I have a word for what we witnessed tonight at Fenway Park: debacle.

Now, in most baseball articles you'll see that word used to describe a rout. And yes, tonight it could be applied to the pitching of Ramiro Mendoza, who gave up four successive singles before recording an out, and Jose Contreras, who earned five runs in his first appearance in the major leagues--all in less than an inning.

But I just looked it up at good ol' Merriam-Webster Online and in addition to the synonyms like rout and fiasco, it gives the definition "a violent disruption." And that is perhaps the most fitting description of the fan experience at Fenway Park when the Red Sox and Yankees meet.

Nowhere else I have been in the major leagues features the spectator activity known as "stand up to see the fight better" as much as Fenway. Oh, you get the occasional brawl in any park, from Yankee Stadium to Wrigley Field. Remember a few years ago when drunken rowdies stole some bullpen pitcher's hat and players actually brawled with spectators? Was that at Wrigley? For a cold opening day in the Bronx a few years back we saw the police had brought a school bus to load up for the trip to the drunk tank--though most of the inebriated patrons therein were ejected when their behavior became merely stupid, not yet violent. But at Fenway, whenever the Red Sox and Yankees meet, you will see many fistfights in the stands. One broke out Monday night near the Pesky pole, involving six guys at least, in those expensive box seats near the field that are so difficult to get to because of Fenway's antiquated, cramped zig-zag aisles (with people sitting in them). It took several minutes for security and the Boston Police to get in there, by which time several of the participants had taken quite a few blows to the head. I speculate that in their likely state of intoxication, they hardly felt a thing.

Tonight, Red Sox fan emotions were swinging a wild pendulum. They tied for first place, then found themselves down two runs last night before they could retire a single Yankee. Pedro was due to start tonight and appetites were whetted for a quick and summary execution of the Yankees. But right before game time the great Martinez was scratched with a muscle strain and waiver-wire pickup Bruce Chen was tapped to take his place. But the Red Sox rallied to win the game. Spirits soared and sank, soared and sank, many times over the past few days. The result was even more fights than usual.

I should not, and will not, place the blame solely on the "Red Sox fans," but it is their house. Plenty of Yankees fans, I am sure, get liquored up and abusive to the people around them. Don't they? Actually, I haven't seen this. Usually the thing Yankees fans are doing that invokes the ire of the well-lubricated Red Sox fans near them is simply cheering for their team. Apparently our mere presence is hard enough to tolerate, to have us vocalize our support for our team is going too far and provokes outbursts, name-calling, profanity, and physical violence.

I've rooted for the Yankees in a lot of places where the fans are not known for being polite. Shea Stadium, for one, where the mounting violence between Roger Clemens, Mike Piazza and finally Shawn Estes one might think would spread into the stands. But I witnessed no brawls at Shea, and I myself was never in fear for my physical safety. How about Oakland? The A's fans are much the same as the Raiders fans who occupy the same coliseum in football season. The same Raiders fans who rioted after the Superbowl this year, burning police cars and smashing windows. I've seen several games in Oakland now and again: no brawls, no verbal abuse, no physical abuse.

But in Fenway Park, I have had my hair pulled by total strangers, my cap pushed down over my eyes, and "YANKEES SUCK!" bellowed directly into my ear by passerby. My boyfriend sitting next to me has had beer poured on him (not spilled, POURED) and his Yankees shirt defaced with lipstick. (Yes, some of the drunken hooligans are women.) And we're the quiet, mild-mannered Yankees fans! We don't gloat loudly, we share our peanuts with the people around us regardless of their rooting interest, and heck, here's a shocker: I LIKE THE RED SOX! (Well, at least a little. I just didn't go to the park to see them win, is all.) What I don't like is the general level of atrocious behavior that is tolerated and exhibited by Red Sox fans at Fenway Park.

What happens is some Red Sox fan(s) will start ragging on some Yankees fan(s)--and the other Red Sox fans nearby, who may find it obnoxious, impolite, and distracting, won't say a word about it. No one says "hey, simmer down" or "knock it off"--as if they are afraid they themselves will be sen as traitorous to the cause. Or maybe they are just afraid to attract a dangerous drunk's ire. I am reminded of Charlestown's infamous "code of silence" among Irish gangsters.

This is human nature. We know this. Someone can stand up on a bus and start yelling racial slurs, homophobic profanity, sexually harassing statements... and most people will just try to ignore it and hope it goes away.

But at Fenway Park, it won't go away. There was a brief lull in it, after September 11th, when people pulled together all over the country to support New York in their hearts, as an act of Patriotism and an act of mourning. But it was only a matter of time before a special variation of a perennial T-shirt design appeared, reading "I LOVE NY, BUT THE YANKEES SUCK." And now both the chant, the shirts, and the culture of violence has returned in full force.

