Fans were seen filing out of Wrigley Field on Sunday afternoon after singing “Go, Cubs, Go” following the team’s 2-1, 10-inning win over the Arizona Diamondbacks.
It was a happy scene for the Marquee Sports Network audience, until you looked at the bottom corner of the TV screen and noticed a middle-aged man exiting the ballpark wearing a black T-shirt that read, “F−−− Joe Biden.”
It was too quick for Marquee to cut away and the postgame show was about to begin anyway, so … no harm, no foul?
But seeing the fan wearing an obscene message aimed at the president of the United States made me wonder whether the team had relaxed its policy on inappropriate attire inside the ballpark.
Would it also be OK to wear “F−−− Trump” or even “F−−− Ricketts”?
Or anyone else, for that matter?
Has the public discourse changed so much that anything goes in 2024?
These are sensitive times, of course, no matter whose side you are on.
Two incidents Sunday brought politics into the limelight at baseball stadiums, though it was players, not fans, who were the alleged instigators.
The St. Louis Cardinals were accused on social media of inventing an homage to presidential candidate Donald Trump when Alec Burleson homered and cupped his right ear while raising his left fist as he rounded third base. Cardinals players in the dugout responded in kind.
The immediate reaction was that it was a nod to Trump’s response after the assassination attempt on July 13 in Pennsylvania. But Cardinals veteran Matt Carpenter said after the game it was “definitely not a political statement.” Carpenter said Burleson was a rapper in college, so the ear cupping was actually him holding invisible headphones like a DJ.
Tampa Bay Rays infielder Taylor Walls’ intentions seemed more obvious Sunday when he doubled and pumped his fist while saying, “Fight, fight,” just as Trump immediately yelled after he got back on his feet that day in Pennsylvania.
There’s nothing wrong with either of those celebrations or with players inventing different ways to celebrate after they get on base. But you have to wonder why players would come up with a blatant political message without having the courage to publicly admit it afterward. And anyone in the dugout supporting the gesture with one of their own should have the guts to come out and admit it as well.
But few players want their politics known publicly, inviting speculation.
Fans have no reason to hide their allegiances. It’s a free country … so far. But why a man would believe it’s appropriate to wear a “F−−− Biden” T-shirt to a Cubs game is anyone’s guess.
Maybe he thought it was a NASCAR race.
Offensive T-shirts can be found at many souvenir stands around Wrigley Field, but I can recall only one that was banned in 36 years of reporting on the Cubs. It involved outfielder Kosuke Fukudome’s arrival from Japan in 2008 and featured a slanty-eyed bear cub with oversized, Harry Caray-style glasses and the words “Horry Kow” written on the front.
Fukudome called the T-shirts offensive, and the Cubs had them removed from souvenir stands outside the ballpark, precipitating a fight with the T-shirt distributors. Cubs President Crane Kenney called them “completely inappropriate” and fought hard against the argument that the T-shirt was all in good fun and a freedom-of-speech issue.
“We wouldn’t tolerate it at the ballpark,” Kenney said. “The racial stuff just doesn’t fly. Booing is fine, but we’re not going to allow that in the park, and to the extent where we can protect ourselves outside the park, we’re going to do that as well.”
The most recent T-shirt controversy was back in 2011, when Cubs players had T-shirts made that said, “F−−− the Goat,” on the back, a reference to the Billy Goat Curse. The front featured a cartoon goat with the international “no” symbol.
Cubs veterans Ryan Dempster and Kerry Wood were trying to loosen things up, and manager Mike Quade, who claimed he had never heard of the Billy Goat Curse, supported the message.
“I find the whole conversation comical,” Quade said. “I’m not Dr. Phil. Do you embrace it? Do you want to laugh at it? Do you want to hide from it? I come to the park every day. The Girl and the Goat is a restaurant, and that’s all I ever think about.
“Somebody like (Wood and Dempster), guys who have been around that deal with this all the time … OK, so they came up with a slogan: This is how we’re going to do this. I have news for you. When you take the field, nobody is thinking about the goat, whether they’re wearing the T-shirt or not. That’s the way I look at it. I’m sure it makes for interesting conversation around town. I hope the T-shirt is right.”
The Goat remained undefeated that year, and Quade was fired at the end of the season after learning a valuable lesson: Don’t mess with the goat.
Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts, however, told me afterward he wasn’t “too worked up” over the T-shirts, though he directed his staff to tell players not to wear them outside the clubhouse. Pitcher Matt Garza promptly wore one to his postgame news conference to show his support for the message, and also because he was Matt Garza.
But messing with the billy goat in 2011 is less contentious than wearing a profane T-shirt with a political statement in the summer of 2024.
Jennifer Martinez, the Cubs senior director of communications, responded to a question about the T-shirt with a statement noting that profane clothing is “unacceptable” at the ballpark. Wrigley Field regulations ban “clothing with obscene, indecent, profane and/or inappropriate language or visuals.”
“We are meeting with all levels of our staff to remind them of the importance of monitoring what fans bring into the ballpark to ensure Wrigley Field is a safe and enjoyable environment for everyone,” the statement said.
It’s already a difficult summer to be a Cubs fan. Don’t make it worse by antagonizing your fellow fans for no reason.
The real message to those fans who feel the need to share their political beliefs by wearing a profane T-shirt to a ballpark can be found on an old Cubs T-shirt from 2016:
Try not to suck.
