Rob Manfred needs to show some guts by taking drastic actions against the Yankees fan base

Yankees fans started throwing debris at the Cleveland Guardians.

Fans have been getting out of hand for a while now. Not just in New York, but across the country. Encounters between fans and players are spiking and it’s mostly caused by fans who are dehumanizing athletes. That’s exactly what we saw in New York on Saturday when a bunch of classless Yankees fans started throwing debris at Oscar Mercado and Myles Straw.

Some have pointed to Straw as a contributing factor to this mess, but that’s so far from reality.

Those Yankee fans are wrongly attributing Straw’s behavior and the behavior of the fans as one and the same, except, that’s not the case. No, the whole thing started after Steven Kwan collided with the fence in the Yankees outfield, knocking himself loopy for a bit. As he was tended to by medical personnel, fans started taunting him.

Oscar Mercado pointed out that one fan, in particular, was the worst of the agitators, making sure to point out that many of them were “chirping” but one fan was relishing in Kwan’s injury. This prompted Straw to climb the cage to respond to that fan.

Not long after, Yankees fans started pelting players with debris. While not all Yankees fans are denouncing the heinous actions, most of the players, managers, and the rest of the associated figures in the Yankees were quick to shut down those fans.

It should be noted that Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge even came out during the debris tossing to try and get the violence to stop. Despite the fact the Yankees players did right, Rob Manfred needs to crack down on the Yankees and their fans by changing the toxic sports culture.

The Yankees should have fans banned from several home games

Sports culture is toxic and it needs to change. Think about the Yankees, and how they literally eat their own. Remember Roger Maris? Yankees fans hated him so much, that they sent him death threats the year he broke Babe Ruth’s home run record. He lost his hair, was an anxiety-riddled mess, and needed police to stay outside his home because he was afraid for his and his family’s life. Did I mention that the year this all went down, 1961, he was on the Yankees?

And that in 1960, Maris won the AL MVP, as a member of the Yankees?

Toxic sports culture, especially in New York, is long-lasting. This isn’t just about New York, however, it’s about sports culture in general. The lack of respect has taken a toll and why shouldn’t it? People are constantly promoting players disrespecting one another and when you start making allowances for some, it affects the greater community. This was bound to happen. You can’t open the door to taunting and humiliating one another on the field and not expect it to bleed over into the fans.

If players don’t treat one another with respect, why would fans?

Manfred needs to crack down and fine the Yankees as an organization, and then suspend operations at the Yankees ballpark for at least three home series. Make a point that if fans misbehave, then they won’t be able to attend games.

He won’t, but he should.

We have a respect issue in society these days, and we need to get it back. We need to be more respectful to one another but many people don’t seem to agree, so that’s when punishments need to be handed down.

What the Yankees fans did was disgusting but it’s so ingrained in the culture of major league sports that it’s almost old hat. It’s time to change that. It’s time to start punishing fans in masse for their behavior. Show them that if they don’t change, or hold one another accountable in real-time, that there will be consequences.

This stuff gets you arrested in real life, but in the world of sports, it’s accepted. In any other form of a relationship, it’s abuse, but it’s tolerated in sports. It shouldn’t be, and we need to end it. These athletes are human beings. It’s one thing to criticize their play or their behavior if they break the law, but it’s another thing to torment a human being while he’s hurt.

That’s just gross behavior and it’s time for a change.