Sports
Snyder's Soapbox
Getty Images Welcome to Snyder’s Soapbox! Here, I pontificate about matters related to Major League Baseball on a weekly basis. Some of the topics will be pressing matters, some might seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things, and most will be somewhere in between. The good thing about this website is that it’s free, […]

Welcome to Snyder’s Soapbox! Here, I pontificate about matters related to Major League Baseball on a weekly basis. Some of the topics will be pressing matters, some might seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things, and most will be somewhere in between. The good thing about this website is that it’s free, and you are allowed to click away. If you stay, you’ll get smarter, though. That’s a money-back guarantee. Let’s get to it.
It’s only April 15, which means there’s a long while left in the marathon that is the 2025 Major League Baseball season. Still, there are two-plus weeks in the books and we’ve seen a lot of pretty full crowds to this point. Attending a game in person usually beats watching it on a screen — weather is the only thing that can move the needle in the direction of a screen for me — but perching in the bleachers always means we’re taking a bit of a risk: running into the Bad Fan.
The good fans absolutely dwarf the bad ones, to be clear, but there are a ton of bad fans. Some are so bad that they can ruin the entire experience for people who come across them and that’s a real shame. I already laid out the biggest rule of thumb in attempting to catch a foul ball or home run and that was “don’t be a jerk.” That applies everywhere when it comes to being a fan.
As long as everyone is following Rule No. 1 (you can call it the Jerk Rule, if you wish), I’d like to dive into more specific fan behaviors, specifically if there are fans of both teams sitting in the same vicinity of each other.
Let’s run through some of the good and the bad.
Good: Playful booing
I’m totally on board with good-natured fan ribbing, so long as it is done between two parties interested in such an encounter.
This doesn’t even have to take place at a game. As an example, a friend of mine is a Tigers fan living in Los Angeles and the Dodgers opened the season hosting the Tigers in Dodger Stadium. This friend was walking his dog and wearing a Riley Greene jersey and said he passed a Dodgers fan who playfully booed him. He, in turn, playfully shot the bird right back and both of them got a nice chuckle. This is good and healthy and fun. It’s the good-natured “hey, screw you!” to a friend during a game of poker.
Unfortunately, it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to pull these off in person with strangers because so many people have their confrontation meter dialed up to 11 at all times instead of trying to remain laid back and smiling.
Still, this is the goal when you have fans rooting for two different teams in the same game sharing a stadium with one another. The playful rib should always win the day.
Bad: The turn-around taunt
There could be some exceptions to this rule, but we’ve all seen these people. They show up in an opposing venue wearing gear of their favorite team — not even close to a violation! — and every time their favorite team does something positive, they stand up, turn around and taunt all the opposing fans around them. There’s usually pointing involved and especially grabbing of the team name on the jersey to show everyone, as if we didn’t realize which team you were rooting for. The differentiator here between this and the good-natured rib is this fan is making it all about himself and leaking over into the realm of confrontation. It isn’t enough to simply root for your favorite team, you’ve got to make everyone around you miserable in the process.
A bigger problem is this opens the door for other, much worse behavior. There are layers here. The turn-around taunt happening a lot of times during the course of a game can trigger someone from several rows behind to escalate the matter. Sometimes that goes as far as throwing something. Yes, the big problem there is the person throwing objects and we’ll deal with that in a second, but the turn-around taunt is obnoxious. If the goal is “everyone look at me and get mad!” that absolutely isn’t good natured.
Good: Genuine patronizing
Have you ever sat next to an opposing fan you’ve never met and exchanged pleasantries before they start gushing about how good your team is? That’s charting a path toward a very fun viewing experience. Whether it’s a team or a player or even a comment on the visiting city, it’s always a good place to start.
As an example, say you end up next to a Padres fan right now while rooting for the other team.
“Man, your team has been amazing so far. Fernando Tatis Jr. looks like an MVP and it’s been fun to watch them here in the early going. Oh, and San Diego is an amazing city.”
There’s something to be said for being a nice human and setting the tone of friendliness with a person you’re going to be sitting next to for upwards of three hours. I’m a fan of giving it back, too, such as, “yeah, but your team looks pretty tough in their own right.” You can even follow it up with some good-natured ribbing.
