A-Rod: Where did it go wrong with his image?

[Scoman]

It has nothing to do with money,the dude is a cheater and liar,same class as bonds,clemens and the rest of the steriod freaks. Pretty simple.

[Goody]

Originally Posted by BaseballMan

Why is it that as fans we must hate a player? What was so wrong about A-Rod taking the money? Are you telling me A-Rod shouldnt have the same choice as you and me in that we all would take more money unless we did not want to move our familys. I think the contract should just be ignored when judging A-Rod as a person.
A-Rod, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens when it comes right down to it they are just ballplayers. They arent Bishops or Priests. Sure they have no choice in being a role model for some but do we need to put the extra burden on them
requiring that they be perfect? Not every player can live up to being a Lou Gehrig or Cal Ripken Jr.

If I was making 4.3 million a year for doing what I love and what makes me famous and popular...and was offered a huge amount more than that... I'd stay loyal to the team.

And sure, lets ignore the contract. Found some quotes from him...

In May 2006, Rodriguez responded to the criticism directed at him, saying:

“ "I could care less. In my career, I've been hearing it for a long time. It will never stop until you win five or six World Series in a row, and hit a Joe Carter home run. I've done a lot of special things in this game, and for none of that to be considered clutch, it's an injustice. I don't take anything personally; I enjoy it, it motivates me and I think it's comical. I think [for] anyone that drives in over 130 runs numerous times in his career, it's impossible not to be clutch."[59] ”

In an issue of Sports Illustrated, Rodriguez surmised further reasons why he has become an apparent magnet for criticism, saying:

“ "When people write [bad things] about me, I don't know if it's [because] I'm good-looking, I'm biracial, I make the most money, I play on the most popular team."[60] ”

In that same issue of Sports Illustrated, Rodriguez took criticism for suggesting that the Boston Red Sox were his first choice:

“ "I would have preferred to play in Boston at the time. I thought it was the best team and city for us. But I am happy here now, and that is what matters."[60] ”

[Goody]

Originally Posted by Scoman

It has nothing to do with money,the dude is a cheater and liar,same class as bonds,clemens and the rest of the steriod freaks. Pretty simple.

He was disliked before the steriod story.

""There is a difference between image and reputation. Image is nice, reputation is developed over an entire career. Reputation is what I'm searching for."" -Alex Rodriquez.

Guess he found it.

[BaseballMan]

Originally Posted by Goody

If I was making 4.3 million a year for doing what I love and what makes me famous and popular...and was offered a huge amount more than that... I'd stay loyal to the team.

And sure, lets ignore the contract. Found some quotes from him...

Sure you would. Come on now if you had a 30 million dollar contract and someone offers you $252 million you wouldnt take it? Sorry i dont buy it. Any player would. These guys arent gonna be playing forever so whats wrong with them trying to get what they can?

[Goody]

Originally Posted by BaseballMan

Sure you would. Come on now if you had a 30 million dollar contract and someone offers you $252 million you wouldnt take it? Sorry i dont buy it. Any player would. These guys arent gonna be playing forever so whats wrong with them trying to get what they can?

He did turn down a 1998 extension offer of 7y, $63m to start in 2001. At the time, that salary would have made him one of the highest-paid players in the time, but it didn’t take much to see that when those years came around, that wouldn’t be much (and it wasn’t — in 2001, his extension wouldn’t have put him in the top 25 salaries). And then later, he turned down eight years, $117.5m starting in 2000 (this is all coming from Thiel’s book), which must have been at least somewhat tempting.

Come on, I don't need that much money. Those are the extensions the M's offered him before he became a FA.

I think he wanted more money and a smaller field to hit more home runs in. He didn't care about the team or the game. He cared about his own pocket book, stats, and posing in front of the camera on national tv.

[Left-handed Badger]

I dont begrudge him much on the $252 million one. But, then when he went the route of wanting even more money, that was a wee bit ridiculous to me. Not enough to care, though. Between 30 and 252? Yeah, take the big contract. Between 252 and 275? Umm, what? Even with money being absolutely no object, I couldnt spend that much money in 10 lifetimes.

[BaseballMan]

Originally Posted by Goody

Come on, I don't need that much money. Those are the extensions the M's offered him before he became a FA.

I think he wanted more money and a smaller field to hit more home runs in. He didn't care about the team or the game. He cared about his own pocket book, stats, and posing in front of the camera on national tv.

Everybody needs more money. As soon as you think you dont then something
happens. Yeah its a lot of money but people dont have problems with Bill Gates making more money than he can give away. As long as he earned it in alegit way and didnt steal it i have no problem with the amount of money A-Rod made. How do you know he didnt carer about the team? Because a player wants more money and wants to have good stats he doesnt care about the team? Thats the same as saying you dont care about your job if
you do things to get a good review and a pay raise.

