Jonathan Lucroy isn’t a very popular guy in the city of Cleveland, and he’s hearing it from just about everyone. This time it wasn’t a fan chirping at him, it was a member of the Cleveland Indians themselves.
Taunting is fun. Taunting is healthy. And, taunting is a part of sports in every league in every country. This week in sports, Jonathan Lucroy got absolutely called out and taunted by Cleveland Indians catcher Chris Gimenez.
At this point in time, just about everybody knows that the Brewers and Indians agreed on a trade that would have sent Lucroy to Cleveland, but he vetoed the deal and elected to stay with the Brewers.
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A day later, the Brewers sent Lucroy to Texas and now all is settled. After his veto, Lucroy received a lot of public bashing on his decision to decline a trade to a first-place team.
In my mind, his veto was not a huge deal. He has every right to decline a trade – that’s why it’s in his contract. People don’t realize he has a family to think about, and entering a contract year, it’s probably his best chance to get that one big contract every player wants.
We can expect fans and writers to call out Lucroy and be upset with him, but it’s always more fun when a player calls out another in the media. That’s what Chris Gimenez, the Indians’ backup catcher, did to Lucroy.
Per Cleveland.com’s Zack Meisel, Gimenez had this to say about the whole situation:
"“Even though he plays my position, he’s definitely an upgrade. It’d be ridiculous to say that he wasn’t. He definitely could’ve helped. At the same time, we feel pretty strongly about the guys we have here, too. Unfortunately, he chose not to be a part of it.“Hopefully, we can win the World Series and we’ll be laughing at him.”"
At first, it doesn’t seem that harsh, but there’s some resentment in that sentence. Playing plenty of backyard football, I know a good stinger when I hear one. The Indians seem to be pretty butt-hurt over the whole Lucroy situation.
In fact, they’re so butt-hurt that if they win a World Series they’ll be laughing at Lucroy for not coming. They have every right to be upset, as Lucroy threw shade at the Indians. He said he wanted to play for a contender, but obviously didn’t think that the Indians were legitimate contenders.
BREAKING: #Indians fans rushing to area sporting good stores to find, buy and burn Jonathan Lucroy #Brewers jerseys.
— Matt Pelc (@mpelc) July 31, 2016
“I don’t have any idea why he did ; I just know he said something about how he wanted to play for a contender. He had the opportunity,” said Gimenez.
The city of Cleveland certainly doesn’t think very highly of the backstop and if the two teams meet up in the playoffs it’ll be very interesting to see the welcoming he gets in his first at-bat.
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The Indians and Rangers don’t play each other again in the regular season in Cleveland, but if they match up during the playoffs, Lucroy will have to face his haters in Cleveland. Last year, we had the treat of watching the Rangers and Blue Jays, and this year could be even better.