Baggarly: Real baseball fans would appreciate no-hitter

Jul 1, 2013; Cincinnati, OH, USA; San Francisco Giants manager

(15) walks back from the mound during the third inning against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park. Mandatory Credit: Frank Victores-USA TODAY Sports

A bit of a commotion was caused on social media last night after Homer Bailey, Ryan Hanigan and the Reds no hit the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday evening. You can understand that in a stretch of games where the Giants have gone from NL West hopeful to NL West hopeful that happens to be losing a lot has got the fanbase down, maybe even angry. The All Star Break can’t get here soon enough, and there are plenty of people on edge, and I might include myself in that bunch as well. I’m very sure that the beat writers get a lot of criticism and angry comments when things aren’t going well that focus on about anything imaginable, but clearly something set off CSN Bay Area beat writer Andrew Baggarly enough to tweet this out:

There are different camps of people that saw this as no big deal, others that took it personally, and then the leftovers like me that think this probably could have been worded differently. What if “I think real baseball fans” was replaced by “I would like us to,” even that sounds less demeaning against the fans, but as some suggested, maybe the beat writers are even on edge with all this losing. Still, my personal belief is that the beat writers are supposed to be the professionals in the business and should act as such. Even if there is some unreasonable chatter going on within a fanbase, there is a way to handle it, and it doesn’t always have to have the phrase “real baseball fans” in it. You can view some of the comments that used the hashtag #realbaseballfans and see for yourself what went down last night.

The issue of the timing of the comment is an interesting point made by some, as it definitely seems like salt in the wound to tell a suffering fanbase in this context to stop moping and realize what just happened. I have no issue with the timing, and think we can have great discussions about the Giants, or about baseball when the Giants are making people watch a third strike go by for a championship, or when they get dominated pretty well by a guy that threw the last no-hitter before this one. I do not think there is ever a right time for being condescending, we can always be better than that. Like the players though, we will move on, but many will not forget the comments (or the events of Tuesday night).

What do you think of what Andrew Baggarly said? No big deal, over the line? Just needs a little re-wording? Are the fans overreacting? Let us know in the comments!