The Amount Of Cubs Fans & Media Rooting Against Yu Darvish Is Embarrassing

Another day, another negative Yu Darvish story. As if Wednesday’s story from the LA Times wasn’t enough, yesterday Joe Maddon told the media that the pain is back in Darvish’s right tricep. Now it’s anyone’s guess as to when he’ll be back on the mound.

So, The Latest Yu Darvish Injury Update Is Concerning #Cubs https://t.co/V1LW1s5sGk pic.twitter.com/WcbrPIqVgX

— ✶ Sports Mockery ✶ (@sportsmockery) June 28, 2018

That’s just great and I’m sure people won’t blame his physical injury on him being mentally weak or anything.

In case you missed the LA Times story, it was a really well-done piece that focused on Darvish’s return to LA for the first time since his loss in game 7 of last year’s world series. He offered several honest, thought-provoking comments about how difficult the mental side of the game has been on him over the last year.

This is what Darvish had to say about the possibility of pitching in LA in October:

“In the playoffs, it will be worse,” Darvish said. “It wouldn’t be as bad in the playoffs if I could pitch in this series. The frustration of the fans is pent up at this point. If they could release some of that frustration now, I think it wouldn’t be as bad later.”

Darvish forced a smile.

“I’m a little scared of how that frustration is building and building,” he joked.

The “Darvish is too soft” narrative has been spinning its wheels since he signed the dotted line of his $126M contract. We can now mark the following as reasons as to why mainstream Chicago media and a chunk of the fanbase want no part of Darvish in Chicago:

• Doesn’t want his kids to be bullied.
• Considered retiring because he hated losing in Texas (he said being traded to the Dodgers revived him, so wanting to play on winning teams makes you soft now I guess).
• He doesn’t like being booed because he’d prefer if Cubs fans didn’t hate him, especially after just eight starts that mirror Jon Lester’s first eight starts as a Cub.

Would it be nice if Yu Darvish was made of steel and literally didn’t give a damn what anybody thought of him? Yeah, it would be. But that’s not how the sports world works. Do you think these guys are out there playing in front of millions of people out of the selflessness of winning for their teammates and the fans? To an extent, yes, but they’re primarily doing it because they get paid millions of dollars to play a kids game and get be worshipped like royalty by fans if they succeed. For some reason, that truth is often interpreted as athletes being selfish.

As if it weren’t outrageous enough already that folks at the Sun-Times or your Cubs fan neighbor across the street are wishing for Darvish to suck, those people are the same folks that would give an arm and a leg to defend Jon Lester. ESPN’s Jesse Rogers wrote a feature on Lester earlier this week that featured this tidbit from Lester’s former personal catcher David Ross:

“He gives his heart and soul to every pitch,” Ross said in a phone interview. “When things don’t go right, it’s really defeating for him. It’s hard for him to climb out of those places sometimes. The role I played was to lift him up and focus him mentally. … He’s broken down to me, in full tears — this big, giant left-handed human being — in tears, just wanting to be better than he already is. He wants to be that guy and make everyone happy.”

Hmm, it’s almost as if Jon Lester’s desire to win and be liked/respected is part of what makes him great, who’d have thunk it!

By all means, be nervous about Yu Darvish’s right arm.

#Cubs starter Yu Darvish flew to Dallas to get a second opinion on his arm injury.

— Chris Kuc (@ChrisKuc) June 29, 2018

But if you don’t want Yu Darvish on the Cubs because he’s too “soft”, you’re either a racist, an idiot, or both.