Uproarious Applause

Chris De Luca encapsulates the 2006 Mark Prior controversy quite nicely this AM. And Mark Prior throws out the victim card and shows that he still doesn't quite get it.

De Luca wrote:

It's not so much what Prior said Tuesday that raises eyebrows. It's what he didn't say. For a guy who was not going to validate rumors, he sure spent a lot of time on the topic. What all of us are waiting to hear is Prior saying: My arm feels great. I have no pain. End of story.

Instead, he said: "It's a process to get ready for the season. It's not just show up and go to work."

Huh?

...

Then how do you explain a long row of pitcher's mounds at Fitch Park, all with Cubs pitchers doing their work off them? Show up and go to work? That's what most of the Cubs pitchers have been doing in recent days -- most everyone except Prior and Kerry Wood.

Bingo. If there's no smoke here, why hasn't ANYONE said, "Mark Prior has no pain in his shoulder." That's all it would take to get everyone to shut up. But when Prior himself says:

"Everybody wants to find something wrong. ... I'm not going to sit here and defend or validate anything. There have been a lot of rumors in my career. There's really not much I can say about it. That's people's opinions."

Well, if you aren't defending or validating, that's non-denial denying, right?

But the quote from Prior that should make Cubs fans angry is this one, only printed in the Trib:

"I'm not naive," he said. "I know what my history has been. … Donovan McNabb said it best a couple of weeks ago. Some people like you, some people don't like you and, for whatever reason, a lot of those people have voices."

Time out, Mark. No one is reporting this because we "don’t like you." Far from it. We are COUNTING on you to provide us a summer’s worth of high quality athletic entertainment. We are counting on you to try to put a check box next to 1908 after 1918 and 1917 were filled in the last two years.

Cut this crap out, Mark. You aren't the victim here. In fact, if you are healthy, there is no victim. Perhaps if you were throwing off a mound like every other Cub pitcher not named Wood and anyone were willing to give a straight answer about your shoulder, this line of discussion would already be over.

The blame here is only on you and your team management. Don't blame us.

That's one sure way to get us not to like you.

It is unbelievable how this franchise under Andy MacPhail treats its fans. They must think we are all stupid lemmings with no memory of what's been said (or not said) in the past.

Well, here's one fan who doesn't fit that mold. Anyone else with me?