So let’s get this straight. The Cubs’ ace pitcher, a guy who jumps off the mound after strikeouts, shoots his mouth off in the media, and has but one stretch (4-0, 1.01 ERA in September 2004) in his entire career when he’s shown he can come up big in big games, ruins a scoring rally by blowing through a stop sign at third base, then refuses to back up home plate when he gives up a big hit to the other team’s pitcher, and finishes the day by giving up seven earned runs and complains about being booed by the fans?
Carlos, apparently we all wrong about you. We didn’t realize what a selfish pansy you were going to become.
The whole lot of Cubs seem to be a little bit thin skinned. Well, not all of them. Mark DeRosa seems to get it, as does Jason Kendall (if only he could throw a baseball anywhere near second base), and Ryan Theriot keeps his yapper shut when the fans boo. You don’t hear much out of Ted Lilly, either, and Alfonso Soriano, to his credit (and the fact he played in the Bronx) is unfazed by it. (Note that none of them has ever played for Dusty Baker…coincidence? I think not.)
It says a lot (all of it bad) about a team that can’t handle being booed when they’re playing terrible baseball. They can’t have it both ways. They can’t enjoy the adulation that Cubs’ fans are dying to shower them with, and think they can avoid the backlash when things go poorly.
I’ve always felt that the idea that Wrigley was an outdoor beer garden where the fans didn’t care who won was a convenient stereotype for lazy columnists to cling to. I’d been to enough games when the Cubs were terrible (hard to avoid, actually) and been surrounded by pissed off fans enough to know that most Cubs fans cared. You can’t deny though that the playoff run in 2003 and the near-miss at finally winning a pennant made the fan base less patient.
But so what? Why should we be patient. If you were born after the invention of the radio, the crossword puzzle or stainless steel you weren’t born early enough to have seen the Cubs win a World Series.
If you were born after the invention of the pop-up toaster, the microwave oven or the birth control pill you have never seen them play in a World Series at all.
So how can anyone rob Cubs fans of their inalienable right to boo the piss out of baseball players playing bad baseball? If it were up to me, we’d divvy up into teams of fans who follow the players around all day and boo or applaud when necessary, regardless of what they’re doing.
If Will Ohman has lunch at Bennigans and leaves a shitty tip, 100 fans ought to boo his ass out of the restaurant. How about 100 fans crowding into Jock Jones’ loft to boo him upon completion of a “marathon” two-minute coitus session with his wife. Even Jock’s mom would boo him for that.
Conversely, we’d be there to cheer when the firemen come and help get Mike Fontenot’s kitty out of a tree, or when Scott Eyre lies to his wife and pretends her ass doesn’t look enormous in her poly-blend stretch pants 100 more fans could clap politely and nod knowingly.
It irritates me when Derrek Lee comes to the defense of the Cub of the day complaining about being booed. I know it’s Derrek being the “team leader” and all of that crap, but it looks bad. How can a guy happily accept a curtain call after a clutch homer on Sunday, then complain when the fans fervor is displayed a little less positively the very next day?
My wife of five months announced to some of our friends last night that had she known how much I yell at the TV during Cubs games that she’d have never married me. Damn, I was so close. She’s joking…but just wait until the Bears’ season starts on Sunday.
The morning after the Cubs beat the Phillies to pull into first place for the first time this year, I got out of bed and she said, “Sorry about the Cubs.” I said “What?”
I expected to hear that something catastrophic had happened, like an asteroid hitting Wrigley Field or worse, that the Cubs had traded for Corey Patterson.
She had assumed from the yelling and swearing coming out of the downstairs when she went to bed that the Cubs had lost. I just told her, “Hey, it’s a lot of work getting these bums to win.”
I know baseball players aren’t big on perspective, but you’d think some of the guys who played last year would remember how apathetic the fans got at the end of the year. Thousands of empty seats showed up about this time last season. But you know, maybe they do remember, maybe (this is crazy talk, I know) they just don’t care? It’s easier to play out the string when there’s only 20,000 fans in the stands, and they can only boo you half as loudly.
