agree that Johnny Bench is probably better, but I chose IRod because I wanted to have one Texas Ranger on the team and because IRod has shown a wide variety of skills, including stealing bases. Since Berra provides so much versatility, I’m going to choose one more catcher. Since I like to load up and take advantage of platoon splits, I’d like a left-handed or switch-hitting catcher. While there are several choices, I’m going to take Joe Mauer who slides in because of the prospect exemption. Hey, my game, my rules, and I can futz with them if I want to.

First Base
We only need one first baseman, both because of his durability and because of Berra. This was one of the easier choices, and I’m going with Lou Gehrig.

Second Base
This too was an easy choice, with Joe Morgan starting. He may have no clue what made him a great player now that he’s an announcer, but he was a tremendous top of the lineup hitter. As a backup, we’re going to select uberutility guy Jose Oquendo. He played nearly every position on the field, played them well, got on base, and had a bit of speed. What more do you want from a utility guy?

Shortstop
This is where the harder decisions start. This one was hard because it affected who I was going to choose at third, because this shortstop played third for at least a season as well. No, not ARod, who won’t make any time I control because of his disdain for his fellow players, but rather Honus Wagner, the best shortstop ever and one of the best third sackers as well. I almost put him at third, but I went another route. The presence of Oquendo, by the way, allows me to not have a backup shortstop.

Third Base
Here’s a controversial choice. I’m picking Chipper Jones. I could have picked Mike Schmidt, who was a better player. I could also have picked George Brett, or ARod at short and moved Wagner here. I, however, picked Chipper because he’s a switch hitter who hits both sides well, has stolen some bases, and can play short in a pinch, not to mention left. Again, Oquendo frees me from the need to have a backup here, and Berra even played a game here once, so I should be covered.

Left Field
Barry Bonds. Easy choice. I’m taking Ted Williams too, but I’m allowing myself a DH, and Williams is the ultimate DH.

Center Field
Here is where I’m going to get controversial again. Mays is out there. Cobb, too. Rickey played some in center as well. No, I’m going with the guy who I want to lead this team off, and that’s Tim Raines. I believe that Cobb, Henderson and Raines all played enough in center to justify them playing there, so I could pick any of them. As hitters, Raines is certainly the worst of the three, but in my mind I want a switch hitting leadoff guy, and that’s Raines. It’s not like he’s chopped liver, either. My backup in center is Mike Cameron, who one year for the White Sox hammered lefties, played great defense in both center and right, and who can pinch-run.

Right Field
I’m going to stretch a bit here and put Mickey Mantle here. I know I’m forgetting the Babe, but I like switch hitters and players who can run as well as hit. I also know I could easily put Mantle in center and instead of stretching a bit at two positions, be legit at center and stretch in right with Raines. Doesn’t matter really, an outfield of Bonds, Raines, and Mantle ought to get to most things. I am, however, going to completely stretch a bit by picking the Babe as the backup in right field. I figure he can pitch, pinch hit, rest Mantle’s knees, and do a bunch of things. In 1918, with the Red Sox, this was sort of his role, so I don’t think it’s a stretch.

Starting Pitchers
Since I’m not really looking for versatility at starting pitching, I think I’ll just pick my top four, and then go with a couple of combo pitchers to provide the fifth starter and long relief. Anyway, there are a lot of great pitchers out there so I’ll go with my personal preferences. Kansas boy Walter Johnson is the ace, Lefty Grove gives me a lefty if you’ll pardon the redundancy, Greg Maddux is number three, and Pedro Martinez is number four. Pedro probably can make a case for three, but I’m thinking that if there is any advantage to starting different kinds of pitchers on consecutive days, then putting Maddux between the heat of Grove and Pedro should be good.

