Wow for Tori Hunter to say he didnt want to play for the Cubs just becuase of this, thats incredible. I didnt it as that bad at all. All these fans that are making these comments should be ashamed of themsleves there are better ways to get in a players head. Hopefully Milton does not have to go through this and same for Joey Gathright

Playing the race card. I am sure there are some idiots out there. I like to think how you are treated has more to do with how you play. Ernie, Billy, Fergie and DLee might have a different story.

I think this is awful. I think it is a great thing about Wrigley that we boo players when they perform poorly and ridiculously cheer players who perform well. Cubs fans are generally smart and follow the team closely (See: fans standing o for Reed at the home opener, following the Fielder larceny on Sunday).

However, this article is awful and the fact that many players have remarked about this is pretty startling. Now, to be fair all of the players mentioned in the article (save Bradley) are friends from their Minnesota playing days. But there’s no question that Wrigley fans, supposedly the best in the business, have acted awfully to racial minorities.

Most of the Fukudome gear was/is great but the “Howry Cow” shirts are ridiculously offensive. We should be hardnosed, no nonsense, boo-if-they-suck fans, but we lose all credibility when we throw out racial slurs.

I couldn’t care less that fellow Cubs fans are racists or throw out slurs. None of my business and nothing I can do to change it. But when you bring that garbage to Wrigley it becomes all of our business. When our hometown paper recognizes the venomous, racially-charged atmosphere, we know we have a problem.

Beyond the awareness that this article will (hopefully) bring, I’m not sure what anyone can do. Reputations are a hard thing to change, especially when guys as beloved as Torii tout the story.

To me, this is simply ridiculous. I only attend 3-5 games in the bleachers/year. But, I have been doing that for a lot of years now. I have never, not once, heard something I would consider racial. Not one N-word. Today, I can’t even fathom someone saying that without getting tremendous heat from those sitting around him/her.

I have heard lost of stupid, and lots of creative heckling. Some of this gets personal. I have heard comments about mothers/wives/extra-marital stuff/illegitimacy etc. I mostly find the personal stuff out of bounds, once in a great while it is funny (mostly because it’s a reaction to a media supplied story), but never once have I heard it become racial.

Bradley has not played one game at Wrigley for the Cubs. He was reacting to question. The reporter was resurrecting stories from the Jacque Jones era – a blatant example of the media trying to create a story. I was at a couple games when Jones was getting a lot of heat. The strongest thing I ever heard was "You throw like a girl" – which in that particular game I thought was spot on.

The mix of beer, sun, and youth occasionally produces embarrassing results. But mostly the fans are self-policing. Despite my personal experience I’m sure racial slurs do occur, but I don’t believe it is tolerated, encouraged, or occurs in greater proportions at Wrigley.

I have only sat in the bleachers once, but it seems to me that fans are more than willing to embrace players that play well. Jacque Jones hit soft grounders to the right and threw the ball about 11 feet, and that includes the 4 bounces before it got to 2B. I wouldn’t think GameBoard would have a problem if he keeps up his monster OBP and effort.

Dan

But I do know they happened. They are reprehensible and those responsible should be removed from the ballpark. A ban as mentioned above, might be suitable for such offenders.

… it is people. People like to separate things into an “us vs. them” mentality, and they like to insult people who are “different”. It is a sad, disturbing part of human nature for many people, presumably those who have not mentally evolved as far as they could have.

but the S-T is in deep, deep trouble. It may not last the year. Right now, I’m sure the only goal is to sell papers — on the newsstand — since the subscriber base is now so, so low.

Therefore, the only way to grab the potential reader’s eye is to splash this headline all over either the back or part of the front page.

Heckling of all outfielders has gone on since…the bleachers were built. I seem to remember that Tony Gwynn spoke of this, (usually the taunts had to do with his weight) but he let his bat do his talking and ignored any of the idiots.

In any event, newspapers like the S-T which already tend to sensationalize (not back in the Mike Royko days, though) are now putting the petal to the metal, full speed ahead, damn the torpedos…and any other cliche I can haul out…to sell a paper.

