Yankees 3B Alex Rodriguez will play at Yankee Stadium on Friday for the first time since he was suspended for his role in the Biogenesis scandal, and a poll shows that "jeers may win out" over cheers among the fans, according to Allison Kopicki of the N.Y. TIMES. A telephone poll conducted Aug. 2-7 showed that only one in five Yankees fans "have a favorable opinion of Rodriguez, and about twice as many view him unfavorably." The poll also "found Rodriguez’s unfavorable rating had increased among Yankees fans as more became aware of the allegations." Meanwhile, the poll found that nearly 50% of N.Y. adults are baseball fans, "saying they are very or somewhat interested" in following MLB. Yankees fans "far outnumber" Mets fans, 55% to 21%, with another 5% saying that they "like them both." About one in five N.Y. baseball followers "say they do not root for either team." A majority of the baseball followers are "concerned that baseball players are using steroids, with nearly half saying they care a lot" about the use of PEDs. The poll was conducted by landline and cellphone among 1,029 N.Y. adults, of whom 484 followed baseball, with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points (N.Y. TIMES, 8/9).
| N.Y. BASEBALL FANS' OPNIONS OF A-ROD |
| | FAVORABLE | UNDECIDED/NO OPINION | UNFAVORABLE |
| N.Y. baseball fans | 20% | 37% | 43% |
| Yankees fans | 22% | 36% | 42% |
| Mets fans | 18% | 30% | 52% |
| | | | |
| HOW MANY MAJOR LEAGUES USED STEROIDS? |
| RESPONSE | % |
| Most | 13% |
| About 50% | 19% |
| About 25% | 26% |
| Only a few | 35% |
| No opnion | 7% |
| | |
| HOW MUCH DOES IT MATTER IF MLB PLAYERS USED STEROIDS? |
| RESPONSE | % |
| Care a lot | 48% |
| Some | 23% |
| Not Much | 11% |
| Not at all | 16% |
| No opnion | 1% |
| | |
POLARIZING FIGURE: Keith Olbermann made his return to ESPN Thursday night with an essay about Rodriguez. He asked, "When he returns to Yankee Stadium, does Alex Rodriguez get the figurative 'Bronx Cheer' of legend -- raspberries and booing -- or a literal version, actual cheers in the Bronx?" Olbermann: "The only thing we can say with certainty about Yankee fans is they will not be silent." The joke in baseball has "always been that Yankee fans would cheer for the worst guy on the planet if he could hit." The "amount of truth behind that joke may now be gauged in ways heretofore unimagined" ("SportsCenter," ESPN, 8/8).
