This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, June 1, 2012 - From the not-so-cheap seats of baseball heaven this season, I’ve witnessed an ever-increasing frequency of fan goofiness this season at Busch Stadium:
The wave.
It just. Won’t. Go. Away.
Once a late-innings aggravation, the wave now comes early and often -- and during crucial innings when the distraction could arguably benefit the opposing team. Such as last Friday night when the fan in front me threw up her arms and half rose from her seat, blocking my view of a 3-2 pitch by the Cards Kyle Lohse to Shane Victorino that ended in some kind of an out that I couldn’t see. This was during the top of the third in a 2-1 game and in response to a few self-appointed cheerleaders a few sections over who evidently have no interest whatsoever in baseball.
We need to take this sitting down, Cardinals fans.
The wave stops here.
I commend Amir Kurtovic, a reporter for the St. Louis Business Journal, who started this wave against the wave in a blog item Friday headlined, “Please, no more waves in Busch Stadium.” I don’t know if Kurtovic lifted his arms over his head after he hit the Send button, but I’d like to believe that he did.
Kurtovic suggested that the wave -- he dubbed it a “senseless act of mass hysteria” – was partly to blame for the Cardinals losing 10-9 to the Phillies on May 24. Apparently the night’s slugfest wasn’t interesting enough at the top of the sixth inning with the score tied 7-7, so the wavers revved up, and the Phillies scored two runs.
Kurtovic then tweeted: “No wave until your team has the lead, Busch Stadium. #Fail.” He noted that his tweet was apparently ignored at the stadium but not by other members of the St. Louis media who tweeted back that the wave should NEVER be allowed. Public relations guru Richard Callow even jumped into the fray, on the side of the anti-wavers.
Kurtovic urged Callow to use his city hall connections and the St. Louis media to use their various multimedia platforms to stop the wave at Busch. He promised to write a story about the negative economic impact of the wave, which I am waiting to see any day now in the Business Journal. (I was so determined to hold my seat against the wave that I didn’t leave it in the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, or eighth innings to buy a $6 hotdog and $8 beer.)
While I can’t speak officially for the St. Louis Beacon, I am personally joining the wave against the wave during Cardinals games at Busch.
However, in the spirit of compromise, I believe the wave could be allowed during very specific circumstances:
Rain delays.
Wheeeeeeeee!
