Article:Bradley Clean Slate and the Negative Atmosphere in Which he Just Arrived

Welcome to Chicago Milton Bradley. The place where half of the most loyal fan base in baseball, it would seem, really, truly, honestly want to see the Cubs win it all. Yet it is the place where the other half of the "most loyal fan base" in baseball seems content to whine, wallow, talk nonsense about curses, point, blame, and scape goat their way through a miserable existence. The highlight of which is being a Chicago Cubs fan. Too bad for them times are changing in Chicago. The Cubs haven't won the World Series, but they have won the Central Division two seasons in a row, a feat no living Cubs fan would have seen in their life times.



Did I say scape goat? Ahh, how ironic life really is isn't it? The curse of the billy goat after all is the one that plagues the Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field. The billy goat curse, which has itself become a media scape goat fulfilling its soul purpose of masking the truth. The truth that while a lot of America loves to root for the underdog, the rest loves to "kick em' while they're down." Now that the Chicago Cubs are no longer the underdog, we are left with the people who still need somebody to kick all around baseball to make themselves feel better and the "loyal" fans who came out of the woodwork to see the Cubs almost make it to the series in 2003 and still have not left. And finally the same old Chicago and sports media who seems to continually write and sell stories about the 100+ plus year drought, the Bartman incident, and now Milton Bradley's approach to baseball and the media as if it demonstrates anything other than a total lack of creativity. Seriously, to all sports and baseball beat writers, deadlines got you down? Tired of focusing on the facts of what happens on the field? Just can't really help yourself can any of you. In a post 9/11 world we still have splash contrived emotion all over sports media like suffering from your team not winning a World Series in 100 years is even remotely a legitimate cause of pain in life. Sports are an escape from all of that, get it together and cheer because there is just plainly no reason not to. Beat writers get a life, get some creativity, and find something worth talking about. To everybody stop reading it and start believing the Cubs can and will win and it WILL make a difference.

Yeah I said it. Cubs fans, Bradley has made his mistakes, and maybe everybody is right, he'll make more as a Cub. But now seems a pretty good time to ask the question as fans. Which would we rather accomplish this season? Cheer the Cubs to a third straight division title and hopefully a World Series? Or would we rather be successful in contributing to running Bradley out of town because we were too selfish to just let the guy play. If Bradley doesn't produce do Cubs fans think Lou Piniella won't handle the situation? I assure all of you he will, he doesn't need our help. But the Cubs do need the support of their fans and perhaps that goes double for Milton Bradley. So what, call him what you want. The choice to boo your own players rather than cheer is one that can be made by the fans and while neither booing, nor cheering will change the names on the back the jersey's on the field. I believe a little support for your team no matter who takes the field, and a whole lot of cheering has carried much lesser teams a whole lot farther. To the sports media, some of the Cubs fan base, grow up, cheer and enjoy the game... After all its just baseball, the greatest sport there ever will be.

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