[Bleep]ing Sports Tirade Videos

Tennis player Serena Williams made more headlines with the tirade that caused her elimination from the recent U.S. Open than she would have if she had simply won the tournament. I’d post the video of the incident if it were more illuminating; unfortunately, what Serena said to the judge is not audible over the crowd noise.

It was a bad call—or at the very least, an inappropriately persnickety call at that critical point in the match.  Williams stalked toward the offending judge, pointing at her with the hand in which she was gripping the ball for her next serve. An anecdotal consensus has formed that she declared her intention to “shove this ball down your fucking throat.”

Not cool, to be sure. However, considered against the broader history of sports tirades it was small-fry stuff. The following are but two examples of what I mean.

Salty-tongued former Baltimore Orioles manager Earl Weaver was famously argumentative. Over his 16-year managing career he was ejected from 97 games, which remains an American League record 23 years after his retirement from baseball.  The guy was a screaming-match innovator—he developed the technique of turning his cap around backward in order to get as far into the umpire’s face as possible without touching him.

Fortunately for history, one of Weaver’s ejections took place on a night in 1980 when umpire Bill Haller happened to be wearing a microphone for a documentary about Major League umpires. The fun began when Haller, umpiring at first base, called a balk on Orioles pitcher Mike Flanagan. In the video, Orioles first baseman Eddie Murray protests briefly to Haller before Weaver arrives in the picture:

[UPDATE:  It's worth noting that in 1996, Earl Weaver was indeed voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.]

Makes Serena Williams seem a bit tame by comparison, at least in terms of total profanity volume.

But Earl Weaver seems downright cuddly next to this rant by Serbian basketball star Darko Milicic. Following an overtime loss to Greece in the 2007 European Championships, Milicic’s fury at the referees achieves a level of foulmouthed malice that is truly Mamet-esque. I can’t decide whether to give Milicic credit for taking his ire off the court, or discredit for saying it into a bunch of press microphones.

I don’t know what to make of the fact that somebody translated all that from Serbian into English and made a subtitle track for it.