I don’t really have any jokes to offer up about this, because it’s not particularly funny.
#Cubs outfielder Ian Happ had Skittles thrown at him at Target Field in Minnesota on Wednesday, which he was quite unhappy about, calling those fans “scum.”https://t.co/jVcZ6SBunS via @BernsteinRahimi Show pic.twitter.com/Bb3Uwf9L1o
— 670 The Score (@670TheScore) September 2, 2021
“I got hit yesterday with a flying object – it was actually a Skittle from the left-field stands at Target Field,” Happ said on the Bernstein & Rahimi Show on Thursday. “I felt like I got shot by like an air-soft gun. I was so mad. I turned around. I was just livid. There was a group of (individuals in their 20s), just scum. And they were throwing Skittles at me in the middle of the game. You’re like, how does this (happen)? You can’t do anything. You can’t run up there and go give them a talking to. Little things like that as a player, when you’re trying to compete on the field and entertain, it’s tough.”
First of all: check the tape, and then ban them.
Second of all: how dehumanizing is it to think that the guy out there trying to perform for your entertainment is just a “thing” to chuck stuff at? Would you ever do that in any other situation? Throw stuff at people and laugh, like it’s your right to do it?
In-person sports allows us to imagine this connection with the people who are playing, right there in front of us. It’s a very cool experience, and it really pisses me off when others mess with it (to say nothing, again, of it just being a really gross thing to do to another human).
Happ can’t even really respond out there, or he’d be the one getting in trouble. Thankfully it sounds like he got some help from an usher (though the fans had already scooted away by then). Where were the other, nearby fans in this? I’m sure I’m being a homer, but I feel like if you did that out in the bleachers at Wrigley Field, others would be on you immediately. We like to have our drinks and chat without the outfielders, but thrown stuff is an obvious line you don’t ever cross.