I love when Lou Piniella says stuff, preferably into microphones. When Lou came out in support of Mark McGwire a month ago, I thought he was full of crap. This week, he confirmed it. In case you missed it, Lou suggested that Cubs fans will forgive McGwire for taking steroids. Lou hasn’t been more wrong since he batted Kosuke Fukudome second and failed to get Ted Lilly a start in the 2008 playoffs.
From the article:
“I think Cub fans will treat him fine,” Piniella said. “We have a great rivalry. He’ll be accepted well. I think they feel he confessed and it’s over with.”
Cubs fans will treat McGwire fine? The same Cubs fans who booed Sammy Sosa while he was busy hitting 545 home runs FOR their team? The same Cubs fans who mercilessly booed now-Twin Jacque Jones while he was busy having the second-best offensive season of his career? The same Cubs fans who booed Milton Bradley when all he did was go on tandem bicycle rides with Paul Sullivan and blow kisses at the bleacher fans?
Rick Ankiel was tortured mercilessly at Wrigley Field after it came out that he had used HGH, and he was absolute crap against the Cubs, and Ankiel sucks. He hit only .198/.278/.370 against the Northsiders with 3 home runs in 81 at-bats. Ankiel was tormented so badly at Wrigley Field, he actually traveled back in time to the 2000 playoffs.
How do you think Cubs fans will respond to a steroid user with a career .272/.453/.832 line against them? A guy whose every highlight reel reminds us that Steve Trachsel was a Cub? TWICE.
If I have any faith left in Cubs fans, they’ll react EXCELLENTLY! Cubs fans have been over-booing players for years. It’s finally time to shine at the one thing at which we excel. This is like when that little bitch from Jurassic Park spent nearly the entire movie being annoying, but then it was all forgotten because she knew how to hack the park’s files and lock the doors before the raptors got in and ripped off Dr. Grant’s face. We have ONE skill, and Lou thinks we’re not going to use it to convince a raptor to rip off Mark McGwire’s face? COME ON.
Here is my fear, though. We can’t just boo. McGwire deserves more. Wrigley Field deserves more. WE deserve more. The “HGH!” chant started by Huey, Slaky, Fork, and Apex at Ankiel’s return to Wrigley Field was well-played, but we need more for McGwire. We need to think bigger. Think pimplier. Think McGwire’s-big-fat-kid-er. We can’t be reduced to chants of “Mark McLiar!” or “Big Macne!” We can do better. We WILL do better. We have until May 28th TO do better.
Signs, chants, limericks, anything. What do you have?
Obviously lou doesn’t understand the depth of our hatred for the cardnials. I hate all cardnials even the honest ones, who wouldn’t harm a fly. I won’t set foot in St Louis and I chewed my wife’s ass because when she went to visit her family last thanksgiving, she traveled to St Louis and SPENT MONEY there. Money that will be used to at some point to buy better players and that money will come back to hurt the Cubs. I told a little pig tailed girl I saw at the super market who was wearing a redbird hat that that Cardnial fans can’t go to heaven. I dont think I’ll be forgiving anyone especially this dickhead. Fuck St. Louis.
does he really have a 1.287 career OPS against the cubs? really? holy shit. anyway, i would like to think you’re right but after the MULTIPLE standing Os given to derosa, i have no faith in cubs’ fans anymore. it really wouldn’t surprise me if they cheered for mcgwire…sigh. also, you seem to have a lot of animosity towards the girl from jurassic park for no specific reason. there’s no way she was any more annoying than her chump brother, or that fat kid from the beginning of the movie, or jeff goldblum for that matter. were you rejected in 5th grade by a girl who looked like her or something?
I’ve also thought about this but how exactly do you boo an opposing team’s hitting coach? He’ll just sit in the dugout thinking how much smaller his balls are now than the last time he was in Wrigley.
How about a sign that says “
Shoot’emCoach’em Up, Mark!”I’m thinking the simpler the better. I’m a big fan of “Sterrrrrrrrrrr – oiiiiiiiiiiiiids” over and over, or even just the word “Roids!” or “Juiced!” or “Juicing!” started slow and with you and a few friends, but eventually getting louder and faster as more people join in. I’m hoping that it gets loud enough that you can hear it across the stadium, that would be great.
Track Mark “Big Macne” McGwire.
Dude loves him some scar tissue.
so if we boo him does it finally prove we hate white douche bags too?
I don’t believe for a moment that Lou believes this. But it’s what he pretty much has to say in public. Rehabilitating McGwire’s image is part of the Used Car Ghoul’s overall plan for whitewashing the steroids era. No one directly associated with any MLB franchise is likely to go too far off the reservation on this one, at least not at first. A steady chorus of boos, an Aristophanic chorus of vulgar and vituperative taunts, is probably a moral imperative to show that fans are far from ready to close the accounts on the cheaters and the frauds quite yet. Plus it will feel good, especially after a couple of beers.
I’m with pecker on this. (Did I really just write “I’m with pecker”?) I can’t imagine how this will matter. He’s the hitting coach. Given the opportunity, we’ll boo his ass. But it’s not like he’s going to be really visible as the hitting coach.
@Tom Trebelhorn – Maybe he’ll come on the field during batting practice and we just have to get there early enough
I think the key is consistency, and I agree with Ryan Beariot,the simpler the better. Fans can not specifically boo the hitting coach, but we can chant “ster – roids” after Cardinal home runs or each time they score a run in Wrigley.
I personally don’t think Macne will give a shit, but his idiot savant coach will. LaRussa expects people to accept McGwire back into the baseball ‘family’ and into the Hall. When Cubs fans, and hopefully all baseball fans, reject LaRussa’s pet project, his blood will boil to the point he will need a drink. We have a responsibility to future generations of baseball fans to ruthlessly let LaRussa and any sports writer that we do not want McGwire, Sosa, Bonds, etc in the Hall.
If the Todd Hundley Experience didn’t prove that Cubs fans are equal-opportunity critics, then nothing will.
Mark McGwire’s every highlight does not remind me that the cubs had Trachsel twice… but you just did.
Thanks a lot asshole.
I think some simple “Maris Never Juiced” signs would be the best bet. Barring any Frasier-related misunderstandings, it should get the point across.