[music]

Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. We'll end the show today after all this incredibly heavy stuff about Afghanistan and evictions and COVID. We'll end the show today with a call in about booing. If you've ever booed your own team at a sporting event, why did you do it and what did the boo mean? Translate it into words. (646) 435-7280, (646) 435-7280. Some of you already know why I'm asking this question today, but for everyone, if you have ever booed your own team at a sporting event, why did you do it and what did the boo mean? Translate it into words. (646) 435-7280. I asked because of what's going on with the Mets right now. Did you see the story about the Mets that's blowing up on social media in the sports world? The Mets have been doing really badly this month.

They fell out of first place into a position where they're probably not going to make the playoffs, and more of the fans at Citi Field have begun to boo when some of the Mets players do badly as individuals. That's common in sports, fans boo poor performance sometimes. What was different yesterday was that a couple of Mets players were seen giving a thumbs-down sign back to the fans because the fans were booing. As far as I know, nobody has ever seen that before. Then after the game, one of the Mets players, Javier Báez, said on TV that fans shouldn't boo the home team, they should support them, and that booing only puts more pressure on the team and makes it harder to win. Now there's a whole backlash to Báez saying that and to giving the thumbs-down sign back to the booing fans.

Here's that clip of Mats, second baseman, Javier Báez. It's 40 seconds.

Javier Báez: We're not machines. We're going to struggle. We're going to struggle seven times out of 10. It just feels bad when I strike out and I get boo. It doesn't really get to me, but I want to let them know that. What we should say is we're going to do the same thing to let them know how it feels because if we win together, then we got to lose together. The fans are a really big part of it. In my case, they got to be better. I play for the fans and I love the fans, but if they're going to do that, they're just putting more pressure on the team, and that's not what we want.

Brian Lehrer: All right. If they're going to boo us, we're going to give it back to them. People didn't know what that thumbs-down sign meant. They had seen some Mets doing it on television, and they did it when they succeeded. I think it was after Báez had a home run yesterday that a couple of players were doing it. Then he explained it afterwards that the thumbs-down was actually a way of gesturing back to the fans like, "Boo you. If you're going to boo when we do something bad, we're going to boo you when we do something good. Now, as I said, there's this whole backlash on social and in some sports media. The Mets General Manager even released a statement that said he would have a talk with players about unacceptable gestures to the fans.

Of course, remember this was just a thumbs-down for booing at them, not a different finger in a different direction, but the going commentary seems to be, "Hey, the fans pay for tickets, so the fans have the right to boo." That's undoubtedly true. The fans pay for tickets and the fans have a right to boo. My impulse here is to be on the players' side. Like they're trying, nobody's accusing them of not trying. They're just not succeeding as much as the fans or they themselves, that's important, they themselves would like. The question is, if you have ever booed your own team at a sporting event, why did you do it and what did the boo mean? Translate it into words. (646) 435-7280.

Is anybody listening right now who was at Citi Field yesterday, and either booed yourself when they were doing badly or any recent day or just witnessed the spectacle of fans booing or of some of these players giving them a thumbs-down sign? We'd love to hear firsthand stories of being there for this. David in Stanford you're on WNYC. Hi, David.

David: Hi, Brian, how are you?

Brian Lehrer: Good. Did you ever boo?

David: I've been a Mets fan since 1972 when my dad took me to my first game. I think, as a more sophisticated Mets fan, over the years, a lot of the times that I have found myself booing, which hasn't been all that often, has been out of pure frustration for a lack of execution on the field. Specifically, you've got a lot of players who don't really understand how to strategically execute. Javier Báez, for example, swings at everything, and the broadcast just talked about the fact that he has no play discipline and would rather hit a ball versus take a walk, which also means he also strikes out a lot. Then you see guys who get up there who don't know how to bond, and that's a fundamental part of being a baseball player. For me, as a diehard Mets fan, it's just about a lack of execution. That's where I'm expressing my frustration through those boos.

Brian Lehrer: David, thank you very much. We're going to go next to a former Brian Lehrer show intern. I'll just give his first name like any other caller. It's Luke calling in, but, Luke, I know who you are. Are you a booer, Luke?

Luke: Hi, Brian. Nice to talk to you. Can you hear me?

Brian Lehrer: I can hear you just fine. Hi.

Luke: I can say as someone who's from Philly, I am a strong booer. Some people may know that Philly fans are notorious for being booers. When I heard the segment, I felt like I had to call in because I would say every single Philadelphia sports game that I've ever been to, I have booed because for us it's a way to show affection like the previous caller said of the players not doing good enough. We pay for the tickets. We support the team. When they're not giving it back or showing a lack of energy, we let them hear it. My latest example for that would be last year when the fixtures for the number one Sea, they lost the Five Seahawks in the playoff, very frustrating, boos everywhere because the players weren't good enough. I would say, it's a part of affection.

Brian Lehrer: Affection is an interesting context, but you bring up the word effort. I was making that distinction in the setup, maybe I'm wrong, but except in very rare cases, I assume that these professional athletes, especially ones on teams that, in a given year, think they might make the playoffs, like the match half have this year or the 70 Sixers in the scenario you described. It's not like they're not trying. They're just trying against other professional athletes and not beating them. Then how was it affection?

