Call the Waaaah-mbulance

I’m angry right now, you know what I mean? It’s almost funny. It’s almost funny...I’ve seen friends go through it. Sammy Sosa hit 60 home runs three years in a row, went into a little slump and...hey, like I said earlier, they have a right to voice whatever opinions they want to voice. But it’s not going to make me play any better. It’s not going to make me play any worse. I’m just going to go play the game the way I know how...Where I came from, they were passionate about baseball. We probably didn’t draw as many [in Minnesota], but they were there through thick and thin. [The booing] is something I’ve got to get used to. I’m blocking it out as much as I can.

** Cubs right fielder Jacques Jones, commenting on how Cub Fan is treating him

I remember a time when the game story in the paper used to tell you about what happened during the game in question. It seems those days are long past, discarded in the same dust bin as Ladies Day, doubleheaders, and 25 cent scorecards.

Jones’ little rant took up about half of Sully’s game story in today’s Tribune. Carlos Zambrano breaking a bat over his knee took up another quarter of it. The Cubs’ six run rally in the eighth inning was obviously not nearly as exciting as these occurrences, since Sully dispensed of it with a mere thirteen words.

Regular readers have heard this little rant of mine before, so I’ll leave it for now.

Jones is just the latest in a long line of people who are perplexed that Cub Fans have the audacity to voice their displeasure with players (or management) who aren’t meeting expectations. Some in the Chicago media have called it the “Philadelphia-zation” of Cub Fan, which might be a little harsh. As near as I can tell, Santa Claus is still on Cub Fans’ good side.

I find the issue mordantly amusing. I mean, the same members of the punditocracy who chide Cub Fan for being mean to Jones area the same folks who said that Cub Fan didn’t care if the team won as long as they could sit in the sun, drink beer, and watch Sammy hit home runs. So if we boo, we’re jerks. If we cheer, we’re idiots. Fortunately, logic is not a pre-requisite for joining the punditocracy.

That said, there is a vocal minority of Cub Fan that seems to be going out of its way to act like jackasses during the game. These yahoos seem to go out of their way to pick some poor schmuck and make him their whipping boy for the year.

Of course, they have help in the matter. I’m not a mind reader, but I’m pretty sure that the “friend” Jones mentions is LaTroy Hawkins. Granted, Hawk did not pitch well for us last year. But he was a good guy, well-liked by his teammates, who didn’t malinger.

Didn’t matter, though. Once the media turned on him, Hawkins’ days were numbered. The vile things Cub Fans heard from the pundits tilted public opinion against the pitcher, and that was that for Hawk.

To any Cub Fans out there -- don’t rag on Jones the way you ragged on Hawk. No, Jones isn’t tearing the league up. But it’s only 25 April, for heaven’s sake! Give the guy a chance to fail before you decide he’s a failure.

And to Mr. Jones -- don’t complain about the fans to the press. It won’t work -- the fans who hate you the most won’t be swayed, and you just look like a whiner. And while the press might be sympathetic right now, they’ll throw you under the bus as a whiner if it suits their agenda. Check with LaTroy if you don’t believe me.

[Late update: Eyewitness reports of the Jones harassers indicate that these “people” (and I apply the term loosely) resorted to racial slurs and other vulgarity. I don’t care if Jones has a batting average and fielding percentage of .000, that kind of behavior is beyond the pale and should not be tolerated. The “people” who indulged in this, the lowest form of discourse, are a cut below the standard-version yahoos I refer to above. And, as such, they should be heaped with scorn, shame, and ignominy. Grow up, “people.”]