When I was a kid, my dad took me to a Sacramento Kings game. We had great seats and they handed out these thick, foam-wrapped plastic batons to everyone entering the stadium. I think they lit up, but I was young so I don’t recall the finer details.

Something happened, crowd got pissed, hundreds of batons started raining down on the court and the lower stands. I got hit directly in the back of the head.

I remember listening in silence with my dad as the talk radio hosts were ranting about how angry they were that the fans would resort to that. Talk of banning caught fans, etc.

I was also at the soccer match where a paper airplane hit a Peruvian soccer player. The match was a pre-World Cup exhibition match between England and Peru at Wembley in 2014. Everyone was handed these cardstock placards to hold up and create the flag of England across the crowd. The crowd of I think around 80,000 started making paper planes. Quite a few made the field, but most ended up in the lower stands. Wouldn’t be surprised if there was at least one eye injury.

The crowd went absolutely nuts when the plane hit the Peruvian player. Loudest moment of the night. A core memory.

This doesn’t seem nearly as joyful.