The endless struggle between Gritty Authenticity and Contemporary Standards of Taste—see Hemingway, “Muck my grandfather and muck this whole treacherous muck-faced mucking country,” For Whom the Bell Tolls; and Mailer, “mother-fuggin sonofabitch,” The Naked and the Dead—took an interesting turn in the Sun-Times‘s sports pages Wednesday.
A column on Alfonso Soriano by Rick Telander offered this passage:
“I get [ticked] off when the fans treat him the way they do,” Cubs pitcher Matt Garza said after the first game of this intracity series at the Cell. “That’s freaking ridiculous. The guy’s doing everything he can. He’s hit 20-plus homers every season.”
While a story by Gordon Wittenmyer offered this:
“I get pissed off when the fans treat him the way they do,” right-hander Mark Garza said Monday, referring to the reaction Saturday after Soriano stopped in the batter’s box after lining a shot to third that inexplicably was dropped. “That’s freaking ridiculous.”