Marcus Hayes, a guy who's never come across as a “jolly old fellow,” said in a recent Philly.com chat that Chase Utley is never criticized in this city because he's white.
Oh boy.
No, Marcus, Chase is given a pass because he plays hard, doesn’t complain (which you interpret as seldom accountable), and, when healthy, has been a consistent performer with very few flaws. And he saves kittens. On the other hand, Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins receive criticism, not beause they’re black, but because Howard gets paid significantly more, strikes out A TON (13 times in last year's WS) and didn't have an RBI in the postseason, while Rollins has had two very sub-par seasons and previously called Philly fans front-runners.
What about Jayson Werth? He was hardly given a pass this season. And it don’t get much whiter than him, yo. You can run tell 'dat.
Back in June, I went a little more in depth (at the request of Big League Stew) as to why Utley is treated differently.
Hayes' full, misguided comments after the jump. Since he’s both white and black (his words, not mine), he is able to get away with playing the race card.
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We are admittedly a few days late on this. Crashburn Alley did a good job of getting all SABR on Hayes to prove him wrong.
53 Responses
omg does this guy believe the world isn’t round wow. Howard and Rollins blew this year. Did we see Utley and werth on david lettermen doing a top 10 list no did we see werth and utley at the eagles game when your team was down in a series no. Did we see Utley and Werth riding from said eagles game on the Phillies Phanatics bike NO NO oh and NOOOOOOO. Howard is getting paid big buck when he shouldn’t be AND THAT’S NOT BECAUSE HE’S BLACK. Don’t even start with that race card bull crap.
Wow! It’s nothing new here, but you’d hope that the local writers would be above this kind of brainless nonsense.
Rollins has been on a steady decline the last 2 or 3 years. Howard has been ice cold the last two series when we were eliminated (2009 WS & 2010 NLCS).
Utley has his issues (steady decline in BA, power numbers) as well, but he always plays hurt, keeps his mouth shut & plays the game the right way.
Anyone seriously not think that if Utley were making the same kind of huge bank that Howard makes that he also wouldn’t be taking more heat?
I think Howard should be more appreciated in Philly, but to say Utley gets a pass because he’s white is just stupid.
And the “two MVP’s” comment is stupid too. So they (Rollins & Howard) should get a pass because 3 or 4 years ago they had great seasons??? Rollins’ work ethic in preparation for this season has been called into question even by his own manager. Kinda makes you wonder.
I just hope Rollins & Utley are healthy next season. If they are, I’d expect big things from this team
Watching Hayes for years on DNL, I got the feel that he was this kind of guy… this just confirmed all my suspicions.
There’s a Convick somewhere waiting to get stroked Marcus.
marcus doesnt know what a blue collar athlete is. utley is exactly what the city of philly is, hardworking, goes about his business and not flashy. the last time i read one of marcus’ columns i laughed my ass off he makes no sense and is a worthless prick
I originally saw this over at Crashburn Alley. This guy is a joke. Kyle is right on point here and Hayes’ race baiting was just absurd. Here’s a list of recent white Phillies that were not treated well for various reasons:
– Mitch Williams
– Scott Rolen
– Adam Eaton
– Pat Burrell
– Cole Hamels
– Jayson Werth
And let me ask this question. Has Howard ever been boo’ed? Was Rollins ever boo’ed outside of when he made his frontrunners comment? I certainly can’t rememeber any incidents that even close to being on par with the boos that Pat Burrell got almost every AB and the reluctant lackluster applause he would get when he did something right.
In short, Marcus Hayes is a disgrace. This guy back in 2008 said that Howard is worth any amount of money bceaus eof the people he puts in the seats. No, the Phillies as a team put people in the seats. It’s really a shame that a guy like this can represent the Philadelphia media and in turn Philadelphia itself. It’s no wonder we have a bad reputation.
Marcus Hayes is a douche and I never liked him or his writing…asshole. (and this is coming from a man who is multi-cultural in ethnicity himself)
Fans are frustrated plain and simple. We got on Burrell when he sucked when he was with the team and he’s not all that black. And Wilson Valdez was getting plenty of praise this year (and some were even calling for him to start over Rollins) despite him grounding into a double play at every possible opportunity. This isn’t about race, it’s about who happened to be the last out.
Thus is the curse of making the last out of the season.
If Chooch, Valdez, Utley, etc. struck out looking, we’d find plenty of ways to take a crap on their season/postseason.
I like them all when they do well, and get mad when they suck.
