Baseball, America’s favorite pastime, and the preferred spectator sport to some of the best fans in the world. Baseball has had more than its fair share of craziness involving their fans for the paset few years, and it doesn’t seem like these crazy baseball fans will stop at all the classic cheering and jeering anytime soon.
Baseball fans are also one of the most animated fans in sports history. There are many traditions and superstitions that further involve and immerse baseball fans to the game that they so love. There is no baseball tradition more sacred than the singing of the national anthem. Fans of the Yankees, Red Sox, and other baseball teams have made it their own tradition to really sing out the anthem with whoever is the celebrity chosen to sing for the evening. Other events in baseball during the pre-game include the ceremonial pitch. This is where oftentimes the lewdest and the craziest of the bunch would come up to heckle and jeer guest celebrities or sometimes even politicians during their ceremonial pitch.
The diet of baseball fans are also very rich in tradition. With peanuts, hotdogs, and beer being the most traditional snacks in the stadium, baseball fans have devised, practiced, and perfected ways of passing on food and money to and from the people selling them. Each stadium also has their own signature game chow that they sell within the stadium. Some stadiums even serve food that will not really qualify as stadium-friendly food for fans, like clam chowder, while others will serve the most unhealthy bags of pork rinds.
Another great tradition with baseball fans is the crazy idea of proposing marriage during a ballgame. And although this has been done with other sports as well, nothing beats being outdoors facing a big field with a cheering crowd and a big-screen monitor complete with lights saying “John loves Jane” or “Say Yes!” Everytime a proposal is given, the entire crowd would just go crazy with excitement, as if they were watching a romantic movie ending unfolding right before their eyes.
Baseball fans also have their share of bitter rivalries, and no rivalry is bigger than the beef between Boston Red Sox fans and New York Yankees fans. It is one of the longest and most hostile rivalries in American sports history, and this is reflected by the fans as well. Fans would all troop to Red Sox-Yankees games, complete with their faces painted and their best insults on cardboard banners, just to see who gets the best of whom in a ballgame that some crazy fans would prepare for weeks in advance.