Unless somebody acquires the S-T, it will not last this year. Remember that.

yeah, the s-t is just trying to sell papers with this story. and the guy in the pic is just trying to sell tshirts.

i can tell you that racist crap is yelled in every park. but i know that when it happens in the phone booth (SF), not only the ushers but the people around get pissed. it’s not encouraged, and if this shirt vendor was outside the stadium in SF, he’d get pummelled, as he should.

i went to one of the cubs games last year in the phone booth, and as an asian cubs fan came in to sit down, he got called “fukudome” by a couple people in the bleachers. the racists were quickly beat down by neighbors. would that happen in wrigley or would they be encouraged? i think this newspaper article and the picture here tell me otherwise.

did you watch any movie in the 50’s 60’s where hollywood only used white people as buck toothed asians (think mickey rooney in breakfast at tiffany’s, and yes, i’m ashamed that my wife made me watch the once: manpoints *(-100))?

schneider was ridiculous, but he was parodying those movies back in the day.

i can’t participate in this conversation. al will ban me for cussing one of you out, so i’ll take the high road and just say, free speech is cool. being a racist pujol isn’t. and i’m not call baddecisions racist. i’m just replying to his comment.

my word, it’s the 21st century now. seriously, we in america still have this problem? i guess idiots will always roam earth.

Yes there are jerks in the BLCHRs but I think what really happened was that folks were so let down after the 04 collapse down the stretch that the whole vibe at Wrigley was absolutely ugly for a while. A brief history:

future HOFer Andre Dawson roamed RF from 87-92 and was revered as a God.
Sammy Sosa 92-04: was revered for years until the ugly 04 collapse/boom box episode
Gary Mathews JR: ’00 Sin: batted south of .220
Corey Patterson : 04/05 : Sin: swinging at high fastballs
LaTroy Hawkins: 05 Sin: blamed for crappy bullpen and being a setup guy but not a closer
Dusty Baker 05/06: Sin: Basically giving up on games and then the whole 05 season
Juan Pierre: 06: Sin: noodle arm, but 200 hits and 58 SBs
Jacque Jones 06/07: Sin: could not throw, literally was injured and could not throw the ball

I think it is a real valid point to wonder if Milton will get hounded by the bleacher bums but I think the racist stuff is more a case of some hecklers having limited imaginations.
I have heard some questionable stuff and I do my best to shout down undeserved boos, but with Mathews and Jones it was beyond my capacity to restrain myself.

The 04 collapse was ugly and it left the Cubs wandering in the wilderness for a while. Things are hopefully different this year, I don’t think Bradley gets on the bad side of the Bleacher Bums because he has tons of talent behind the plate and performs well enough in the field. Even though Bradley has a bad rep from the media, I think his style will be appreciated by Cubs fans in the end.

Two things Bradley has to avoid:
1) saying a stupid remark like Dusty’s ‘Black guys are better to play at Wrigley because White guys get sunburn’ (possible considering the media wolves)
2) giving up and not playing hard (i don’t think Bradley does this- the knock is he plays too hard)

Quicker justice would be to just toss the drunken lout onto the field and tell him to say it to the player’s face.

if you try to self-police, the individual might be packing heat……

So, you just endure…..

The Sun Times has a history of calling anyone no matter what they said who criticized Baker and wanted him fired and Baylor before him racist.

And according to them if you voted for McCain no matter what the reason it was because you are racist.

Yes there have been incidents but I’ve seen a lot worse at the Cell.

Not saying it’s appropriate by any means but to isolate Clark & Addison is just a small phamlet-like, desperate publication filing Ch.11, trying to create controversy, and therefore readership.

Giving them the attention here and many other places just shows them they accomplished their task; getting attention.

Anyone else find it ironic that this comes out the day after the most abused player by the fans in recent memory. Jason Marquis beat us?

The most abused by Chicago fans in recent memory whether they performed or not were Jason Marquis and Rex Grossman. They got some nasty taunts, letters and at least with Rex death threats.

And I actually have seen in other forums Hoffpauir fans accused of racism for preferring him over Lee. While I think they are silly to want him to play everyday I don’t think it’s racism.

I think it also has to do with the players are so close to the stands and can hear it more than any other places.

I like a creative taunt more than anything.

