Realist Taking Over for Bandwagon, Fansplaining Just Isn’t Welcomed

There’s a new trend in Chicago Cubs social circles, a trend which seemingly rips the knowledge of one fan to make the other sound smarter. Yay! This trend can be found in any social media post from someone praising one of the three core players the Cubs traded away last Friday.

This past weekend, we saw Anthony Rizzo, Javier Baez, and Kris Bryant homer in their first games on their new, respective teams. Cubs fans – who are also fans of these players – either posted that fact or videos of it happening. They were instantly hit back with fans, fansplaining the reason these trades happened. Topped with, “i OnLy CaRe AbOuT tHe PlAyErS oN tHe rOsTeR!”

As a man who has likely mansplained sports facts to women (unintentionally), this past week I have gotten a peak behind that curtain and understand (to a small fraction) of how a lot of women fans feel.

Here’s the thing that those realists don’t understand. The folks mourning or posting about our fallen, understand the trades. In fact, I bet they understand them better than you do.

Fans continue to talk about the guys that were moved because they were responsible for the greatest era of Cubs baseball any of us have ever seen. They were major parts of the World Series win. Rizzo was the likeable captain, Bryant the MVP and Rookie of the Year, and Baez was the NLCS Co-MVP (I had him as *THE* MVP of that series).

We watched these guys grow up in front of us, on the baseball field and watched them build families on social media. Kevin Rizzo has his own Obvious Shirt for crying out loud!

This shouldn’t be offensive to anyone that doesn’t want to see the posts, pictures, or videos either. In this free society, and with so many other places you can find content or create it yourself, you have options. The first option, scroll by. Ignore it, or post your own video about Rafael Ortega’s three-homer day.

The fans, “living in the past” know the core wasn’t working any longer. We know the playoff struggles. Heck, we even know they were all about to get really expensive. We understood the idea of getting something when the Cubs may have been left with nothing. Even while I’d argue the best route would have been to build around at least one of the core, it made sense that Jed Hoyer needed to make a decision. Hell, it was probably smart for him to not half-ass what he did either.

Yes, there’s anger and resentment among fans that are still following those three. That anger exists because there were other paths, different ways to move forward. We understand that, and most of us aren’t naive enough to think those realists don’t understand that.

A lot of fans have likened Friday to a death in the family. While it is a bit overkill, and they are all very much alive and well, the emptiness emotion some feel is really and warranted. There are fans, smart fans, grieving over this. There are families in Chicago that Anthony Rizzo personally gave thousands upon thousands to bury their children. There are thousands of families that will never get over the idea that someone that impacted their lives in such an intimate way, will never be back in any substantial way.

So let us have the space and the ability to discuss those three. Let them celebrate those three. Let them remember their contributions and celebrate their future successes.

If there’s anything positive of these moves (outside of minor league replenishment) it is these two things.

Cubs fans as a whole are likely to get more resilient. That’s a tough task for a fanbase that went 108 years between championships.

Cubs fans are about to learn a lot more about the league as a whole. Whether you’re following Anthony or Javy in New York, or Kris in San Francisco. Maybe Craig and Ryan on the Southside or Joc and now Jorge in ATL, we are watching more baseball. We are seeing the league. Cubs fans have an opportunity to see how much great baseball there is out there. As painful as it may be seeing your favorite dude in another shirt, you get to learn so much more about this beautiful league and wonderous sport.