Barry Bonds, the all time MLB HR leader*, is confused why Alex Rodriguez, a multiple steroid offender, isn’t getting much love around baseball circles these days — including from his own team, the NY Yankees.
“Why the hate?” Bonds said. “Why hate on something you’re paying to see? I don’t understand it. He’s entertaining us.”
A lot of fans have written off ARod, but it’s not all hate. While some fans have disdain toward ARod for his repeated cheating, many others are simply done with him and indifferent toward any future success he might achieve.
Of course, it may not be surprising to learn that Bonds is surprised about this “hate,” for he himself was surprised that the baseball world largely ignored him at the end of his career when it became obvious that his legendary HR records* were nothing more than puffed up numbers built on various steroids and performance enhancers.
It may be true that some sports fans simply want astronomical stats, regardless of the cost to the player or the game. Other fans, however, place a higher value on integrity and playing the right way, and don’t feel as though they should admire a player (ARod) who is currently chasing a HR record by amassing most of his HR’s by cheating. Making things worse for ARod is the fact that he repeatedly lied about using, then fought and litigated against MLB even after the evidence piled in confirming his guilt. A lot of fans were let down that ARod had developed a history of lying and cheating, and even when caught still had trouble owning what he did.
Maybe some of those details might help Barry Bonds understand the “hate” some fans have watching ARod try to break your record*.
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