For example, take either above quote and tack on, “but the losing is about to start tonight!” Just make sure to accompany it with a smile or even a small laugh.
Lukewarm: The subtle, condescending jab
I’m an Indiana grad and went to the IU at Ohio State football game last November, when IU was undefeated and Ohio State would end up winning the national championship. While in line to get into the Horseshoe before the game — obviously I was wearing Indiana gear but was not causing problems at all — an Ohio State fan tapped me on the shoulder and said, “that’s a nice little season you guys have put together.”
Hmmmm.
Yeah, he said nice words. I guess. But the condescension was dripping straight through that “little.”
The message? We’re big time and you little guys don’t have any business fishing in this pond.
But also, there was no reason for me to do anything but smile and say thank you and that it’s been a fun ride. It’s possible I misconstrued his intent (I doubt it, but it’s possible), plus, there’s no reason to head into enemy territory with a chip on your shoulder. Because …
Bad: Confrontational attitudes
This is the root of all issues at ballparks. So many fans are already angry the second they see an opposing jersey and are ready to start screaming obscenities and personal insults. As long as this person didn’t specifically start any trouble with you, why so angry? Why so riled up? Why so confrontational? People have the right to show up and root for their favorite team. Settle down, man.
Don’t be that person ready to fight anyone who you perceive to wrong your sensibilities over a sporting event.
And, yeah, if a person violates any of the rules above — remember, we are not confrontational — the proper response is to just ignore. No good comes from legitimate confrontations at sporting events. Ever.
Worst of the worst: Physical violence
Don’t throw stuff. Ever.
Don’t push someone. Don’t grab. Absolutely do not strike.
A bigger problem here is these scuffles are not merely involving the people in the fight, whether it’s one-on-one or a group brawl. It is ruining the night for anyone witnessing it, let alone someone actively scared.
Attending a sporting event is supposed to be fun. Anyone who resorts to any sort of physical violence is a total loser and needs to get a life. Full stop.
Don’t be a jerk. Be a good fan.
Best: Good Fans
We’ve got to end on a positive note. Again, the majority of fans go to games and enjoy themselves while cheering for their favorite team. They are just there to have fun and create good memories.
Here’s to you, Good Sports Fans. You make the sports world a fun and productive place. We wouldn’t have sports without you.
Sports
Sydney school plunged into lockdown
The school where water polo coach Lilie James was murdered has been plunged into lockdown after reports a man had threatened staff. St Andrew’s Cathedral School, located in Sydney’s CBD, was locked down by police on Monday about 9.45am after reports a person had broken into the grounds. Lilie James was murdered at St Andrew’s […]

The school where water polo coach Lilie James was murdered has been plunged into lockdown after reports a man had threatened staff.
St Andrew’s Cathedral School, located in Sydney’s CBD, was locked down by police on Monday about 9.45am after reports a person had broken into the grounds.
Parents were alerted about the lockdown by text message, the Daily Mail reported.
The man allegedly “threatened staff and then returned to the campus”, a police spokesman told NewsWire.
“The school was placed in lockdown and a search of the building, on the corner of Druitt and Kent streets, was conducted with the assistance of specialist resources,” they said.
Despite “extensive searches”, the man could not be located.
He remains on the run, but the lockdown has since been lifted, according to police.
“An investigation is now under way into the incident, and inquiries continue to locate the man,” police said.
Initial reports from 7News indicate the man was wielding a weapon at the time of the incident, though this has not been confirmed by police.
Ms James was murdered by Paul Thijssen on the evening of October 25, 2023, when he cornered her inside a bathroom of the prestigious Sydney private school where they were colleagues.
The water polo coach died due to blunt force trauma to the head after being attacked with a hammer by her ex-partner, whom she had broken up with a few days before her murder.
Hours after the murder, Thijssen took his own life at Vaucluse, with his remains found in the rocks at Diamond Bay Reserve two days after Ms James’s murder.
Sports
Rodriguez Claims Silver on Day One of IC4A Championships
Story Links FAIRFAX, Virginia—The Marist men’s track and field team raced on Sunday, day one of the ninth meet of the 2025 outdoor season, the IC4A Championships, which occurred at the GMU Field House in Fairfax, VA. Amari Mathis placed second in the 100-meter dash prelims with a time of 10.62, qualifying […]

FAIRFAX, Virginia—The Marist men’s track and field team raced on Sunday, day one of the ninth meet of the 2025 outdoor season, the IC4A Championships, which occurred at the GMU Field House in Fairfax, VA.
