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Most sports fans believe that, when they head down to the stadium or arena to catch a game, certain rights and privileges come with the cost of admission. The right to criticize and second-guess the manager or head coach. The right to throw peanut shells, hot dog wrappers and any other trash on the ground. The right to call every player on the home team a bum if he boots a routine grounder, loses a fumble, misses a game-tying free throw or gets called for offsides.

The right to chow an entire tray of nachos, down about a dozen beers and then lose it all underneath your seat during the seventh-inning stretch.

But of course, of all those unalienable rights, the one most cherished by sports fans is the right to boo. Boo anything. Boo everything. Boo the players. Boo the pitching coach. Boo the refs. Boo the umps. Boo the line judge. Boo the owner. Boo the general manager. Boo the traveling secretary. Boo the vendors. Boo the mascots. Boo the fans who drop easy foul balls. Boo a poorly executed wave. Boo the weather. Boo the guys working the down markers. Boo the cheerleaders. Boo the Canadian National Anthem, but only if you're a Pistons fan. Boo the ball boy. Boo the ball girl. Boo the kid who runs out and picks up the tee after every kickoff. Boo disappointing fireworks. Boo intentional walks. Boo unintentional walks. Boo instant replay. And if you're in Philly, rumor has it you can boo Santa Claus and the crack in the Liberty Bell too.

You get the idea -- sports fans feel like they can boo anything at a sporting event because they forked over a small fortune for their tickets, and with the way admission costs have soared the past few years it's hard to argue with that logic. I mean, shouldn't $20 buy you more than a bleacher seat, fresh air and the privilege to pay five more bucks for a beer and $3.50 for a dog?

Absolutely. 

But while I'll let my disgust be known by throwing out an obligatory jeer after a particularly boneheaded play, my boo-birding is rather tame compared to some fans out there. There are guys who boo every mistake on the field, every opposing player, every close call by an official. 

But there may be nothing in sports that ignites a louder flood of boos than when a player comes back to play in front of his former hometown crowd in a different jersey. It doesn't matter if the guy was traded last week, released last month or left via free agency three years earlier. If he no longer dons the home team's colors, he's the target of ridicule, taunting and, of course, relentless booing.

I have to admit that, in most cases, I just don't understand this phenomenon. I mean, unless we're talking about someone like Jeff George returning to Atlanta, Albert Belle returning to Cleveland, Albert Belle returning to Chicago or maybe Albert Belle returning to Baltimore, I have no idea why fans find it necessary to lay into former players.

Case in point, when Jason Giambi returned to Oakland last week wearing the Yankee pinstripes, A's fans that once worshipped the slugging first baseman gave him a homecoming greeting that seemed more fitting for an Osama Bin Laden/Sadam Hussein barnstorming tour stop. They booed, they cussed him out, they threw fake money onto the field, they held up signs with derisive questions and statements.

"It wasn't that bad," Giambi said after the game. "At least it wasn't obscene. Really, it could have been a lot worse." Apparently, though, it was bad enough to actually make his mom cry. No joke.

Look, this column has nothing to do with treating these "poor baseball players" nicely and not bringing their mothers to tears. I could care less about that. Instead, I'm just honestly wondering why fans seem to have this innate instinct to heckle former players after they've changed teams.

I also can't figure out why fans actually throw back a home run ball just because it was hit by the opposing team. Newsflash: the run still counts, guys. You'd have to give me a chunk of change to toss that ball back onto the field.

Anyway, I've been known to boo former players in my day. Belle deserved every last ounce of torturous treatment he received on return trips to Cleveland, as did Father-of-the-Year candidate Shawn "Porky" Kemp. A couple weeks ago I nearly went hoarse when Kenny Lofton came into the Jake for a four-game series with the White Sox, but not simply because he no longer wears a Tribe uniform. Instead, I booed the former All Star because after playing like a pig last year in Cleveland, hitting .261 with just 16 steals and a .322 on-base percentage, Lofton moved to Chicago for a one-year deal and is currently hitting .343 with 13 steals and a .420 OB%.

Amazing how much motivation you can suddenly muster after taking a $6 or $7 million pay cut, huh?

People like that deserve to get booed by their former fans. Guys like Jeff George, Belle and Kemp, players who either slacked off after cashing in on a monster contract or never even tried to endear themselves to the hometown crowd in the first place, should and always will get abused in their return appearances in front of those same crowds.

But what about the Jason Giambis and Roger Clemenses of the world? Yeah, they decided to move on to other teams, decisions that many fans took personally as a form of betrayal, but let's be realistic here. Both guys got more cash with their new teams and, more important, they both moved into more successful situations -- Clemens has won two World Series titles since leaving an ugly scene in Boston while Giambi, who admitted that playing for the Yankees was a lifelong dream, has a better chance to win that elusive ring now than he ever did on the Pacific coast.

