54 days ’til Opening Day

There are 54 days left until that best day of the year, MLB Opening Day.

54 is also the number of home runs Alex Rodriguez hit last season, the most in the majors. But he’s seemingly never been loved by baseball fans, often being labeled as a choker.

And that’s a shame. Because he’s really, really good. A-Rod is no saint, but he’s never done anything off the field worth our scorn. It amazes me how much A-Rod is put down in the media.

These are his worst season totals since 2000. Worst.

AVG: .286
HR: 35
RBI: 106
R: 112
OBP: .375
SLG: .512
OPS: .887
OPS+: 131
MVP finish: 14th

That’s not bad. And for all the talk of how A-Rod is terrible in the playoffs, he’s not. His numbers are worse than they are in the regular season, but they’re not horrible — .279/.361/.483. Derek Jeter, who’s commonly accepted as a clutch player, has a postseason line of .309/.379/.469 — an almost identical OPS. It seems that the only things Alex Rodriguez has done wrong is sign big contracts, and not gotten a hit every time he’s up in the playoffs.

I wonder what will happen if A-Rod keeps this pace up and threatens Barry Bonds’ career home record (Rodriguez, at age 32 has 518 for his career, so it’s not unlikely that he catches Bonds’ 762). I think it’s safe to say that the overwhelming majority of baseball fans outside of the Bay Area despise Bonds. Would we all of a sudden start rooting for A-Rod to break Bonds’ record — the same A-Rod we’ve been making fun of for over a decade?

I think we would, somewhat — and it would be very awkward. If you thought football fans reversing their opinions about Eli Manning was odd after the Super Bowl, that’s nothing compared to what will happen once A-Rod gets close to 762.