Amari Mathis placed second in the 100-meter dash prelims with a time of 10.62, qualifying him for tomorrow’s finals.
Miles Chamberlain (11th) raced a PR of 3:55.46 in the 1500-meter run.
Gabriel Rodriguez brought home a silver medal for the men’s team with a time of 32:02.13 in the 10000-meter run, also earning him All-East honors.
ECAC Outdoor Championships
Sunday, May 17, 2025
GMU Field House
Fairfax, Virginia
400-Meter Dash: 19 – Easton Eberwein, 49.26
100-Meter Dash Prelims: 2 – Amari Mathis, 10.62
1500-Meter Run: 11 – Miles Chamberlain, 3:55.46, 18 – Logan Schaeffler, 4:04.89
3000-Meter Steeplechase: 9 – Kevin Cannon, 9:52.13
10000-Meter Run: 2 – Gabriel Rodriguez, 32:02.13
Sports
Wildcats Finish WAC Championship with Men in 5th and the Women in 6th
Story Links ARLINGTON – On a terribly muggy day in Arlington, the Wildcats had a strong start for Day 3 in the field events as Kailey Roskop topped off her ACU career with a 4 th place finish in the discus (to go with her 3 rd place finish in the hammer). […]

ARLINGTON – On a terribly muggy day in Arlington, the Wildcats had a strong start for Day 3 in the field events as Kailey Roskop topped off her ACU career with a 4 th place finish in the discus (to go with her 3 rd place finish in the hammer). Donovan Ramirez finished 5th in the triple jump in his first outdoor championship after missing the entire 2024 with a medical redshirt. Ja’Dasia Sims completed her stellar ACU career with a 2 nd place finish in the high jump. Stone Smith finished his ACU career with a 5 th place finish in the discus. Luize Velmere just made the finals in the triple jump on her 3rd jump and she went on to finish 2nd in a huge personal best (PB) of 41-5.75/12.64 – moving her into the #8 all time on the ACU performance list.
On the track the premier performance came from Kenan Reil, who finished 3 rd in the 400 hurdles with a time of 52.52 in just his 2 nd time to run the event. Placing 6 th were Miguel Hall in the 110 hurdles with a time of 13.91 and Benjamin Cortez in the 800 in a time of 1:53.02. Notching 7 th place finishes were Ethan Krause in the 200 with a time of 21.31 and Andruw Villa in the men’s 5K with a time of 14:59.02. Finishing in 8th place were Hana Banks in the 100 hurdles in a time of 14.27 and Emma Santoro in the 400 in a
57.98.
Note: Late on Friday night, after a 4-hour weather delay ACU had 2 athletes score points in the steeplechase – Peyton Bornstein placed 6 th in the women’s race in a time of 11:18.08 and Mark Barajas finished 7th in the men’s race with a PB time of 9:19.38. To finish up the meet, the men placed 5th in the 4×400 with a time of 3:14.58 – a quartet
composed of Landon Gary, Canaan Fairley, Benjamin Castro, and Ethan Krause. That will give ACU a 5 th place finish in the team race with 56 points. The women’s team finished 5 th in the 4×400 relay with a time of 3:52.38, with Ja’Kaylon Record, Emma Santoro, Gracee Whitaker, and Jess Reyes running. The women’s team finished 6th with
59 points.
Sports
Lobos Win First MW Women’s Outdoor Track & Field Team Title in Program History – University of New Mexico Lobos athletics
CLOVIS, Calif. – New Mexico Track & Field completed a sweep of 2024-25 Mountain West Women’s Cross Country, Indoor and Outdoor Championships with their first outdoor MW team conference title in program history on Saturday night, scoring 153 team points in total. The Lobo men came just shy of an outdoor title of their own […]

CLOVIS, Calif. – New Mexico Track & Field completed a sweep of 2024-25 Mountain West Women’s Cross Country, Indoor and Outdoor Championships with their first outdoor MW team conference title in program history on Saturday night, scoring 153 team points in total.
