Fans Ben posted a note and I tossed in my comments but it got me thinking about fans and the different ballparks.

I've never been to a Raider game in Oakland. A few years back, my parents gave me tickets to a Raiders game against the Redskins for Christmas (the game was on the 26th). The 'skins needed to win to make the playoffs and the Raiders were out of it. The stadium was rockin' and there was this group of guys who circled the stadium with long puppet hands/fingers and whenever they saw a Raider fan, they'd point these things at him and yell "you,you,you,you,you..." IIRC, the 'skins led most of the game (if not all), but then, at the end, 40+ Vince Evans came in at QB and drove the team down field for the game-winning TD pass with no time left. The place went silent (except for all us Raider fans). It was really, really thrilling.

It turned out the guy next to me was a Raider fan. I'll tell you what though -- no one gave me any grief.

I also remember going to a Monday night game at RFK (the one where Theisman had his leg broken) against the Giants, and the Redskins fans were merciless toward the Giants fans, pouring beer on them was the least of it. I guess since the Raiders weren't rivals, it wasn't so bad for me.

There used to ba a Raider mailing list (SABER - Silver And Black Electronic Report), and when the Raiders played the Ravens in the Championship game two years ago, SABER indicated the only thing the Raider fans did to the purple-clad Ravens fans was to sing "I love you, you love me..." (purple - Barney --).

You see a lot of the grotesque when the Raiders play -- and you hear about the Black Hole and so on. If you think back about 10 years and prior, it wasn't like that. Raider fans never dressed up -- okay there were a few "Darth Raider" things, but they were the exception.

I have been to a few A's games and have found the fans to be pretty mellow. I don't mean to sound snobby, because I still think of myself as being from the West Coast, but I think the East Coast fans rule. When I've gone to Fenway, I've found the Sox fans much more knowledgeble about the game and to be thinking about when to clap, stomp, do the wave (okay, it's been 10 years since I've been to Fenway) etc. Whereas the West coast fans (not only Oakland, but SD, LA and SF) just did these things whenever they got bored.

Anyway, I hear the Philly fans are the worst toward opposing fans, then the Jints fans. But I've never been to those parks. The Raiderfan website had a Raider fans recollection of the game in Foxborough last year in which he doesn't give any horror stories. Thankfully, we haven't gotten to the point where we treat each other like enemies.

As an aside, there are also the 'traveling' fans -- if you go to a Caps-Pens game at MCI, you will find more Pens fans rooting for the visitors -- Similarly I hear that if you go to a Raiders game in SD, there will be more Raiders fans there...