Jacque Jones hit a 3-run homer to win a game against the Florida Marlins on April 24th. While it's way too early in the season to talk about must-wins, that win - where the Cubs put up a 6-spot in the 8th inning after being down 3-0 - is one that can give a club momentum to eke out a win here and a win there. But Jones has been rightfully unhappy with the verbal abuse heaped on him by some Cubs' attendees:
After his three-run homer capped a six-run eighth in the Cubs' 6-3 victory over the Florida Marlins, Jones said he has absorbed a rather crude collection of hurtful adjectives, adverbs and nouns from the right field unfaithful.
Will this game-winning homer change that negative chorus?
"I don't think so,'' Jones said. "I'm hearing all kinds of stuff in the outfield. I try not to pay attention. But it's so loud and so angry right now. It's almost funny. They have a right to voice whatever opinion they want. But it's not going to make me play any better. It's not going to make me play any worse.
Jones makes an understandable comparison to fans in Minnesota.
"Where I came from [the Minnesota Twins], they were passionate about baseball. We probably didn't draw as many, but through thick and thin it was 'let's go, we can do it, we know you can do it.' It's something I got to get used to.''
Certainly Jacque knows the term "Minnesota Nice." It's not just "nice." It's "Minnesota Nice." It's not the type of nice, the southern hospitality nice, that I hear about from friends who visit Texas. Minnesota nice is a much more reserved nice. It's not a passionate nice. It's a "pat-on-the-back" "I'll-help-you-out" "but-you're-not-coming-in-for-dinner" nice.
Wrigley Field attendees are from a different breed of animal than Twins fans. Some attendees in the Wrigley bleachers, where the beer and the alcohol play*, are going to be rude. The rudeness seems to have increased beginning in 2004 when the Cubs were expected to make the playoffs. In any case, Mr. Jones is going to have to ignore it.
*That's a weak reference to the line from "Home, Home on the Range" that goes "where the deer and the antelope play."