You Can Be Upset If A Player is Traded

During the MLB All Star Game I have been tweeting quite a bit. A fellow blogger, and coverer of all things Chicago Cubs Minor League Baseball, Greg Huss tweeted about the Cubs potentially trading Kris Bryant. Now, anyone that has followed along on this website knows, I am a giant Kris Bryant fan, and unapologetically so. I think very highly of him, what he brings, and what he represented when he came to the Cubs. So of course I would be upset over him possibly being traded. That’s when a troll came out to rip on my response. Here’s the thing, trolls, as KB famously said, “I don’t give a shit.”

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The Chicago Cubs cannot allow Kris Bryant to play for another baseball team. It just can’t happen.

— Greg Huss (@OutOfTheVines) July 14, 2021

I’ll never understand why/fans put one player over another or over the team. I get liking players but if you’re watching a team sport, but the team should be the focus.

— Barney Phillips (@BarneyPhillip11) July 14, 2021

Now, of course, I’m not giving up on the team. I love this team. I have bled blue since my dad could put a C on my chest. But the idea that a fan, who is emotionally invested in the team and players, can’t get upset when someone is traded is fucking ridiculous. Seriously, fuck Barney Phillips and any other trolls that would hijack a conversation to try and play the smartest person in the room when they have zero clue what the fuck they’re talking about.

Sorry for the cursing mom.

Regardless, baseball fans build emotional ties to the game, the team, and the players. This is an everyday sport for half the year. Not only is it half the year, but it is during the best season of the year. It is during months of happiness. It is played while you’re at picnics. It is played while you’re teaching your kids how to hit or while you’re playing catch. It’s an emotional tie that you’d swear makes you happier when it’s on and when the season comes to a close you’re noticeably more irritated and borderline depressed.

So, when you watched your favorite team draft a player that you swore would change the fate of the franchise. You watch him get called up and show the world what the hype was about. Then you see him change the fate of an entire franchise, winning the World Series for the first time in 108 years. You see that man grow, you see him build a family. You see him love coming to the ballpark you praise.

So of course I would be extremely disappointed if the Cubs, the team I love, trades a player I love to root for.

Look, Barney, if your parents didn’t get along any longer, and even if it is better for you and them to separate, you’d be upset, right!? Of course, you would. Now, while parents separating isn’t exactly a franchise deciding to trade a player, but the sentiment is there.

I don’t blame any fan for being upset if any player is moved. I didn’t like the non-tendering of Kyle Schwarber. I saw Jon Lester as a value add at a reasonable contract and didn’t like seeing him go. I didn’t like seeing Jeff Samardzija go, or Ryan Demster, or Jake Arrieta, or Yu Darvish, or Pedro Strop, or Andre Dawson, or Kerry Wood, or Mark Grace, or Ron Cey, or Scott Sanderson, or Jamie Moyer, Tuffy Rhodes, or Ty Griffen.

Ok, maybe I was ok with Ty Griffen since I was sick of getting his Future Stars card in like every Topps pack I bought (him and Ozzie Guillen were literally in every pack…).

But fans, don’t let anyone tell you it isn’t ok to be upset if a player is traded. Don’t let them try and show you up by explaining it might be good for the organization (which trading Kris Bryant is never good for your organization). Don’t be afraid to share your emotions if/when the team moves someone.

Trolls, don’t be dicks.