Ban the boorish boob from the ballpark -- or perhaps just his ballpark beer?

I’m not sure how feasible it is for the Chicago Cubs to say they’re banning from the ballpark for life a man who is alleged to have been making racist hand gestures when he was in the presence of Doug Glanville – who once played for the Cubs but has turned to broadcasting for a living.

Outfielder-turned-broadcaster is focus

I could see where someone like Glanville would offend the sensibilities of racists – he’s a black man who also happens to be rather articulate, I’ve read thoughtful pieces about baseball that he’s written for the New York Times. In short, his existence dumps all over every stupid theory that the bigots would spew.

SO TO LEARN that Glanville, working for NBC Sports Chicago in broadcasting a Cubs game earlier this month, had a fan (in reality, just a nitwit who happened to be wearing a sweatshirt being the Cubs’ logo) flashing gestures typically associated by white supremacists? It’s not surprising!

I don’t doubt the man in question thinks he’s a tough guy who was putting Glanville in his place. Or maybe there’s some truth to the fans who are saying this is the kind of stupid stuff that happens when you serve alcohol in public.

It is good to know that Chicago Cubs management is taking this incident seriously, and not just dismissing it as a bit of naughty behavior that happens in public. As though we’re just supposed to accept that this is the way the world works.

But seriously, how do we know that fan won’t be able to slip in with the rest of the crowds that cram their way into Wrigley for Cubbie baseball?

Does Ernie's spirit still attract to Wrigley?

THE HONEST TRUTH is that there are some Chicagoans whose baseball preference for the Cubs over the White Sox is based on the notion that the Wrigley scene is one meant for white people. Some prefer going there because they think the White Sox scene is one where you’d find some black fans whom they'd rather not bother with.

And to be honest, white fans and black fans at the ballpark have the potential to act as poorly as they do in other scenarios.

So the idea that somebody with white supremacist leanings would be part of the crowd at Wrigley Field? It’s very possible, just like bigots exist just about everywhere. The way they ought to be dealt with is to let them know their rancid rhetoric and terrible thoughts will not be tolerated – that they are the outsiders in our society.

Who remembers East-West games at Comiskey?

As for whether I regard the Cubbie crowd as inherently racist? I’d say that’s an extreme. Cubs fans may be an insipid batch (“Cubnoxious,” except that the “feds” recently found that term to be inappropriate), but not all-around evil.

IN FACT, I’M aware there’s a certain generation of black Chicago that, to the degree they pay any attention to baseball, are inclined to follow the Cubs.

Memories of when Ernie Banks, Billie Williams and Fergie Jenkins were the base of the ballclub in the late 1960’s still linger. That and the fact that many of the white Sout’ Siders of old were White Sox fans – which meant rejecting the Sox was an act of protest by those black people, just like wearing a dashiki or having one's hair in an Afro.

But then again, there’s an even older generation who remember the days when there was Negro League baseball in Chicago, and the American Giants of old would use Comiskey Park for their home games – whereas Wrigley Field was a place where black baseball fans were supposed to regard as unwelcoming toward them.

Some may think it’s ridiculous to associate the almost annual presence of the old East-West Game (the Negro League version of an all-star game) with the modern-day White Sox. Although even Ernie Banks is now deceased – and not surely still bringing people into Wrigley Field with his sunshiny (in public) demeanor.

IN SHORT, IT’S probably no wonder that many black sporting fans are inclined to look to athletic endeavors other than baseball when deciding to spend the big bucks on going to a game.

Is Robinson baseball's act of penance?

Baseball, all too often, acts as though the fact that Jackie Robinson was permitted to play for the old Brooklyn Dodgers somehow indemnifies the game from all past, present and future flaws.

Although there may be some truth to the fact that this latest Wrigley Field incident was more a matter of a buffoon drinking himself into a stupor that caused him to act stupid.

But the notion of one getting intoxicated at the ol’ ball game strikes me as an impossibility. I know that when I went to a ballgame just last week, I had one beer – which cost $10.25!!! Who can afford to wind up blowing a 0.08 or higher at that price?

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