They Hate We!
From Bonds to Kaepernick and more, Bay Area has become the enemy
Barry Bonds is back with the Giants, and here we go again. Another opportunity for the rest of the sports world to roll its eyes at the Bay Area.
Bonds has taken the baton from Colin Kaepernick as poster dude for whatever disease is currently ruining sports.
To the outside world, we who live by the bay seem to represent everything that is illegal, immoral, obnoxious, un-American, soft, icky, out of whack and off-kilter about sports.
In at least some cases, we wear our crown with defiant pride. Remember when the XFL dude Rod Smart wore “HE HATE ME” on the back of his jersey to highlight the chip on his shoulder? We figuratively wear our Bay Area rally slogan: “They Hate We.”
In recent days, we’ve been zinged by two of the great moral leaders of the free world, President Trump and Jim Harbaugh. Harbaugh threw shade on 49ers CEO Jed York and former general manager Trent Baalke. Trump took shots at Kae-
pernick, who clearly is more of a threat to America than Vladimir Putin. Hey, business as usual. What’s the outside world’s beef with Da Bay? Here’s a partial list:
Bonds: Giants’ fans are roaring their approval of the return home of one of the great villains in American sports history.
Bonds will serve as a team ambassador. Ambassador? Ask a typical fan outside the Bay Area if he/she sees Bonds as an ambassador, and the fan will channel Stephen Curry and say, “Yeah, if you take out the a-m-b and the a-d-o-r.”
Not only was Bonds seen as baseball’s Steroid Cheat No. 1, but he was a perennial MVP — Most Vile Person.
In terms of cheating, Bonds was only the tip of the Bay Area juiceberg. The Giants were hipdeep in the secret sauce, as were the A’s.
Every year there is a heated Hall of Fame debate, and what do the supporters of Bonds and Mark McGwire point out? That they are no more corrupt than Giants Hall of Famer Greasyfingers Gaylord Perry.
Kaepernick: Trump has made the former San Francisco quarterback a repeated target of abuse, to the point where some NFL teams might be leery of signing Kaepernick for fear of presidential rebuke.
Never mind that Kaepernick, an unemployed laborer, recently donated more money to Meals on Wheels than Trump’s budget would provide.
But the president aside, Kaepernick is to many, including a segment of Bay Area fans, everything that is wrong with California and the Bay Area. Way too liberal and whiny about perceived injustice, blatantly disrespectful of What Makes America Great (Again).
The Warriors: Kevin Durant changed everything.
Overnight, the Warriors went from everyone’s darlings to the rich kid who rented a hot supermodel as his prom date.
Actually, the outside world was chipping away at the Warriors before they acquired Durant. Curry’s back-to-back MVP awards drew some backlash, and there inevitably is that Charles Barkley buzz about being wimpy jump-shooters.
Throw in a dash of Draymond Green attitude, a pinch of owner Joe Lacob arrogance, and a soupcon of Curry Shimmy and you’ve got a recipe for resentment.
As garnish, you’ve got head coach Steve Kerr among the leaders of the Rest-Players Movement, which old-school purists and the NBA commissioner warn is threatening the foundation of the game.
Furthermore, the Warriors are guilty of breaking the unwritten rule against mixing politics and sports. Kerr has been outspoken on political issues, including gun control and political sleaze. Curry took a zing at the president, and a few other Warriors have expressed political views. The 49ers: The world laughs at the 49ers, an organization that in recent years has been No. 1 in arrogance-to-achievement ratio.
Harbaugh, to the delight of his worshipers, noted that when it comes to team-building, York and Baalke “could not blow up a small balloon.”
That’s a hell of a compliment, coming from a noted authority on hot air and balloon-bursting. Christian McCaffrey: The Stanford running back sat out his team’s bowl game to avoid injury that could threaten his NFL career. McCaffrey touched off a debate, and possibly a trend. Many sports fans, and at least some NFL clubs, instantly downgraded this superb role model for his flawed character. Odious owners: The A’s owners, mainly John Fisher, have made a mockery of MLB revenue-sharing, pocketing profits rather than upgrading the roster, or the plumbing.
Raiders owner Mark Davis, while presiding over a team resurgence, has worked hard at getting the hell out of Oakland. Davis wouldn’t be the first guy to lose his soul in Las Vegas, but he is giving carpetbagging a bad name. Big picture? To the outside world, we in the Bay Area are weirdly wired, sun-fried, quakeshaken, half-baked, antiestablishment and semidangerous.
To which we say: Thank you.