St Louis Doesn’t Deserve Dexter Fowler
This has been a couple of months coming. I have held my tongue in terms of how many St Louis Cardinals fans have treated Dexter Fowler, but I just cannot any longer. It is plain and simple, St Louis doesn’t deserve Dexter Fowler.
St Louis Doesn’t Deserve Dexter Fowler
It seems every month there is a flare up with Cardinals fans and Dexter – which he hasn’t deserved. Cardinals fans have railed on him because he was a Chicago Cubs. Cardinals fans railed on him because of travel. And now they are railing on him in the worst of ways.
Fowler, whose wife Darya Baghbani was born in Iran. The Fowlers had planned on bringing their daughter to Iran this offseason, but due to the travel ban that was put into place, they decided to stay home. Making matters worse, Darya’s sister postponed a return trip from Qatar due to the confusing travel bans and fear of being detained.
While the ban isn’t currently in place, there has been threats of reestablishing a ban via an executive order. An EO which could hold many travelers stuck without a way back to the states.
Because of this, Dexter had made the comment that the recent election has effected him and his family. Without taking a political side or stance, our political climate caused some backlash – especially from his current fan base.
The fellers over at Baseball’s Best Fans posted the endless ranting of St Louis Cardinals fans on Twitter. The response is enough to break your heart, especially knowing how genuine Dexter had been with the Cubs fan base.
“It’s huge. Especially any time you’re not able to see your family, it’s unfortunate.” – Dexter Fowler pic.twitter.com/eDLRleURzE
— Baseball’s Best Fans (@BestFansStLouis) February 19, 2017
I highly encourage you to click on the Twitter link to read all of the saddening responses.
I personally had bought into Cardinal fans being “the best in baseball” as they have traditionally been smart. They have supported their teams. They have been knowledgable. While I know this isn’t all Cardinal fans response, the immediate attacking of him is sickening.
Continuing Theme
There are a lot of Cardinal fans (actually a lot of St Louis fans of all sports) which point to Chicago as a cesspool. But when you read the replies, it looks like the pot is just hoping the kettle is as black as they are.
Previously mentioned, Cardinal fans have been on a rampage with Dexter. They haven’t liked that he is a “Cubs player.” Others turned when Dexter couldn’t make it to the “Cardinal Care Winter Warm-Up.” Now they are piling on his recent comments.
I don’t know if this is all because he was a Cub or not, but if Dexter’s first three months as a Cardinal are any indication of the rest of his time there – he might not make it through the contract. This is a shame since Dexter has always been a great guy and better teammate. Pushing a guy like Dexter out early, would certainly be a mistake by Cardinal fans.
How would they do this? Well Yahoo broke down the comments in all their horrific unpleasantry.
Among the 600 or so comments on Facebook post, 54 of them told Fowler to “shut up.” More than 30 told him to go back to the Chicago Cubs, where he played the past two seasons. Another 13 told him to keep his “mouth shut.” Six threatened to boycott the Cardinals. About three-quarters disparaged Fowler in one fashion or another. The crux: Know your place, stick to sports.
As we ask to hear more and more from our athletes. We continue to hear how they should stick to sports when their opinions differ from our own. It has become so commonplace that most Cardinal fans never read why Dexter took issue with the travel ban. They assumed he was a “libtard” and assumed he voted against the current president, and they assumed that he was pushing an agenda which didn’t sit well with them.
For the record. I know this is going to sound absolutely crazy, but athletes are humans, and not properties of the team they work for.
— Dexter Fowler (@DexterFowler) February 19, 2017
This is incredibly true, and not many fans understand this. Your employer doesn’t own you, and neither do theirs. Professional athletes are free to have ideas, back political interests, speak out against injustices. What is amazing here is – Dexter didn’t do any of this. He simply said they couldn’t go to Iran due to the threat of a travel ban.
I will admit, the titles of the articles talking about Dexter’s story were very much clickbait, but this is why if you comment you probably should have read the article. How can one be educated if you’re just guessing?
There’s an easy joke here about Missouri residents and not being able to read, but I’ll take the high road and just continue to expect more from the best fans in baseball.
