by Mark Schiffman, M.S.

On Tuesday I made a last minute decision to go to opening day at Yankee Stadium.  It was my first opening day game and it was the first time I sat in the right field bleachers and experienced firsthand the “Bleacher Creatures.” For those who are unfamiliar, the Bleacher Creatures “are a group of fans of the New York Yankees who are known for their strict allegiance to the team and their merciless attitude to opposing fans.”[1]

I overheard a number of verbal fights between one committed Yankee fan and a Houston Astros fan who had the guts to come with an Astros hat and jersey, but luckily nothing escalated to a physical fight.  Another tense moment heated up when a fan caught a homerun ball from an Astros player and refused to throw it back on to the field.  Hundreds of fans got up out of their seats and started yelling at this person to “Throw it back! Throw it back!” When he did not comply, the chants turned into obscenities which I cannot reproduce in this blog.

However, the person who got the brunt of the Bleacher Creatures’ attention was Astros centerfielder Carlos Gomez.  He was taunted, insulted, and jeered at throughout the entire game.  Gomez did not acknowledge the fans and seemed to keep his composure pretty well.  On one particular play, there was a fly ball that Gomez was trying to run down and the Bleacher Creatures were hauling various insults at him, revolving around the idea of – “You suck!”   However, Gomez chased the ball down and made a nice catch for the out.

After witnessing this I thought it was a great metaphor for REBT. The Bleacher Creatures are our irrational thoughts, yelling, screaming, and cursing at us – “You can’t do it! You are worthless! You know you are going to fail!”  Our job as players in the game of life is to keep our composure through the onslaught.  Realize that the thoughts are just hecklers trying to get under our skin, but they don’t necessarily reflect reality.     We could talk back to them or we could ignore them, but either way, we have to make sure not to let them influence us to drop the ball for whatever goal we are pursuing.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bleacher_Creatures

Mark Schiffman