Holy. Crap. Those are repugnant (the slanted eyes on the Cubby bear take it to a whole new level of “ugly racist”). I gave some grief to the guy selling them. From the article, Fukudome’s pretty clearly offended by them, too, but is too polite to make a huge fuss. But hey, a buck’s a buck, right? Who cares if you make racial jokes at your new star outfielder’s expense?

Any douchebags I see wearing these in Wrigleyville this summer are getting pelted with empties. You might as well be wearing a shirt with the n-word on it.

You know, it’s bad enough when dipwads in the bleachers throw trash on to the warning track and make Cub fans look like idiots. I’ll be damned if I’m going to let a few morons make us all look like racists, too.

It’s pretty clear that shaming the morons won’t be effective.

Although I still think the people making a big deal about the hop should find something else to talk about. The hop had nothing to do with the injury.

Yeah, Mike. And Rami *never* pounds the ball straight into the ground whilst swinging for the fences, right?

We’ll have to agree to disagree on this one. I saw that play and still think Soriano would have been safe. It would have taken a rope of a throw to get him if he was going full-speed. The throw wasn’t very good, either, but it didn’t matter by that point.

I didn’t think Soriano’s play was “stupid” or “unreasonable” there, and I’ve been one of the biggest critics of the Cubs’ baserunning the past five years.

That matches with the explanation that LouPa gave about “The Hop” (you can rock it, you can roll it, you can slop and you can stroll it at the hop….)

He said it helped him focus on catching routine fly balls that had been giving him trouble before he started doing it.

Sounds like Soriano may have ADD/ADHD issues or something similar. Having experience with ADD myself and a daughter with ADHD, I gotta say let him do whatever works if it allows him to harness that talent effectively out on the ball field. It would also be consistent with his approach at the plate. In that case, batting him lead-off may be the best match for what allows him to show such an outstanding talent from time-to-time. ADD/ADHD’ers tend to be like racehorses or Ferraris — much higher maintenance to get them to where their talents can shine but when everything is clicking — stand back! They blow the doors off everything else on the field.

Regardless, there is no acceptable rationalization for him to take 3rd with 2 out and Ramirez due up. All 3 of your propositions are less likely than Ramirez simply knocking a single to the outfield.

Wild pitch? you really want to justify taking third on a potential wild pitch?
Infield single? Did we not establish that Ramirez was up?
Forcing a bad throw form the OF? Really now, how often does that happen? That’s a move that *I* make in softball when I’m on the basepaths. That’s not nearly a good enough reason for a major league baserunner to risk carelessly aborting an inning by attempting.

I also think that blaming his “hop” for the injury is retarded. He pulled a calf muscle. It happens.

There’s a difference between hustling and being brain-dead. In that situation, there is no jusification to take third base.

As for why you do that with two outs and A-Ram due up, I can think of at least three reasons…

1. You can score on a wild pitch.
2. You can score on an infield single.
3. Force a throw from the OF that gets away, allowing you to score.

None of those reasons are enough to advance into a close play and possible out, of course, but from my view down the first base line that night, it appeared he would have made it easily before he injured himself. It would have taken a rope of a throw to get him, at least.

We can’t bitch and moan about guys not hustling, then bitch and moan about how stupid they are when they do hustle but get hurt.

This is not a defense of the hop, just of the play last August.