I think I might like Chase more because he plays through his injuries. But I guess that’s because I’m racist apparently…
Hayes is a hack who has to resort to these sorts of things to even get noticed, that’s all. He’s failed miserably on pretty much every beat he’s been on. Add to that the fact that he’s terrible on DNL and looks to be almost universally hated by his peers, which is why episodes that feature him are usually as jovial as a funeral. Give me DJ and Kern every day. I’ll even thrown in Kram because I love the machine gun sound effect when he gets off on a rant. Also, I miss Conlin on DNL.
Utley has receieved a free pass (until about 5-6 days ago where now a lot of people want to trade him and think he’s on slow decline). I just don’t think it’s because he’s white though. Generally people just seem to like him and whenever he isn’t hitting they immediately make an excuse that it must be because he’s hurt.
Jeff Carter not getting more heat from Flyers fans for his seeming underachievement for 3 hours during games and apparent Animal House lifestyle the other 21 hours a day is something I will never understand. He’s more of a proper example of a guy whose off-ice behavior wouldn’t be as tolerated if he was a black guy playing one of the other 3 major sports.
The dog killer gets a pass and praise from you racist writers. Hope your white-hating ass gets fired
“And it don’t get much whiter than him, yo. You can run tell ‘dat.”
Kyle,
How am I supposed to think of you as someone credible enough to talk objectively about racial issues when you throw this into your post for no reason? I mean, you’re talking about concerns about racism against African-American players. Is mimicking a stereotype of black poverty, like Antoine Dodson, really necessary?
I’m not offended at all by Marcus on this one. Chase had a god awful playoffs, both at the plate and in the field. Howard was literally our best hitter in the NLCS. You can only get RBI if people are on base in front of you so you can bat them in. Even if he hit a HR, that’s only one RBI if nobody’s on base. He consistently got on base when there were 2 outs and got stranded there by Werth striking out looking or striking out on his knee which he loves doing.
Only criticism of this team I’ve heard since it ended is both Rollins and Howard. Utley’s struggles are completely ignored even though he was the least productive player in the lineup both on the field and at the plate.
Is that because of race? To some extent for some people, most likely. Probably not to the extent that Marcus appears to feel it is, since he seems to be citing it as a primary factor and I don’t think it is. I think sometimes black athletes are easy targets for people and race can be a convenient reason to give for that no matter the sport. I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard people in this city say to me something along the lines of “black people just aren’t intelligent enough to play quarterback” which is highly offensive and incredibly simplistic. And yet people spout it off like it’s known fact.
I think some people almost expect all black athletes in Philly to be Brian Dawkins. Ryan and Jimmy are both very good players. Criticism is legitimate for both of them, from Ryan’s constant strikeouts to Jimmy’s lower level of playing, at least at the plate, since his MVP year, but there’s a difference between intelligent criticism and saying idiotic things like “we should trade” Jimmy or Ryan, which I’ve heard far too often recently. Unfortunately for both of them, they’re both held to the standards set by their MVP years, and they have yet to come close to either of them since. The bottom line is everyone knows the amount of talent they both have and the amount of money they make in relation to their talent, and people are frustrated that the two don’t always seem to match up with each other. From there, race is sometimes easy for people to tie into their complaints. But it doesn’t start or end at race and I think Marcus should look a little further into it than that. It’s as easy to say that they do this this and this because they’re black as it is to say people criticize them because they’re black. In that regard, Marcus is no better than the people he’s criticizing.
Matt- you’re not going to get me on that one. It was a stylistic joke and you are the one who picked up its connotation, wasn’t mimicking. The point was to show how absurd the race card can be.
It’s not a race issue btw, Matt, we’re mocking how absurd it is to even bring race into play here. I never once said that this should be about race. Hayes did that all by himself.
I’m speechless
Marcus is a clown. Utley plays his heart out and works hard. Howard and Rollins are not the only two who get criticized. So does Lidge, Werth, Raul, Victorino, Chard Durbin, and many others. Or did you decide to forget about all of them because they are not black?
Matt,
You are totally missing the context of the joke. It was not to mock; it was to note the absurdity of the issue at hand.
Jeez, this past week Kyle stole so much from the 700level (including the sixers picture on the fire engine, the college b-ball rankings, and the phillies picture of Ryan Madson dressed like Miguel Cairo). He finally tries to do something independent and he gets such backlash.