We used to have fun with guys. One of my all time favorites was Andy VanSlyke. Roger McDowell would have some pregame hijinks as well.

maybe you should do a post on how Wrigley can clean up the bleachers. I’ve been to the bleachers twice so can’t really speak to behavior issues. I know that last year when I went it was vs. Milwaukee and we had 4 young brewer fans in front of us (me and my girlfriend) and surrounded by Cubs fans otherwise. We had a generally good time razzing the Brewer fans and they back at us it never got ugly and there was plenty of drinks consumed by everyone.
I’ve been very disappointed to see how Cubs fans have treated players over the last couple of years. The name Jaque Jones is treated as if he kicked someone’s puppy, repeatedly. It’s preposterous to think that using a racist term or slur against someone is acceptable in ANY circumstance. Believe me I live in South Georgia so I get to here my fair share of racism and its not ever proper.
Is there a hotline at Wrigley for reporting “bad” behavior? There is one at Soldier field I believe.

Stop the presses
Cubs angry over article on Wrigley fans
April 15, 2009, 1:40 PM
By: Bruce Levine

Cubs management is incensed over a cover story in Wednesday’s Chicago Sun-Times alluding to Wrigley Field as being a hotbed for racist comments toward African-American players.

The story centered on the possibility that Milton Bradley, who has had a history of overreacting to certain situations on the field, might react to taunts from Wrigley fans.

One management source told me that newspaper officials were contacted by the team, which complained that this type of article without an incident attached to it is negative for the sake of being negative and could provoke responses to a problem that doesn’t currently exist.

My sources told me before Bradley was signed that he was challenged about the issue during conversations with the team. Bradley told me in spring training that fan taunts are a part of the game and that he could deal with any comments aimed at him from the stands.

Cubs management has gone to great lengths to protect its players, including censoring and ejecting some fans from the left-field stands last year when they became abusive toward Alfonso Soriano.

http://espn.go.com/chicago/columns/blog?post=4070859&name=levine

save for the 2nd half of ‘07. I was out there today and the fans were mercilessly on Ankiel. I’ve heard them get on many CFers and none of the taunts were EVER racist. Just my 2 cents. It’s a whole lot about nothing IMHO.

I find all abusive language towards players disgusting whether it be race based or not.

People like worf only think it’s wrong if it’s race based. It’s wrong period and all of it is embarassing.

Why is it okay to call Kevin Gregg a blanking blanking blanking okay? Especially when 99 percent of it was because he’s not Kerry Wood? (and I’m Kerry’s biggest fan).

And I only tend to trust the Sun Times as far as I can throw it. It has a long history of being a piece of crap. I only get it for the crossword puzzle.

And there is no question more security is needed in the bleachers.

I am 40 and old enough to remember when the bleachers were a lot more fun.

I’m sure Al can remember it even more. Not only is he older than me but he’s been there about 20000 more times than I have.

Wittmeyer is not even good enough to be called a hack writer.

Bruce Miles is the Michael Jordan of Cubs reporting. Wittmeyer is not even as good as the 4th string shooting guard on a basketball team for 2 year olds.

One rotten apple will spoil the barrel.

No one should ever have to be subjected to racist remarks, no matter what race they are, especially if it occurs in public, and because of anything they did, or didn’t do, on a field of play. For anyone to say that players and coaches use it as an excuse after they left, in order to make up for some notion that they didn’t get a fair shake while a Cub, is complete nonsense. Dusty Baker did get racist mail, some that threatened his life. So did LaTroy, and JJ. Grab wildly for an excuse? Are you serious? No one is trying to paint Wrigley as racist, but rather draw attention to the FACT that it does happen. It is unacceptable, it is ignorant, and it is racist. I don’t blame Dusty for wanting to leave, nor JJ or LaTroy. If you haven’t experienced true racism, your view of this situation, honestly, is not informed. It’s time that this country realized that race is of no import, and bringing it into the equation is simply ignorant. It doesn’t matter if it is an off hand comment, or true racism- it is unacceptable. Anyone who heckles or taunts a player using racial slurs is a coward, and they are ignorant. They should be ejected, they should not be allowed to return, they should be marginalized for the ignoramuses they are. It’s 2009 for goodness sake. Is it finally possible to get past the color of someone’s skin? We all are people no matter our race, religion, or sex. To excuse this as sour grapes is simply not plausible, not when someone sent mail to our former manager that threatened his life, and called him a N*****, because they didn’t like the way he managed. It is wrong, all of you know it. Grow up.