“The officiating of Vandiver and Seidensticker seemed badly off in all four games and the Richmond coliseum was the scene of an almost continual razzberry chorus. All the fans had something adverse to say about the arbiting in all the games and the old ‘boo-bird’ warbled louder than this department has ever heard it this season.” The Rushville {IN} Republican, January 16, 1933 p2 (In a column about basketball) [Ken Liss]
“Thus every time either guy would let a blow fall short—and they were constantly doing that—you’d hear a ripe and raucous razzberry. And for every harmless little clinch there was an accompaniment of boo birds that threatened to unloose the roof and blast it skyward.” James E. Doyle, Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 20, 1933, p15 (Article about a boxing match) [Bonnie Taylor-Blake]
Earliest baseball examples:
“Electric Chairs Needed: It’s rather too bad that the stadium isn’t equipped with electric chairs for such of the boo-birds, or lunkheads, as those who turned their thunderous razzes on Wesley Ferrell and Willie Knick in that terrible ninth … No, I don’t mean I’d have ’em executed completely … The idea would be to give them just enough of that old Schenectady juice to wake ’em up to a degree where they might be considered at least half-witted.” James E. Doyle (“The Sport Trail”), Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 13, 1933, p19 [Ken Liss]
“Had Mr. Johnson’s hunch failed to work, however, the twilight chorus of the boo birds would have given him an All-American earache … It’s a swell job — some days.” James E. Doyle (“The Sport Trail”), Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 18, 1934 p18 [Bonnie Taylor-Blake]
No earliest use given in 2009 Dickson Baseball Dictionary