First off let me start by saying that I’m black. You guys saying utley gets special treatment because he’s white are so dumb. Howard comes up in so many clutch situations and never comes through he gets so many insignificant homeruns… Remember the world series home run against the Yankees after his horrible world series. While utley was tearing it up. He has ten postseason homeruns. He didn’t have a good series against the giants but no one did. If utley was up in that situation he would have at least put the ball in play. Howard just looks absolutely clueless sometimes when he’s up to bat. Then he looks at the ump like it wasn’t a strike are you kidding me? It was right there. Chase never would have done that. Howard does so many more things to piss off Philly fans than utley does and it’s so obvious to realize. It has nothing to do with race.
Madison- I stole the college b-ball rankings? come on. pretty much every sport publication, website, message board, discussion board had them yesterday. and those pictures u see? they don’t come from the 700 level, they usually come from pr people and widely followed people on twitter. sometimes we put them up first, sometimes i’m taking a shit and someone else does first.
i know you’re trying to get under my skin. dammit, it worked.
I don’t know man. Everything down to the mention of temple and villanova and the comments were identical. How do you explain the sixers picture? Enrico took that (proof is in the copyright on his site when you try to right click it.) Also, i think he took the one of ryan madson in the halloween mask.
The race card is pretty much a moot point in baseball…Phillies fans are douchebags to all of their players, but more so the ones who decide to put themselves in that position. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve heard people calling for Hamels’ head, Chase Utley to be traded, Ibanez to be moved to first and Howard traded to get Cliff Lee…*Facepalm* The point is, the reason Chase Utley does not suffer from criticism is because he plays hard every play. He’s everything a team player should be. You don’t need to be a vocal jackass to be a leader, at least not in this sport. People are criticizing Rollins and Howard because they expect them to put their money where their mouth is.When a player is vocal, sure, they are going to be held more accountable, but in Philadelphia, these guys are supposed to be golden every minute of the day. By being a public spectacle, you are placing yourself in the limelight of public scrutiny. Keep in mind that these are the same fans that expect Halladay Hamels and Oswalt to pitch nine inning shutouts every game, and they often wonder why Halladay can’t pitch every game. I’ve watched games with friends who decided to turn it off after the third inning if the other team has scored. Seriously. We have some really shitty fans. That being said, these same shitkickers are the ones who are criticizing our team-(you know, the one that won 97 games) calling for a complete overhaul and mutually agreeing the team is washed up. Any halfway logical fan will tell you that a team that wins 97 games does not have to trade their starting 1st baseman, second, and shortstop to get a 4th pitcher for their rotation. Just saying. Every player on the field(besides a few pitchers who shall not be named) is a high caliber player that any team would kill to have. We should just sit back and enjoy the ride while it lasts. Oh, I’ve heard people last week calling for Charlie Manuel to be fired.
P.S.
Marcus, you are a top ten douchebag in Philadelphia’s media circuit, and that is REALLY saying something.
could not agree with you more especially the last part
@ John E: Jeff Carter gets a pass? Seriously? Ever go check the Flyers fan forums? You’ll see more “Trade Carter!” threads than almost anything else. He’s practically the #1 whipping boy. And for many of the same reasons as Howard – comes up small in big situations in the playoffs. How many point-blank open-net shots can one “sniper” miss in the playoffs?
He gets a pass because he’s the best player on the Phillies when he’s healthy. And even that isn’t a total free pass (see the criticism of Werth this year, when he and Ruiz were carrying the offense by themselves).
^
Marcus this is not a white issue. Ryan Howard is the most criticized member of the team (and unneccesarily) however up until July 2010 the most criticized member of the team was a white guy. Cole Hamels was the most criticized player until he pitched 0 run games the whole second half of the summer. Chase Utley is not criticized because he’s a pretty boy that shaves only once a week. Which does two things, makes him look sexy to women and tough to men. It’ll be a sad day for Utley when women find a new heartthrob and men find a guy who gets hit in the batters box more often. Chase Utley is NOT what Lenny Dykstra was in 93 or what Schmidt was in 80. Cole Hamels is an nlcs mvp as well as world series mvp neither of which Utley will ever be.
ROTFLMFAO. Jeff Carter is the pariah of the Flyers.
Madison- I’d rather really not get into this in the comments, but since you didn’t leave an email address and it’s public I’ll defend those point by point. You need to understand that most photos and stories are sent our via press release or other writers on Twitter. Many blogs pick up on them.
-The Sixers photo was from the Sixers official Flickr stream of their PR department
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sixersphotos/with/5115891222/
-The college basketball thing is general news. Our comments were not the same and even if they were, there’s not a whole lot to say other than the facts. I am very connected as an alumni of Villanova basketball, so you can be assured that anything I write about them will not be coming from another blog.
