This is the shit that bugs me about reporters (not just Cafardo, though he is a huge problem). It's that they have to believe that there's some sort of magic or extra oomph that is sprinkled on certain (usually white) players.
"This guy is gritty. This player is a dirt dog. This dude is tough and hard-working and had to fight for every at bat in his life."
No. That's not true. It's something that writers make up in order to start some sort of bullshit narrative. We all know that David Eckstein is the patron saint of this kind of writing. But do you think that the people from Sanford, FL and who saw Eckstein play thought that he sucked? Of course not, he was probably always the best kid on his baseball (and probably other sports) team. The guy played in the major leagues for almost ten seasons!
Even someone like Daniel Nava, who had a strange, circuitous route to the major leagues, people from Mountain View, CA probably talk about him like a god.
The point is, Chris Sale is so much better than Nava or Eckstein, that he doesn't need some made up backstory about how he spits nails and rips the heads off chickens after poor outings. Just report on the fucking game. Jesus. You're not Grantland Rice. It's this kind of purple prose that makes me dislike certain players -- and it's not even their fault! Because when they succeed, that makes assholes like Nick Cafardo look correct.
"See I told you! Mike Trout is fantastic because he's a gamer! He slides during spring training games and he hustles in batting practice and I once saw him chew out Carlos Perez because he didn't respect the game the 'right way'."*
* All of this is false, of course. But you can substitute any athlete for Trout.