The Hate.

Still staggered from the 6-0 loss to the Tigers this evening, I'll briefly report on one of the ugliest recurring elements of nationwide Yankee hatred. With the game well out of reach in the eighth, the crowd cheered as a Zumaya fastball soared out of the strike zone and past Alex Rodriguez's head. Rodriguez had already been beaned once in the game, by Rogers, but it is worth noting the cheering of the near miss, something I've seen quite often over his three seasons in the Bronx. It seems that the man is so hated nationwide that not only is he booed before every at-bat but road crowds actively cheer when he is close to being hit.
The game was well over at this point, and Zumaya was clearly not throwing at Rodriguez, not with a six run lead and with no grudge or history between them. He had just come out of the bullpen, and was a little wild with his first 102 mile an hour fastball. Perfectly reasonable. The proper crowd reaction to something like this should be a small gasp, and probably would have been for any other player. No one wants to see a decisive victory by the home team marred a player hit in the head by probably the most dangerous pitch harnessed by anyone in the game. Or at least no one should, but Rodriguez is hated so much that the fans were excited when he came close to a Piazza or even Ray Chapman moment. We've all been watching normal games when suddenly a batter is hit in the head, or a pitcher is hit by a line drive, or two fielders colide on a play. On field baseball injuries are painful and cringe-worthy to watch. Play pauses as the cameras show closeups of concerned players on both teams, and frozen, silenced fans in the stands. Always at the end of one of these injury delays, whether the player is taken off in a stretcher or gamely limps down to first base, he recieves a nice hand from the crowd, home or away. We've all seen this happen during a game. This is what those fans were hoping for when that fastball slipped out of Zumaya's control and toward Alex Rodriguez's head.
People are focused on the reaction Terrell Owens will recieve on Sunday in Philadelphia, but he may not even be the most hated athlete in America. He'll probably be knocked down several times to raucous cheers, but I doubt he'll be exposed to anything as dangerous as the possiblity of a 102 mile an hour fastball to the head. Considering his standing with his own fans, Zumaya's pitch might have been cheered even at Yankee Stadium. Hopefully, Rodriguez will have another chance to improve his image, at least to Yankee fans, over the next two days.