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Old 02-16-2023, 08:47 AM
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D. Bergin D. Bergin is offline
Dave
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Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: CT
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Snapolit1 View Post
I don't understand why fans have hatred for guys who leave. Have you ever moved jobs? I have. Sometimes it's for more money, sometimes it's just for a change, sometimes for family or other reasons. These guys have zero loyalty or affinity for any of these teams. I loved Degrom when he was great, and he moved on, and, well so do my ex wife. Best of luck against everyone except us. This whole narative that DeGrom never properly thanked Mets fans publicly on his departure is ridiculous.

It's like Jerry Seinfeld says, being a sport fan is really just being a fan of laundry. We loved that guy until he leaves. Then we hate him. And we hated that guy, but, wow now he's on our team, and now we love him. It's all pretty ridiculous on some level. I have no doubt if Clemens had become a Met a few years after the Piazza bat throwing situation people would have loved him. Ditto Chase Utley.

Met fans bad mouth Matt Harvey today. Over what? Being a generally asshole? Well we knew that when he was on the team didn't we. But then he was our asshole. Guy was a warrior.

Fans love building guys up and then shitting on them.

I generally root for guys that move on from my teams. Especially if they were homegrown, or it seems like they got the shaft or were taken for granted when they were let go, traded, not signed, etc....

My favorite example is Ron Francis. Whalers were always a middling franchise when they were in Hartford. They thought Francis was washed up and injury prone at 27 years old. Traded him and Ulfie Samuelsson for a can of corn and a box of cereal.

I watched from afar as Francis got to play on the same line as Mario Lemieux, and Ulfie was still a solid defenseman, along with a top enforcer for Pittsburgh, while Hartford drifted to the bottom of the standings for the foreseeable future.

Francis eventually made his way back, to the Carolina version of the Whalers and better times, but by then I had lost interest.

Francis eventually became the #2 assist guy and #5 points guy of All-Time while also establishing himself as one of the most durable Centers of All-Time. Not bad for a washed up, injury prone throwaway.

My 2nd favorite was Dave Winfield becoming a Playoff and World Series hero for Toronto in 1992, after George Steinbrenner spent 10 years sh*tting all over him for not being Reggie Jackson in 1981.

I also gotta thank Winfield for getting Georgie Boy suspended eventually, and creating a window for the Yankees "Core 5" (yes I'll call them that), to be nurtured in the farm system for a bit, instead of getting traded for old has beens and coulda beens.

The modern day revisionist hero worship of Steinbrenner these days from rabid dude-bro Yankee fans who don't remember what a shitheel George was from 1979 on, annoys me to no end.
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