"I'm the President! Do you really expect me to do the Wave?"
During last night’s game, some fans at Yankee Stadium started the Wave in the 7th inning of a 9-3 game, spurring some debate between myself, Sean McNally (@SeanMMcNally), and Ben Kabak (@bkabak) about the etiquette of the Wave and whether it is ever appropriate. I defended it as allowable in certain circumstances, while Sean and Ben suggested that it is never appropriate. I wanted to open the discussion up to the readers here, and I conveniently found a debate that Larry Koestler and I had on this very topic last season. I’ll provide a key excerpt from each piece, and then I hope you’ll chime in with your take in the comments:
My position on the wave is much the same. Although it may not have any inherent value, it makes the game more fun for casual fans and children. While the ideal situation would be for all fans to take attending a game as seriously as you and I might, that is simply not realistic. I know that when I take my girls to the Stadium for the first time, the odds that they will want to sit through a nine inning game and just watch the field the entire time are slim. When a wave starts, I probably will not do it with them, but I certainly do not plan on telling them to sit down. I’ll explain that there is a time and place for everything, and that it would be inappropriate to do the Wave in the late innings of a close game, or at any point during a playoff game, when all attention should be focused on the field. If the time is right, I have no problem with my kids having some fun that is not centered on the game itself.
By making the experience more entertaining, we make it more likely that these people will attend more games and eventually focus on the contest itself rather than the external stimuli. It may be slightly annoying for the hardcore fan, but I think the positives outweigh the negatives.
Larry’s argument against the Wave:
Kidding aside, participating in The Wave is basically the most insulting thing you can do to your team. You are literally telling everyone — as you wait to see if it’s going to make it all the way around and back to your section — that (a) You absolutely do not care about the fact that you are fortunate enough to be attending a baseball game, and (b) You have absolutely no interest in what or how your team is doing. You may as well have switched caps with a fan of the opposing team, because seeing as how they made the trip out to Yankee Stadium from wherever they’re from, they actually give a damn about the fact that a baseball game is being played.
In addition to displaying a complete and utter lack of interest in the events unfolding directly in front of you, The Wave also serves as a distraction to the folks who showed up to watch a ballgame. While playing at home may not statistically hold much of an advantage, a team’s fans still play a large role in both cheering the team on and trying to psyche the opposition out. Perhaps the most frequently recurring comment from opposing teams — at least about the old Yankee Stadium — was that once those 55,000 fans got going, there was no other noise on earth quite like it. The sound was deafening. The acoustics of new Yankee Stadium don’t allow for quite the same decibel level, but the proceedings can still get pretty loud, especially come playoff time. If people are trying to start up a Wave, it can be an immense distraction to the paying fans who know better, and also takes the crowd out of the game — how can 45,000 people will their team to victory through intense cheering and clapping when forced to shake their heads in disbelief that their fellow fans would rather throw their arms up in the air than clap for two-strike fever?
Where do you come down on this issue? Is the Wave ever appropriate?
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
The wave is idiotic and I never take part in it. However, if it’s a regular season game and a team (doesn’t matter if it’s home or visiting) is up 10 runs, the game lacks suspense of any kind. I can understand the wave happening then…
[Reply]
I love baseball dearly–its moments, its situations, its drama and its complexity. That said, there’s nothing sacred about it that requires any airs of solemnity. For that reason, there’s nothing wrong with the wave other than it’s very dorky.
Doing the wave (which I wouldn’t myself participate in, for the record) doesn’t mean you don’t care about the game on the field. It’s like taking a moment to look at the clouds or the sky or other people at the park. The actual baseball played is only one of a number of things about going to the stadium which makes for a good time. The players play and are paid for it; they don’t deserve our constant, uninterrupted attention. If a wave breaks out at Yankee Stadium in extra innings of a playoff game maybe I’ll rethink my position on it, but other than that it’s just something that fans to at baseball games sometimes.
[Reply]
Given that it was invented by idiotic Univ. of Washington students, it deserves to be relegated to the dog pound of history on that fact alone.
[Reply]
NYCOUG Reply:
April 29th, 2011 at 6:53 pm
Well said!
[Reply]
Seriously, baseball is a game, it is not life or death, it is entertainment. That is not to say I do not love the game as much as anyone else, or that I don’t believe that you should pay attention to the game, but come on, you go to a game to have fun. Kids have fun doing the wave, some adults have fun doing the wave. Let them do it. They paid to be there too.
[Reply]
Heh, fun to read something I wrote a year ago. I haven’t changed my stance on the wave, although now that I am a new dad I reserve the right to potentially change my mind when my son is finally old enough to go to a game with me.
Of course, if he really wants to get on dad’s good side, he’ll boo the wave right along with me :)
[Reply]
Reply:
April 29th, 2011 at 2:17 pm
Teach your children well – they learn from your example Larry.
[Reply]
Words can not describe how much I hate the wave. Most of my friends and family give me crap about not participating in this supposed required ritual, but I don’t care. I have integrity. These are also the same people who scream and cheer only when the jumbotron tells them to cheer, so it’s easy to ignore their peer pressure. I see your point Moshe, but I’m 100% with Larry on this one.
[Reply]
As Moshe’s muse here, I’ll say if I find the Wave objectionable for the reasons Larry does – however his second reason is the most important to me.
If I’m at a game, chances are I paid a fair amount of money for my seats so for you and your compatriots to jump up every minute or so and block my view is objectionable to me.
