By Jeff Moss
DetroitSportsRag@GMail.com
August 29, 2016
Yesterday, I began counting down my personal Top 25 Most Hated Detroit Athletes dating back to 1976 when I became cognizant of the Wings, Pistons, Tigers and Lions.
We ended yesterday at number seven, so without further adieu here are my six most despised Detroit athletes of my lifetime …..
6) Phil Coke
I hated Phil Coke. I hated the way Phil Coke pointed in the air at every fly ball hit against him. I hated how Phil Coke looked. I hated how Phil Coke spoke. I hated how some dope started a moronic parody Twitter account named “PhilCokesBrain.”
And I specifically hated how Phil Coke pitched. A WHIP of 1.53 for a relief pitcher is trash and that was Coke’s career number in Detroit. A back-end reliever who perennially would allow over 1.5 baserunners per inning.
A lefty who seemingly could NEVER get a lefty out in a critical situation.
And I hated Phil Coke’s wife, who would do Twitter searches for Coke’s name and then bomb anyone who was rightfully criticizing her stupid-looking husband.
Like I cared if he was an “amazing husband.” I just wanted the hillbilly to record a damn out against Eric Hosmer.
5) Todd Jones
Yes, Jones was another in a long of Tiger closers who either blew games or gave you diarrhea watching his rollercoaster 9th-inning performances. But this bigot made the list because his comments about potentially having a gay teammate made Torii Hunter look like Dan Savage by comparison.
“I wouldn’t want a gay guy being around me. It’s got nothing to do with me being scared. That’s the problem: All these people say he’s got all these rights. Yeah, he’s got rights or whatever, but he shouldn’t walk around proud. It’s like he’s rubbing it in our face. ‘See me, Hear me roar.’ We’re not trying to be close-minded, but then again, why be confrontational when you don’t really have to be? Because if (the team) thinks for one minute he’s disrupting the clubhouse — if he doesn’t hit 50 homers or win 20 games — they’re not going to put up with that.”
After those despicable comments, Jones could have been Mariano Rivera incarnate and I still would have despised every fiber of his being.
After the homophobe made those comments, I went on Fox-2’s “Sportsworks” and bombed Jones for such naked hatred. Yes, believe it or not, I actually used to be an occasional panelist on that program before my vitriolic nature got me blackballed.
That particular episode in question was pre-taped and my comments were edited out of the eventual broadcast. Unfortunately for the hateful Jones, nobody ever did him that “favor.”
4) Prince Fielder
Ah, yes. Fielder’s retirement from baseball earlier this month was the impetus for me to finally stop procrastinating and write this article. The funny thing about Cecil Fielder’s son is Detroit baseball fans probably could have forgiven him for coming back to Motown even when he definitely didn’t want to and only did it for the money.
We could have even stomached the fact that he had an awful second (and final) season in Detroit which may or may not have been related to his teammate (Avisail Garcia) allegedly porking his wife, Chanel.
Hell, as a sabermetric guru, I could have even chalked up his horrid postseason numbers in 2012 and 2013 to a small sample size. (Fielder posted a .463 OPS in ’12 and .561 in ’13 for his postseason campaigns.)
Though the 1B/DH DID look completely disengaged in the 2013 ALCS versus the Boston Red Sox where he seemingly rolled over on every pitch and grounded out weakly to second base. For fuck’s sake, it looked like he was playing “pepper” with Dustin Pedroia for six games.
But the final straws were Fielder’s comments AFTER that 2013 ALCS ended and the Tigers were eliminated by the Red Sox. Also known as this franchise’s best chance to win a World Series during this current cock-tease era.
“It’s not really tough for me. It’s over. I’ve got kids I’ve got to take care of. I’ve got things I’ve got to take care of. For me, it’s over, bro. They don’t play. I mean, if you have responsibilities it should be, you know, you shouldn’t take your work home, you know? I’ve got to still be a father and take care of my kids, so, you know, I’ve got to move on.”
Those comments came only about 20 minutes after the Tigers were devastatingly eliminated by Boston in a series they most definitely should have won. Drew Peterson spent more time grieving over his dead wives — whom HE killed — than Prince worried about that ALCS series loss.
