Opening day didn’t go the Cubs way in 2017, and they are under .500 for the first time since the 2015 season. We are smart enough to understand that this is just game one of 162, and in baseball, you don’t hang on one play or one game. But it appears a lot of Chicago Cubs Fans are not smart enough to understand what happened on this play.
https://twitter.com/StoolFrederic/status/848733524467363841
Yes, Dexter went in hard towards Addison Russell, and yes Addy gave it a look of being surprised. Then the ESPN booth spoke about the play and that’s when Cubs fans took notice.
https://twitter.com/md_rosebraugh/status/848733610987454464
https://twitter.com/STFUnwo/status/848826230363258881
I've loved Dexter Fowler since day one but that slide was dirty as hell. 👀
— Riss (@MarissaK_) April 3, 2017
I do wonder, where did these same Cubs fans stand on the Chris Coghlan slide in 2015 that ended Jung Go Kang’s season just before the playoffs?
https://youtu.be/JEj7slTe7a4
The thing is, he mostly complied with the new slide rule.
I certainly wouldn’t go as far as to say he was dirty, and since I am a traditionalist, I don’t even think it was a bad play. Now, you can interpret the slide in a hundred different ways, and it doesn’t help that Addison seemingly took exception to it.
This, in my mind, was a baseball play, period. But as I have learned over the course of five years of writing… my mind isn’t always what Cubs fans see. That is why I am asking you, is this a dirty play, or not?
So what do you think? Was this dirty? Or was it just a baseball play? You decide.