I don't mind "the chant." I think it's sort of funny, in a pathetic sort of way, that you can hear the "Yankees Suck" chant ring out at Fenway even when the Yankees are not playing there. In fact you can also hear it at the Fleet Center when the Celtics play. People chanted it during the New England Patriots' victory parade after the Super Bowl. Pathetic. But on a non-partisan level I am always interested when groups of fans evolve their own special cheers and group activities. Chant all you want. But don't allow the chanting to grow into the idiocy and violence we see too regularly in the stands.

I have sat in the Fenway bleachers. I sat there for the fourth game of a four game set against the Yankees last year. By that time, Boston Police and park security were so fed up with the fighting that they were on zero tolerance. Anyone who stood up and yelled something abusive at another fan was ejected instantly. Quite often they ejected whoever was being yelled AT also, even if they were an innocent by-stander. What has changed this year? Why are we seeing so many more violent outbursts? Is security being more tolerant of it? I'm not sure if it is that, or if there are just more fights to deal with overall. I think that being one more year removed from 9/11 has something to do with that, as does the vulnerability of the Yankee bullpen--like blood in the water stirring up a tank of sharks, a weak reliever giving up runs seems to put certain fans into a frenzy.

The other piece of it--besides the complicity of silence of the non-drunk, non-abusive fans present--is, of course, alcohol. Fans have been getting snockered at ballgames since time immemorial and I am not about to suggest that banning beer is the solution--though I have no doubt that would stop 99% of all the fights one sees. On the T on the way home tonight, two red-faced Red Sox fans almost got into a fight with EACH OTHER. One of them started harassing the other, flicking his ear, slapping his face, right there in the middle of the sardine-can packed train car. I think the two of them knew each other, but near as I can tell the only thing that kept the one being piked on from decking the other was the fact that so many people were watching--including the train's driver who was right next to them. The Red Sox already do things that no other park does to try to limit alcohol consumption. They sell beer in very small cups and they do not sell it in the stands. You have to get up and stand in line to have one. But as far as I can tell, most people just buy two, one for each hand, and drink both. I do not think there is anything short of banning beer that anyone, fan or management, can do to keep people from getting blitzed.

Which brings me back to the complicity of silence. I believe that the majority of Red Sox fans are terrific. They, like Yankees fans, are passionate about their team and they know the game. They cheer when one of their guys grounds out to second base if he moved the runner. They cheer spectacular defensive plays--even when they are made by the other team. They even cheered Trot Nixon the other day when he came to bat after a two-out boner where he threw the ball into the stands thinking it was the third out. Oh there were a few boos from hooligans when he came out of the dugout, but they were quickly drowned out by a thunderous cheer. Nixon singled. There is a reason why when the "wave" dies out, it dies out in the section thickest with season ticket holders--behind the first base dugout--where they are much more intent on the game action than on a silly football crowd distraction.

Those are my kind of fans. It's truly a shame that the Fenway experience, which could be one of the best in baseball, has to be marred by the behavior of the minority. Only peer pressure can hold the hooligan minority in check, since their own inhibitions have been swept away by Budweiser, and since managements long-standing efforts have miserably failed. I remember the first time I bought tickets for a game at Fenway, my tickets arrived with an information brochure about Fenway Park. "Friendly Fenway," they called in, in an obvious marketing spin since that was accompanied by the longest list of rules I've ever seen for a major league park. To try to keep the overly exuberant fans in check they ban, among other things, beach balls and signs, banners, and placards! How could signs and placards be a bad thing? One of my favorite things about visiting ballparks around the country has been to rate the creativity level, the cleverness and the artistry, of the banner makers and sign wavers. At Fenway, not allowed.

It doesn't help. Instead of profane placards people wear every kind of profane slogan on T-shirts. (You can now get not only "Yankees Suck" but "Jeter Swallows." And two new ones I just saw tonight being hawked by vendors: "Take Your 26 Rings and Shove Them Up Your A**" and "F___ The Yankees.") I wouldn't care about that either if some percentage of the people wearing those shirts didn't find it necessary to come to blows with people not wearing them.

The only way to rein in people's behavior is by peer pressure. Red Sox fans, the vast majority of which are intelligent, passionate people, need to boo these boors out of the park, let them know their hooliganism isn't welcome, and tell them to grow up while they're at it.

I don't really fear for my physical safety. I've got a black belt in tae kwon do, and crazed as Fenway Park is, it's still safer than many places one goes regularly in New York City. But if I weren't from New York? If I didn't know beyond any doubt that if I wanted I could drop one of these jokers taking a swing at me? I'd be afraid to go to Fenway Park. I'd be afraid to go even as a Red Sox fan.

And I believe the word for that is: a damn shame.