Well, I am happy that Prince now has ALL OF THE TIME in the world to spend with Jadyn and Haven now that his neck injury has forced him into premature retirement.
Hmmmm. Acts like baseball is no big deal in the grand scheme of things. Takes it for granted. Infuriates a fan base with said comments. Loses the chance to play the game due to career-ending injury thus giving him ample opportunity to play Mr. Mom for the rest of their childhood.
This sounds like the handiwork of one Rod Serling.
3) Brandon Inge
I am not sure what was more annoying about the Brandon Inge phenomena. That a large portion of the fanbase (almost exclusively Caucasian in makeup) mistakenly thought he was a superstar or the fact that Inge was just about the whiniest bitch to ever play professional sports in Detroit.
Go to a game at Comerica Park and you will STILL see Inge jerseys worn by the dipshit fans. For a catcher/third baseman who put up a slash line of .234/.304/.387 with the Tigers while being incredibly overrated in the field.
But it wasn’t just his anemic or nonexistent offensive output that drove me fucking crazy about the Novi Fountain Walk Hooters’ favorite customer. (Is it a coincidence that the location went out of business after Inge left Detroit?)
No, what was maddening about Inge were his delusions of grandeur and his complete failure to KNOW HIS ROLE.
Like his bitching and moaning when the Tigers signed future Hall of Famer Pudge Rodriguez to catch, thereby necessitating Inge’s move to third base ….
“It’s frustrating that this happened so late, but there’s really no one to blame. I know the front office didn’t intentionally say, `Let’s just screw Brandon over and go get Pudge.’ This is just something that came up at the last minute. I’m not mad at anyone.”
“Everyone just sees the offensive numbers and thinks they outweigh everything else. My priority is always to help the pitching staff and throw runners out.
“In my mind, I think I’m just as good – if not better – than Pudge defensively.”
Yes. He said that shit.
And then when the team acquired Miguel Cabrera by trade a few years later meaning Inge had to become a super utility player, Inge cried AGAIN even though he still had 407 plate appearances that following season.
In fact, this time Inge had his WIFE do his dirty work. Yep, Shani Inge — acting as her husband’s surrogate — did an interview with Bernie Smilovitz where she explained to Blooper Boy that Brandon was having a hard time sleeping at night because of the Miggy acquisition and that sometimes he even CRIED.
This imbecile actually had the nerve to COMPLAIN about the acquisitions of one of the greatest catchers and one of the top three right-handed hitters to EVER PLAY THE GAME.
Yep, the man with the career OPS of .685 did that.
And who can forget the time that Inge said he was struggling because opposing pitchers were treating him like Ted Williams or Babe Ruth?
“I can’t explain it. I’m getting pitched like I’m Babe Ruth. Everything is on the corner. I haven’t seen a ball in the middle of the plate for a week.”
Or how about his comments in June of 2011 when he tried to blame his horrific batting stats on allergies? …
“I am not going to blame it on the sickness. I will take full responsibility. My numbers are what they are. I didn’t do well, though I did produce some RBIs (12). But the home run thing started to get to me. I was like, ‘OK, I can hit home runs pretty easily. I don’t have to try. I can flick them out easy. I am strong enough to do it. But it was getting hard for me to drive a ball a long ways. I was weak.”
He could flick home runs EASY. In 5,617 career plate appearances, Inge hit a grand total of 152 homers. That’s 2.7%. Yep, it was easy for him to “flick them out.” Kind of like he did in glorified batting practice during the 2009 Home Run Derby when he couldn’t “flick” ONE out of the stadium.
Inge must have had a sinus infection that day when he put up an embarrassing goose egg.
The end finally came for Inge in 2012 when the Tigers added Fielder via free-agency, which moved Miggy back to third and left Inge the odd-man out. And of course, Inge cried about that as well.
