Yes, b/c no one ever wearing a Red Sox cap or jersey at Yankee Stadium or a Yankee cap/jersey in Fenway has ever been subject to physical violence.

Only in the 70s, our Eurodecade.

So now football supporters are a separate race? Somehow I don't feel that 'survival of the fittest' applies in this development.

Well, by definition, not only their being from different locales but their donning distinctive plumage and refusing to mate with fans of the other side would make them entirely different species.

Such intense passion for a game that ends in a 0-0 tie. Go figure.

Daran: Those silly euros think that French, English, German, etc., are all 'races'--isn't that a hoot?

If Darwinism is true they are.

Jim: Yes, plenty of seven year olds are attacked in Fenway or Yankee Stadium by adults. Or disabled people.

And, you know, except for the fact that they weren't in the opposing stadium but in a park and in a car, your moral equivilency here is exactly right. The 7 year old in particular deserved it, I think.

b: most are content to define the race as Caucasian (European) and assign the differences to culture.

Daran: And yet I've lost track of the number of times I've read the use of "frog" to describe a Frenchie criticized as a racial slur...

oj -- I'm not talking about the 70s. I saw it in the Yankee stadium bleachers in the 90s, and I've no doubt it continues today, in both places.

Bob -- who said anything about moral equivalence. Morons are morons whichever sport they choose to support. There's disgraceful behavior across sports. Said behavior is worse in much of Europe, but then so is behavior in general. I just disagree with oj's attempt to conflate the thuggish behavior of people who might be football supporters with the sport itself.

As for one of the people being a kid, I've watched drunks -- one episode in particular was on sportscenter either earlier this season or late last season -- push a kid down and take a foul ball from him. Does that say something about baseball, or about the extremely low level of public culture -- in the US as in Europe?

Ah, anecdotal evidence, is anything worth less?

When in Rome oj, when in Rome . . .

(or didn't you notice that you're citing an anecdote)

One might indeed argue that the fact that brutality in the baseball bleachers by the drunks who frequent mlb stadiums these days passes unnoticed by press and pols -- unlike the instance cited in Scotland -- shows how common the former is compared to the latter.

b: if a cry of racism is the keyword to victimhood with instant right of redress and absolute moral authority, then it is small surprise that every little grievance gets filed under racism.

Jim: Compare the incidents of violence that occur at nearly every darn event in soccer to the isolated ones in football or baseball. Not to mention the horrible racism that hasn't been seen in US sports in 30-40 years. The sport tolerates the violence and racism in a way no American league ever has. Has the Spanish national coach been fired for his conduct in 2004? No, he was fined $3900. How about the Ukraine national coach? No. Would he have been fired in the US? You bet, ask Al Campanis.

I think OJ has an excellent point.

No, I cited crimes. You cited your imagination.