Why do we hate A-Rod so much?

When it was reported that Alex Rodriguez was opting out of his contract during the final game of the World Series on Sunday night, fans and media everywhere went nuts. Many went on a tirade against A-Rod.

But why?

If you had a well-paying job and had a three-year contract, but were unhappy there and another company was offering you a longer contract for more money, wouldn’t you leave? If you said no, you’re probably lying.

I have every reason to be an A-Rod hater. For most of his career, A-Rod has played on a division rival of my favorite team, and for the rest of his career, A-Rod has been a Yankee, a team everyone is supposed to hate.

I don’t hate him. I don’t love him. But I don’t have the anger towards him that so many do.

Steve Hulkower at Bugs & Cranks had the best take on this I’ve seen yet.

Everything that people in the media knock Alex Rodriguez for is a quality existent in scores of other baseball players, but it is only Alex who has his name tarnished. Fans want their players to do everything humanly possible to help their team win, but when Alex does it he is chastised. The amount of players who seek bigger and better contracts at every opportunity are countless, but Alex is slammed for doing so. What makes this worse, is when Alex is slammed for common behavior among baseball players, people divert this bias into other parts of his game and slam him on topics that simply aren’t even true.

A-Rod has never done been involved in any bad off-the-field incidents. He’s never pulled a T.O. or Kobe and ripped his organization and teammates. He’s no saint, but he’s not worth this much hate either. He’s not linked to HGH or steroids like baseball’s other most-hated player, Barry Bonds.

If you hate the timing of the announcement, hate his agent Scott Boras first, then hate A-Rod. I highly doubt it was A-Rod’s idea for it to come out that way. You could also hate Fox and ESPN for hyping the story up as much as they did — they certainly could’ve focused more on the Red Sox winning the World Series.

The World Series is a tad bit more important than a player saying he’s going to be a free agent.

Bill Plaschke is a hypocrite, again

A couple of months ago, I ripped LA Times columnist Bill Plaschke for saying the Dodgers should give up on their season and go into a youth movement. Apparently, he’s already forgotten about that.

From Bill Plaschke’s Oct. 29 column:

Seventeen of the 23 players who played for the Red Sox in this series came from somewhere else.

This was a team not grown and nurtured, but bought and bartered.

And (parentheses mine):

(Dodgers’ owner Frank) McCourt and (Angels’ owner Arte) Moreno should be ready to talk about it now. They should call Rodriguez’s agent, Scott Boras, immediately.

They need to prove that all this talk about grooming young players aren’t just code words for keeping the payroll low.

Let’s compare all of that to what he wrote back in August:

If you want to cheer, you must first groan.

If you want to enjoy, you must first endure.

If you want to eventually celebrate the successes of the best collection of young Dodgers talent in the last decade, you must first watch them go splat.

There’s a reason they don’t call it growing joys.

Do you play your young guys and endure growing pains or go out and sign proven players? I’m confused.