When heckling crosses the line

When I was a kid, my favorite player on an opposing team was Nolan Ryan. For my birthday one year, my parents got tickets to see Texas visit Yankee Stadium. Even though I was excited about the game, in my underdeveloped seven-year-old mind this was a test of allegiance. To set aside any question of where my loyalties lay, I used our dot matrix printer to create a banner that read, “RANGERS SUCK!”

My parents threw it in the trash. They correctly wouldn’t let me leave the house with it. Even though it was relatively benign by adult standards, there was nothing to be gained from denigrating players on the field. They’re just as human as the guys wearing pinstripes. I learned that heckling was…