Moshe used a good picture to illustrate his point – the President in this photo is presumable trying to watch Stephen Strasburg pitch at Nationals Park (I know, because I was there too) and virtually everyone jumping up is looking somewhere other than the field. Going to the ballpark means watching a baseball game, if that’s not enough for you then perhaps you should spend your disposable entertainment income somewhere else.
The modern ballpark has more than enough value-added entertainment for fans for whom the game is a secondary experience (concession courts, children’s play areas, museums, on screen games, etc) that you ought to be able to entertain yourself without detracting from the game experience of those around you.
A corollary to this rule is if you must head out for the men’s room or the concession stand (or are returning to your seat) wait until the half inning if you can, or at the very least make your move in between at bats.
This just one of a number of “Unwritten fan rules” that somebody ought to put in ink or pixel.
[Reply]
This is a slippery slope. Allow the wave in your ballpark, even once, and soon the place will be awash in beachballs. I live in L.A., and I know this as surely as I know that a Jamie McCourt haircut is a five-figure project.
[Reply]
I am much more offended by rowdy (often drunken) behavior than the wave. To me, nothing says “I could care less about this game” then that third and fourth and fifth beer.
[Reply]
The wave is a thing for kids that lasts for less than 5 minutes and is over. I’ve traveled all over the country and it goes on everyone, in a ton of different sports. I’ve seen a fucking golf crowd do the wave. If you have Pete Abraham or santa clause in front of you standing up for the wave you miss, AT MOST, 30 seconds of a game. It’s not exactly a grip your seat thrill ride either- it’s one of the slowest paced sports. And that’s a good thing. What I love about going to games is just kicking back, relaxing and enjoying myself. Letting the wave ruin a 5 minute period of the game isn’t going to drive me nuts, because I’m not a psychopath. It’s a harmless fun thing for kids who go to the stadium to partake in.
I think a lot of the people who make a big deal of it are doing it so everyone knows how often they go to games. HEY EVERYONE, I GO TO A TON OF GAMES- DID YOU KNOW THAT?? LOOK HOW OFTEN I GO TO THESE GAMES, EVERYONE! Congrats chief, what a grisly veteran you are. This happens a lot with Southern Californians too- they travel to colder parts of the country, bitch and moan about the weather until someone acknowledges how superior their climate is to everyone else’s. I’m not saying you guys do this or even everyone but I think that’s a big part of this thing.
All that being said, I agree there are times the wave has no place at a game. Late innings, close games and playoffs should be off-limits. The wave typically does not happen in these moments though. No one is doing the wave with the bases loaded in a tie game. Everyone acts like some vital action is being missed on the field or a crucial out gets missed. Is that the case in 2% of all wave incidents? I mean, really? And listen, I don’t stand up for the wave and if you told me I could pay 5 dollars so it never would happen again, I’d pay it. It’s just not worth getting bent out of shape over.
In the middle of summer with a bunch of kids at the stadium though? Who cares. If it happens anyway though- wow, you haven’t been able to see the field for an entire minute as the wave circles the stadium 3 times or whatever.
If you positively cannot be distracted in anyway while watching baseball and need to be in a fucking air sealed vacuum- sit at home in your room with the door closed and the shades drawn tight and don’t go to a STADIUM FILLED WITH 50,000 PEOPLE!
Everyone has a right to enjoy the game. If the wave is such a problem to you that it significantly impedes your ability to enjoy the game, call the Yankees and lodge a complaint or stop going.
[Reply]
I think the question posed was whether the wave was a good thing or a bad thing. I did not interpret the question as whether the wave is better or worse than public drunkenness (answer: drunkenness is worse) or whether people should feel free to do the wave if they want to (of course they should). There’s no law against doing something that’s lame but only mildly annoying.
Sean P.: you forgot to add that if you travel to Southern California and the weather is not picture-perfect, we will apologize to you. Over and over. I hear that this can be kind of annoying too. Thank you for standing up for my right to be kind of annoying.
[Reply]
William J. Reply:
April 29th, 2011 at 4:10 pm
You’re right…I changed the question, but the wave is so minor in comparison, that there should be 100 posts about excessive drinking for every one about the wave. I guess I just wish getting wasted at a game had the same negative stigma attached to it as many seem to be placing on the wave.
[Reply]
Sean P. Reply:
April 29th, 2011 at 4:12 pm
I live in Southern California so I’m familiar with that as well. I do think everyone has the right to complain about it, but I think also people should just relax about it.
[Reply]
The wave is only mildly annoying. Beach balls are worse. I want my hands free so I can make noise and drink, er, bottled water. Then one of those things comes towards you, what do you do? You don’t want to play, but batting the thing away IS playing. I try to pretend I didn’t notice, just let the thing bounce off me like I was an Irish step dancer. “Oh, is that your beach ball? Then how did it come to be here?”
If all you have to put up with in NY is an occasional wave, consider yourselves lucky.
[Reply]
Sean P. Reply:
April 29th, 2011 at 4:23 pm
Yeah that’s the truth, I’ve seen a lot worse at stadiums than the wave once or twice a game.
[Reply]
I’m generally OK with the occasional wave, provided it meets the following standards:
1) No more than two revolutions (Only 1 send it back)
2) Day games only
3) Not during tense moments of the game.
I think that one problem with baseball games in general is that it is sometimes tough to get a good cheer going. I’m a hockey guy, and with a low, closed roof, we can get some pretty entertaining cheers happening. Fan participation can be fun. Just not too much.
[Reply]
Whoever bitches about the wave or the subway race or the memory quiz is an elitist fan and should stay home and not go to the stadium.
[Reply]
[...] Analysts – Moshe revisits the debate about the wave, and William explains why it’s dumb to blame Soriano’s struggles on his [...]