I know everyone's frustrated with the team's offensive woes, but what I'm getting from all of these posts is that what's most irritating to people is the lack of fire in the players, the lack of anger after they strike out or blow it in a key situation. I think that people here would just be happy if Chavy would swear at the umps or if Byrnes would start a fight with Charles Thomas or something ...

Can we check ourselves here? Is this rational criticism or is this knee-jerk anger? It's every fan's right to be pissed and want the players to share that emotional attachment to wins and losses but as players, they just can't. It's not healthy for them.  

I'm paraphrasing this from a book (can't remember which): the players (knowing it's a long season and knowing that they will have as many 0-4 days as they will 3-4) NEED to take every game in stride, or else they'd kill themselves with regret over this pitch or that pitch or this error or that error. THEY'RE NOT FANS. We want them to be, but they're not. We live and day over EVERY moment, but they CAN'T. If they did, they'd be where Mitch Williams is now ... or Donnie Moore.

It's their JOB, and if they didn't stay focused, they'd lose their minds over the wild fluctuations between good days and bad days. I loved Tejada's fire, too, but I also remember him bitching all the way down the third base line in Boston.

Hey, I love emotional outbursts (I still remember Kotsay screaming at Manny after that botched call in August), but we need to remember, while they do indeed want to win, they can't kill themselves after every loss. There are just too many of them. If they press now, they may never get it going.