These guys (and gals) have to realize that when they come home, they’re not in Kansas anymore. And I do mean Kansas (Lawrence).

I’m seeking my third degree from my third university, and as somebody that’s making a career out of a professorship in academia, I’ve seen this problem first hand, participated in it, deal with college freshman and sophomores that waste my time in my class talking about how drunk they were last night, and read in the Kansan a few weeks ago about a 3-part front page story on drinking, death, and binging @ KU. This is gonna turn into a civics discussion and I know it shouldn’t go there.

Seriously kids there DO drink wine. Got to develop that taste early.

I went to a small school in Wisconsin and was a member of the Greek system there. The Greek system was the major player in the social scene because we had our own houses and could throw bigger parties. When I started we were allowed (maybe not allowed, but at least security looked the other way) to serve drinks at our parties. Sometime during my second or third year, the administration cracked down and we were no longer able to serve drinks at our parties.

After this crackdown, I noticed a serious uptick in the number of acquaintances and the like going to the hospital for alcohol poisoning. We always looked out for the people at our parties. When we were no longer able to serve drinks, people would spend the hour or so before the party making sure they drank enough to remain drunk through the entire party in a much less supervised environment.

I would also prefer to have them drinking legally and in more controlled and supervised environments.

I’ve lived in Europe. It was not my experience that kids there were any more responsible when it comes to alcohol…at all. I asked some of the locals about the drinking age vs. the US (this was in Austria) and there remark was something to the effect of: “Instead of kids binge drinking when they’re early 20s, they binge drink when they’re 15 and then continue doing it into their early 20s.”

I don’t think you learn to be responsible with alcohol by trial and error…any more than kids learn politeness and respect by that method. I think you learn responsibility by having parents and adults provide you with framework of expectations (with consequences for failure) until you’re mature enough to understand why those expectations exist.

Lastly, I don’t recall the details exactly, but I believe the human brain doesn’t stop developing until the early 20s (it happens faster for women than men). Drinking prior to that point inhibits the proper development of the brain…which is one reason why the drinking age is where it is in the US. (or so I’ve been told).

The only way it left the park was if some fan was so revolted at the idea of owning a baseball that Milton Bradley in some way touched and decided to throw it out of the park. The video shows quite clearly where that ball landed.

No way. Home runs have exited the park to the right or left of the CF bleachers before without being 600 foot jobs. 600 feet would put any HR far across Waveland.

Where di you get that chart?

It sure looked like it left the yard from my seat.

All I can say is that when I saw the replay and saw him do that I got a kick out of it and really thought it helped show him trying to bond with the crowd

He’s done an excellent job.

hasn’t had any time to really figure him out yet. We’ll see if Scales can adjust. Personally I hope he does, I like seeing this guy succeed.

because you’ve paid for your ticket. But what are you gonna accomplish? Is Patterson gonna stop being Patterson because you are booing him? Same for Lee, and Dusty (pitching decision)?

The fans are gonna do what the fans are gonna do. But if you love your team, why in the world do you think that booing them is going to accomplish anything but more stress upon the particular ballplayer?

do you think booing helps the player? Does he say to himself, man these drunk fans are booing me, i gotta start playing better?

For the love of the game, baseball is a sport where you are basically a top 25 player if you FAIL 70% of the time. Think about it, batting .300 is pretty good in baseball, which means, that a player is failing 70%, how many sports can you say that about? So that means a player is going to fail more than he succeeds, so in all actuality we should be booing more than we cheer right?

Booing your own team is pointless, it doesnt benefit the player, the team, or the organization it only hurts it. Top players will not want to come here if we boo for a few bad outings.

a baseball-savvy player will understand that “hey – this was a critical situation and I didn’t deliver. Fans’ gotta right to be pissed.”

and the team comes out to the field. Boo the whole team, they didn’t collectively get the job done.

I don’t expect perfection, all the players are going to fail more often then they succeed. But I do want them to do the situational hitting, putting the team first. Like not trying to pull the ball into the left field bleachers with two strikes and a runner on third with no outs. Just like Lee did last night.