It's always most instructive to observe the behavior of people when things aren't going well. It says a lot about who they are.

Cubs bloggers are no different. With the Cubs descending into mediocrity for the first time since this blog was launched, it is bemusing and disappointing to see the reaction of people who are entirely too invested in the outcome of a baseball game.

And this is best demonstrated by their reaction to the apparently evil Milton Bradley, who would seem to be responsible for all that ails the team - and the bloggers' lives.

Let's begin with the increasingly vituperative Goat Riders:

A day after Milton Bradley re-confirmed what we already knew about his being a giant, turgid dildo, Cub fans got to witness last night his continued ability to produce after it stops mattering. In other words, he is the Fred McGriff of the '09 Cubs, and his ass-eating, empty calorie production is nothing more than a big F.U. tease.

Lovely. And now on to A League of Her Own, which is disappointingly fitting in nicely with the ChicagoNOW crowd:

And most of all, I understand that he doesn't understand the concept of making his own bed and having to lie in it. You don't hit the damn ball and bitch about how the fans, your teammates, and the umps don't like you, you aren't going to earn many fans. Never in my memory has a Chicago player gone so far out of his way to distract attention from the fact that his season has been a big pile of suck.

I get it. We ALL get it.

That said, could you please shut the hell up already? You want to bitch about racism? Go talk to Hank Aaron, the Palestinians, the Israelis, or people living in Rwanda first.

Or Dusty Baker, LaTroy Hawkins or Jacque Jones. There are degrees of difficulty in life, as a blogger who seems particularly distressed about a baseball player with a .400 OBP should be able to tell you.

At Bleacher Nation, our friend Ace says Bradley is acting "crazy" because he doesn't like being booed - or going to work where he is booed no matter what he does:

They say that insanity is trying the same thing again and again, and expecting different results.

If that is the case, then Milton Bradley is doubly insane: because he keeps, well, being crazy again and again. Surprise - the results are always the same.

The latest bundle of crazy relates to Bradley's recent comments that he is uncomfortable at Wrigley Field, and specifically, that he feels hatred there. The Cubs - and we - suggested that Bradley get over it, but unfortunately, he appears to be doing anything but.

I would think it would be "crazy" not to be affected by this. Bradley's approach seems relatively healthy, actually. He is asked questions about it, he answers them, and the Sullivans, Wittenmyers, Stones, Kaplans and the bloggers go ballastic for his bluntness.

Perhaps they would prefer along the lines of:

Crash Davis: It's time to work on your interviews.
Ebby Calvin LaLoosh: My interviews? What do I gotta do?
Crash Davis: You're gonna have to learn your clichés. You're gonna have to study them, you're gonna have to know them. They're your friends. Write this down: "We gotta play it one day at a time."
Ebby Calvin LaLoosh: Got to play... it's pretty boring.
Crash Davis: 'Course it's boring, that's the point. Write it down.

Oh, but then they'd bitch that he doesn't say anything interesting.