“I know just from the experience of playing with those guys, and I’ve seen some of the mail that they get, obviously not a lot of us get that kind of mail,” Wood said on “The Waddle & Silvy Show” on ESPN 1000. “I didn’t, but there are people out there that got their beliefs.”

Wood said he saw some of the mail that was sent to former teammates LaTroy Hawkins, Jacque Jones and former manager Dusty Baker.

“It’s tough to sit there and read that,” Wood said, “and it’s tough to even understand what those players go through.”

Bradley accused fans of making racial taunts at Wrigley Field during the 2009 season, but he declined to give examples of specific incidents.

Now that Wood is saying it, all of a sudden people are starting to believe it just a little bit.  That in and of itself is a subtle (or not so subtle, depending on your point of view) form of racism.  What’s so unfortunate about this is that these players are not really hearing true, useful criticism.  Who sends ballplayers letters anyways?  If I were the one sending the letters, even if I was a racist, the fact that they were black would be the least of my concerns.  Dusty was a terrible manager, Hawkins blew way too many saves, Jones power went out after that first season and Bradley said all the wrong things at all the wrong times.  You know now that I think about it, I have some letters to send.  Does anyone have Kevin Gregg and Geovany Soto’s addresses?

Booing is not necessarily a bad thing, however.  Everyone’s gut reaction to it is that its insensitive and/or just plain rude.  The argument that always appeals to me is when someone says, “How would you like it if you were doing shitty at your job and 10s of 1000s of people gathered around your little cubicle and booed you?”  The problem with that is, at least at my job, I’m not being paid $30 million dollars to be accountable to the entire City.

Booing can be a reflection of an intelligent fan base.  Cubs fans get so much shit for being “too loyal” to the team, even when the team trots out miserable squads year after year.  Well just because we love baseball and are willing to watch a 65 win team all summer doesn’t mean we are idiots.  If someone deserves to be booed, then Cubs fans will boo them.

Which brings me back to Milton Bradley.  He knows what he signed up for.  He signed a gigantic multi-year deal and with those kinds of things come expectations.  As he even put it himself after last night’s home run:

”I didn’t come here to suck. I know I’ve sucked so far, but give me some love, you know what I’m saying? I am a Cub.”

I mean we love you as a Cub, but you’re going to need to start hitting and earn that contract.

So why was it not okay to boo Jacque Jones and okay to boo Milton?  Expectations.  Jacque Jones signed a 3-year $16 million dollar deal.  He had been the kind of guy that hit about .285 with 20 home runs a year before he signed that contract.  Not to say that isn’t a huge contract, but when he struggled in April by hitting around .230 Cubs fans mercilessly booed him.  It was 1 month and he wasn’t supposed to be an all-star.  Bradley’s contract is twice that and he has been even worse, hitting well below .200.

I guess my point is it’s ok to boo Bradley, but booing Jones wasn’t cool.  Unless I’m completely wrong and Cubs fans are just racist.