(This short story became a long read - skip to the blockquotes if you want to get to the meat of this post.)
While living in New England, I became great friends with a temporarily transplanted Australian. A graduate of the Kennedy School, he'd fallen completely and irreparably for the Boston Red Sox (and yes, this was before they became a force, championss, and big spenders in the last few years).
That was the early 00's. Since then, my friend returned to Australia. I returned to San Francisco. Still the bond of our love for baseball and interest in the Sox keeps us talking. He got me hooked in to an eclectic group of baseball junkies - some are Bostonians, some went to the Kennedy School, and one is an Australian sports junkie. All love to talk Red Sox and baseball.
Over the last couple of weeks, discussion has been dominated by all things JD Drew. Is he killing the team? Should the fans support or boo? Should millionaire pro athletes be treated like professionals who get paid to do a job or like artists, who are sometimes temperamental and need to be coddled? Was Drew a wise signing? Should he benched for rookie phenom Jacob Ellsbury?
One of the Australians staunchly defended Drew. One of the Bostonian/Kennedy crowd argued that the fans should support Drew and all of the Sox... but outside of that limited support, the Australian was on his own.
After 75 or so emails, the conversation had devolved from researched criticism and insightful debate to little more than name calling. The Australian then said the following:
I reckon there’s a difference between cursing the f*ck out someone for botching a dp or letting a dribbler roll through his legs (ie for f*cks SAKE Lugo, it’s not that hard to throw at Youkilis) and booing someone in the on deck circle in the bottom of the first before his first at bat. There’s pretty much only 1 player on the Sox I hate, in Mirabelli, but I’m not booing the dude when he’s announced on the Fenway jumbotron.
Managers should be booed though. They suck. Actually, I once met Wendell Kim and I wanted to punch him in the throat.
And that got me thinking. We'd reached an impasse and still failed to settle our dispute... but why? Then I hit upon a solution, a strong way to at least articulate my point of view, even if it still failed to convince our holdout. My reply?
Punch Wendell Kim in the throat? He's my all time favorite 3rd base coach! Was with the Giants forever, and always ran out to his position. Fantastic, and very noticeable to myself and all of my friends when we were growing up.
And I think that's part of the point. Baseball's a game, and I like to at least try to approach watching the game in the same way as I did when I was a kid. My understanding is more sophisticated now, but I still want to see the same qualities in players that led me to favorites as a kid if I'm going to root for them now - talent, skill, hustle, smarts, heart, leadership, selflessness, style and a smile.
JD only clearly exhibits 1 and 2 on a daily basis (or at least he did before this year). 3-5 are up for debate. 6-9 are lacking entirely.
That's really it. When I think of all of the players I've loved over the years, in any sport, they all score well on this metric. Score well and one player alone is enough for me to tune in. Score poorly, and I, as a fan, would be happier if the team I root for traded you.
(Update:) The Sports Guy has written an article about just this subject. About Sox fans booing Drew, The Sports Guy says:
I believe a player should be booed by the home crowd for four reasons only: 1) a noticeable lack of effort, 2) an indefensibly dumb mistake, 3) if the coach keeps stupidly trotting him out in big spots (in which case the expressed displeasure is for the decision, not the player) and 4) if he happens to be named Tim Thomas or J.D. Drew.
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