Okay, I'm bored as hell at work today and I've wanted to make this thread ever since the Oakland series, so here we go.
Oakland is a noisy ballpark. It seems to annoy a lot of folks from what I read on the game threads, but it also appears to be a fun way for fans to engage with the game while at the game. I must admit, I envy the baseball traditions that Latin American countries have. They are loud and boisterous at baseball games, where most North Americans are quiet, boring and only make noise if something good happens or if the JumboTron tells them to.
When I'm getting my buzz on at the ballpark, or any sporting event, I want to make noise. Personally, I'd find a great deal of fun with taking my saxophone to the game and using it to get the team and the crowd going. I wish we had more of a communal mindset in North America when we go to sporting events. They are meant to be a fun thing to do, and your favorite team is not going to win 100% of the time, so having that fallback of "Well my team lost, but I still had a blast because of all the fun we had in the crowd" would be amazing.
Last year, I went to the Bears/Jets game and had an absolute blast. Not only because they won, but because it is expected that the fans are noisy when the opposing team is on defense. This creates a fun atmosphere, for me at least. As fun as that was, I made my way to the Blackhawks game that same evening and tried to bring that same kind of energy (I was also plastered), and basically got told to shut up by other fans. What a disappointment! I'm sorry, I'm not going to wait until playoff games to make noise for my favorite hockey team.
My question for you is, if the Sox came out and said "We are okay with fans bringing musical instruments or noisy things to the ballpark", how would you feel about it? Would you just be annoyed with it? Am I more of an anomaly than anything else? Oaklands crowds, albeit small, seem to enjoy having that around which suggests that there would indeed be a decently sized subset of fans that would enjoy it here. If this were to occur, and you aren't a fan of it, would you be more likely to complain to the Sox about it, or simply tolerate it?