but its only good if its witty.

If thats your thing. That being said, I think it depends alot on the atmosphere of that particular game and situation. I think if you are sitting around a bunch of rowdy college kids drinking beer on a thursday night, that lots of stuff good fly, as long as its not racist or overall vulgar in nature. But I also think that on a Sunday afternoon, little league day, that hecklers should really pay attention to the reaction of the kids and parents around him before he starts blasting the players wife or something of that nature. I always hate it, if im in a section where this is taking place, because I always feel semi obligated to tell the dude to shut up, but at the same time I don't go to A's games to get into fights, I go to relax and have a good time, and watch an exciting(sometimes) team play quality AL ball...

The 5% of it which is good is brilliant, entertaining and educational and thought provoking.  The other 95% is self-indulgent dreck which makes me embarrassed for the author.

I love a good heckler...if only you had to have some sort of permit first, proving you could do it right.  Call it a License to Ill.

Hey, swing the bat!  You're not a statue until you've got pigeon shit on your shoulders!

The occasional good heckle can be a lot of fun; 95% of it is stupid and sometimes offensive.

I am never in favor of being mean. I think good heckling is done in good spirit--might even make the target laugh. Sometimes when Chad Gaudin is pitching, I just want to trot out onto the field and hand him a compass. Not to be mean, just to help.

"Hey <Player>, you lucked out with the steroid testing! They don't test for Estrogen!"

My brother and I went to a game with the Royals in 1984 (I think it was this one), and we sat in the center field bleachers. Willie Wilson was playing CF for the Royals, and had only been re-instated a month earlier after having been suspended for being jailed for attempting to buy cocaine. Some jackass sitting near by was on Willie's case all game:
"Hey Willie, you're looking a little slow Willie, need some 'caine, Willie?"
It was (maybe) funny once, but after a couple of innings I wanted to jam a broken bat handle into his piehole. I actually felt sorry for Willie since he probably had to deal with this everywhere they went that season.

To echo many of the above comments, heckling is fine as long as it is funny, otherwise, STFU.

To me, there's something cowardly about antagonizing someone who can't or is unlikely to retaliate.  Unless the heckler is in one of the first couple of rows, the hecklee probably can't even tell who is heckling them. It reminds me of an ugly, faceless mob. Gives me the creeps.

Plus, the vast majority of the time, the heckling consists of "You Suck", "You're a girl" or "Go back to ___". Solid.

I was at Fenway as a 9-year-old and this guy behind me kept yelling "Rice, you're a bum!". Eventually, Jim Rice hits a 3-run homer. After the cheering dies down, the guy yells out, "Rice, you're still a bum!". My disdain for heckling was born . . .

such as Henry Thomas' "Walter Johnson  Baseball's Big Train" you'll see that heckling was used in the past to play with the mind of the opposing players.  Back then, without music, without PA, the fans were much more involved with the players.  Heckling was an outgrowth refinement of the "tenth man" advantage a home team could have.

What role could the crowd play in the old days?  In the 1903 World Series, the Boston crowd along the RF line was only held back by a rope.  If a Red Sox player hit a fair ball into the right field foul area, the crowd as a group would push the rope right up to the line without getting on the field.  The Pirate right fielder would have to shove his way through the fans to get to the "in play" ball.

Imagine the insults and verbage flying at that player, from mere arms-length away!

If a Pirate batter hit a similar ball, the crowd at the rope pulled back and gave their Boston player plenty of access to the ball.

Small town games were loaded with betting, and so the crowds took every opportunity to "tilt the table".

Consider this passage, page 22, from the above-mentioned book:

"  Four innings into the game Weiser held a surprising 4-0 lead.  As Johnson walked to the mound for the fifth, several Caldwell rooters came down from the stands and walked onto the field, verbally accosting the first baseman, Weiser Deputy Sheriff Lafe Lansdon.  He gave it right back to them, but more fans came over and a shouting match ensued.  Lansdon's brother Bob, the Weiser sheriff and manager of the baseball team ("both fine big western types, " Johnson described the Lansdon brothers), walked over to order them away.  Suddenly Lafe Lansdon was struck in the eye, and he retaliated.  Set upon by two others, he knocked them to the ground, whereupon a general pandemonium broke loose.  "A free-for-all if there ever was one, " Johnson characterized the fight.  He stayed on the mound while the action swirled all around him.  "'You ain't much on roughin' it, is you?' was the remark of a hard-looking customer who walked up alongside of me in the box," he remembered.  "'To tell the truth, my friend,' I replied, 'I just joined the club, and I don't know which are our players and which are yours.'"

