Source: Castro Agrees to 7/60M Extension (Option Year: 16M)

[Bryants Disco Ball]

Also, Brant Brown probably was hated and issued death threats at one point.

 

Was Jeromy Burnitz loved?

Edited August 13, 2012 by Bryant's Disco Ball

[Bryants Disco Ball]

One last one and then I'll stop. I bet Mordecai Brown was made fun of and bashed by fans for only having three fingers.

 

OK. I laughed at that one.

[Sammy Sofa]

Hundley got hated on because he sucked, he was expensive and he complained and acted like an [expletive]. He basically went out of his way to make himself as hateable as possible, like a junior-league Milton Bradley. He's definitely an extreme exception in how despised he was.

[Sammy Sofa]

Was Jeromy Burnitz loved?

 

Relative to him being Jeromy Burnitz, yes, ridiculously so. Especially when contrasted with Sosa.

[jersey cubs fan]

I have to admit that the whole racist talk on here always annoys me. It's thrown around way to easy.

 

Wasn't Sammy Sosa and his inflated ego overlooked for a long time? When he was hitting 60 bombs a season, wasn't most media and fans in love with him and his baseball has been very, very good to him thing?

 

Why did Todd Hundley get ripped on and hated so much if it's only minorities who get blasted or treated unfair?

 

I just want to know. I'm not saying I'm right. But it just seems like an annoying joke that everyone uses on here, without any real facts that somebody is indeed a racist. It's a strong thing to accuse somebody of without really knowing.

 

Well people make accusations about players' mindsets "without really knowing" all the time. It can be overplayed at times, but it is painfully obvious the sort of negative stance people have taken on all sorts of players. Sammy Sosa's ego was overlooked because only an idiot would dwell on his ego when he was the best player on the team by a mile and a half and playing really well. The minute he struggled however he was treated with a hell of a lot more disdain than Ryne Sandberg was when he quit on the team midseason.

[Sammy Sofa]

Wasn't Sammy Sosa and his inflated ego overlooked for a long time? When he was hitting 60 bombs a season, wasn't most media and fans in love with him and his baseball has been very, very good to him thing?

 

That's really, really glossing over things. Yes, Sammy was beloved, but I struggle to think of another major sports star who was simultaneously that insanely popular and also despised/criticized by his local fanbase and media for every little slip up he had (or perceived slip up, like how he only hits home runs when it doesn't matter or there's nobody on base or he only cares about himself and his stats and blah-blah-blah).

[Banedon]

Mark Mcgwire was seen with andro in his locker, and then more recently admitted steroid use, but is still a respected hitting coach and has never EVER gotten the kind of public demonization that Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa have gotten.

[Guest]

I don't think anyone is making any one size fits all claims about how the media treats players. The implication, and I agree at times it can be thrown about too casually, is that there are players that the media is very quick to criticize, many times unfairly. In the majority of these instances(think Ramirez, Soriano, Castro, Zambrano, etc.) there's a common denominator. It's almost certainly not an intentional or overt thing, and it's probably as much xenophobic as racist. Dave Kaplan doesn't go to bed at night shaking his fist at a picture of Starlin Castro. However unintentional it may be though, it gets tiresome that the media is intolerant enough that they'll jump on Castro for making a mistake, but make nary a sound when Rizzo does something quite similar. Just like it was irritating to see Ronny Cedeno get harped on for making mental mistakes while no one said anything about Theriot getting thrown out on the bases once a week.

[Sammy Sofa]

Was Jeromy Burnitz loved?

 

Relative to him being Jeromy Burnitz, yes, ridiculously so. Especially when contrasted with Sosa.

 

I mean, really, people talked about him running out pop-ups and ground-outs like he was healing sick kids with his grit and belly-fire.

[KingCubsFan]

Mark Mcgwire was seen with andro in his locker, and then more recently admitted steroid use, but is still a respected hitting coach and has never EVER gotten the kind of public demonization that Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa have gotten.

When did Sammy Sosa ever get demonized? He pretty much just faded into obscurity once he stopped being good. Sammy Sosa was loved by most of the fanbase until he started declining,a and then he did a few things that made it seem like he didn't care about the team. If Sammy Sosa became a hitting coach right now, he'd probably be treated the same as McGwire.

[Guest]

Is it weird that, this morning, when blasting Castro's defense and baseball intelligence (he said something to the effect of "the cubs will tell you that he has physically improved as a defender, but his head still leaves a great deal to be desired"), Stone accidentally referred to Castro as Soriano?

