It’s important that you know that Wolf and I actually like each other. We joke that our show works because each of us are so convinced that the other one is completely demented.

I think today completely showed why his opinion is so demented and valuable at the same time. Players have great disdain for the fans yet have no problem collecting the paychecks we provide through our loyalty. Wolf thinks you lack intelligence if you boo Eric Byrnes. I don’t think you’re stupid if you boo Eric Byrnes.

So why the disconnect? It’s very simple. All players don’t understand what it’s like to be a fan. Orlando Hudson agrees completely with Wolf. They wrap themselves so tightly into the “YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND OUR WORLD” blanket that they don’t realize one important issue. They don’t understand our world either.

Players believe fans try to interject their lives into the sports world. In their minds, you believe booing will change the situation. Wolf actually thinks that fans sit in the stands and think, “If we boo, that will change Eric’s mind set and he’ll take his job more seriously.” Wolf is not alone, players in general think this about the fans. They don’t understand the simplicity of cheering and booing a home town player. If you succeed, we cheer, if you fail, we ignore it. If you fail for a while, it depends on the city and the expectations of fans on whether or not they boo. In Phoenix, you get a long time before the fans start to get upset.

Byrnes started the first week hitting a wonderful .154. In week two he went 11/24 and lifted his average to .300. Since his one great week, his batting average has dropped every single week. He’s closing in on the fifth week of this “slump,” as his average has dropped 6 points so far this week. Right now he stands at .220 going into tonight’s (Wed) D-Backs Rockies game. What is stupid is to try to tell me that Eric Byrnes is trying as hard as he did last year. There was never a 5 week stretch last year that his average dropped at the same clip.

I don’t want to hear, “It’s May, relax.” We’re talking about 5 weeks. It doesn’t matter when you have a 5 week stretch like this. If you have a 5 week stretch like this in July, I’m going to question you’re work ethic. If it’s only May and I should relax, explain this stat. In order for Eric Byrnes to have a batting average of .290, he must get 146 hits in a 502 at-bat season. From this point forward, Byrnes must bat .321. Therefore, one of the highest paid outfielders in the game must go almost 1-for-3 in every game just to be ranked as one of the 150 best hitters in baseball.

Eric Byrnes cares deeply about winning. He’s giving you all his effort on the field. The question that has to be asked is: did he give his all in the off-season? Let’s compare the off-season out-look of Eric Byrnes prior to ’07 and ’08. The winter of ’07 he’s fighting all of baseball to believe in him. He’s labeled as a hustle-guy and a great bench player. Some would go so far as a starter on a strong team but no way could he carry a team. He’s in the last year of his contract. Now we focus on this year. His broadcasting career takes off. He gets married. He’s got a new contract paying him $30 million dollars no matter what he does. The white elephant in the room is he didn’t prepare for ’08 as well as he did ’07. How were the fans supposed to know this until we see the results not appearing on paper? Of course it’s acceptable to boo. In my opinion you are booing his effort (which even Wolf allows under his intelligent booing guidelines); it’s just not the effort he’s showing now but the results of the effort he didn’t show months ago.

Eric, we’re all rooting for you because we love the D-Backs. We want you to break out of your slump, but we’ve also been patient enough. Baseball gives big contracts based on previous results combined with continued expectations. There’s a pretty good argument that could be made that he hasn’t met either criteria. I would also argue that you’re not stupid.