Most baseball players don’t want to bean Alex Rodriguez, but they don’t want to see him on the field very much either.
In an anonymous poll conducted by ESPN, MLB players said if A-Rod’s 211-game ban were put to a vote, most players would side with the league. The average answer from 28 players was that only 43.6 percent of Rodriguez’s peers would want him to serve less than a 211-game suspension.
The rest of the answers were somewhat of a positive for the Yankees third baseman. Every single player polled said he did not want to bean A-Rod if he were stepping into the batter’s box. And 36 percent of those asked said the much-maligned star should only serve a 100-game suspension, compared to 20 percent who felt he should serve the whole thing.
The vast majority – 83.3 percent – think A-Rod should be able to play during the appear process. Red Sox pitcher Ryan Dempster probably wouldn’t agree with that since he beaned Rodriguez last week. One National League starter ESPN spoke to called what Dempster did “ridiculous” and 81.8 percent of those polled said they would not hit Rodriguez as retaliation for a player on their team being hit.
“You don’t start throwing baseballs at guys because you disagree with what they did,” the anonymous starter said. “He’s entitled to his appeal and to have both sides make their case. I think it’s ridiculous that Ryan Dempster took it into his own hands to basically convict him.”
The results weren’t all rosy for A-Rod. When asked would they rather have Rodriguez or fellow alleged drug cheat Ryan Braun as a teammate, 42 percent said Braun compared to 29 percent for A-Rod. The same percentage, 29, said they didn’t want either to be on their team.
One of the most interesting takeaways from the poll was that players believe only 7.1 percent of their peers are still using performance-enhancing drugs.