Loading ...…I’d regret signing a contract with Cincinnati during the off-season. The fans yesterday were brutal towards Dunn; completely unfair to him. Many of the comments that I heard can’t be repeated here, but the general tone was that Dunn should go back to playing football.
Yeah, Dunn earned a bit of derision (he had a bad day in the field), but the worst-looking play he made was caused by the swirling wind in the ballpark. I’ve never felt such wind at a Reds game, and it was causing the ball to do funny things.
Meanwhile, he had a great day at the plate, including a line-drive homerun that was one of the hardest-hit balls I’ve ever seen.
Adam Dunn is the most talented hitter in Cincinnati since the Big Red Machine days. If fans refuse to give him credit for that, and cut him a little slack in the field, they don’t deserve to have a player like Dunn in a Cincinnati uniform. If I were him, I’d go somewhere that I was appreciated. I don’t know if that will ever be the Queen City.
I hope I’m wrong.
I think even Adam would admit that he was dreadful in the field yesterday. He’s a great player, but if he can’t take being ridden by fans after he dropped two catchable balls and looked befuddled on a third, then he’s not fit to play in the Majors.
He did have a good day at the plate, but I would say that on this day, he did more harm than good for the team. That happens from time to time. It’s only one game. He’ll pick ‘em back up on another day and the fans will love him for it.
The other thing is that, for the most part, Opening Day fans aren’t normal Reds or baseball fans. They’re the same people you see in the front row at Jimmy Buffett concerts, the ones who are there because it’s the “place to be”, but don’t really know, nor care, about what’s going on. For a vast majority of them, it’s the only game they attend all season and by August couldn’t even tell you, within 10 games, what the Reds record is .
Real fans understand that Dunn had a bad day and that he’s the best player on this team. My guess is that Dunn is as embarrassed by his performance yesterday as anyone could be, but not concerned at all about a few mindless knuckleheads in the stands.
If Dunn doesn’t want to play in a town where some fans boo even their best players at times, where will he play?
You guys (except for Bill) are missing the point. It wasn’t the fact that he was ridden a bit; that’s expected. It was the venom behind it. It wasn’t just boos, it was vulgar language, telling him to get out of town. Really bad stuff.
Way beyond the way a star player should be treated. If it were just limited to boos, I wouldn’t have mentioned it.
And Bill, I hope you’re right that real fans understand that he’s the best player on this team. I don’t believe that’s true of the average fanatic of the Reds.
And I’m not saying that Dunn was mad about it; he made no comments about it, as far as I know. I just said that I wouldn’t put up with it if I were Dunn. He deserves better, given the fact that he’s the best hitter this city’s seen in a generation.
Booing on Opening Day is like telling your Grandma that her house smells like old lady.
If you want to see the venom that Chad’s talking about, go take a peek at the message boards on Lancaster’s site. It was really quite stunning. Adam Dunn seems to inspire the most nonsensical hatred I’ve ever seen. Funny, unpretentious, and an incredible talent, Dunn somehow makes some idiots see red.
I think Adam will be ok. Even the vulger language is not going to bother him. He’s a grown man, and you’ll experience that in just about any town.
I think about half of the Reds fans realize how valuable he is. The other half remember all of the stikeouts, misplayed balls and “solo-shot HR’s” as they put it.
I think Adam Dunn is like an acquired taste–a fine scotch, if you will. You have to understand the value of OBP, and be able to drop your childhood shame at striking out. Ryan Freel is beer–he appeals more to your emotions.
So, I don’t doubt that people say that. Its definitely not fair, and in my opinion, its idiotic.
I’m really amazed at all of this anger. Come on, it’s one game. There are 161 others, and Dunn wasn’t the only one mucking things up. The rest of the defense was pretty pathetic, too. Not to mention the guys who left runners in scoring position all night. The wind was bad, so it wasn’t all his fault that he played worse than Soriano, the guy who refused to play left one spring training game.
It’s like political bickering in the comments about Dunn around the Reds blogosphere. So what he signed a big contract? Do you want our homegrown player somewhere else? Geesh!