[Sammy Sofa]

Mark Mcgwire was seen with andro in his locker, and then more recently admitted steroid use, but is still a respected hitting coach and has never EVER gotten the kind of public demonization that Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa have gotten.

When did Sammy Sosa ever get demonized? He pretty much just faded into obscurity once he stopped being good. Sammy Sosa was loved by most of the fanbase until he started declining,a and then he did a few things that made it seem like he didn't care about the team. If Sammy Sosa became a hitting coach right now, he'd probably be treated the same as McGwire.

 

Yeah, no. Until that recent TV spot with a bunch of Cubs HR he was basically persona non grata for nearly a decade with the organization. Hell, talk to the average group of fans and you'll find a bunch of them can't stand Sosa and will claim they never did. Plus, like I said, the guy got a ton of criticism at home even when he was at his best. Giants fans showed more group love for Bonds at the height of his steroid scandal than Cubs fans did of Sosa.

[Banedon]

Mark Mcgwire was seen with andro in his locker, and then more recently admitted steroid use, but is still a respected hitting coach and has never EVER gotten the kind of public demonization that Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa have gotten.

When did Sammy Sosa ever get demonized? He pretty much just faded into obscurity once he stopped being good. Sammy Sosa was loved by most of the fanbase until he started declining,a and then he did a few things that made it seem like he didn't care about the team. If Sammy Sosa became a hitting coach right now, he'd probably be treated the same as McGwire.

 

Oh the media has definitely trashed Sammy, especially the Chicago media. Boomboxes in the clubhouse!!1!1!

 

Sosa faded into obscurity because the limelight wasn't the fun kind anymore.

[javy knows my name]

Mark Mcgwire was seen with andro in his locker, and then more recently admitted steroid use, but is still a respected hitting coach and has never EVER gotten the kind of public demonization that Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa have gotten.

When did Sammy Sosa ever get demonized? He pretty much just faded into obscurity once he stopped being good. Sammy Sosa was loved by most of the fanbase until he started declining,a and then he did a few things that made it seem like he didn't care about the team. If Sammy Sosa became a hitting coach right now, he'd probably be treated the same as McGwire.

 

HAH

[El Duderino]

Mark Mcgwire was seen with andro in his locker, and then more recently admitted steroid use, but is still a respected hitting coach and has never EVER gotten the kind of public demonization that Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa have gotten.

When did Sammy Sosa ever get demonized? He pretty much just faded into obscurity once he stopped being good. Sammy Sosa was loved by most of the fanbase until he started declining,a and then he did a few things that made it seem like he didn't care about the team. If Sammy Sosa became a hitting coach right now, he'd probably be treated the same as McGwire.

 

You don't remember the whole leaving the last game early and boombox-gate?

[javy knows my name]

Mark Mcgwire was seen with andro in his locker, and then more recently admitted steroid use, but is still a respected hitting coach and has never EVER gotten the kind of public demonization that Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa have gotten.

When did Sammy Sosa ever get demonized? He pretty much just faded into obscurity once he stopped being good. Sammy Sosa was loved by most of the fanbase until he started declining,a and then he did a few things that made it seem like he didn't care about the team. If Sammy Sosa became a hitting coach right now, he'd probably be treated the same as McGwire.

 

You don't remember the whole leaving the last game early and boombox-gate?

 

He apparently quit following the Cubs for 5 consecutive years in the 2000s.

[Banedon]

“He was as big as any athlete this town has seen in a long time, other than Michael Jordan,” says David Kaplan, host of Comcast SportsNet’s Chicago Tribune Live and a contributor on WGN radio.

 

Just three years after that high point, Sosa was a fading and sullen star, at war with his manager, estranged from his teammates, and booed by some of the same fans who had long worshiped him. Sportswriters who had worn out their thesauri conjuring praise began to savage him. And the Cubs’ front office turned on him, publicly rebuking him before banishing him from the kingdom he had ruled. When the team traded Sosa to the Baltimore Orioles in 2005, “people were so excited that he was leaving,” Kaplan recalls. “It was like, ‘We finally got rid of him.’”

 

http://www.chicagomag.com/core/pagetools.php?url=%2FChicago-Magazine%2FSeptember-2010%2FSammy-Sosa-Cubs-Threw-Me-into-the-FIre%2Findex.php%3Fsearch%3D%26mod%3DCoreSearch%26query%3Dshane%2Btritsch%26urlprefix%3D%252FChicago-Magazine%252F&mode=print

[KingCubsFan]

Mark Mcgwire was seen with andro in his locker, and then more recently admitted steroid use, but is still a respected hitting coach and has never EVER gotten the kind of public demonization that Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa have gotten.