Both Comcast and WGN love to get an interview with a player on the field with the crowd going nuts in the background after a big home win. Inevitably, the player is always asked, “How great is this atomosphere?” Apparently, most of them are lying when they talk about how much they love it.
Bob Brenly talked about it last night for a while. He said, “This isn’t little league or high school, or even college. The love here isn’t unconditional.” He’s right. You can’t expect fans to be amped up enough to make Wrigley Field bounce up and down after a great play or big hit, to not turn 180 when you’re too lazy to back up home plate or you’re swinging from your ass and topping one slowly to second base.
Carlos apologized yesterday, and I think he actually was sorry. He’s a redass who shoots off his mouth, but unlike some of his teammates, you always see just how badly he wants to win. Even if lately, it’s been more bad than badly.
Whoever told him what to say though, deserves credit for this:
I love the Cubs fans. I think they’re the greatest fans in baseball, and you know, they have the right to boo people or to do whatever they have to do, because they’ve been waiting 98 years and sometimes we don’t do a good job and they get frustrated, too.
You know how to get the fans to stop booing?
Win.
This long-awaited “next” Dose was me.
I actually wrote a decent article today. I know, I know, blind squirrel finding a nut and all of that. And, while it’s not as good as this piece, I’m just proud to have written an article that fans didn’t immediately use to line the bottom of their bird’s cage.
Not only can’t I recruit, now my team loses to second-rate college squad from Canada. I’m to dumb what Ward is to fat.
Cue mouthbreathing shot.
Holy crap. I’m really in that picture! What a fat douche I am.
Tommy Lasorda? I HATE Tommy Lasorda.
Crunch.
From Morrisey’s column
“Right now the fans see a mediocre division and a golden opportunity to get to the playoffs. They look in their rearview mirrors and see those 98 seasons of aridity. They see the end of their communal rope. They want to win now.”
Unfortunately this is just a reminder that if the Cubs get into the playoffs it will be a brief visit there.
Best dose in a while…great work, Andy! My wife can expect to hear this soon: “Hey, it’s a lot of work getting these bums to win.â€Â
The assclown ESPN crew was saying that fans have no right to boo because these players haven’t been here for 98 years.
I hate ESPN.
Who is doing the game on ESPN?
Orel Hershhiser, Steve Phillips and I have no idea on play by play. I take it the game is on comcast in chicago?
What the hell is it with Cubs pitchers giving up big hits to Dodger pitchers?
Ok, that was kind of cool. And screw Landon Donovan.
Taylor, I think that play was all on Monroe. Misjudged the ball and the track.
We started the Gremlin, Korey, Gabor and Scott Moore today. We’re losing 14-2 in the 6th inning to the Devil Rays.
I can’t believe I couldn’t make the Orioles.
I’m standing out there screaming, “Don’t hit it to me! Don’t hit it to me!”
Lots of Asians at me tonight…
Lou took Murton out for defense in the sixth. Not a double switch, just took him out, put Felix in center and moved Monroe to right.
Monroe’s escapades in center probably hastened the change.
Me fall down and go boom.
Could be 6 -2 now
smart. me. not.
7-2
stoopid. me.
I’m great for the game, just ask George Will.
Here’s the plan: I’m gonna let the Red Sox, White Sux, and Satanic Fowl win the World Series in consecutive years, then make Cubs fans sweat through torture this season, but it will be worth the wait.
What kind of me doesn’t know what “jour” means? There have been many of me since August 31st.
Once again .. Dose = Win … When will Andy get it?
Anyone know how the weather is in Wrigleyville? also when will we finally see this lineup?
Theriot
Lee-great 2 hitter, especially with the lack of power this year.
Soriano
Ramierez
Floyd
Derosa
Jones
Kendall/Soto
Who could possibly hope to last longer than two minutes in Mrs. Jacque Jones???
Cubs Live?
I suck. I should have been moved to pitch in the 7th along time ago.