Winning With a Team You Hate?

[Warning Track Power]

Jeff Suppan...the man is a lightning rod for "hate" from most of the fans of the Brewers. But everything you hear about the man off the field is positive. He apparently does a lot of charity work and is, from all appearances, a wonderful human being. I find myself having to remind myself baseball is only a game and that my "hate" for him can go a little overboard from time to time. Now I know he's got $40+ million dollars of Milwaukee Brewer money to soften the blows from all of our criticism so I won't feel too bad for him.

Having said all this, it got me thinking about rooting for the Brewers. I generally like the team from what we hear about them. I have been a vocal critic of Corey Hart but find myself cheering more loudly for him than Braun or Fielder when he does something big like hitting a HR off Chris Carpenter. There isn't a guy I really dislike on the team and I love rooting for them. But will this team win a championship with these players or even go to the NLCS? Maybe, but its unlikely. I compare that with the early 2000s Bucks who really should have been in the NBA Finals at least once. That team was stacked with talent, but I hated rooting for them. Glenn Robinson, Sam Cassell, Anthony Mason...yuck. There wasn't a collection of Brewers, Bucks, Packers or Badgers players I liked rooting for less and save for the Super Bowl Packers, they were most talented collection of players on one team in the past 20 years of Wisconsin sports.

So the question I raise to you guys is...is rooting for a team with players you dislike worth a championship or yearly possibility of one?

[dlk9s]

Anthony Mason wasn't on that Bucks team. I didn't really see anything to dislike about them. Glenn Robinson and Tim Thomas might not have been cornucopias of joy and personality, but I didn't find anything wrong with them. Most of the guys were pretty likable.

 

I suppose I would be happy no matter what if my team won the title, but I wouldn't be overjoyed if it was filled with players I disliked. It's just not fun rooting for players who are jerks.

[NievesNoNO]

For the most part I'll root for anyone in a home uni. I suppose it would make things a little less satisfying winning with players you flat out just don't like. There's only a few attributes I really can't stand.

 

1. I don't like lazy players, but I don't think I can designate a player as lazy by watching him for a few hours during a game and not seeing his off-season work ethic so I'm not sure what players I would put in that category without some inside info.

 

2. Players who bring negative/undeserving attention to themselves or the team and can't back it up come game time.

 

3. Spoiled brat players who think the world revolves around them and that the sport they play owes them something. Players who dictate what team they will play for even though they haven't accomplished anything. Sheffield comes to mind, although he was young and immature at the time. Eli Manning.

 

With regard to Suppan and Hart, I'll root for both of them. It's not Suppan's fault the team simply won't release him. Hart is a bit more frustrating because he seems to have alot of physical ability. I really thought he was going to be a Matt Kemp type by now, but things just don't seem to click for him. Perhaps a lot of physical ability but not as much baseball ability as I once thought.

 

I have a hard time rooting for Jim Edmonds. I'm not sure if it's the Cubs-Cards past or what. I just don't think he belongs on this team, but I don't dislike him because I think he's a jerk. (that's not to say he is or isn't, I just don't know)

[logan82]

I have no problem with Suppan either personally or as a player. He just shouldn't be starting. That's on Macha and Melvin. Same with Edmonds. He just shouldn't be in CF especially with Gerut playing at the same time.

[TCSM]

I'm also the type of individual that will root for almost everyone on the team, minus maybe a couple. I was never a large fan of Hart, Hardy, Suppan, and at times Weeks in the past. There are times I will say some pretty harsh words, but there is nothing more then I want to see myself eating my own words.

 

I really can't foresee myself not wanting my favorite team to win a championship due to the players, regardless of who they are. A championship is a championship, and it goes a long way for the team, city, fans, players, etc.

[Warning Track Power]

Anthony Mason wasn't on that Bucks team. I didn't really see anything to dislike about them. Glenn Robinson and Tim Thomas might not have been cornucopias of joy and personality, but I didn't find anything wrong with them. Most of the guys were pretty likable.

 

I suppose I would be happy no matter what if my team won the title, but I wouldn't be overjoyed if it was filled with players I disliked. It's just not fun rooting for players who are jerks.

I was speaking of the early 2000s team in general, not just the 2000-2001 team. Ray Allen, Robinson, Cassell, Mason, Tim Thomas should have been more than enough to make the NBA Finals in my opinion.

 

 

[PlayerHader]

Anthony Mason SUCKED! The trade for him was the beginning of the death spiral for the Bucks.

 

I root for all my Brewers. Especially WEEKS!!!!!!

[GAME05]

i know exactly what you mean, WTP. i've always been a fan of Hart and root for him even more how that so many people think he should be replaced. i like rooting for the underdog, but then will only root for said underdog if he's a good person off the field.

 

money has a big way of changing things for me. Suppan is being paid to produce, but Hart is being paid to become better (or at least was before his $4.5M).

 

i'd have a harder time cheering for a Bucks team made up of all Sam Cassell types, but then Sam's success also means success for good guys like Ray Allen, so you still wind up rooting for the team as a whole.

[cadillacjosh]

If a player is on my team, I pretty much will always root for him to produce. I mean, I'm not a Corey Hart fan right now, but I'd love for him to play well and I always hold out hope at the plate. Same with Soup, I don't like him, but he just has to produce to change my mind.

 

Ultimately, if they're on the Brewers, I'll probably cheer for em' anyway.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

All Jeff Suppan ever did was take money thrown on his lap. He's a mediocre starter and basically always was. If he throws like he did today he can be our 5th starter. It's not his fault we gave him ace money.

