There's Your Karma, Ripe As Peaches

Admirable, Warner. He doesnt' deserve half of the shit that he gets, especially when there are so many other problems on that team. there are plenty of high $$ guys that don't produce, complain, and only try about half the time. I feel bad for the guy.

But are you listening to the radio broadcast? He's been booed twice in about 10 minutes.

A-rod makes way too much money to not be able to handle the criticism, pressure, and anything else that people want to throw at him. If you're makin a quarter billion to play baseball, you should be able to come through like nobody else when it matters most and not just June and July.

He was booed twice in what seemed like 20 seconds today. It was completely pathetic. It's time to get behind this guy but until he has a ring, the majority of our fans won't do it. Anyway it was a great opening day out there today, Flash. You woulda loved it.

Glad you came around on this Flash. I will never understand the hatred. If you're a Mariners fan I get it because I'm pretty sure he left them high and dry. But why anybody else? His personality is annoying, sure, but that's it. Hating him for any other reason (other than your admitted crazy irrational stuff) is just jealousy.

Too many Yankee fans don't appreciate what they've got but I guess that's what makes them Yankee fans right?

i was on the train after the game sittin next to a couple dudes that could only talk about the 1st inning error. i brought up the homer that sealed the game to em and they acted like anybody on the roster coulda done it. "its the fuckin drays pal." i dropped it. not worth it.

too many people are bitching about that home run. it sealed the damn game and even if you're stupid enough to argue that it was meaningless, it only gets that distinction because his single, steal, and run scored made it that way! a-rod won the game for the yanks yesterday and 90% of their shitty fans can't figure it out.

There's just not enough hate to go round eh Flash ;¬)

Oh, there's plenty, Toxic. Removing A-Rod from the equation simply allows me to direct more hate at something/someone else :)

You know... I was totally with you on this post until you gave in.

I had the same issues. How can I hate A-Rod if he's a Yankee? Somehow, I manage.

I remember the moment when I first hated him. I was sitting on the toilet at my partner's family's house, flipping through the pages of ESPN the Magazine, when I stopped at an interview with A-Rod. I skimmed the article, fairly neutral about him up to that point - in fact, I think he was still playing in Seattle - when the question and subsequent answer changed my feelings about him forever: "If you had to describe yourself in one word, what would it be?"

A: "Class."

Buddy, if you have to say it, you ain't got it.

Then he got the big contract.

Team player? Not at $250K, you're not. How can a team (other than the NYY) afford anything other than 15-year-old streetball players from the DR? They certainly can't afford to pick up any decent pitching.

And accountability? No way. He's a head case, they say, because of all the pressure and expectations. Well, hell yeah, there'll be pressure and expectations. It's like what I used to say about really expensive pot: "I'll buy it, but it had better make me c**."

Once A-Rod becomes a humble, selfless team player (which boils down to accepting less money so his team can buy a balanced roster), I'll give him another chance. Until that day comes, I'll hope that someone can afford to get him off my team.

Well, I'm off to a good start.

"Toilet books and toilet book readers are both foul and unacceptable.

I agree with a lot of what you're saying, Yobimbo, but I'm trying to separate my feelings for A-Rod the douchepump and those for A-Rod the baseball player. I think that I can respect his skills, talent, and the good things he brings to the table without being forced to embrace or like his personality. Besides, how does hating him help NYY's cause? A-Rod's a headcase and we're stuck with him until he either chooses to leave or some other owner wins a billion dollar powerball.

It seems to me that rooting for A-Rod's failure and booing his every move does nothing but hurt the Yankees and yet we pile on. Why? So he knows that we REALLY hate him? When A-Rod does poorly, so do the Yankees and I'm getting sick of it. I'm tired of hating him. I'm tired of the drama. I want the guy to have a good season and help us to a world series. I didn't like overpaid jerks like Sheffield or Randy Johnson but I respected their skills (declining though they were) and rooted like hell that they would produce for our team. I didn't want them to fail because that means the Yankees fail. The same goes for A-Rod.

Once A-Rod becomes a humble, selfless team player (which boils down to accepting less money so his team can buy a balanced roster), I'll give him another chance."

1) He doesn't have to accept less money anymore - he's on the Yankees.
1a) The Yankees pay A-Rod less per year than they pay Derek Jeter. The Rangers are stuck with a lot of that bill.
2) The Rangers screwed themselves. A-Rod didn't force them to pay him absurd amounts of money and screw up their buying power. If someone offers me a million dollars and then goes broke, don't blame me because I took the money.
3) The Yankees don't have a balanced roster because George Steinbrenner is obsessed with trading away talent for overpriced has-beens.
4) Humble, selfless players are a rarity in New York these days. Rodriguez is a perfect fit in that regard.

no kidding. if anybody offered me $250 million to play baseball, I'd take it. It's up to the Rangers to figure out the rest. If they didn't want to be tied up in a knot because of his contract, they shouldn't have made the move. Obviously they were willing to take the risk and if they weren't smart enough to figure it out, that's their problem.

Just for the record, I've never booed A-Rod. I've given him the finger, yes, but I've never booed him. Oh wait. Maybe once. But that's it, I swear.

I think we're pretty much on the same page on most points.

I don't want him to fail. In fact, I want him to do well. Really well. YES, he's got skills that people only dream of having - but he's also unwilling to make sacrifices to win.

Here's what I'm trying to say - and most of my disgust for him comes from when he went to the Rangers.

Nearly everyone says, "If someone offered me that kind of money, SURE I'd take it." Great. But then you have to make up your mind about your priorities. What's more important? $250M (yeah, I noticed I wrote $250K in my other post), or a World Series ring?

Maybe you could argue that he didn't know that the Rangers couldn't afford a full team after buying him... At first. But after seeing they couldn't put a team around him, it seems to me that a winner would step up and say, "Let's renegotiate so we can pick up some talent and win the Series."

Instead, he went to NY, tagging the Rangers with most of the bill, not having to sacrifice a thing, and then started whining about wanting a ring.

Let me be clear - I'm not opposed to someone making a lot of money, but a quarter of a billion dollars is an obscene amount of money for ANYone to earn. People probably respect him for that alone.

But you know what I respect? I respect a player who sticks with his team and makes sacrifices and contributes to a common goal of winning - players like Craig Biggio, Pudge Rodriguez, Jim Edmonds. Remember "Super" Joe McEwing? He wasn't a great player, but he sprinted out to whatever position they told him to play, and he tried to get on base every time he stepped into the box.

These guys show up every day, they play hard, and they're team players. They don't blame their E's on the press and the fans. They don't have the press writing about their delicate emotional state.

$250M can buy a lot of therapy. He needs to stop whining and start winning.

hahahaha, I'm setting the line here.

You completely freak out and go back to hating him in 5 weeks. You'll survive April but it'll be hard!

Bases loaded, bottom of the 8th, down 7-6, your dream man's first game back, and A-Rod flops AGAIN. That's not even a pressure game!

You aren't gonna last long with this.