-The Madson photo was taken by an AP member and tweeted
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/sports/20101011_Phillies_Extra.html?imageId=41308009
Blogs, for the most part, cite things that were either sent from a PR department or written by another more traditional outlet. I’m all for being corrected, but if you’re going to do so publicly, make sure you are correct. Were the pics posted elsewhere first? Maybe, but someone always has to be first. The 700 level has also embedded many videos that we’ve taken and put on youtube without crediting us:
http://www.the700level.com/2010/10/video-reds-fans-tried-to-get-hamels-off-his-game-by-buying-him-shots-at-lunch.html
And here- although they’ve since replaced the video with CSN’s video
http://www.the700level.com/2010/10/video-this-wasnt-easy-on-mike-sweeney.html
It’s just the way the internet works
People critisize Howard because he strikes out on a regular basis and always swings at low balls. Its not about race its about the ability to hit. Yes Howard did lead in homeruns and rbi’s but his consistent striking out and his playoff performance leaves room to critisize him. Although Chase might not lead the team in HRs of Rbis he does consistenly hit and did well for us in the postseason. I look foward to seeing both the players perform well next year and hope we will have everyone back including Werth who did great this season and hope the phils can resign him
Marcus doesnt know what hes talking about either everyone on the phillies gets ragged on by fans. Like how everyone ragged on Ruiz and Werth when they had carried the team for part of the season. Philly fans are terrible on their players. You cant have a single bad day or you will get booed by the fans in any of the Philly sports No one gets a “Pass” sure some may be less harrassed but everyone has felt this Philly mentality.
I find it odd that african americans are often the instigators in these matters. If your moronic little mind would stop even mentioning this idea, the younger generations of black americans would not ever consider that a viable argument. You plant the seed in the minds of youngsters, and you are the problem.
The fact that you even cite race as an issue means that you hold preconceived notions in regards to white people. As soon as you make race the issue, you lose all credibility among anyone with half a brain. It is a BS cop-out, used by weak willed individuals to create a stir among the less-educated of the black community. You should be ashamed of yourself for perpetuating such an antiquated mentality, and it speaks to your inability to read situations as they actually are. Have you ever seen Chase Utley not run out a ball to first? Nah. Why? Because he hustles. Ever seen Jimmy Rollins benched for not running out a ball to first?…Is that what a leader does? says ‘ah F it, im out, i aint runnin’.
Why is it that black comedians can impersonate white people (always with the same nerd scientist voice), but if I were to go up on stage and do my Septa bus driver routine, I’d get killed? Talk about a double standard.
Marcus, ever heard of leading by example? It seems like every clueless Steven-Smith-Jock-Riding joke of a columnist thinks that leaders must be overly vocal, must complain, and must show emotion. False. The qualities of a good leader are often quiet, and relateable to those around him/her. Jimmy Rollins is no leader, and nor is Howard. I love the two, although not as much as Utley. That being said, I also dislike Ibanez and Victorino more than Rollins and Howard. Thats racism I guess.
The fact that you cite one MVP season does not equate to an MVP career. Thats like saying well I won a pulitzer this year, so that means every other piece of work I write is just as good.
The race card is used by people with an inferiority complex. Plain and simple. Always used by some pseudo-intelligent, african american, who writes every article with a thesaurus in hand to confuse and dilute the facts of whatever they are speaking to.
Take your Al Sharpton mentality and shove it. Truly one of the stupidest men alive.
Holy shit, this was Conlinesque on Hayes’ part. Wow. Dude had to be on the rag during that chat. I do think he has a point about Utley never receiving criticism though. Whether it is because of race or not I don’t know but I do know that I am way down on Utley. I was also down on Hamels after last year too though and we see how that turned out. I can see why Hayes wouldn’t like Utley though. He does come off as smug in most of his interviews and I think generally just doesn’t like being around the media. I agree with Hayes in that he needs to step up and take some of the heat while his teammates get blasted.
If Hayes would have presented his case with some more class I think this would be looked at differently.
Chris’ post from 1:00 is a great one. Well said.
all he says is Utley is unaccountable and that Rollins is more valuable with a .250 batting average with nothing to back it up, than when someone says utley has a higher ops and slugging, Marcus just calls him a nerd, what a joke
This sounds like the same asshole who told me on the trolley “white people wear Howard jerseys so the don’t look racist”. You know, while I was wearing my Howard jersey.
Besides, Utley’s crappy fielding certainly got called into question. Does he read sites?
Matt:
The “run tell ‘dat.” Was a direct from a quote from Jroll last week.
