I was sitting in Fenway Park a couple of weeks ago, watching the Red Sox clobber the Chicago White Sox, when I began to notice a group of kids riding Jarren Duran pretty intensely.
Duran, as you may recall, came clean in a Netflix documentary about his mental health issues, including his failed suicide attempt in 2022.
Our seats were in the left-field corner, and Duran was the closest player to us on the field. I listened intently to see if these kids made mention of that in their catcalls. Luckily for them, the kids kept it clean and as charitable as they could under the circumstances. If I’d heard just one wise remark about his struggles, I swear I’d have dimed them out to security. I expect other fans would have as well.
If you pay Red Sox prices to attend a game, certain privileges go with it. You can boo, yell at players, voice extreme displeasure over managerial moves, or go crazy over bad, sloppy or stupid play. And, of course, drink loads of beer (unless you’re in the family section).
Those aren’t just the rules of the park. They are the rules of etiquette and decency. And this rule may be unwritten at present, but heaping cruel abuse on players for their obvious personal struggles should be condemned, with lifetime banishment from all Major League parks the penalty.
Sunday, in Cleveland, some jerk (too bad this is a family newspaper) decided to yell at Duran that he should perhaps attempt suicide again. It was loud enough so that just about the entire section of fans heard him, as did the umpires and players. Duran included.
Duran had to be restrained from going after the guy. I didn’t realize Ceddanne Rafaela was so strong. But in one of the more gratifying scenes I’ve seen in a ballpark in quite some time, there were plenty of fans all-too-willing to dime the offending fan out to security, and he was escorted from the park forthwith.
It goes without saying there’s no need for that. The fan who felt it necessary to call out Duran in such a manner can only be labeled as a punk.
But… there is a larger issue here. We no longer keep the line that separates acceptable from unacceptable sacrosanct, and haven’t in a while. Dialogue in other areas of our lives has scuffed it almost invisible. We hear it from our leaders, on TV, in films, in board rooms and in the workplace. Anything goes. If you’re visibly overweight, prepare for some kind of pejorative adjective to be hurled your way.
When I was growing up, my mother forbade me from calling other people stupid. Stupid. Now, for heaven’s sake, everybody says it.
So, while it’s easy to cluck our tongues and ask, “What are their parents teaching them?” it’s not quite that simple. Trying to maintain some semblance of civility in this world is like shoveling sand against the tide.
Duran seems like a good guy. He’s certainly a good player. But I thought he was wrong last year when he called the fan who was riding him a derogatory name, and his suspension was appropriate. It’s pretty obvious that he has rabbit ears, something he needs to overcome. But with the big picture filled in, those “rabbit ears” may be a little easier to understand.
I think it’s incumbent upon all of us, regardless of our environmental examples, to understand what should be off limits and what’s fair game. You want to call Duran a knucklehead for striking out with the bases loaded, go ahead. It just might be that he’s calling himself a knucklehead, too.
But that’s as far as it goes. Using a man’s struggles with mental health issues as a weapon against him is simply cruel.
That offending fan should never be allowed back into a ballpark anywhere.
