The Vilification of Alex Rodriguez

Alex Rodriguez, or A-Rod, has, in recent years, become the pariah of professional baseball.  Whether it's due to his incredible wealth (an absurd annual salary of $33 million), his chimerical and egotistical statements, or the outrageous situations that he seems to constantly get himself into, people love to hate Alex Rodriguez.  The revelation that the superstar had also taken steroids earlier in his career further debilitated his image.  In fact, even some Yankee fans admit to openly disliking Rodriguez.  What many people fail to realize, however, is that they judge and deride the Alex of old.  Since 2007, the year where he won the American League MVP for posting ridiculously good numbers, Alex has visibly tried to bring as little attention to himself as possible.  He no longer made outlandishly arrogant statements, and, according to Tom Verducci and Joe Torre's, The Yankee Years, even tried to dress and act as "vanilla" (plain) as possible.  While he still made mistakes at times (A-Rod's 2007 opt-out clause controversy and divorce of 2008), his attitude was discernibly changing for the better.  Then, in 2009, when his use of performance enhancing drugs became exposed to the public, Alex realized that he truly needed to grow up.  He also realized that despite all the controversy and headache he had caused them in the past, his teammates (noticeably Derek Jeter, whose past with Rodriguez has been rocky) were behind him.  From that point forward, A-Rod put his own needs and desires aside and become a true team player.  He ceased talking about his own personal achievements and stressed that he was now only concerned about both winning and his teammates.  This in turn led to A-Rod's newfound love of baseball, and, because of this, he became eminently more enjoyable to watch.  A-Rod's resurgence paid dividends for the Yankees in 2009.  Despite missing a month of the season and battling a nagging hip injury, A-Rod in essence became the MVP of the Yankees.  The team started winning as soon as he returned to the lineup that May, and A-Rod put to the sleep the not-so-quietly held belief that he was an unclutch player by belting clutch home run after clutch home run.  In fact, his monstrous 2009 postseason campaign near singlehandedly carried the Yankees to the World Series.  Also, his 2 run homer off Cole Hamels and RBI double off Phillie closer Brad Lidge in games three and four of the 2009 World Series were critical hits for the Yankees.  Simply put, without Alex, the Yankees would not have won their 27th world championship.  Therefore, people should begin to understand that the man they relish in scorning, Alex Rodriguez, is not the same egotistical windbag of 2006.  Rather, he is a more focused athlete who only wants to win and enjoy playing the game he loves, much like the beloved idol of baseball, Derek Jeter.  If you A-Rod haters are still unmoved by this argument, then that's fine.  But to point fingers and disparage the man for such nonsensically frivolous matters like walking on a pitching mound or getting fed popcorn by a girlfriend is pure asinine.

A-Rod jokes about popcorn incident