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Rangers fans love Pudge, hate Alex Rodriguez
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Rangers fans don't like A-Rod anymore
Growing up, there were always two players with the name Rodgriquez that I considered the best at what they do.
Their names were Ivan and Alex, though everyone called the former Pudge. And at one time, they were Rangers. Both have since been traded away from Texas, and both are now with the same team, the New York Yankees.
Despite those similarities, both have garnered very different images for fans in Arlington.
The two ex-Rodriquez Rangers were in town earlier this week when the hated Yankees stopped by The Ballpark for a series loss. I was able to make it out for Wednesday's game, which the Yankees won 5-3, and that's when I discovered the difference first hand while sitting in the upper deck of Home Run Porch in right field (on a personal note, that was the first baseball game of any kind I've payed to see in three years. It made me appreciate being a baseball fan that much more).
I'd already read the obligitory story about Pudge's appearance in Arlington as a Yankee for the first time. Though there may have been a little bit of exaggeration and appreciation employed by my co-worker, Anthony Andro, it seemed like Pudge really was welcome back in the DFW.
"They always receive me here very warmly," said Rodriguez, who received a nice ovation before his second inning at-bat. "... The ballpark and the area is very nice and they always receive me very nicely.
Replace the words "warm," "nice," and all derivatives with the words "cold" and "mean" and that would have been Alex's quote.
I'm as anti-Yankee as it gets, but when they announced A-Rod's first at-bat I hadn't planned on booing. Apparently I was the only one in the ballpark with that plan. Every Rangers fan in the house gave A-Rod the business, which was not at all what I was expecting. He was probably one of the best players to come through Arlington since ... Pudge.
I'm not saying fans were wrong. But man, they didn't want any part of A-Rod. The fans around me kept telling him to "go home." The anti-Alex boos were the loudest noises in The Ballpark, followed closely by the anti-Derek Jeter boos and the "Lets go Yankees" cheers from the New York fans.
I will say the Rangers fans were wrong on that one.
