The executive director of the baseball association, Vesa Rämet, denies that shouting at baseball matches has become more inappropriate than before. In the playoffs, clubs have been reminded to intervene in inappropriate behavior.
At the beginning of August, behavior in the stands of baseball became a topic of conversation among the sports community.
In the men’s super pes regular season match Kouvola’s Ballonlöjät–Manse PP, a Manse player was shouted at from the stands Juuso to Myllyniemi derogatory insults directed at the person.
According to the board of the Manse PP representative team, a member of the KPL club management was responsible for the shouting. Myllyniemi hinted on his own Twitter account that the shouter was the chairman of KPL Harri Lehto.
The Päsäpalloliitto started an investigation into the incident, during which Lehto announced that he would stay aside from his position at the Kouvola club for the time being. Later, the union’s investigation stated that Lehto was not guilty of shouting, but had gone to investigate the loud conversation between a spectator who behaved badly and another spectator.
At the end of the investigation, the Pesäpalloliitto stated that the shouter was a person not part of the KPL organization, who had bought a ticket to the event. With the decision, Harri Lehto has returned to perform the duties of KPL’s chairman.
As a result of the booing incident, KPL, like other super baseball clubs, received a reminder from the Päsäpalloliitto’s board of instructions regarding the safe organization of the match event.
Has the yelling in the baseball stands gotten louder and is there more verbal punching below the belt than before?
– I would say that yelling in the baseball stands has become cool. The use of language in general is cooler than it was ten, 20 or 30 years ago. Of course there will be excesses. Kouvola’s case was clear. It clearly crossed the line of what should not be done. Such shouting is not suitable for sports or anywhere else, says the executive director of the baseball association Vesa Rämet.
By the beginning of August, 12 warnings for loud inappropriate language had been issued in the national leagues of the Päsäpalloliitto.
– There is no list of words that should not be used. If the yelling is, for example, insulting to a person and racist, according to the competition regulations, it must be addressed. Clubs have been reminded. The instructions have not been changed, they are the existing instructions that work in these cases, says Rämet.
The super nesting season is now at its most intense and interesting, when both the men’s and women’s semi-finals are underway. Baseball stands now attract more people who have not attended matches before.
Vesa Rämet, executive director of the baseball association, says that the atmosphere in the first games of the playoffs has been very good – as well as throughout the season.
– There have been individual overshoots and there will certainly always be, but the fewer the better. In a match, sometimes the feeling takes over and wrong choices are made. Ignorances must be addressed in the match at the point when they are detected at the latest. No one should feel threatened in the game.
Why is there yelling at a baseball game?
In baseball, hitting requires skill and concentration. Hitting the downward falling ball in such a way that the game equipment can be placed in the desired place on the outfield is a technical performance. In particular, they try to shake the concentration of the team in the batting order by shouting from the stands.
– The nature of this sport is such that there are backwaters in the match, for example when the batting shift changes. In such a quiet moment, screams can be heard well from the stands. I disagree that yelling should only happen in baseball, says Rämet.
The attention of the public is especially given to skillful batsmen and strikers
– GOOD JUHA, I JUST SAW, DAMN WELL, LIKE THIS UNTIL THE END.
A shout echoes from the stands, Tahko’s batting joker Juha Nieme, when the last of his attempts to hit home runs away as illegal in Kouvola. Hitting king Niemi clearly gets more shouts from the audience than the others.
Pressure is also applied to Tahko’s locker from the stands.
I will Petteri Alanen20, according to the crowd shouting has remained relevant during the playoffs.
– Nothing inappropriate has been heard. My own style of play is such that I focus on everything around me. So I can hear what is being said in the stands. Korhonen to Juha has been shouted here about pony rides. There are no surprises for me, Alanen said after the third quarter-final match in Kouvola.
Kouvola’s Ball hitters Juho Hacklin37, has played nearly 400 games in his career.
– Yes, we are much more sensitive now. Before, bad things were said about the stands. It was a verbal exchange between the players and the spectators.
Hacklin himself likes the shrieks of insight from the stands.
– I like it when you know how to make a great play on words, even if it’s a bit of a joke or a joke. That’s part of the point. It’s great when a well-thought-out shout ignites the rest of the audience. Direct barking and personal expressions cross the line of shouting.
The players have solid mutual respect, even if there is a receipt
Petteri Alanen, who is playing in the first semi-final series of his career, thinks that the mutual shouting of the players remains within the bounds of good taste, even though the stakes are high at this point in the season.
– There is respect among the players on the field. I’ve been playing in super for three years now and I haven’t heard any inappropriate comments from player to player on the field at all. Receipt is part of the game, says Alanen.
Where is the limit for what can be said on the field?
– Common sense must be preserved. There is no rule as to where the line between personalities is. You have to think rationally about how to talk to others in the game.