Baseball fans don't seem to be buying major Dodgers' fluff piece on Dalton Rushing

Dalton Rushing has been on a bit of a PR defensive since his outrageous run of bad publicity. After the Dodgers' series against the Cubs, he stayed away from the media for a little while and wasn't caught saying anything untoward for a little while after (we won't count the timeout argument during the Marlins series).

During the Cardinals series last weekend, he finally acknowledged the incident with Miguel Amaya and said he'd reached out to Nico Hoerner to clear the air. He said he knew that he was developing a reputation as a bad guy but didn't want the label to define him going forward. Dave Roberts said that he and other figures in the Dodgers' clubhouse had spoken to Rushing about being mindful of his actions.

Fabian Ardaya and Katie Woo of The Athletic followed with a long profile on Rushing in light of recent events, in which Rushing continued to insist that he doesn't want to be seen as a villain. Multiple Dodgers players and even Rushing's old coach at the University of Louisville spoke to his character.

But baseball fans who don't like Rushing as it is weren't particularly moved. And it's kind of hard to blame them.

The Athletic's long piece trying to help Dalton Rushing's reputation kind of falls on deaf ears

Rushing has been cited a few times explaining that he used to play football alongside baseball, and was just used to competing with a kind of fire. Freddie Freeman, widely known as one of the nicest guys in baseball, said, "Dalton can sometimes black out on a baseball field," but he and multiple interviewees confirmed that he's a nice kid off the field.

But is Rushing not a 25-year-old man who can be a fiery competitor while also having the wherewithal to be a professional on the field?

Miguel Rojas chimed in to add that, "Seventy, eighty percent of the players out there are saying things, but they're not getting caught on camera often." We don't doubt that's true, but it still just sort of speaks to Rushing's immaturity.

Ardaya and Woo let Rushing have the last word. "Hopefully, anyone who knows me outside of a baseball field knows the person that I am, how much I care about people, the things I would do for literally anyone," he said. "But yeah, I think there's been a little mix-up of the image recently."

We'd say that's accurate. But Rushing wants to put it behind him, and Dodgers fans are right there with him.

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