Jim Leyland still didn’t want to let go of his security blanket so he attempted to move Inge to second base. When Inge started the season 2-for-20 while being booed incessantly by the home fans, he was finally released. Which gave Inge one more opportunity to whine about his lot in life:
What did I get 20? 20 at-bats? I wish I could have gotten a few weeks, maybe two weeks, to play day after day and see what I could do. I hit the ball hard when I was in there.”
And with that final salvo, the human check-swing strikeout exited our lives. And not a moment too soon.
2) Scott Mitchell
The Lions have had a lot of misfortune over the last 58 years, but one of their most devastating sequences occurred in a game that didn’t even involve them — one between the Browns and Dolphins back in October of 1993.
During that game in Cleveland, Hall of Fame QB Dan Marino tore his right Achilles’ tendon, which elevated his backup Scott Mitchell to the starter’s job for the balance of the season. This gave Mitchell an audition for a team looking for a quarterback in the free-agent market in 1994 and while Mitchell didn’t set the world on fire while filling in for Marino (he threw for 12 TDs versus 8 interceptions and only averaged 136.4 yards per game) he did enough to dupe the Lions brass.
Wayne Fontes handed Mitchell a three-year contract for $11 million (good money at the time) to run an offense loaded with weapons (Barry Sanders, Herman Moore, Brett Perriman, Johnnie Morton, etc.)
Even with opposing teams stacking the box with eight defenders to stop the greatest running back of all-time and with superstar wideouts like Moore and Perriman on the field, Mitchell failed to lead his team to ONE playoff victory during his tenure.
Not only that, instead of picking up a few extra yards and risking getting hit, the man was a coward who would constantly run out of bounds to avoid any physical contact. Hell, in one postseason game he actually FAKED an injury just so he would get pulled from the game!!!!
Yes, Scott Mitchell begged himself out of a playoff game.
How despised was he by his teammates for this sort of traitorous behavior? I will let All-Pro offensive lineman Lomas Brown explain it in his own words:
We were playing Green Bay in Milwaukee. We were getting beat, 24-3, at that time and he just stunk up the place. He’s throwing interceptions, just everything. So I looked at Kevin Glover, our All-Pro center and I said, ‘Glove, that is it.’ I said, ‘I’m getting him out the game.’ . . . So I got the gator arms on the guy at the last minute, he got around me, he hit Scott Mitchell, he did something to his finger . . . and he came out the game. [Lions backup quarterback] Dave Krieg came in the game.”
“As you can tell, I’m just not a big fan of Scott Mitchell. He’s just not on my Christmas list. He won’t be getting any Christmas presents from me this year,” Brown said.
Can you believe how dysfunctional this organization has been through the years? One of the franchise’s best offensive lineman admittedly purposely whiffed on a block so his QB would get INJURED!
And it was probably strategically the right thing to do!!!!!!!
Inexplicably, the Lions gave Mitchell ANOTHER contract in 1997 — this time for 4 years, $21 million — which guaranteed that Barry would never win a Super Bowl during his career.
If you want to know who to blame for Barry Sanders failing to even reach a Super Bowl or win more than ONE postseason game, it’s Fontes and Mitchell. Luckily, I have a picture that actually references both of these idiots.
Even funnier than Mitchell dressing up as Fontes for Halloween is if you run a Google Images search for the “1994 Detroit Lions roster” this photo array pops up:
Yep, Mitchell wearing a “Biggest Loser” jersey.
Fitting.
1) Grant Hill
This will be a controversial #1, but this is my list and not yours so I really don’t give a fuck what you think. And after 6,000-plus words documenting the 25 Most Hated Detroit Athletes of my lifetime and having to revisit all of this torture, I really don’t want any shit out of you people. I am already experiencing enough PTSD from this rehash.
Grant Hill backstabbed the city of Detroit. Grant Hill lied to his friend, next-door neighbor and GM Joe Dumars about his intention to stay with the Pistons when he was a free-agent in 2000. The deception led to Dumars keeping an awful coach (George Irvine) and making a horrific draft choice (Mateen Cleaves).
Grant Hill wasn’t staying in Detroit, but he was too big a coward to be upfront with either Dumars or the fanbase that was desperately desiring him to stay. His wife, Tamia, wanted a career in entertainment and the Windsor, Ontario native didn’t want to stay in this area.
