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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2009
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 ANALYSIS 
3

Fandom: Baseball 'Kings' Sit, Soccer 'Plebes' Stand

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(Newser) – Try putting a European soccer match and an American baseball game on split screen sometime and looking at the stands. You’ll notice a bunch of standing soccer fans, and a lot of sitting baseball spectators. Austin Kelley set out to explain that phenomenon for the Wall Street Journal, finding much in the history of the games, and the cultures around them.

Baseball’s early entrepreneurs installed benches and raised prices to court the “tea-and-crumpets crowd,” while soccer was built around laborers, with early stadiums designed to pack in as many as possible. You can trace it back to “the middle ages, when the nobility sat and the common plebes stood,” says one architect. “All of America is nobility. Everyone thinks they’re king in America.”

Chelsea's Ricardo Carvalho celebrates his goal with fans during an English Premier League match against Tottenham at Chelsea's Stamford Bridge Stadium in London, April 7, 2007.
Chelsea's Ricardo Carvalho celebrates his goal with fans during an English Premier League match against Tottenham at Chelsea's Stamford Bridge Stadium in London, April 7, 2007.   (AP Photo)
Yankees fans wear rain ponchos as they sit in the upper deck while awaiting the scheduled start of Sunday's game.
Yankees fans wear rain ponchos as they sit in the upper deck while awaiting the scheduled start of Sunday's game.   (AP Photo)
Two fans sit in their seats after the Kansas City Royals-Cleveland Indians baseball game was postponed due to the weather, May 2, 2008, in Cleveland.
Two fans sit in their seats after the Kansas City Royals-Cleveland Indians baseball game was postponed due to the weather, May 2, 2008, in Cleveland.   (AP Photo)
Fans at London's Stamford Bridge Stadium stand and wave flags following host Chelsea's Champions League match against Liverpool, April 14, 2009.
Fans at London's Stamford Bridge Stadium stand and wave flags following host Chelsea's Champions League match against Liverpool, April 14, 2009.   (AP Photo)
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3 comments
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Sauerkraut
May 5, 09 11:24 AM CDT
This is another stupid article. Sitting while watching a baseball game has nothing to do with everyone thinking they are a king. Not only is Baseball a longer game then soccer, but the game also moves at a slower pace with moments of great excitment in which you do get on your feet. Baseball crows, like soccer crowds, sing, have cheers, drink beer, participate in the wave, pretty much what a crowd does at any sporting event. What a stupid article. Reply
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PosterNutbag
May 5, 09 11:49 AM CDT
A better comparison would be Jazz music. Europeans sit on chairs, with a table for their cocktails while they listen to Jazz in their nightclub, sometimes clapping with the beat, where as Americans stay home to watch TV and have relatively no interest in music or other arts. Reply
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ifbit
May 5, 09 2:16 PM CDT
Okay, I'll say it: the king metaphor is nonsense. There are 162 baseball games per season, and a baseball game lasts at least twice as long as a soccer game. What's more, fan violence immediately before, during and immediately after a baseball game is non-existent. So sit down and take a load off! Reply
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