[Flood Pants]

This got me thinking, is there a current MLB team loaded with dis-likable players? Even the "evil" New York Yankees generally expect classy behavior from their players (even if A-Rod gets a free pass on that one). The World-Series White Sox seemed to have that "we're bad and we like it" reputation with Ozzie Guillen and A.J. Pierzinski. It seems that Baseball, in genral, is a sport where being a jerk isn't well tolerated. This is something that sets it apart from NBA and NFL, where the over-the-top jerks are the players who get the most attention.

[JJHardy7]

I was speaking of the early 2000s team in general, not just the 2000-2001 team. Ray Allen, Robinson, Cassell, Mason, Tim Thomas should have been more than enough to make the NBA Finals in my opinion.

 

That team came very, very, very, very close of making the finals...it is not like it was a huge bust. The main issue was the 76ers had AI and Mutombo. We had Ervin Johnson and Scott Williams (who I love) matching up against Mutombo.

 

And again...how many of those Bucks are making the HOF? I know they don't have a NBA one...but Ray Allen is probably the only guy that has a shot. I loved Big Dog and Sam I Am...they weren't huge jerks or anything IMO. They weren't getting in a ton of trouble of the court...they got in some, but to me they just weren't 'bad'. Ray Allen is/was a class act.

 

I know Big Dog and Sam I Am didn't have the best personalities off the court. I just don't think I hate an ounce of hate for any of those guys. Big Dog got a bad rap asking for the money...a few years later guys were getting $100 million deals. Anyways....what I am saying is these guys weren't that bad. Mason is a different story, but IIRC that was a Karl decision and we all know about the Allen for Payton trade...

 

Anyways...to the Brewers. There isn't a guy that off the field I don't like. A lot goes into what people know or don't know about a guy. I know a bit about a few of the guys, but not enough to say who is 'good and bad' if guys like Big Dog and Sam I Am are 'bad guys'. The Brewers as a whole seem like a great group. If the only thing we whine about is Corey Hart's arbitration...we are in good shape.

[hawing]

I have a hard time rooting for Jim Edmonds. I'm not sure if it's the Cubs-Cards past or what. I just don't think he belongs on this team, but I don't dislike him because I think he's a jerk. (that's not to say he is or isn't, I just don't know)

I'm uneasy with having Edmonds on the team too, at first because of his CHC-STL past, then more so because of the feeling I keep getting that he's dictating his own playing time more than a player should. I don't boo him for stepping up to the plate, but to date I haven't done more than a golf clap for him. If he were to make a playoff-clinching play, I don't think I'd be less happy, but I probably wouldn't go out of my way for a jersey or even t-shirt (as I've done with other players).

 

If the Brewers had a whole roster of guys whose circumstances were similar to Edmonds', I don't know how I'd react if they won it all. I think it would be harder for me to get behind the team the way I do now. Fortunately, I think the odds of a whole roster like that are not too good.

[bobskube]

Anthony Mason SUCKED! The trade for him was the beginning of the death spiral for the Bucks.

 

I root for all my Brewers. Especially WEEKS!!!!!!

I agree wholeheartedly. Where is BILLHALLFAN these days? We used to have battles on who would be better-Weeks or Hall. I think I may have been right on that one.

[Teatoe993]

Even as a Brewer I hated Julián Tavárez.

[Blindcheck]

I had more faith in suppan getting the job done, than I have had in any of our other starters today....Maybe, because he is exactly what we expect...

 

he will give up some runs, but with this offense, he will keep the Crew in the game....Our other starters, you just wait for them to have the bad inning and hope that somehow one of hte hard hit balls is caught to get them out of the inning.

 

Right now...You don't know what you are going to get with any of the other four guys.....

[Flood Pants]

Right now...You don't know what you are going to get with any of the other four guys.....

So you'd rather have a guy who you know is gonna suck than a guy who might not suck?

[valpocrewsader]

I don't know what it is, but it feels like every year there are less and less Brewers players that I really like. I look over the 25-man roster and I see only half a dozen guys that I care much about and enjoy having on the team ... it kindof sucks. Not really a talent thing, just general level of intrigue/connection/allure. It's sad to look at another team, like the White Sox or Orioles or Mariners or Rays or Twins or Braves, and feel more fascination and appeal to their players than those on the Brewers. Maybe my cynicism is just reaching new heights, or maybe I'm trying too hard not to be a fanboy, or maybe the grass is just always greener on the other side, but I miss getting caught up in the individual players -- at this point it's just basically hometown pride and a love of baseball that keeps me so interested in the crew. Hopefully transactions on the horizon will bring in players less painfully dull than the Wolfs, Davises, Vargases, Geruts, Edmondses, etc.

 

...Not a direct response to the OP, but a somewhat related discovery I've been wrestling with recently.

[NYChez]

I don't know what it is, but it feels like every year there are less and less Brewers players that I really like.

Take a look at the Brewer roster from 10 years ago. Are you really saying that there were more likable Brewers back then, then now? The Brewers haven't had as many intriguing figures in a long time.

http://www.baseball-refer...com/teams/MIL/2000.shtml

[Dragonbait]

I think he means we dont have interesting back stories...

 

Guys like Pods, Brady Clarke, Joe Winklesas (sp) Those guys are interesting because you dont know too much

about them... and they're not top notch talent... but play hard and try their best with their skill set..

 

I could be wrong tho...