The "hah" incident

By now, I'm sure you've seen and heard about Alex Rodriguez's incident at third base last night against the Blue Jays.

If you haven't, here's a quick recap: Jorge Posada popped a ball up to third base with two outs. As Rodriguez was passing by Howie Clark, he seemed to say something (video clearly shows Rodriguez opening his mouth). The Jays claim he said, "Mine," while Rodriguez claims he said, "Ha." Nevertheless, the ball dropped in and allowed a run to score. Cameras cut to the Blue Jays dugout where they were all staring at Rodriguez.

Critics have undoubtedly compared this to the "glove slap" and the "slide." However, this was probably the most harmless of the three, as no contact was made.

Some quotes:

"I just said, 'Hah!' That's it," Rodriguez said. "Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I don't know what my intention was. I didn't say, 'I got it' or anything like that."

"I heard a 'Mine' call and so I let it go," Clark said. "What do you do? It makes you mad."

"The thing about the Yankees, one of the reasons they're so respected, is they do things right. Always have," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. "They've got a lot of pride and a lot of class. They play the game hard. That's not Yankee pride right there. That's not the way they play. I thought it was bush league."

My feelings are that if this was anyone except Rodriguez, no one would care or they would say that he is just doing his part to help his team win. I feel that this play wasn't that dirty, but others will feel differently and the haters now have more fodder to call Rodriguez a "dirty player."

I have a feeling people will come around to liking A-Rod when he is approaching Barry Bonds' all-time home run record. Hopefully he will still be a Yankee at that point.

With the Michael Vick dog fighting saga (among other things), Tank Johnson going to jail, players getting pulled over for drunk driving and possession of controlled substances, etc., all of the criticism Rodriguez gets is unwarranted. He has never been caught doing anything illegal and he is a great baseball player. He does not deserve the treatment he gets.

Source: Associated Press via Yahoo! Sports