Jimmy Rollins and Barack Obama need to seek shelter

Way back in April, I wrote about Jimmy Rollins' interest in Barack Obama for a Sunday column, which you can find here.

Well it turns out the reigning NL MVP and the presidential hopeful have more in common that politics.

I just arrived to Chicago today (yeah, I'm a day early) and I didn't get too far into my Chicago Sun-Times. On the inside of the back page, Rick Telander, one of the best sports columnists around, wrote about recent comments Illinois-native Obama made about Cubs fans.

Like Rollins, Obama made the comments before a national audience. Rollins called Phils fans "front runners" on The Best Damn Sports Show Period.

On ESPN, Obama, a White Sox fan, said the following about Cubs fans:

"The Cubs... they're nice. You go to Wrigley Field, you have a beer... there are beautiful people out there, people aren't watching the game.

"That's not serious. White Sox, that's baseball... South Side."

A presidential candidate take a shot at the fan base of one of the biggest sports franchises in America.... yikes.

Just as with Rollins, I don't necessarily get the timing here. Obama probably would have been better served to bite his lip and offer up the typical, politically-correct crap his peers are famous for using to squirm out of tough queries.

So, in a way, I guess I respect Obama for being truthful.

But there's a rather big difference between truthful and smart. As much as we like to act like we're a smart society that is above letting throw-away comments affect us, a large contingent of us red-blooded Americans don't like when you attack our team and our fanhood.

So, yes, I think Mr. Obama could lose some votes. Seriously.

Imagine if Obama said Eagles fans were front runners. See what I mean?

Anyway, since Philadelphia is as parochial as any big city in America (it's why national sports radio shows don't work), I thought I'd share this bit of news from the Windy City.

Apparently Jimmy Rollins isn't the only famous face who's set off a baseball fan base.