The Lobo men came just shy of an outdoor title of their own after scoring 30 points in the 5,000m and holding off Colorado State in the 4x400m final, finishing second in the team score with 171.50 points – the highest-scoring team outing at conference championships since 2011 (177).
The women put some distance between themselves and the second-place Rams in the final two events of the night, scoring 30 points in the women’s 5,000m final before the Lobos won the Women’s 4x400m Relay by nearly two seconds (3:35.54) to tack on 10 more in the final event of the night.
Darren Gauson was named MW Women’s Coach of the Year for the third time this season after leading the Lobos to their first-ever outdoor title, with Mathew Kosgei earning MW Men’s Track Performer of the Meet honors after shattering the steeplechase meet record with a 8:25.56 finish yesterday and contributing five more points on Saturday night with a fourth-place finish in the men’s 5,000 final (13:39.35). Along with teammates Ishmael Kipkurui (1st, 13:26.84), Habtom Samuel (2nd, 13:30.49), Collins Kiprotich (5th, 13:40.93) and Vincent Chirchir (7th, 13:32.09), Kosgei was one of five Lobo men to finish under the previous 5,000m meet record of 13:46.67 set in 2021.
This story will be updated.
Sports
Boys Will Bully Boys in a Stylish if Schematic Summer-Camp Psychodrama
The idea of adolescence as a horror story is not new, but it’s given a splashy workout in Charlie Polinger’s queasily stylish debut feature, in which the swimming pools, lockers rooms and bunk-bed dormitories of a boys’ water polo camp are a puberty petrie dish livid with sinister bacteria. Drawn from experience and benefiting from […]

The idea of adolescence as a horror story is not new, but it’s given a splashy workout in Charlie Polinger’s queasily stylish debut feature, in which the swimming pools, lockers rooms and bunk-bed dormitories of a boys’ water polo camp are a puberty petrie dish livid with sinister bacteria. Drawn from experience and benefiting from some standout performances among its well-selected young cast, “The Plague” has a familiar coming-of-age narrative, but stranger, subtler undercurrents of creeping dismay at the men these boys will become when, at this formative age, cruelty chlorinates the water they swim in.
Sensitive, 12-year-old Ben (Everett Blunck) comes to the Tom Lerner Water Polo Camp in the summer of 2003 as an outsider twice over. He’s not only joining after the second session has started, he’s also a new arrival to the area. And, as we understand from an early conversation with his affable but ineffectual coach (Joel Edgerton, who also produces) a reluctant one: there’s hurt in the studied neutrality of his tone when he describes how his mother uprooted their lives to be with her new lover. Perhaps the wrenching change-up of father figure fuels Ben’s anxiety to fit in, but also maybe that’s just the way he is. When one of the kids’ endless games of would-you-rather makes him choose between “not fucking a dog but having everyone think you did, or fucking a dog and no one knows,” Ben opts for, well, screwing the pooch.
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In any wolf pack, the Alpha is obvious and even among these cubs, Jake (a superb Kayo Martin) is easily identifiable as the ringleader. Deceptively cherubic beneath a shock of tousled strawberry blonde hair, and wearing a surprisingly adult expression of skeptical watchfulness, Jake is initially friendly enough to the newcomer — at least once Ben begins answering to the nickname “Soppy,” devised after Jake picks up on his very minor speech impediment.
There’s an easier target for Jake’s lazy but keen-eyed ridicule. Eli (Kenny Rasmussen) was presumably already an oddball — into magic tricks and solo flailing dance moves and lurching non-sequitur conversation — even before he developed a disfiguring skin complaint. The angry-looking rash that covers his arms and torso is probably some sort of eczema or contact dermatitis, but the boys are still of an age to be fascinated by lepers and curses and so Jake declares it “the plague.” Eli is ostracized, to the point that all the kids dive for another cafeteria table if he so much as pulls up a chair.
Good-natured Ben, in the throes of a panicky uncertainty that from the outside is sweetly poignant, if only because it will be gone in a year or a month or a minute, feels for Eli’s predicament— possibly more than the quite contentedly peculiar Eli does for himself. But as he barely has enough social capital to guarantee his own acceptance into Jake’s circle, Ben befriends the outcast cautiously, away from prying eyes. It’s fine to make taboo transgressions if nobody knows about it.
