Cubs fans have a reputation for being racist.  We have heard it time and again from many different sources, although all of them have been African-American until now.  In recent years Dusty Baker, Latroy Hawkins, Jacque Jones, and now Milton Bradley claimed to have received racist hate mail and racist taunts in the field.  Although here at NQTC I’ve made clear my belief that racism was going on, most Cubs fans scoffed at this and chose, perhaps out of ignorance or some sort of dormant racism, to not believe the words spoken by these black men.  Even though the evidence was corroborated a few times over and really wasn’t all that hard to believe.  When Dusty said it, he was just crazy.  When LaTroy Hawkins said it, he was delusional.  When Jacque said it, he was a crybaby.  When Bradley said it, he was just angry.  Now Kerry Wood, a Caucasian, is saying it:

“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?