You may have seen us at the Texas Tech baseball games. We sit up in the general admission seats behind the visiting team’s on-deck circle, just North of the old guys(Hecklers), in the friendly confines of Dan Law Field. We are the Gringo Guys! We are also known as Hecklers North or Hecklers Jr. We are pretty much harmless, just don’t feed us animals. Especially fried pies.
We are all students at Tech besides the couple of us who had the strange idea of graduating. What we do, is a question we ask ourselves every game. In a nutshell, we are a bunch of guys who like baseball and enjoy getting involved in the game.
The first of us started going to games as a group in 1997. We enjoyed watching Tech demolish its opponents, and we saw that audience participation was welcomed after observing the Tech Hecklers in full force. This led to our contribution of wit and rhetoric to the games. As time passed, the Tech Hecklers accepted our existence and took us under their wing to provide guidance in the ways of heckling.
Some schools operate under the assumption that heckling should include any kind of insult under the sun, where the use of any language is recommended and supported. These are not the true ways of heckling. It is important to remember that baseball is a family game. There are some things children should not hear. It is an important rule to remember; if you would not want your mother to hear it, then you should not be yelling it out. The object of Tech Heckling is to be witty. It is important to make people laugh, but more than just saying, "hey your team is horrible," is needed for the full affect. Timing and placement are very important factors. Tech Heckling is a true form of give and take. You may be saying this sounds like some Jedi Master’s advice. Well young Patawon, you are learning.
Our main purpose is to have fun at the games and to support Texas Tech Baseball. One way that we bring some life to a game is by performing the Gringo Song. This may seem odd, but… okay it is odd, but most fun things are strange.
The performance of the Gringo Song just kind of evolved. When we first started attending the games, we noticed that a terrible spaghetti western style song would blare over the ballpark speakers whenever an opposing pitcher would be replaced in the middle of an inning. This song, of course, was the Gringo Song (A Gringo Like Me). At first, we laughed a lot. Then, we began to cry because the song was so cheesy. After time passed, we found ourselves actually learning the song because we had heard it so many times at so many games. After a while, we began to sing with the song just to pass the time of the new pitcher warming up. The more games we attended, the louder we would sing. We really got good at it, and that’s not the scariest thing. We began to perform it. I’m talking sombreros, panchos, plastic knifes, cap guns, and cowboy hats. We look like idiots. We are idiots. It has gotten to be a tradition that whenever the song plays, we perform it. The fans seem to enjoy it, or they feel sorry for us. We think that it gives them something to do during the brief intermission. We think the fans enjoy laughing at us. The performance has now been limited to just once a game. We think that it is more effective this way. So, come check out a Tech game, and with any luck you will see the Gringo Guys in action.