Haderade, or Hater-aid?

My wife and I and others went to the Brewers game last night, and the Crew ended up with a surprising comeback win against future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw and the Los Angeles Dodgers, breaking a 7-game losing streak. Somehow I have seen 2 of the last 3 Brewers wins in person, despite having nearly 2 weeks between games.

A big part of that win was the performance of the Brewers bullpen, as rookie Corbin Burnes came in with the bases loaded and none out in the 5th, and got out of it without the Dodgers scoring a run. It also included anther dominant performance by Brewers lefty Josh Hader, who pitched a scoreless 7th and 8th, and striking out 4 Dodgers, including all 3 Dodgers batters in 8th.

Then I woke up this morning, and noted Tweets like this one from SportsNet New York's Taylor Rooks and ESPN's Darren Rovell, which wanted to talk about Hader, but not his strikeouts.

Josh Hader is back after old tweets surfaced where he used racial slurs, said he hated gay people, & tweeted “white power”
What warrants a standing ovation?
Also: why is this reaction so different than the reaction to those who kneel & did nothing wrong?
pic.twitter.com/2x8zoSGl82

— Taylor Rooks (@TaylorRooks) July 22, 2018

This reaction to Josh Hader entering the game last night, his first in Milwaukee since his awful old tweets emerged during the All-Star Game might be just as ridiculous as his tweets themselves pic.twitter.com/3fTE692WCo

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) July 22, 2018

That video makes it looks like most of Miller Park was standing and cheering for Josh Hader in his first appearance for the Brewers after his racist and homophobic tweets from high school surfaced during this week's All-Star game. I was under the 200 level stands with my group (we had relocated at the 5th to meet friends, and then the game was going so well, we just stayed there). I saw a few people standing, but otherwise, it didn't strike me as overly loud or unusual when Hader was introduced upon entering the game.

I was fearing there would be a "stick it to those 'PC' types" of mentality, where the cheers have an ugliness to them (watch any Trump rally if you're confused on what I mean), and I didn't sense a lot of that. I was also interested in seeing if Hader's head was in the game after all of the attention, and he seemed like the same Haderade that made him an All-Star in the first half of the season. Which is a good sign if you're a Brewers fan that wants to see this team get back on track for a playoff run in these final 62 games.

My thoughts on the Hader situation are as follows - Yes, the tweets are unacceptable and Hader deserved to be called out and have to own up to them. And Hader has owned up to it (including the night the tweets were revealed and at a press conference in Milwaukee before Friday's game), and taken the heat that he deserves. I also think the Brewers and MLB have done a good job in not blowing it off and sending the message that when someone says words like this, it's not something that you can look the other way on.

That being said, a 17-year-old white high school jock in small-town Maryland is not the same person as a 24-year-old man who has spent the last 6 years being around many people of color and different nationalities on a daily basis. And Brewers teammates overwhelmingly said this week that Hader is a good guy that doesn't seem to be someone who carries those repugnant views today. That was the case whether the player was white or of color, and it's what I've cued a lot of my reaction off of.

An example is this tweet from fellow Brewers All-Star Jesus Aguilar, a dark-skinned Latino from another country.

Regarding accusations of racism: I’m Venezuelan and with the skin color that I have, can tell you that it is a lie. Obviously he’s not racist.

He’s a great player and a better person. Great teammate.
And you know it

— Jesus Aguilar (@JAguilarMKE) July 18, 2018

I think we should understand that some people really do grow up between high school and their mid-20s, especially if they get to live outside of the communities they grew up in and meet other people. They also might understand the destructiveness behind words of hate, and have less impulsivity to do stupid things in general. The awful things you may have done at 17 shouldn't wreck you for the rest of your life - they should be lessons to learn and grow from, and hopefully become a better person as a result.

By the way, that reality that people can advance past who they were at age 17 makes it odd to me that many of meatheads who overcheered Hader yesterday don't think that 17-year-olds who commit certain crimes aren't worthy of the same ability to rehab themselves and become productive adults. Instead they claim that those teens should be locked up and sent into the downward spiral that often results from that punishment. Wonder what's different between those cases?

This guy doesn't wonder.

Trayvon Martin was 17 when Hader sent racist tweets. Y’all didn’t call him a child.

Mike Brown was 18 when he was killed. Y’all didn’t call him a child.

Tamil Rice was 12, Anthony Weber was 16, Antwon Rose was 17. All gone. All children.

I wonder what absolved Hader already https://t.co/TxG3Y7k1QS

— Tyler R. Tynes (@TylerRickyTynes) July 20, 2018

And that hints at the bigger problem in the pictures of some Brewers fans boisterously cheering Hader - it adds to an already-bad image of Milwaukee as a regressive, racist city. If you check out the tweets below Rooks' comment, you'll see many are along the lines of "what do you expect? It's Milwaukee, it's Wisconsin, they voted for Trump." That image repels people with talent from locating in Milwaukee and Wisconsin, and it's one that has driven many people that grew up in the white Milwaukee suburbs from staying in the 414 or the 262 after they turn 18.

That's what people who grew up here and know Milwaukee think. Now look at the reaction of Dylan Hernandez of the L.A. Times. Hernandez was in Miller Park last night, and pointed out that the fans' reaction to Hader gives a reflection of Wisconsin's largest city to the rest of the country. Hernandez says it makes us look as idiotic as the Texasses who stood behind one of their pro athletes who did a racist act during last year's World Series.

The most charitable view was that [Brewers fans] wanted to back a player whose life was turned upside down over the last few days. But Hader was responsible for the ordeal. He wasn’t a victim and didn’t ask to be treated like one.

Or was it something more sinister? Were the fans taking a tone-deaf stand against political correctness? Worse, were they supporting the discriminatory messages?

The same questions had to be asked in the World Series after Yuli Gurriel made a slanted-eye gesture on the Houston Astros bench after hitting a home run off Dodgers right-hander Yu Darvish, who is from Japan.

In this column space, I asked readers to temper their reactions toward Gurriel, citing how racially charged language and gestures aren’t made with the same level of malice in Latin America as they are in the United States. But even I was taken aback in the next game when Gurriel received a standing ovation from his home fans. What did he do to deserve this? Or were they applauding some misguided form of free speech?

In both Gurriel’s and Hader’s cases, maybe this really was about backing the local baseball team and nothing more. It didn’t matter. The doubts did damage. Houston looked small on that night of the World Series, just as Milwaukee looked small on Saturday night.

Are the reactions from last night's game going to keep me from rooting for Josh Hader or the Brewers this year? Hell no! I hope Josh continues to serve the Haderade is massive portions for the rest of the year and for years to come in Milwaukee. I think that his high school tweets can be left in the past as long as Hader continues on the right path that he seems to be on today.

But what's going to stick for far too many is the reaction of a few meatheaded Brewers fans that seemed to condone what was in the tweets. It adds to a theme of "Milwaukee and Wisconsin are filled with racist dumbasses" that has hurt this state for a long time, and likely won't end soon unless we improve our ways both socially, and at the ballot box.