Bengie Says Bye To The Bay

We taunt, heckle and constantly berate professional baseball players.

We feel it’s our job and right as a paying fan; we take out the human aspect of the game.

I recently saw the movie Sugar, it’s about a Dominican Republic player’s attempt to make it to the big leagues and there’s a scene where he’s in AA and about 200 fans are in the stands. We see a few guys heckling Sugar and for some reason that really hit home.

I saw myself in the jackass yelling at this human being. And I felt bad.

But we get caught up in the moment, we are the “little” people who are frustrated by seeing failures. Bengie Molina failed this year. We didn’t see what happened in the clubhouse, or at practice, or on off days, but we saw constant under performance. And of course, I was part of the clan calling for Bengie’s head.

He made his “farewell” post.. about a week late..  on his blog and it was filled with the cliche lines, but it made me realize these are human beings trying to make a living.

News of the trade felt like a blow to the stomach. I love the guys on the Giants. I have loved playing in front of the fans in San Francisco.

As Baggs reported he found out on the plane, and “officially” found out once they landed. He’s a sensitive dude and was obviously devastated. But that’s baseball, that’s the game he signed up for — and he knows it.

He was a very good Giant. He worked hard, loved the city and deserves to go out with his head up. But we all knew this final year was too much. It was an obvious mistake by Sabean, but there’s nothing we can do now.

Despite his love obsession with Bochy, he was a class-act in San Francisco. I found this excerpt particularly interesting:

I received tons of text messages all through the night, including a really nice one from Buster Posey. He wanted to stop by my room to talk in person but his dinner ran late. He wished me the best of luck and thanked me for what I taught him.

Ah, the classic “my dinner ran late” excuse.

I told him I’d always be rooting for him.

Bengie knows that’s the guy that took his job (well if Bochy can do his job), and even if he doesn’t mean it, that was a classy way to go.

So thanks Bengie, and I’m sorry for being the jackass in Sugar but as a paying fan, it’s my job.