Forget for a moment about the Twitter fight between retired major league pitcher and current Fox analyst C.J. Nitkowski and ESPN analyst Keith Law, which resulted Tuesday in Nitkowski writing a post on his personal site titled “ESPN’s Keith Law’s Attempt to Defame Me Highlights Dangers of Social Media Overreactions.”
The issues between Nitkowski and Law centered on Nitkowski highlighting a fan in a pink hat in the front row at Monday's White Sox-Angels game, behind the dugout, staring at a phone. Law asserted sexism was at play; Nitkowski vigorously defended himself against that claim.
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Your parents paid a lot of money for that seat... pic.twitter.com/yXQAcLzo1C
— CJ Nitkowski (@CJNitkowski) April 19, 2016
There’s a discussion to be had about the way that we look at people in pink hats, who, yes, are almost universally women. There’s plenty to be said about gender-based prejudice among sports fans. There’s also something to be said about Nitkowski’s assertion that the parents of the fan with the phone “paid a lot of money for that seat," and generational issues, and class issues, and a whole lot of other things. But we’re forgetting all that for now, because there’s a larger point being missed that affects everyone.
Here is what Nitkowski wrote in his explanatory post: “My intentions were simple, we look at our phones too much, myself included, and miss a lot of life that is happening right in front of us. I meant nothing more, nothing less.”
We do look at our phones a lot, it’s true. It’s also true there are lots of reasons to look at one's phone during a baseball game. Perhaps, with great seats behind the dugout, this fan was looking at some freshly taken photos of that very baseball game. Perhaps the fan was posting to Facebook about how great the seats were. Perhaps the fan was using the official MLB Ballpark app (yes, baseball itself encourages fans to use their phones at games) to find out that the nearest nacho stand was near Section 143.
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C.J. Nitkowski with the Pirates in 2006. (Getty Images)
Even if the fan in the picture was playing Candy Crush, who cares? If you have a ticket to a baseball game, you are free to sit in your seat for three hours and do whatever you want as long as you’re not disturbing those around you. Quietly looking at your phone falls under the spectrum of allowable activities.
Besides, the photo Nitkowski posted depicted a White Sox hitter at the plate, which means the White Sox were down by at least five runs at the time. The Angels blitzed Sox starter Carlos Rodon in the first inning Monday night, leading by a nickel before Chicago even took a turn with the bat. It was 7-0 by the end of the 2-hour, 58-minute affair, during which you can be sure the vast majority of the 14,706 fans looked at their phones. Should they be shamed for it? Absolutely not.
Go to a game and look at your phone if that’s the way you’re going to have the most fun enjoying an entertainment product. This isn’t the movies, where taking out your phone means shining a bright light in a dark theater. This isn’t driving on a highway, where you might kill yourself or somebody else if you send a text. It’s a baseball game, where if you miss a couple of pitches to see what your friend sent on Snapchat, you’ll still get to see a replay on the Jumbotron if it was actually important.
Also, to the original point: There’s no guarantee that the fan, or the fan’s parents, paid a lot of money for that seat. On StubHub, tickets for that section behind the dugout were available for Tuesday’s game for as low as $30. Maybe the fan was on the phone scooping up another great deal to see the White Sox.