Minnesota NOT Nice

I'm always one of the first (and sometimes only) ones to stick up for Joe Mauer.  Not only is he my favorite baseball player, but he's a fellow St. Paul kid who graduated the same year I did.  I sensed some anger directed at him from Twins fans before the mega-contract came in 2010.  They were all  accusing him of running after money because a deal wasn't done yet.  They said "that jerk is gonna go to the Yankees.  We hate him."


So he got the deal done, signed with Minnesota for the foreseeable future.  Then, they said "that jerk is making too much money.  We hate him."


Then he had the misfortune of having health issues at the beginning of 2010, and Target Field didn't quite click with him (did it ever click with anyone on our team, besides Jim Thome?) and everyone said, "that jerk got his contract and now he doesn't care."


Then he had the extreme misfortune of having off season knee surgery and showing up for Spring Training unable to compete, then to add insult to injury he got sick.  Rumors of horrible illness began to float around, no one liked the explanation he and the team gave, and everyone wanted to know what was really going on.  Then they said, "that jerk is going soft, he can't handle a little pain."


I truly didn't think that too many people felt this way in Minnesota.  From 2004 (2001 if you followed baseball hardcore) until 2009, people were eating this guy up (yes, there was the knee stuff in 2004 but for the most part people still loved him).  They were clamoring for him to befriend their sons and marry their daughters.


But then last night, I began reading the comments on "The Joe Mauer Story" as it's being referenced.  There were over 200 of them.


And they were mean.  Really mean.  What I thought was more telling, was that you can "like" or "dislike" a comment.  And a lot of people liked the negative comments.  Not too many liked the few people who still supported Joe.


And I thought, when did I move to New York City?  Last time I crossed the border to come home from Three Lakes, the statue of our great state was still displayed at the edge of the St. Croix.  My phone's weather app still claims I'm in St. Paul.


Look, our season is done.  I am always the last one to give up hope on a season, I was the only person at my job in 2009 who thought the Twins still had a chance.  When we won the division after an amazing September.  I haven't done the math on this season yet (you know, where the statistics of games left/games we are behind from 1st meet up and we're officially DONE), and I still think there may be a tiny bit of a chance left that a miracle could happen, but this season has been too historically bad.  I don't think it's gonna happen.


I felt that this season was cursed from the beginning, because ever since Nishi suffered the broken leg in May, I felt that I could call out the players who were going to go on the DL next. And for the most part, I've been right.  We've had horrible luck.  I want someone to check the Minneapolis history books for Ancient Indian Burial Grounds underneath Target Field (seriously did someone check for that?!?)  Or maybe someone buried a Torii Hunter or AJ Pierzynski jersey under home plate (this was the closest match I could think of to the Babe Ruth curse)?  Maybe Nishi brought some bad "Kitsunetsuki" (Japanese witchcraft, thanks Google!) with him?


The thing is, it's been everyone.  If I listed all the people who had been hurt, and all of their injuries, it would take up 10 pages.


But all anyone wants to talk about is Joe.  I don't get it.  It must just be because he's the most well known player and he's too quiet.  People think he should be a vocal leader like Cuddyer, or Morneau.  But that's not his personality!  They didn't magically give him a personality transplant when he signed his first major league contract.  So, if Joe was out there giving you all of his medical records and calling out teammates in the media and throwing bats at Umps, then you would like him?  The way that people are acting now, they wouldn't care if his legs and arms fell off.  They'd still expect him to be out there, hopping around on stumps, trying to bat with his teeth.


So this is what I came up with--I was discussing it with a friend online this morning.  There is a thin line between love and hate.  At the end of 2009, people loved Joe so much, there was nowhere for it to go but down.  When you love someone so much, sometimes it's really easy to hate them just as passionately if they let you down.


That's a really crappy way to behave.  Everyone is going to let you down, sometime.  But if you read my previous post about the world going down the tubes, you see that really it's not surprising  considering the level of morals we have now days.  And I wrote that BEFORE the riots in London.


I could finish up with a lot of things.  I've had neck issues in my life, and they're debilitating.  So maybe that's why I'm not jumping on Joe this time.  You can't function in regular life, much less play Major League Baseball.  But everyone thinks he's being a baby and comparing him to Cuddyer.  Hey, does anyone remember a week ago when Cuddyer had a neck strain and didn't play?  Does anyone remember a little thing called the 2008 SEASON when Cuddyer didn't play pretty much the whole year because of...a broken finger?  Why does everyone think this guy is God?  He's had his issues, too.  They all have.  Stop comparing them.  And don't accuse me of being a Cuddyer hater.  I love Cuddyer, he's one of my favorite players besides Joe.  I think he's done a great job this season.  But I don't think that just because he's the best friend of the media, everything written about him should be so one-sided.  Because people are listening to what the writers are saying and forming their opinions about what's going on, based on it.  "Cuddyer is amazing, why can't Mauer be more like him?"  That is all I've read this year.  No wonder the fans are going to start thinking it.


Why can't Joe be more like Mike?  Um, because he's NOT Mike?  Just throwing that out there.


I finish with this, and I've said it before--before we run around lambasting people with pitchforks and torches on the Internet, let's remember that we're talking about real people here.  Joe's not a super hero, he's a real person who can read and has feelings (and guess what, his family can read too) and none of you are helping the situation by verbally stringing him up from the nearest tree.  One of the best comments I read was someone saying just that--No one is helping Joe by ripping him a new one publicly.  He needs to know that people support him.  He's had a stretch of bad luck--nothing more.  He didn't get in a crazy secret car accident and then lie about it *cough* someone on our pitching staff *cough* or violate his contract by playing anything other than golf (Aaron Boone).  He's not sleeping behind a bar in Dinkytown, out partying until 6am *cough* someone else on our team *cough* (in 2003-2006).


So let's all just lay off, eh?  2012 is a new year.  Let's add some good karma to it by shutting up now.


PS. Maybe we should fire Bill Smith.  If anyone should be taking heat right now, it should be him.  Not enough people are saying that.