Utility Pitchers
Basically, these are pitchers that can start and relieve. They’ll provide me choices at the fifth starter role, along with the Babe, so I’ll be able to mix and match. I’m a huge Johan Santana fan, and he’s a dominant lefty. He’ll actually do short work for me a lot, with the occasional start. To make sure I always have enough pitching, I’m picking the ultimate in workhorses, the kind of pitcher every team needs, a knuckleballer. I’m picking Charlie Hough because of his Rangers ties, though I know there’s probably a better choice out there.

Relievers
First, I’m picking Eric Gagne. Who else would be the closer than a French-Canadian, eh? But I like having a second closer, and I’m picking Rich Gossage. The Goose could pitch 1 inning, 2 innings, 3 innings, and pitch at any point in the game. He may not like having been paired with Sparky Lyle, but he has been in this role. I’m going to use Santana primarily as the left-handed setup guy to finish a three headed monster closing games out. I’m also picking Mike Marshall as the other reliever, again, as a guy who did whatever was needed in the bullpen. Here I’m going to apologize to Ted and say that I’ve changed my mind. Originally I was going to have Jesse Orosco, but with the presence of the Babe I can have both 11 pitchers and 15 position players.

So, I have one position open. I think I need one more utility infielder. I’m going to stretch here a bit as well, because he was always a starter, but I want one more Ranger. This guy played over 1000 games at third, 800 games at short, and 200 games at second. He had a career OPS+ of 114. He was nearly a 30-30 guy when it was very unusual (1977). He wasn’t great at any one skill, but he was good at basically everything. Toby Harrah fills out my roster, which is:

c: Berra, IRod, Mauer
1b: Gehrig
2b: Morgan, Oquendo
3b: Jones, Harrah
ss: Wagner
lf: Bonds, Williams
cf: Raines, Cameron
rf: Mantle, Ruth
sp: Johnson, Grove, Maddux, Pedro
utp: Hough, Santana, Ruth
rel: Marshall, Santana, Gossage
cl: Gagne

And here’s the lineup:
cf Raines (s)
2b Morgan (l)
ss Wagner (r)
lf Bonds (l)
dh Williams (l)
rf Mantle (s)
1b Gehrig (l)
c Berra (r)
3b Jones (s)

Yeah, I’d live with that lineup. Anyway, hope you liked my little flight of fantasy. I’m curious what players you all would choose. I know that there are a lot of players that I chose because of my heart and then found a way to justify them, but hey, it’s my team 🙂

Well, lots to get to, so here goes.

First, I want to thank Angelo for one of the best fights in my life. I had a great time at Toys for Tots and even the fight with Angelo was one of the reasons why. He may have advanced, but we both won.

Found out today that they’re working on a sequel for Boondock Saints. If you’ve not seen the movie, it’s fantastic; a dark, violent, hilarious morality play with three fascinating characters. Trust me, you’ll have to stop and replay the cat scene just to be sure you actually saw it right the first time. It would have one of the best soundtracks ever but they never published it. Here’s hoping they publish the one from the second one, and here’s hoping they get the Dropkick Murphys to play on it.

DVDs must be getting cheaper, found the Special Edition Magnificent Seven and the D-Day Anniversary edition of Saving Private Ryan for a combined $23.87 today. Watching Brynner, Bronson, McQueen, Cobern, et. al. as we speak.

My DVD wish list is huge. I don’t watch TV hardly at all anymore, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t shows I like. I have found that I love to watch them by season, so all of the shows that I really like all tempt me for their season DVD packs. And this doesn’t include the sets like Ken Burns Baseball and Akira Kurosawa and other stuff. Oh, and don’t forget the Dropkick Murphys DVD. And the Glory Special Edition. And the rest of the Cadfael, Sharpe, and Monty Python series. And…, well, you get the picture. Still, it’s been a good week, getting Clerks X, Magnificent Seven, Saving Private Ryan, Young Guns, and Time Bandits for only about $60 total.

And now I’m finding more bands along the lines of the Murphys I’m looking at. The Real MacKenzies are just one of several bands similar to the Murphys. More to find.

