In regards to Matt Joyce’s part in Slur-gate, I thought Bob Melvin summed it up perfectly on the manager’s show when Ken Korach referred to Joyce being contrite: “Well he should be.” If there is one thing all of us (except the homophobic and hateful around us) can agree on it’s that Joyce made himself, and the A’s, look bad in failing to handle a difficult situation with the good judgment expected of the professional.
What gets lost in the shuffle, though, is the unnecessarily low standards to which fans are held as they routinely blur the line between “heckling” and “good old fashioned verbal abuse” – and the distinction is really not that hard to make.