DP Steven Breckon punctuates “The Plague” with interludes of woozy underwater photography, in which the boys’ bodies dagger into the pool and then tread water, resembling so many headless sea horses. Sometimes, while Johan Lenox’s excellent, ’70s horror-inflected, nightmare-choir score reaches a bombastic crescendo, the girls of the synchronized swimming class who share the pool and fire the boys’ crude erotic imaginings, are shown inverted, so they appear to be dancing floatily across the water’s underside surface. These subaquatic symphonies give a touch of the phantasmagoric to a milieu that’s otherwise cleverly recreated from the banal remembered details of an early noughties childhood: the Capri-Suns, the pop tunes, that brief phase where kids believe that smoking kitchen-cupboard nutmeg will get them high.
Perhaps too the subjective nature of Polinger’s memory of a time when the peer-group dynamic was so much more influential than any peripheral authority figure, accounts for why these kids are so often unconstrained by adult supervision. Jake naturally takes advantage of that freedom to continue his offhand reign of terror, one he can maintain without ever really lifting a finger. Almost all of the violence in “The Plague” is self-inflicted and therefore easily disavowed by this tweenaged tyrant – a character so vivid that it’s tempting to imagine a more provocative movie told from the bully’s perspective. But as “The Plague” ramps up to an impressively eerie, body-horror-styled finale, it takes a rather more expected turn toward a significant, if hardly triumphal moment of personal growth for unhappy camper Ben. Teetering on the brink of adult society with its own bewilderingly insidious notions about masculinity and conformity, you can dive in or you can be pushed, and it’s only then you can know if you’ll sink or swim.
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Sports
University of Colorado Athletics
LAWRENCE, Kan. — The University of Colorado wrapped up competition at the 2025 Big 12 Outdoor Track and Field Championships on Saturday at Rock Chalk Park. The Buffaloes earned five All-Big 12 honors on the final day, with top-eight performances from Ava Goetz, Drew Costelow, Cole Romig, and both the men’s and women’s 4×100-meter relay […]

The Buffaloes earned five All-Big 12 honors on the final day, with top-eight performances from Ava Goetz, Drew Costelow, Cole Romig, and both the men’s and women’s 4×100-meter relay teams.
The CU men finished with 18 team points to place 13th, scoring in the 4×100, 1,500, 10,000, 400-meter hurdles, steeplechase, javelin and decathlon. The women placed 16th overall, scoring in the 4×100, 10,000 meters and high jump.
Texas Tech swept the team titles on both the men’s and women’s sides.
Men’s Discus Throw
Lucas Williams – 50.42m (Personal Best)
Men’s Pole Vault
Nick Bianco – 5.06m (Personal Best)
Women’s High Jump
Ava Goetz – 1.74m (Personal Best) – 8th place – All-Big 12
Riley Ward – 1.74m – 10th place
Women’s Discus
Elena Opp – 42.07m
Amanda Opp – 41.62m
Men’s 4×100-Meter Relay – 41.11
Danny Tragarz, Cade Vanhout, Joshua Johnson, Nick Gehring
All-Conference
Women’s 4×100-Meter Relay – 45.19 (Season Best)
Aubrey Leneweaver, Emma Pollak, Myla Wilkes, Nylah Perry
All-Conference
Men’s 800 Meters
Drew Costelow – 1:47.56 – 8th place – All-Big 12
Men’s 5,000 Meters
Charles Robertson – 13:51.41
Lukas Haug – 13:52.85
Grady Rauba – 13:53.50 (Personal Best)
Ethan Edgeworth – 14:05.46
Women’s 5,000 Meters
Jessie Secor – 15:58.73
Men’s 4×400-Meter Relay – 3:15.68
AJ Glavicic, Danny Tragarz, Cole Romig, Nick Gehring
Women’s 4×400-Meter Relay – 3:38.28 (Season Best)
Aubrey Leneweaver, Emma Pollak, Myla Wilkes, Nylah Perry
As of Sunday, 19 Buffs rank among the top 48 in the West Region, with final rankings set to be released Monday. Nick Bianco and John Swabik have qualified for the NCAA Championships in the decathlon.
The NCAA West First Round will be held May 28–31 in College Station, Texas, hosted by Texas A&M. The top 48 individuals in each event, and the top 24 in the multis, will advance to NCAA postseason competition.
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