Shame On You, Rogers Centre Security

It's June. I haven't blogged all season. It's mostly because I don't really feel like I have anything intelligent to say. Unless I have a rant. So...guess what? It's rant time!

I know this story's already been around on the Jays forum and on Twitter, but as a witness to this bullshit (yes, I made a swear. Shut up), I feel as though it's my duty to document it...whilst bitching about it.

The Lowdown

Last night's game vs. Tampa Bay is one that we all want to forget. Marcum being left in too long....JayFray....ScottyDowns being beaten badly by Crawford. But that's not what's getting me down.

A friend, whom I didn't know before Opening Day and who is a 40-game Flex Pack holder, was ejected from Rogers Centre. Why? Literally no reason.

He spent a bit of the game heckling Carl Crawford, by calling him Cindy. But other than that, he spent most of his time chatting up a family that was visiting from England and who were there to enjoy the ballgame. Suddenly, it's the bottom of the 8th and I see one of RC security coming down to the front of the aisle and he asked to speak with our friend. We were all confused. Then my sis says to me, "They brought COPS?"

We figured some kind of warning would be issued....but we knew once the cops were there that our buddy was getting the boot. Again, literally, for no reason.

To add insult to injury, though our friend wasn't there to see it, people in our section started swearing pretty loudly when Scotty gave up the grand slam. Nobody batted an eye and everybody was allowed to stay.

The Rant

I'm not one to shy away from pointing out how silly the staff during Jays games can be. They're having a problem finding a happy medium. I find that the staff is mainly divided into 2 groups. The first group is the, "It's Only A Summer Job/I Get Paid To Watch Baseball" group. This group is comprised of the staff who literally spend the whole game just standing there and ignoring everything going on around them...because it's a sweet job getting paid $11 an hour to watch Baseball. The other group is the "Powertripping Asshat" group...the people who think that wearing a Tennis Ball Green polo shirt makes them a Corrections Officer at the Don Jail.

Now, because of the two groups being complete polar opposites of each other, I will say that I have filed concerns to Guest Services based on their actions. This is because, in the past, I've seen people getting ejected who had no reason to be ejected and I've seen people being allowed to stay while being completely hammered out of their mind to the point where they can't even stand up and the only words you can understand through their slurring are ones that make sailors blush.

I always go back to my 2 stories....which I will re-iterate again. Scroll down if you don't want to read :P

Story #1

Last season on a weekend matinee, there were a group of guys sitting next to me and my sister. They were semi-heckling but they really didn't care. They ended up spending most of the time talking amongst themselves. All of a sudden, the designated driver of the group has security coming down the aisle telling him to leave the premises while his friends were allowed to stay. They obviously didn't stay. But the people who SHOULD have gotten kicked out were allowed to stay - a couple of young guys sitting a couple of rows behind them who were swearing and just being completely unpleasant.

The guy who got kicked out had told us earlier in the game that he had a 10-game flex pack and that was finally his first game of the season. We didn't see him once, let alone 9 more times after that.

Story #2

Last year, on one of our designated "Beer and Wing Nights" that we would do on Flashback Fridays, we were personally heckled. These guys came in halfway through the game and started heckling Joe Inglett since he was playing in left...then saw that I was wearing his jersey. They continued to start heckling all 3 of us to the point where we couldn't take it anymore.

We got supervisors to come by....they said, "Well, we can relocate you guys." We stated that we were Season Ticket Holders and we paid to be in those seats...the guys heckling us were causing all the problems - they were the ones that should be moved. "Sorry, we can't do that."

So they proceeded to watch as the guys continued to heckle us, not doing ANYTHING about it. They walked off shortly after and the guys got worse. We went back to Guest Services to complain, and the Supervisors were there. We stated that they were still harassing us. "Sorry, can't do anything." So we go back, and the guys moved down into our seats. We went down, and told them to get out. Our usher, bless him, was doing everything he could to get these guys to stop but he was failing. We went back up, told the Supervisors that they were taking our seats. They STILL didn't kick them out. Their reason? "The guys aren't drinking...but you ladies have had a couple of beers each."

So apparently that put us in the wrong automatically. After the game, we went and drank and drank and I don't even remember what happened the rest of that night...except almost passing out on the Vomit Comet on the way home.

The Rant Continued

So, here's a question: How can somebody stop doing something that's apparently offensive if nobody tells them that they're doing anything wrong in the first place? Where was the warning in this instance?

Our friend had 2 beers at the beginning of the game. Did they see the beer cups and say, "Oh, he's drunk...he must be doing something wrong"?

Fans didn't ask him to stop. Security didn't ask him to stop.

One the glaring things about this season is the amount of blue being seen in the stands despite the fact that this is an exciting team to watch. The fans that cause problems are the ones who show up to one or two games a season, and think the Jays don't deserve to have a team because Doc is no longer with us.

Yet here, the Jays have a fan who (as far as I know) is a first-time 40-Game Flex Pack Holder DESPITE the fact that everybody talked about how the team was going to be complete garbage this year and they embarrass him for no reason and kick him out. He's the type of fan that SHOULD be filling the seats. He's courteous to the people around him, he's welcoming, and he cheers for the team through thick and thin. And now he's going to have a label on his forehead anytime he comes back to the Dome as being "A drunk who got ejected for causing problems."

After visiting a few other ballparks, and after this incident, I can now fully and truly say that I'm ashamed to call Rogers Centre the home of my team.

(And...yeah, I had a good ending to this post but I completely lost it. It was a really deep thoughtful sentence too :P)