Update: The beer tosser has turned himself in.
Cubs fans are a special breed. But there are offshoots of that breed, some of them complementary, some of them not.
The guy that threw a beer on Shane Victorino last night is definitely the latter.
He fits in a category of Cubs fan that has emerged in the last decade as an obnoxious blight on the ivy covered walls of Wrigley. He gives a bad name to the die-hard sun-crisped types who are still sitting in the same bleacher seats they had in the 1960s and the old-timers who have seen 70 years of Cubs baseball with nary a World Series to show for it.
He's a tourist in his own ballpark, and he cares little for baseball.
These people are tolerable only in the money they provide for the organization, which in turn can afford to make mistakes in contracts. Thanks, idiots! We appreciate your cash! But when you do stupid stuff -- like you did on Wednesday night in left field -- you give the rest of us a bad name. So stop.
Anyone watching the Cubs game saw the situation: As Phillies left fielder Shane Victorino backed up to the warning track to field a long fly ball, a Cubs fan quickly and intentionally threw his beer at Victorino, which splashed him right as the ball made contact with his glove. Victorino held on, but was visibly angry, and Cubs security went about attempting to kick the fan out.
What's even worse is that they found the wrong fan.
Security eventually booted the whole row, which is unfair to the non-tossers, but what were they to do? It's a metaphor for a larger disease; similarly, what are other fanbases supposed to think of Cubs fans? Just like when you were in grade school, one troublemaker often ruins everyone else's good time and good reputation. So it was Wednesday night.
The only hope is that people realize not all Cubs fans are as dumb as this guy, but given the common insults, that seems unlikely. Shame. There are some pretty good Cubs fans, too.
Eamonn Brennan is a Chicago-based writer, editor and blogger. You can also read him at Yahoo! Sports, Mouthpiece Sports Blog, and Inside The Hall, or at his personal site, eamonnbrennan.com. Follow him on Twitter.