When did Sammy Sosa ever get demonized? He pretty much just faded into obscurity once he stopped being good. Sammy Sosa was loved by most of the fanbase until he started declining,a and then he did a few things that made it seem like he didn't care about the team. If Sammy Sosa became a hitting coach right now, he'd probably be treated the same as McGwire.

 

You don't remember the whole leaving the last game early and boombox-gate?

Yeah that was my whole point. He started declining, and then the whole leaving the game/boombox thing happened. By all accounts, he did not get along with his teammates or the media by the end, so it's natural he wasn't going to be given the same treatment as, say, Kerry Wood. That doesn't mean it was racism.

[Sammy Sofa]

[expletive], even that is revisionist history; you had guys slamming him as "selfish" before 2002.

[Bryants Disco Ball]

Marlon Byrd was pretty much respected by fans and media even though he was pretty bad at times. Maybe it's because he hustled on every play, etc? In most cases, the board would say that it was because the player was white. When he's black, people just don't notice when a player isn't being trashed for not being that good.

 

When Byrd did something bad on the field, nobody in the media blasted him. When he was recently suspended 50 games for roids, nobody in the Chicago media trashed him.

[jersey cubs fan]

Marlon Byrd was pretty much respected by fans and media even though he was pretty bad at times. Maybe it's because he hustled on every play, etc? In most cases, the board would say that it was because the player was white. When he's black, people just don't notice when a player isn't being trashed for not being that good.

 

When Byrd did something bad on the field, nobody in the media blasted him. When he was recently suspended 50 games for roids, nobody in the Chicago media trashed him.

 

He was on the team for 2 years, was really good in the 1st and got hit in the face and missed much of the 2nd. He signed a reasonable contract and lived up to it. There was very little for the bigoted idiots to get riled up about, and very little time for their simple minds to process his 2012 decline.

[jersey cubs fan]

[expletive], even that is revisionist history; you had guys slamming him as "selfish" before 2002.

 

yeah, sammy was hated by many back in the 99/00/01 timeframe when "he only hit HR when it didn't matter" was the main complaint.

[Tracer Bullet]

[expletive], even that is revisionist history; you had guys slamming him as "selfish" before 2002.

 

yeah, sammy was hated by many back in the 99/00/01 timeframe when "he only hit HR when it didn't matter" was the main complaint.

 

I think he still holds the record for most consecutive seasons with more than 60 meaningless HRs.

[Sammy Sofa]

Marlon Byrd was pretty much respected by fans and media even though he was pretty bad at times. Maybe it's because he hustled on every play, etc? In most cases, the board would say that it was because the player was white. When he's black, people just don't notice when a player isn't being trashed for not being that good.

 

When Byrd did something bad on the field, nobody in the media blasted him. When he was recently suspended 50 games for roids, nobody in the Chicago media trashed him.

 

We're not saying they're automatically racist against all non-white players; the idea is that many are too quick to jump to cliche, racial tropes as soon as they decide they don't like a non-white player, often for things said or mistakes that white players can seemingly get away with.

[Bryants Disco Ball]

Marlon Byrd was pretty much respected by fans and media even though he was pretty bad at times. Maybe it's because he hustled on every play, etc? In most cases, the board would say that it was because the player was white. When he's black, people just don't notice when a player isn't being trashed for not being that good.

 

When Byrd did something bad on the field, nobody in the media blasted him. When he was recently suspended 50 games for roids, nobody in the Chicago media trashed him.

 

He was on the team for 2 years, was really good in the 1st and got hit in the face and missed much of the 2nd. He signed a reasonable contract and lived up to it. There was very little for the bigoted idiots to get riled up about, and very little time for their simple minds to process his 2012 decline.

 

See, that's the thing. When a black player doesn't get trashed by fans or media and he is brought up as an example, there will always be an excuse. Maybe he didn't get bashed because for the most part, people felt he gave a good effort and played ball the right way most times.

 

I'd say that when the majority of people feel that way about a player, they aren't as hard on them. Fans or media. Starlin gained a reputation for lacking focus at times, and yes, he probably has been unfairly bashed more than he should. But it's not because he's hispanic that he gained that reputation. It's because he did a few things on the field that put it in the spotlight.