No matter how much we wish players would stay with teams, baseball has been and always will be a business.

[BaseballMan]

Originally Posted by Left-handed Badger

I dont begrudge him much on the $252 million one. But, then when he went the route of wanting even more money, that was a wee bit ridiculous to me. Not enough to care, though. Between 30 and 252? Yeah, take the big contract. Between 252 and 275? Umm, what? Even with money being absolutely no object, I couldnt spend that much money in 10 lifetimes.

yeah but 275 million wouldnt even make a dent in what some of the owners are worth.

[TribeFanInNC]

For me, it wasn't the money. It was somewhere between knowing that his potential 800 HRs are PED-tainted and when he started acting weird (licking the mirror, dating Madonna, etc...).

I don't hate him. But I sorta hope he peters out around 680 homers.

[Left-handed Badger]

Originally Posted by BaseballMan

yeah but 275 million wouldnt even make a dent in what some of the owners are worth.

Well, I am pro-capitalist, so I dont mind greed. But, I was just saying at that point who cares, so much? He still had 3 years on the $252 million one. It shows he is obsessed with squeezing every dime out into his contracts, nothing more or less. Just saying for me that extra $23 million wouldnt matter at that point. I am so blasted frugal (think Ebenezer Scrooge except worse. ) That no freakin' way I could spend that much. And if they lived remotely as frugal as me that my great-great grandkids would see be living off the money I earned in that contract.

[Left-handed Badger]

Originally Posted by TribeFanInNC

For me, it wasn't the money. It was somewhere between knowing that his potential 800 HRs are PED-tainted and when he started acting weird (licking the mirror, dating Madonna, etc...).

I don't hate him. But I sorta hope he peters out around 680 homers.

Actually, I hope he beats out Bonds. If only for the fact he was more tolerable than Bonds.

[BaseballMan]

Originally Posted by Left-handed Badger

Well, I am pro-capitalist, so I dont mind greed. But, I was just saying at that point who cares, so much? He still had 3 years on the $252 million one. It shows he is obsessed with squeezing every dime out into his contracts, nothing more or less. Just saying for me that extra $23 million wouldnt matter at that point. I am so blasted frugal (think Ebenezer Scrooge except worse. ) That no freakin' way I could spend that much. And if they lived remotely as frugal as me that my great-great grandkids would see be living off the money I earned in that contract.

well everybody that doesnt have that amount of money says they wont spend that much. But when you get that amount of money your priorities may change. Your looking at the budget you have now because thats what you can afford. But if you had a million dollars things might be different. You may want a better house. Why not? Whats the point in having money if you can have the things you want? You take the money to your grave. Maybe you might want to invest in a new business. A-Rod may be lloking towards his future when he is out of baseball so i disagree that he shouldnt take every penny he can. The owners are gonna try and pay the least amount and are we gonna be so concerned when his skills are gone and he cant get the big contract?
If he blows all his money i wont feel sorry for him but his skills on the field has entitled him to get what he deserves. Remember its just not his baseball skills but his name is marketable. Now if you want to complain about a player then look at Jamarkus Russell. The guy did nothing to deserve his salary.

[Eckstein 4 Prez]

Originally Posted by mlyons

That gargantuan contract he signed with Texas really soured lots of people on him. Not his fault, really, since it's not like he held a gun to anyone's head to force them to give him that much money (I know I sure as hell wouldn't turn down a contract like that), but it was just so shockingly big that it had to turn people's heads. There was absolutely no way he could possibly do enough to justify that much money, so people started to hold it against him and scrutinize him a lot more closely.

Yeah, that's the biggest thing. In order, I'd say:

1. Giant game-breaking contract with Texas
2. Utter lack of charisma (Look at most of those big stars people have mentioned - they all have some amount of magnetism. A-Rod has the charisma of a doorknob.)
3. ROIDS
4. He's a Yankee, and all good people know the only decent thing to do is hate all Yankees.

[Melo]

This may sound crazy but I think ARod suffers from low self esteem.

[MrEndshiftresign]

Originally Posted by Left-handed Badger

Actually, I hope he beats out Bonds. If only for the fact he was more tolerable than Bonds.

I can certainly agree to this.

But going back to the subject, I agree as well that it's the 'roids, the lack of a likeable personality (I would say, dating back to his days as a young phenom with the Mariners), the humongous contract he never lived up to and all his shenanigans with Madonna, who's a few years shy of being old enough to be his mom. Never been an A-Rod fan, and with the way he's been acting for the past few years, I can guarantee I will never be an A-Rod fan till he retires.

[BaseballMan]

I could care less now about the roids. Just about every player was doing them
and none of them were putting up the numbers A-Rod and Barry were.
When you can tell me for sure which players werent juicing maybe then i could see roids as an issue.