Open Thread: Athletes and the public

I find it amusing that 1 incident is enough to label someone an asshole.

The fan was a total dick, but Rios shouldn’t of responded with “who gives a fuck” that many times. I could understand he’s frustrated but I’m not going to hate on him for that. That fan who heckled him is the same fan cheering for him when he hits a walk off to win or has a great game, makes a great catch, etc.

Players have bad days, it happens. Some fans can’t handle that concept though which is ridiculous.

When I look at the kind of economic desperation people are facing out there I’m not really surprised to see people working out their frustrations on millionaire celebrities.

I see the paparazzi as extensions of the public’s love-hate relationship with celebrities and the invasion of privacy as part of the ‘price’ of making your living from having people look at you.

Athletes are beginning to get the same treatment. I don’t think it’s appropriate to talk about whether it’s fair to invade an athlete’s privacy unless you want to also talk about whether it’s fair for an athlete to earn 100 to 1,000 times more than the average fan.

From where I’m sitting, the system is what it is. Baseball players don’t make their money from their athletic ability, they make their money because we the public want to watch them perform. They can handle the attention by saying FU a la Barry Bonds or they can stage manage it like Derek Jeter, but once they attain a certain level of success then the media becomes a fact of life.

In other words, Rios should have signed for the kid, maybe one or two other people then smiled, waved and gotten in his car. How he felt is beside the point. If he didn’t feel like performing for the public he should have stayed home. If he wants to be anonymous in public he should go to Paris or Buenos Aires.

I think that if you are the ballpark or even a sports-related event, autographs are fine but if you’re out with your family I think you should be left alone. That’s just my opinion. There’s always “one more” wherever you go and some limits need to be drawn. Sometimes you just need to be off-duty even in public.

Three wrongs don’t make a right. Rios should’ve given that kid an autograph, I mean he was probably waiting there forever just to get his autograph and if he did he would have gone home as the happiest kid in the world. Then what that fan said was riddiculously stupid, then the way Rios handled it was even worse. That kid who wanted the autograph had to have been watching that, and now he gets to go home and tell everyone that instead of getting Rios’ autograph, he got to hear him curse repetively. Just a wonderful story isn’t it.

I woder what the masses would label each and every one of us if there were cameras and video ready to capture every failing or shortcoming we exibit during the course of our day-to-day lives. We would all look like assholes. They are paid to play a game. Pre/post game signings, team outings, etc are fine for autographs (I think). Other than that, let them live their lives. Personally, I could care less about autographs, memorabila, and the like. I feel there’s a deeper problem here, and that’s the pedastal we put celebrities on to begin with. Ok, so Rios is exceptional at playing baseball. Ang Lee is great at directing movies. My cousin is superb in auto mechanics. if you don’t think that is a skill/art to perform at a very high level, you haven’t tried it enough. Chances are good that most everybody has a splinter skill or two. Rios is no more a god towering above you than my cousin the mechanic is. They both do something really well. As fate would have it, only one of them possess a skill that pays millions. And guess what…if you followed my cousin out of a restaurant with a camera, you’d probably find him to be an asshole too. But, if you need to repair your car, he’s the guy to talk to. They’re both humans with a particular skill. Put them (or us) under a microscope and you’ll see plenty of cracks and flaws. Don’t put the players under a microscope, but don’t put them on a pedastal either. Well…except maybe Mo. Sorry for the long rant, but don’t we all have better things to do than idol worship?

There’s no excuse for cursing anybody out in public. But I’ve been told that the guy who says “you’re a bum” to Rios is a notorious autograph hound in Toronto who dogs the players incessantly and then sells what he gets.

The Yankees have had issues with that guy, too. Some people are borderline stalkers, chasing players into restaurants, etc. I can’t say whether Rios had any good reason to act like he did, but there are times when fans cross the line.

Signing autographs is like eating potato chips. You can’t stop at just one.

Seriously, I don’t think less of any athlete who refuses to sign autographs/etc. when interrupted in their daily life. If they’re not *officially* representing their team/organization it’s up to their discretion on whether or not to acknowledge the fans. An autograph can turn into a picture and that can turn into a crowd. If someone’s having a night out with family or shopping or stopping at a Starbucks they shouldn’t have to bend over backwards because they were spotted.

OTOH, I do think less of an athlete who acts out like Rios is shown doing in the video. But I think even less of the heckler, whose unwarranted verbal attacked on Rios reflects even more poorly on random people on the street. And as a an individual who is often a random person on the street, I am offended!

This thread may be over…I’m just seeing it…but I don’t have a single problem with Rios on any front. He has every right to not sign an autograph. It may not be the coolest move in the world to deny a kid an autograph, but that’s his business. Where fans think they are entitled to a player’s signature just because they ask for it, I don’t get.

When the guy starts heckling him, he’s lucky he didn’t get sent to the hospital. He knows everyone is watching and that the famous athlete can’t afford to get into more hot water. He has a built in bravado-enabler. Get a broken nose, cash in for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Get two broken arms, player is plastered all over ESPN, Gawker, Deadspin, and the entire blogosphere as a dick. If someone on the street started shouting crap at me, they’d be in for a more serious confrontation than Rios can afford to have.

Millions of dollars and the rest are the perks of his work. He has ability that we don’t. That enables him to live the American dream. It doesn’t automatically give fans the right to be abusive or demanding of him whenever and wherever he find himself. How does that equate?