 
|
SponsorAuthentic, large selection of Cardinals memorabilia, guaranteed and certified. Subscribe RSS Feed
Archives
Categories
With all of the St Louis tickets out there, Cardinals tickets and Rams tickets make for great presents. GoTickets.com can fill all of your sports tickets needs, just check out our testimonials! |
Who Is The Cardinals' Buckner?With all the hoopla around Bill Buckner's return to Fenway yesterday, it got me thinking about who, if anyone, would hold a similar place in Cardinal Nation.For the most part, players are held in pretty high regard. I don't think that's really limited to St. Louis, as if you try to do a "most-hated former player" list for many teams off the top of your head, you'd probably draw blanks. Philadelphia's not going to have Scott Rolen Day anytime soon, of course. (You could add J.D. Drew, but since he was never technically a Phillie, he doesn't count.) Other than that, I'm can't think of anyone real quickly that has drawn the never-ending ire of the hometown faithful. Don't get me wrong, there are players that aren't liked or, at best, have an apathetic reaction from the fans. Mike Maroth, Kip Wells, any number of middle relievers--they aren't going to be written about years later in glowing terms, but they can appear in public in St. Louis without things being thrown at them. My theory is that, to be that despised, you really probably have to be a position players. Pitchers aren't in there everyday, so unless you blew a huge game in your last outing, it's probably going to blow over between starts or appearances. (I don't know what Phillie fans think of someone like Mitch Williams, but you never hear too much about that hatred if it is there.) To that end, I looked over the Baseball Reference positional chart and skimmed for some names. There are a couple that get close, but I think only one would get anywhere close to Buckner level.
Leave a comment
7 CommentsCommentsCardinal70
said
I don't know, at the time there was a lot of spite toward Renteria for leaving for what appeared to be just $1 million more. I think that's shrunk over time and people have gotten over it, but there was a discussion when he first returned to St. Louis over what kind of reception he would get. I think it's going to be hard to hate Barton because he's in the other league. If he was killing us nightly, maybe. But even then, the hatred would probably be spent on Mulder or Jocketty. The closest thing the Cardinals have to what Bill Buckner was to the Red Sox was Curt Flood. Cardinal70
said
Both Flood and Hernandez were before my time following the players. Were they really reviled while in St. Louis? I know there still is some coolness between Hernandez and the fans. I didn't know that Flood had that kind of "following", if you will. Nice topic! J.D. Drew sounds like a good one to me. Hernandez more for his drug use as a Cardinal that forced the trade, and then his later apologizing to the Mets fans for using drugs. He and Templeton were the most booed opposing team players in St. Louis for years. Templeton was probably the St. Louis player that was booed in St. Louis the most - but he wasn't here much after "signing" his personal feelings towards the fans. At least ones that weren't booed out of respect. I don't remember Curt Flood being booed while in St. Louis to any large extent. I wasn't going to a lot of games back then, but Flood didn't get as mistreated for his mistake as Buckner did. The difference between St. Louis and Boston. |
  SearchUnited Cardinal Bloggers
Other Cardinal Blogs
Recommended Cardinal ForumOther Cardinal Sites
General Baseball Blogs/Sites
Non-Baseball SitesHeroes
Goats
Looking for great Cardinals tickets? Check out Onlineseats for all your ticket needs. We have cheap Mets tickets and Detroit Tigers tickets plus check out our selection of St. Louis Rams tickets. Referrals |
I don't think I would put Edgar Renteria up there, as he hasn't been the first to leave for the money and certainly won't be the last. There's probably more animosity towards ownership for not locking him in, and they deserve it.
I have a feeling that Daric Barton will become the most hated player in a few years. Not for anything he did to us, but because he could've been ours.