That story to me epitomizes the origins of heckling, and the current "long distance" anonymous version is a mere pitiful vestige of a creation from long ago.

Nowadays, it is much more the idea of a fan rewarding his own ego than affecting the play on the field.  The above stories so attest.

I absolutely will never heckle my own team's players. I've always liked heckling the visiting relievers as they warm up in the 'pen. I find that most heckling occurs when I'm actually playing in a game, because my wife is there. She is the best heckler I know. Umps make really bad calls sometimes in our city softball league, and she lets them know it. Many umps have threatened to eject her if she doesn't quiet down. It's funny, because I have a short fuse during competitive sports. Yet I sometimes have to remind her that it's just a game.

I'm really not a fan of the "you suck" chants. I know that these people get paid millions of dollars to perform, but that doesn't mean that they don't have feelings. I wouldn't want thousands of people to chant in unison that I suck.

If you heckle Albert Pujols after he hits a homer, that's one thing. My grandmother hits better home runs! and Hey, Poo Hole, you can take your 1.500 OPS and shove it! are perfectly acceptable to me, because they show that you are displeased with the fact that they are so good at what they do. It feels awful to fail, though, and having fans ridicule you for failure is too much, unless it's obvious that you're not even trying.

(sp?)

I think there are some really quality hecklers in Oakland, one favorite being shortly after Freddy (i think it was Freddy... no wait, Anthonio?) Sanchez was reinstated after being suspended for failing the illegal substance test:

"Dirty Sanchez!" (clap, clap, clap-clap-clap)...

...totally clean if you're under thirteen, one would hope at least.

Also, my favorite general heckle I learned from the Simpsons' "All-Star" episode:

"DAAAAAAAAA-rryl.... DAAAAAAAAA-rryl.... "

This past May I sat near LF and did that to Garrett Anderson, in part because I was embarrassed for a fan seated a few rows behind me who, in full-A's gear, was heckling Bobby Crosby all game. Crosby hit his 1st HR of the season a few innings later, and naturally once the applause died down, hometown guy shouts "You still suck!"

In the words of Bugs Bunny, what an embarrassmenk.

I can't comprehend loud heckling of the home team. Sure, under my breath I've said many things about certain A's, but heckling them? I just don't get it.

So a few "GAAAAAAAAAA-rrrett...."s later, some other fans joined in, and in my opinion, our solidarity showed up the 'Crosby sucks' guy as genuinely simple as possible. Garrett misplayed a ball later in the game.

And I'm pro-heckling, or as I prefer to think of it, pro-making witty remarks in a reasonably audible tone of voice.   That's why I generally sit in the left field bleachers, where we have our own standards of decorum.   I don't heckle or boo our own players.  I don't generally join in the boring chants of "Whatsamatta with player X?  he's a bum!" or "X sucks", except of course when it applies to the Yankees.   I have on one occasion yelled at another A's fan for racist heckling.  I consider heckling to be part of the fan's job, like cheering, clapping, playing drums, waving flags, doing silly dances whe you're on the Jumbotron, keeping score, and substituting "and the home of the A's" in the national anthem.  Not everyone needs to do all of these things at every game, but at least some of the fans should do each of them.   It's not Davies Symphony Hall or Grace Cathedral, it's a ballpark.  

... some when the spirit moves.  

I'll try to bother some guys -- like calling Sosa "Corky," fer instance.  And when the Angels were all worried about the condition of the mound last season, I tried to keep them focussed on it after every "ball" call.  

Also like telling GMJunior that his Daddy was better ('cuz he was).

Some faves I've heard:

"Hey Franky, take a chair!"  when Francisco was removed.

"Hey Jason, hit it with your wallet!" after a weak ground-out.  

To Palmeiro: "Hey Raffie: Call Alice!"