If you have ever attended a sporting event housed in a stadium, you are probably familiar with “the wave.”
Ever wonder where this originated from?
Wikipedia’s entry on it is pretty thorough. Ask Yahoo! has a fairly concise overview. And FAQ Farm has pretty much the same responses.
While there is no consensus on the matter, they all point to events in the ’70s and ’80s — specifically the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, due to the presence of international media, for popularizing it.
I am curious though, is there any historical evidence of the “audience wave” occurring in previous centuries or millennia? I get a kick out of thinking that it may have been observed during gladiator competitions at the Roman Colesium or on the slopes of a mountain or in a valley.
[...] The only disappointment of the night was the instant replay screen was turned off so you couldn’t see the various bloopers and batters getting beaned by the ball (which happened like 4 times). That and no one did the wave. [...]
Pingback by Baseball around the world » Doctor Recommended — May 4, 2008 @ 3:55 am