The Unruly Bleachers of Madison Street
A Seattle fan calls for an end to the jeering, hissing, and systematic roasting of players that has plagued local baseball games.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The following criticism comes from one of the most intelligent of all the many baseball enthusiasts in Seattle: To the Sporting Editor: I have been a constant attendant upon the games played at the Madison Street baseball grounds for the last two years. The practice of jeering and hissing at players of the visiting team—and of the home team as well—has become altogether too common. These contests are contests of skill, and every club and player is entitled to fair and manly criticism. The catcalls, howlings, hissing and guying of the visiting club, often to the point of openly calling out names of individuals upon the exhibition of an error, is a practice so ungentlemanly and ungenerous, so beneath common dignity, that no words can do justice to the occasion. If the Seattle club cannot win without such aid, it deserves to lose. The intelligent enthusiast can appreciate a game even when the home club loses. If the management of the Seattle club does not soon rectify this, they will see a marked decrease in the patronage of the game.
“If the Seattle club cannot win without such aid, it deserves to lose.”
The 'Madison Street baseball grounds' existed long before the modern era of organized stadium etiquette. This editorial reflects a recurring tension in Seattle sports history: the line between passionate fandom and toxic behavior, a debate that remains live in our modern era of digital call-outs and stadium heckling.
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