700 level is owned by CSN. They have first rights to the Mike Sweeney story to begin with.
I take back what I said about this article being original. The 700level has it up too.
PS. I looked up the records at Villanova and there is nobody named Kyle Scott that went there in the past 25 years. I question your integrity on that one.
I apologize, Kyle. I didn’t realize the true context of the joke. I’ve just been annoyed as of late with the whole making-light-of-impoverished-rape-victims fad. Since that same phrase was used in the ‘Bed Intruder’ auto-tune, I thought it was a reference to that situation and not to something Rollins said. I’m sorry for jumping the gun there.
Thanks for making that clear to me, Sherry.
dumb nigger
@Andy…fair point since I don’t read the Flyers forums. Just going by friends who are diehard Flyers fans (I’m more of a casual hockey fan) the attitude they take towards Carter’s off ice behavior is more of a “boys will be boys” kind of thing.
I wonder how Yanks fans would have felt about Mickey Mantle in his heyday if 21st century media was in existence then and were reporting on how many 0 for 4’s of his happened on days after he showed up at the park hungover on 3 hrs sleep.
I’m a white guy who isn’t a big fan of Rollins or especially Howard since they are overrated and incredibly overrated, respectively, but Ben Francisco is one of my favorite players on the team.
I guess that means I’m racist? Utley has been the most underrated player in baseball since like 06 he’s been almost competing with Pujols atop the leader boards in WAR and hasn’t sniffed an MVP. Must be because hes white. Damn racists.
marcus please define gets a pass in this city, do you mean by the press or the white population in general. i dont leve in the city and i blame utley more than rollins. not gpoing to criticise howard because this is his m o. great in season player but fails in the plyoffs and w/s. can he cant help it its just who he is not the race he is he is much has to be blamed errors lack of clutch hitting. dont forget the pounding schmit took during his days.fail andaccept the het thats sports
Marcus Hayes is right.
Maybe not about the white thing but about Utley getting a HUGE pass. There isn’t a single player in the mlb who is as error prone, uber streaky, and has declined every consecutive year for 3 seasons that gets the praise Utley does.
sorry for the typos 2 recent brain surgeries
What is this whole “when Chase Utley is healthy” crap?!?
I guess when Rollins and Howard aren’t playing well they’re slumping. You Utley fanboys can never give a legit response about Utley getting worse and worse every season.
Maybe you should’ve just given this ass a link to the story back in June, maybe, when everyone was absolutely blasting Utley and Werth for being out playing poker at 4am when they were in the middle of a horrible slump. And I’m pretty sure Utley and Howard were criticized together when they were taping a TV show while performing poorly on the field. But I guess that never happened, because no one in Philly has ever said a bad word about a white person, ever.
let,s see the eagles are 75% black, the sixers 90% and the best team in years mirrors the racial population of the u.s.. we need to get rid of all white athletes in philly. btw marcus, you are insane.give me a 2nd baseman who averages .280. 20 hr,s and 90 rbi,s and plays a great 2nd base and i,ll show you the best in the league. i cant remember rollins being ripped and he has consistantly gone downhill. werth gets ripped and he,s white so it cant be color maybe baseball fans just like utley. ashburn and roberts never got ripped i guess they should have in your racist world.i,m a full season ticket holder and i,ve never heard race even discussed. but you have called 3.6 million people racists but you the great marcus hayes have to play the race card. good journalistic integritity. resign before your fired.
thank you joe d. sean, i’m speechless. madison, it’s a blog, not cnn or even csn. when you have so many sports blogs in one city and only so much shit to get reported, EVERYONE gets a hold of it in some way. and as far as his name goes, it’s clearly an alias. the fact that you care this much is unfortunate.
Madison- wow. you have a lot of time on your hands. pseudonym. it’s not my real last name, for the exact reason you just detailed.
why don’t you leave your email address sometime like everyone else and i’ll gladly discuss any problem you may have. now, why don’t you go outside, it’s a nice day out.
Matt- All good. In retrospect, I suppose it wasn’t clear that it was just trying to show how absurd such a comment could be. Certainly wasn’t meant to mock any group.
Madsion- CSN does own that material, they also put up videos and allow other blogs to embed them because it’s free advertising for them. This is why media outlets send us their videos, because it gives them another platform to serve their content, brand, and ads. If they didn’t want people to use their video, they wouldn’t include an embed option. Please go away.
Your essay is good except for some spelling mistake.
おむつ野郎どもと呼ばれる会社は販売のための袋の素晴らしいコレクションを持っています
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