The basic rule of booing is: if the player has talent but is dogging it (or not hustling enough or running up stats in a meaningless situation) - boo. (Mike Schmidt - lead off the 7th of a 5-1 game with a solo homer: boo.) If he's hustling and playing his brains out but coming up short - cheer and thank him for his effort. (Larry Bowa - cheer. Old Pete Rose jogging out a walk - cheer.) If the umpires make a call which is even dubious, boo like crazy. Always boo the manager. When there's a
drunken streaker on the field: cheer like crazy to egg him on, boo when the cops catch him, then
laugh while the cops escort him off the field.
Anything else that delays the game - boo. It's your right. You paid good money for these tickets.
But, a little more seriously, if you go to the link to the video on Kos, you'll see (at about 1:00 in) over the head of the Flyers' player (the guy in the black sweater) is a nicely displayed pair of Obama/Biden signs. Just barely in the frame for the whole puck drop.
There's a very nice still image here (scroll down).
FWIW, on the Comcast feed of the video, they plopped the Comcast logo right over the Obama-Biden signs. No mistake, that, since the logo is not in a corner like normal, but rather is halfway to the middle of the frame. No surprise - there's no small degree of cross-ownership between Comcast and the Flyers, and Flyers' ownership is Republican and has given the Repugs serious coin this year.
The fans boo Palin for a couple reasons, the primary one likely being that she was stealing the limelight from a real hockey mom who won a contest and was going to get her one moment in the spotlight and was being cheated out of it by an interloper.
That, and booing a fraud and a cheat is the way its done.
Apparently, from those who were there, Flyers management messed with the audio -both in the arena and on TV - pumping in the Palin theme music and canned cheering to drown out the booing. As the folks at two-line pass said - they're surprised that Palin didn't take a battery from the crowd; she wouldn't have gotten a beer because those are too expensive to throw.
The commentators on the Rangers' side had a very trenchant observation on their wrap-up show:
it's the Flyers' home opener, sort of a party. Hockey season's here! There are two things you keep out of a party, if you want to have a fun time: religion and politics. And Flyers' management botched that, on purpose.
They deserved to be booed.
And, FWIW, doesn't the coat Palin was wearing look like the one that Darryl Hannah wore in Kill Bill? When she played the murdering nurse?
