Rooting Against an Athlete?

[Dude]

I have a question for my fellow sports fans.

For those who follow MLB, you may be familiar with Kyle Lohse, a pitcher with the St. Louis Cardinals. Lohse used to pitch for the Twins (my team), as well as a couple of others. He's the kind of player that when he moves to a new team, the announcers talk about how he needed to get out of the old place and the fresh start will do him good. He always pitches well for the new team for the first month or so, too.

Anyway, when he was with the Twins, I always found him very obnoxious and self-absorbed.

So, I find that about once a week I check his stats on MLB.com and really hope that he's lost his last start and his ERA went up.

Am I a bad person?

 

[Tom Servo]

No, its not unusual. Every day I see A-Rod go 0-4, Eric Gagne blow a save, or Peyton Manning get sacked, I get a little happier.

 

[JonathonWally]

What's worse is when you're like me and dislike people on your own team. Yes, as hardcore of a Yanks fan as I am, there are certain players that I think are bums.

 

[Thespeckledkiwi]

What annoys me is the hatred for guys like LeBron James or Sidney Crosby or Peyton Manning simply because they are promoted 'too much' or they are 'media darlings'. It's normal. I just don't understand the rabid hatred for those guys simply because they are plastered everywhere. Sports need to sell, and one of the ways is to make sure you know a name or a face or both.

Now if they are annoying as hell like Barry Bonds, I can understand but usually these players play hard and are good people on and off the field/ice/court. Manning himself is a great player and pokes fun at not only himself but his sport, which I absolutely love.

I don't find it wrong that you hate a player because he comes off as an arrogant jerk or obnoxious. If they come off as, I'm better than you, or I don't have time for you or something like that.

 

[HRHTheKING]

I have a question for my fellow sports fans.

For those who follow MLB, you may be familiar with Kyle Lohse, a pitcher with the St. Louis Cardinals. Lohse used to pitch for the Twins (my team), as well as a couple of others. He's the kind of player that when he moves to a new team, the announcers talk about how he needed to get out of the old place and the fresh start will do him good. He always pitches well for the new team for the first month or so, too.

Anyway, when he was with the Twins, I always found him very obnoxious and self-absorbed.

So, I find that about once a week I check his stats on MLB.com and really hope that he's lost his last start and his ERA went up.

Am I a bad person?

No, not bad at all.

I will be actively rooting against the entire Manchester United team on Wednesday.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I rooted against Kent Hrbeck after what he did to Ron Gant in the 1991 World Series and got away with it.

Perfectly normal.

 

[Dude]

I went to high school with Hrbek's sister. He was just a local kid made good.

 

[Broccoli]

Rooting against something that you pretty much like? I've never seen anything like that before on a Sci-Fi message board.

 

[Tom Servo]

What's worse is when you're like me and dislike people on your own team. Yes, as hardcore of a Yanks fan as I am, there are certain players that I think are bums.

Here's looking at you Kyle Farnsworth!

 

[TerriO]

Oh, it's not unusual at all. I've developed a healthy list of athletes I root against.

I always had a better day whenever Roger Clemens blew it. Especially after his alleged "retirement" then reappearance with the Astros. Lying POS. And then he gets named in the Mitchell Report? Oh, that was just beautiful.

Watching Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, or Jason Varitek do something like watch strike 3 go by or hit cheapass popouts just makes my day. Then again, I just root against the Red Sox on principle.

 

[Tim]

Watching Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, or Jason Varitek do something like watch strike 3 go by or hit cheapass popouts just makes my day. Then again, I just root against the Red Sox on principle.

Wow, I wasn't expecting a comment like that.

I don't particularly hate any athletes (I have better things to do with my time), but I do still love A-Rod for his turkey flap in Game 6 of the 2004 ALCS.

 

[Anthony Sabre]

During the first Chicago Bulls run, I rooted against MJ mercilessly. Especially during the Phoenix series. Charles Barkley and KJ were two of my fav players.

 

[Tom Hendricks]

To me rooting against a person or team means you don't have enough confidence to root for your own team or person. You should really care less what the other person or team is doing and have the confidence in your team or player to prevail.

As a fan, you should always want your team or player to play the best and hopefully beat them in a fair contest. To root against the other team or hope that they do poorly, or gets hurt really diminishes your teams or players results.

I'm not trying to cause an argument here, this is just the way I look at things.

 

[Hermiod]

I certainly worked my magic last night. My telekinetic powers didn't quite work on Cash Hole's penalty but they recovered by the time Nicolas Anelka took his.