So while Hill was glad-handing Joe D., he was working behind the scenes to create a supergroup in Orlando with Tim Duncan and Tracy McGrady. Fortunately, Duncan backed out at the last second because of LOYALTY to the Spurs and San Antonio.
Now, please don’t view this from the prism of 2016. Yes, we know that Hill became a shell of himself in Orlando due to a laundry list of injuries but we sure as hell didn’t know that in the summer of 2000.
And spare me the asinine song and dance that Hill was doing the Pistons a favor when he left Detroit by agreeing to a sign-and-trade. Grant Hill did that for one reason: He wanted the most money possible. He didn’t have any fucking clue that Ben Wallace would one day develop into a player that would lead the franchise to a title.
No. What we knew back in 2000 was we were losing one of the greatest Pistons to ever put on that uniform. For those of you too young to remember Hill in Detroit, the guy was on his way to becoming one of the greatest players in the history of the sport.
In his last season in Detroit, Hill averaged 25.8 points per game, 6.6 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 1.4 steals. He finished eighth in MVP voting that year.
At the age of 24 in 1997, Hill finished THIRD in MVP balloting. Behind only a couple of guys named Karl Malone and Michael Jordan. That is how fucking good Grant Hill was.
And he left Detroit because he thought he’d have an easier time winning in Orlando and because his WIFE would have an easier time working in the music business in Florida.
So fuck him.
To make matters worse, the phony Hill wanted to have his cake and to eat it too. He didn’t want his jilted fans in Detroit to hate him for leaving for the Magic Kingdom, so Hill went on a PR campaign to dupe the moronic fans into thinking he was still a great guy.
He showed up on WDIV-4 during the 5pm newscast to explain his decision to leave Motown and that fawning dummy Carmen Harlan bought his act hook, line and sinker. She was so enamored with this turncoat that I wonder if she gave Hill some hand release under that broadcast desk.
Once he left there, he then popped in on the EVENING program on WDFN, which was being hosted by Sean Baligian and Eric Pate. Hell, Baligian didn’t want to be in the same studio as Pate at the time yet Hill went on the radio and played politician on the 1130 airwaves.
Hill was so desperate to make sure everyone liked him that I think Baligian ended up having to kick Hill out of the studio.
He then took out full-page ads in the Freep and News thanking Detroiters for their support during his time in Auburn Hills. And this was 16 years ago and before that was a THING. I am pretty sure Hill was one of the first athletes to stab a town in the heart and then buy ad space to try to smooth things over.
Hill’s final treasonous act occurred during the playoffs in 2003. The Pistons were the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference and they were embarrassingly down 3-1 to the #8 seed Magic in the first round.
The Pistons arrived back at the Palace for Game 5 on the verge of a humiliating elimination. Now, Hill wasn’t playing for the Magic at the time. Gimpy Albatross (as I nicknamed him back then) was still having foot problems and only played 29 games that season.
What Hill did do is go to McGrady and tell T-Mac that he wanted the Magic to finish the Pistons in Auburn Hills so the Pistons fans would have to witness the elimination firsthand.
Of course, he told that to McGrady in confidence. Hill didn’t call up Devin Scillian or Greg Brady and deliver THAT message to the fans he left behind. But when McGrady opened up his mouth and told the press what Hill said, there was no putting that genie back in the bottle.
No public relations onslaught was going to cover up that bullshit.
After Hill left Detroit, he only played in 24 playoff games the rest of his career. And 16 of those came with Phoenix in 2010.
The Pistons? Well, they came back in that 2003 series, won three straight games (mainly because moron Rick Carlisle finally replaced Michael Curry with Tayshaun Prince) and eliminated the Magic.
In fact, the very next season the team played 23 postseason games in ONE YEAR and won an NBA title over the Los Angeles Lakers.
No thanks to Grant Hill.
No matter what anyone tells you.
(You can follow the writer of this piece on Twitter @JeffMossDSR. Also, you can join in on the discussion of this article on Facebook by clicking here.)
