Erstwhile St. Louis Cardinals closer Ryan Franklin made no new friends with a statement Wednesday that struck directly at the heart of Cardinals fans' self-identification. "They're supposed to be the best fans in baseball," he said. "Yeah, right", criticizing fans for their "short memory" and their booing, which "doesn't bother" him but then proceeded to obviously bother him across the rest of the interview.
↵I actually agree with Franklin here—I have no reason to believe we're the best fans in baseball, considering our treatment, in the past, of guys like J.D. Drew and Ray Lankford (and Aaron Miles, by comparison), and booing your own team is a tacky move. It's not like Franklin is dogging it on the field or something, he just sucks.
↵That said, a word of advice for embattled closers in the rest of baseball: Never, ever do what he just did. Even if you're right, nothing good comes out of taunting the fans while you play the worst baseball of your life. It's okay to be unpopular when you're Albert Belle, but when you're Ryan Franklin you have to cultivate the whole funny-facial-hair/down-to-earth-family-man thing. Leave the pontificating to the pontificators.
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