Now, I'm not saying that I'm necessarily a fan of either Giambi or Clemens. In fact, Clemens is an arrogant prick who always beats up on the Tribe (how do I really feel?). But I would think that, as an A's or Sox fan, I'd have some great memories of each player's time with Oakland or Boston. And since both were local favorites in their respective former cities and neither ever did something stupid like demand a trade or badmouth the fans, my opinion of Giambi or Clemens wouldn't change just because their uniforms did.

But not many fans agree with me. Instead, they look at Giambi's westward migration, Roger's move north and Manny Ramirez's Boston relocation as an act of treachery. Never mind that Oakland couldn't offer Giambi the same loyalty they asked him to demonstrate by giving him a no-trade clause, and never mind that Boston trashed Clemens' reputation as they pushed him out the door, and never mind that since Manny left Cleveland the Indians have drastically trimmed payroll and slipped into mediocrity. All three guys are in more successful circumstances now than they would be in today had they not moved on, so how can you blame them? 

I mean, who wants to chain their wrist to a sinking ship? Not me -- I would've jumped into one of those life boats long before the Titanic started taking on water, especially if there was a pot of gold waiting for me onshore.

I'll never forget going to a Lakers/Bulls game in Chicago two years ago. It was Phil Jackson's first game back in Chicago, and while most fans in attendance cheered during his introduction, plenty of morons decided to boo the head coach who'd led their team to six championships just a decade earlier.

I was confused then, and I'm still confused now.

Maybe fans like those in Chicago boo their former heroes because they're simply jealous. Phil's won two titles since leaving the Windy City -- I'm not sure the Bulls have even won two games since 1998. Maybe it was jealousy that pushed a few fans to boo Elton Brand when he came back this year as an LA Clipper. It had to be jealousy that caused those handful of fans to boo Michael Jordan this past January in his return to Chi-Town.

Jealousy or just plain ignorance.

Why do you guys do it? How can you go from loving a player one day to absolutely despising him the next just because he changed his shirt and mailing address? Even more perplexing is fans who boo a player who was traded away. Matt Lawton, now with Cleveland, was mercilessly heckled earlier this year in Minnesota even though the Twins traded him to the Mets last year. When Curt Schilling made his first start in Philly last season after being traded away the previous summer, he too was showered with plenty of boos. Perhaps these fans act like that because the particular player never led them to a championship. But if that's the case, they should also boo the players, coaches and front office personnel who are still with the team, because they too failed.

I'll probably never figure this out. Shawn Griffin, an Indians fan and another fine columnist on this site, recently wrote how he loves to see former Tribe GM John Hart fail. Why? If it weren't for Hart, the 1990s would've been just as miserable in Cleveland as the '80s, '70s and '60s. Sure, Hart made his mistakes and he never fielded a World Championship team, but that doesn't mean that because he's now in Texas I don't want him to succeed. Instead, I'm grateful for what he did for the Indians during his time in Cleveland.

Maybe that's why Boston fans boo Clemens and Oakland fans heckle Giambi and some Chicago fans ride Jordan. Perhaps they just can't remember what those players brought to their teams, just how many great things they did while on their home field or court. 

Instead, maybe they're only able to focus on what Clemens, Giambi and Jordan took with them when they left. And it pisses them off.

I don't know. Whatever the reason, it'll be interesting to see how Patriots fans treat Drew Bledsoe and Terry Glenn this year. In my mind, Bledsoe deserves a warm ovation; Glenn, however, deserves all the abuse he's undoubtedly going to take in his return trip to New England. And pay attention to where Chris Carter winds up and whether or not he'll get a chance to play in Minnesota this year -- that's another introduction I'd love to see.

I, on the other hand, am pretty easy on former Indians. I cheered for Manny last year because, while he wasn't exactly Señor Hustle in Cleveland, he was always productive and reliable, plus he never caused any trouble. And when Robbie Alomar comes back to Cleveland in June I won't boo. I'm just not that kind of fan.

Unless it's Shawn Kemp. I boo that fat piece of crap even when I see him on TV.


In the Bullz-Eye

The San Antonio Spurs. Up 2-1 in their playoff series vs. the Seattle Sonics, the Spurs will be without both David Robinson and Tim Duncan for game four tonight and maybe longer. Robinson already has missed the past two games because of a bad back while MVP-candidate Duncan is away from the team indefinitely following the death of his father on Monday. Obviously, the 26-year-old Duncan should be with his family at a time like this, but that doesn't change the fact that the Spurs, once favored in this series, now face a tough uphill battle without their two big men in the middle.