Being a boor is earning Robert Szasz publicity, and the D-Rays seem to condone it, if not encourage it, so Eric Hinske can expect more of the same this afternoon. If I had the misfortune of sitting near this jerk, it would be so distracting, I might accidentally spill a few jumbo soft drinks in his general direction. An attention-seeker this pathetic knows where the TV microphones are, so he can disrupt the game for viewers, too.


There's a time and a place for heckling. More importantly, there's a limit. Earlier this year, David Ortiz had a noisy temper tantrum in the dugout after a strikeout, so a large contingent of SkyDome fans got all over him the rest of that game. As he was preparing to step into the box for his next at-bat, I reminded him of his batting average (.111 at the time) and cleverly mentioned it was not even half his weight. People in my section seemed amused, mostly because I sat down, shut up and resumed watching the game. Continuing the abuse non-stop is rude, and believing it affects the target is idiotic. Hinske, for example, walked twice and doubled last night; he was 2-for-4 with a triple in the opener. Of course, Foghorn Leghorn will ignore all that and take credit for "causing" Eric's tenth-inning bobble. Regular Jay-watchers know that sort of thing is all too common without any "help" from a nuisance.

Szasz is apparently from Toronto; local sports fans should be grateful that he moved.