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Prologue
stands schmoozing with the arriving fans. They knew me as Krazy George,
the A’s official cheerleader who’s been stoking the fires of fan participation at
their games for the last three years. Today was no different. From the first
pitch on I was using every arrow in my quiver: my signature back-and-forth
cheers, whole stadium cheers, clapping, and three-corner cheers. Even that
didn’t produce any runs going into the fifth inning but the Yankees were
scoreless too. I needed to change the momentum.
There was a cheer I had been developing and perfecting at high school
rallies and at Colorado Rockies hockey games, but I had never performed it
at A’s games, nor had I ever done it with so many people. Certainly I never
attempted it before a national TV audience or used it in such a pivotal
situation. Doubt was creeping into the fans’ psyche. The moment cried out
for that cheer. This was it! I visualized how impressive it would look. I knew
what I wanted. Unfortunately, there were forty-seven thousand fans who did
not know. My challenge was to get them to know.
Banging my drum at earsplitting levels and yelling so loud my voice must
have been heard across the bay in San Francisco, I got the attention of the
fans in three adjoining sections of the stadium. To one I explained and
demonstrated that when
I pointed at them they should stand up, throw their
arms in the air, then sit down. I moved onto the next section and told the fans
that as the first group sits down, they should do the same. Similar instructions
were given to the third group. I warned each section, “For this to work,
everybody has to do it. It’s going to start and it will die out. When it dies, I
want you to boo so all the other guys will know they should be doing the
same thing. Nobody will see this coming because they’re watching the game.
Booing them will get their attention and I will start it again. So be ready! I
don’t know how many times it will take to get it going, but every time it dies,
you boo.”
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