Luke: Well, that's very true, but I would say, you don't get paid millions of dollars just to try. You've got to actually perform at your highest level every time. When we have, for example, a player like Ben Simmons, who can't even shoot a free throw, meanwhile gets paid millions of dollars, I feel like I'm within my right to boo them, especially when they don't seem to even take any sort of criticism to improve. Philadelphians we're very sick people when it comes to that. That's how we show our affection capacity.

Brian Lehrer: Yes, it's true, Philly. I don't know if this goes on all over the country, I think I've heard that fans of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team, for example, rarely ever boo. I don't know if that's true, but that New York and Philly are particularly rough cities in this respect, both on the opposition and on their home teams. Very interesting about Luke from Philly. Luke, thanks for chiming in. I also wonder folks, if this is different in different sports. Is it more likely in football than baseball? We just heard a basketball context call where it's kind of the same. Today is the first day of the US Open in Queens. The only booing I've ever seen in tennis is against the player you're rooting against, and usually if they're being rude.

A Serena fan will never boo Serena, I don't think. Will they? A Federer fan will never boo Federer, I don't think, but a Mets fan will move the Mets. I realized that the Mets have this long frustrating history of being almost good and then not quite, but I wonder if it's different in different sports. Joe in Huntington you're on WNYC. Hi, Joe.

Joe: Hey Brian, how are you doing?

Brian Lehrer: Good. How are you?

Joe: Very good. Thank you. About Yankee fans, I boo bad decisions, bad choices.

Brian Lehrer: Yankee fan you said?

Joe: Bad choices. Yes. I'm a heavy Yankee fan. I'll boo an umpire obviously, but I'll boo a manager for prematurely taking a pitcher out of the game. I'll boo a player for swinging at a terrible pitch. [unintelligible 00:10:06] It's nothing personal. They should be able to make better choices, I think.

Brian Lehrer: You're booing bad decisions, not bad performance in and of itself? That's part of the performance, to be sure, but you're booing bad decision-making it sounds like.

Joe: Yes. Primarily, it is difficult to be a professional and they are trying, I'm pretty sure that trying as hard as they can, most professional athletes. I'm leaning towards the poor decision-making. I think they should make better choices being paid with [inaudible 00:10:48].

Brian Lehrer: When somebody swings at a ball that's way out of the strike zone, and they look so foolish doing it when that happens. It's only because they're trying to see what the spin on the ball is, where its speed. They misjudge it, the pitcher beat them at that moment. They train all the time to read the pitch and sometimes the pitcher does a better job of fooling them.

Joe: Well, in that case, give a reprieve batter, but [inaudible 00:11:24] in stealing and getting a better jump, I think they should be able to make better choices. Certainly, a manager prematurely taking out a player, the pitcher primarily.

Brian Lehrer: That would be pure booing a decision. Joe, thank you very much. Owen in Morristown, you're on WNYC. Hi, Owen.

Owen: Hey, hi. This was my first time calling in. I love your show.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you.

Owen: But I'm weird. I'm just listening here and I'm not a big sports enthusiast. My passion is music, but I thought I might share this. There's a story that I heard through a folk song. There's a guy named Chuck Brodsky, he's a folk musician. He wrote a song called Letters in the Dirt. It's a story of this guy, Richie Allen, who played for The Phillies back in 1969. He was about to be traded and things weren't going well in his career, and the fans were booing him. Like one of your last callers said, Philly fans are big booers. He would respond to them by carving in the dirt out by first base "Boo." Basic Capital letters, B-O-O. Then as the date came closer for him to leave the Phillies, he was being traded and he knew it or something, or the end of the season was coming.

He wrote the Date in the Dirt and the people would boo even louder, and he would boo even bigger with his even larger letters in the dirt. The way I know all this is there's again, this musician, Chuck Brodsky of hope guy who does these fabulous baseball stories in folk music, fantastic stuff. That's how I know about it. I don't even follow baseball, but it's a great story.

Brian Lehrer: That's a great story. That's a hilarious story. It's also the only other example that I know of that even somewhat is in the same category as what the Mets were doing with the thumbs down.

Owen: Exactly.

Brian Lehrer: Much more explicit, much more aggressive.

Owen: He was asked by the manager of the team and then by the Commissioner of Baseball to stop writing in the dirt. The last word he wrote in the dirt in the Philly stadium was M-O-M, mom. He wrote this to the fans, and they just booed even louder. Later when they interviewed him and said, "Why did you write mom?" It was the last thing he wrote before the season was over. He says, "Because only my mom can tell me what to do."

Brian Lehrer: Owen, thank you very much. That reminds me a little bit of one tennis story that I'm familiar with. Medvedev, current star, one of the best in the world, has sometimes been obnoxious. He has gotten booed at the US Open and elsewhere, but then he would raise his arms to the crowd, like bring it on, "Bring it on. Go ahead. Boo me." Now that was not booing for just not hitting good shots, he was being obnoxious as the fans saw it. Then he encouraged it like that Richie Allen story the caller just told, "Bring it on, bring it on. Go ahead. Boo me. It's only going to make me better." Well, Medvedev thinks it's going to make him better,

Javier Báez of the Mets thinks it's going to make them worse. We haven't resolved this one, have we? Thanks for all your calls on booing.

[music]

Copyright © 2021 New York Public Radio. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use at www.wnyc.org for further information.

New York Public Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline, often by contractors. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of New York Public Radio’s programming is the audio record.