the origin of "...HE'S A BUM!"?
by FPTV on Sep 7, 2008 8:10 PM PDT
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So in the background of the TV broadcast of the game today, I could hear the "What's the matter with _________?"/"HE'S A BUM!" chant. Does anybody know the history of this? My googling suggests that it's a very Giants-specific chant, and it may date back to the Polo Grounds, which makes sense since the Dodgers used to be called "the Bums" back then (though, IIRC, that name came from the Brooklyn fans...). Does anybody know of a more specific history behind the chant, or is that all there is? Has it always come from left field (even at Candlestick and the Polo Grounds)? Is it technically inappropriate to use with non-Dodger players? Who else loves seeing that lady with the season tickets to the seat at the very front of section 134?
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since the Dodgers used to be called “the Bums”
Used to?
I have other names for their fans, but that’s for another post.
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by SoFa King Mike on Sep 7, 2008 8:23 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs
"is it technically inappropriate to use with non-Dodger players?"
no particular reason why, but i always look forward to when Mark Kotsay’s in town.
he’s not even that great of a player to merit the taunting, but the crowd always turns on him and he seems to hate this chant the most.
by ExcuseMeSwing on Sep 7, 2008 8:54 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs
Byrnes, too...
maybe not the bum chant, but I was at a Diamondbacks game earlier this season and he was getting it pretty good. It’s cold as sh*t out, so he keeps sticking his hand in his pocket and these two drunk goons keep yelling at him, “BYRNESSSSSSS! Gitcher hand outta yer pocket!” “HEAD IN THE GAME, BYRNES!”
They’ve also got a sign, which reads simply, “BOO!” It’s very well made: plain white posterboard, hand-written with a Sharpie-like they hadn’t quite decided what to write, so they made the sign at the game. One guy holds it up and the other points at it, while they both yell, “HEY BYRNES! BOOOOOOO!!!!!”
Eventually, they start to run out of taunts, so: “BYRNES! Ya got RED SOCKS on!” “BYRNES! Your hat’s red!” “HEY BYRNES! Red socks, red hat, BOOOOO!!!!!” (and the sign comes up and they point at it.)
by FPTV on Sep 8, 2008 1:11 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
Actually I think those are his friends . Byrnes grew up in the Bay Area and was a Giants fan.
I went to a D-Backs game last year when he was mainly playing Centerfield. The game I was at he played left field. There was a group of hecklers seated in centerfield bleacher area giving him shit the whole game. They didn’t really care that they were nowhere near him. I think Byrnes pointed at them and smiled a few times.
by consequencesANDrepercussions on Sep 8, 2008 11:21 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
I remember that one time he hit for the cycle in San Francisco when he was playing for the A’s, and his friends who were all at the game booed him mercilessly.
Why? Because they’re Giants fans.
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by groug on Sep 8, 2008 11:53 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
"he’s not even that great of a player to merit the taunting"
from what I’ve seen, all it really takes is a visiting jersey and an “LF” by your name on the scoreboard ;-)
by FPTV on Sep 8, 2008 1:14 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
I enjoy all taunting of Jim Edmonds with this chanting.
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by jponry on Sep 8, 2008 12:40 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
While I consider Joe Morgan is a complete and utterly egotistical buffoon, I remember hearing him mention somewhere (in one of the MLB2K games, I think—either ‘06 or ’08, they are the only two I’ve played) that it was actually something that Dodgers fans came up with to taunt their own players back in Brooklyn, and he was kind of laughing at how Giants fans use it now.
I don’t know how true that is, or even if I’m remembering properly. But there it is. Feel free to shoot that one down.
by kaliber on Sep 7, 2008 9:42 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs
Hmmm...
…I’m gonna say Scripture. “What’s the matter with Noah? HE’S A BUM!”
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by Skaldheim on Sep 7, 2008 10:46 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs
At an A's game:
“What’s the matter with Palonia?”
“HE’S A BUM!”
“What’s the matter with his girlfriend?”
“SHE’S TOO YOUNG!”
-Back in 89 after Luis Palonia got busted for having sex with a 15 year old.
by faust10 on Sep 7, 2008 10:49 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs
lol
"While conservatives tell you 'leave things alone and no one will lose,' and liberals tell you 'interfere a lot and no one will lose,' baseball says 'someone will lose.' Not only says it - but insists upon it! ... Democracy is lovely, but baseball's more mature." BVCE supports SF Dugout and Manny Burriss.
by BaronVonCurrentEvents on Sep 8, 2008 9:29 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
I know.....
In 1993 after the Giants new ownership added the bleachers right at the fence at the Stick, my friend and I went to 43 games sitting front row in section C or D if I remember correctly. Anyhow, the Cards were in town for a series and my friend and I were all over Bernard Gilkey. So much so that before the final game of the series we were laying into him during BP. There was a batboy shagging flys next to Gilkey who happened to be another friend of mine. He came over to the fence and told me that Gilkey said that we were riding him harder than anyone ever had. The strange thing about it was that the mojority of our taunts were “What’s the matter with Gilkey?” “He’s a bum” There was no rhyme nor reason for starting it, I simply yelled the what’s the matter with Gilkey part and my friend yelled “He’s a bum” and it sounded good and we took it from there and for the rest of that season and many more we laid into every LF with the same chant. I think it is hillarious how it has caught on. I hear it at D-Back games at home when the Giants are not the visiting team.
I don’t know anything about any historical perspective to this. I do know two things though…when we started it in 1993 it was out of the blue and I also know that Joe Morgan speaks out of ass quite often and I never listen to any of his dronings…
OOOOOO - REEEBAY!
by Uribe2Thompson2Clark on Sep 8, 2008 9:21 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs
You just brought back some great memories of those left field bleachers at Candlestick. If i remember correctly they were about $6 per ticket. Ill never forget those chants! “Whats the matter with ____, hes a BUM!!” Good times!
by krazybalr on Sep 8, 2008 9:35 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs
1993
For a season that ended so inexplicably wrong, everything that led up to the end of that year at the Stick was the best! I used to wait in line for hours before every game at Gate B for the ticket window to open so I could make sure that we’d have the same bleacher seats, literally right on the top of the wall! For home game #81 my previously mentioned friend and I got there at 6 am and were interviewed on the KTVU morning news. We took a walk to the players lot before the gates opened and Bob Brenly yelled at us that he saw us on the news that morning. He was so pumped up that we had been there so early.
That was my first year out of H.S. and I had no job, and blew off school to go to those games, that was the greatest baseball year of my life, until the end…..
OOOOOO - REEEBAY!
by Uribe2Thompson2Clark on Sep 8, 2008 9:41 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs
heh. I was like 12 or something, but...
… <3 the first 161 games of the ’93 season ;-)
by FPTV on Sep 8, 2008 1:08 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
Is it technically inappropriate to use with non-Dodger players?
While “bums” is a nickname for the Dodgers, “bum” is a long-held, derogatory term that has been used throughout baseball. You don’t hear it so much now, especially since most MLB players are millionaires, but It usually referred to a jorneyman-type player that wasn’t very good. Call a player a bum to his face could get you into fight pretty quickly, so you’d better be ready to back it up if you did.
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by marklar on Sep 8, 2008 5:20 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs
I think that there is certainly a disconnect with our perception of the word today and what it meant to our great-grandfathers. Before taking on the mantle as a synonym (yum!) for homeless person (drifter, &ct.), it was used to mean a general lower-or-working class unsavory character. Were this unsavory character to be in the upper class of society, one would have called this character “cad”. As in “What’s the matter with Rockefeller?”/“He’s a cad!”
by satyricrash on Sep 9, 2008 10:56 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
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