Anyway, Christmas is coming up. If you can’t find something to buy me from the previous rant, you just aren’t looking.

My current writing project is a comparison of the Anglo-Saxon fyrd and the use of the levee-in-masse in Catalonia during the Reconquista. If you have any suggestions for research materials, leave me a comment.

Thanks go out to Ferd for the most recent homework, though the rest of the family wasn’t as enthused. We had to read El Cid and then do a short poem in the Alexandrian verse style it was written in. Not only do I love it, especially the line about how you may find us killed, but you’ll never find us vanquished, but it prompted me for what I’m going to do for Queen’s Prize Tourney.

I’ve had a lot of fun at SCA events recently. Feast of the Bear was a blast. Thanks to everyone in Ealdormere, especially Medb, for the fun. Trebuchets and pumpkins and gravity in Ivory Keep was very memorable. And Toys for Tots was an absolute blast, as I mentioned. Kris Kinder is coming up, then Twelfth Night and the knighting of one of the best people I know, Michael Nymandius, Queen’s Prize, War Maneuvers, Estrella. Man that’s a lot of fun to look forward to. You know you’re an absolute SCA geek when you’re anxious for the holidays to be over because they interfere with your event schedule.

“We deal in lead, friend.”

And I’m dealing in finally being done with this update.

OK, so this whole thing between the Rangers bullpen and the fans of the Oakland A’s has me extremely pissed.

For those who don’t know, the members of the Texas Rangers bullpen got into an altercation with the fans behind the bullpen. One Texas pitcher, Frank Francisco, during the altercation through a chair into the stands and hit a lady on her nose, breaking it.

First, let me say I’m extremely pissed at Francisco and hope MLB suspends him for at least the rest of the year and the Rangers consider demoting him. Please note that I am a Rangers fan and Francisco’s been pretty good this year. Still, this was unexcusable.

But I’m more upset at the A’s fans. What is coming out of A’s management is that the A’s fans did nothing wrong to cause the altercation. I don’t believe it. Francisco was not the only upset Ranger, though Doug Brocail and the other Texas relievers didn’t do anything stupid like Francisco did.

This is the same bullpen where an altercation broke out last playoff year between A’s fans and Red Sox players. The Rangers made several calls early in the game for more security, but the ballpark manager said he never got those requests. I should point out that the umpires, who don’t have anything to do with such requests, heard about them. The ballpark manager, David Rinetti, has repeatedly said that the fans did nothing wrong.

OK, if that’s true, what about this? In the paper today the husband of the lady hit by the chair said he was heckling the Ranger pitchers. He also said it was “an American tradition.” He said he and his wife bought tickets near the bullpen just “so we can get on them a little bit.” The lady who got hit said, “it’s part of going to a baseball game, I don’t think he did anything wrong.”(Here’s the link for those quotes: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=1882359). Not surprisingly, they’re looking at suing the Rangers, Francisco, and probably the A’s.

This is not at all to excuse Francisco, who claims he was grabbed and assaulted by A’s fans before throwing the chair. There is no excuse for him or his actions.

Nonetheless, I am pissed even more at these ‘fans’. Francisco screwed up in a fit of anger. These fans calmly and coolly planned on spending probably $100 per game so that they would have the privilege of insulting other human beings. When those human beings finally had had enough and retaliated, these ‘fans’ are going to try and get rich.

Great, maybe I should start planning on being rude to waitresses. How about bank tellers. Random businesspeople. Hopefully one of them will break my nose and I can sue their company for millions.

No, there are no good guys in this. There are two jerks, David Rinetti, who doesn’t seem to care about the security of opposing ballplayers, and Rangers manager Buck Showalter, whose defense of his player was idiotic. There is the bad guy, Frank Francisco, and the worse guys, that would be Jennifer and Craig Bueno. Should they have had a chair thrown at them? Of course not. Should they have gotten tickets so they could insult other human beings who happen to play for a different team? I say no. I say, if you poke the bear, you accept that the bear might bite.