Over the course of the past five years, Alex Rodriguez has become more than a baseball player; he\'s become one of the most criticized figures in the media. Everyone knows that playing in New York comes with more baggage than most any other city in the country and that the New York\'s professional sports players are under more pressure than most others, but the treatment of Rodriguez has gotten way out of hand.

I understand that he\'s a polarizing figure that doesn\'t exactly help himself in terms of exposure, but he\'s still a human being and nothing more than a professional baseball player. I don\'t care who he\'s dating or where he ate lunch last Tuesday, and concerning oneself with such things seems like a waste of time. Since when did sports fans become subscribers to Us Weekly? Since when did people like Paris Hilton and Rodriguez get slid under the same media microscope as the president of the United States of America?

The wave of criticism of Alex Rodriguez really began to form when he signed what was then the biggest contract in baseball history, a 10-year deal worth approximately $250 million, back in 2000. Some people don\'t take too kindly to a guy making that kind of money for playing a game, especially when he\'s not the most likable guy in the world. One of Rodriguez\'s problems has always been that he\'s tried to come off so well in the media; it\'s almost as if he tries too hard, which causes him to come off as rehearsed and disingenuous. The attempt to create a persona of perfection, coupled with the signing of that monster deal, caused people\'s expectations to rise sky high while their feelings about him remained mixed.

When he arrived in New York, Rodriguez looked like a great fit for the Yankees, a superstar for the league\'s superfranchise. The first problem with the situation, though, was that the Yankees already had a superstar in Derek Jeter, one of the most beloved Yankees in the history of the franchise, and that\'s saying something. No matter what Rodriguez did, he could never gain the kind of near unconditional adoration that Jeter had attained among fans, partly because of his gargantuan contract, partly because he didn\'t come up with the club the way Jeter did and partly because of his need to please everyone and portray himself as the perfect man. He\'s not perfect, nobody is, but Yankee fans acted as if they expected him to hit a home run every time he stepped up to the plate.

As time wore on, Rodriguez started to gain the reputation for an inability to come through in the clutch, especially in the playoffs. In New York, that\'s when the boo birds come out. But the boos were just the beginning for Rodriguez. Now Rodriguez probably yearns for the days where his clutch troubles were his only concerns. A couple of years ago, Rodriguez was criticized and portrayed as a narcissist for taking his shirt off and tanning in Central Park. I ask you, who cares about where and how he tans? Why should anyone care? It\'s not like nobody has ever tanned in Central Park.

This seems like the kind of thing that should be absent from the back pages of New York newspapers, and yet, because it\'s Rodriguez, it\'s headline news. Rodriguez also took a ton of criticism for allegedly dating pop queen Madonna. Why? Why do people care about his personal life so much? I just don\'t understand it, like the obsession with where celebrities are eating breakfast or what clubs they\'re partying at. This fascination with celebrity gossip has spilled over onto the sports pages, and I don\'t support it.

This winter, Rodriguez had the most tumultuous offseason of any player that doesn\'t feature an arrest. First, former Yankee manager Joe Torre published a book with baseball writer Tom Verducci in which less-than-flattering information about Rodriguez was released. Then Rodriguez admitted to taking performance-enhancing drugs after a Sports Illustrated story about past steroid use broke. It was then revealed that he\'d have to undergo hip surgery that would cause him to miss the first month or so of the season.

Rodriguez didn\'t help matters when he posed for a spread in Details magazine that included a photo of him kissing himself in a mirror. He probably should have thought that pose through a little more, but isn\'t it the photographer who calls for the poses and not the model? Then, early in May, Sports Illustrated writer Selena Roberts released A-Rod, a book with new allegations, such as steroid use in high school, tipping pitches and going to sex clubs while married.

I understand why Selena Roberts published this book. People eat up stories about Rodriguez, especially ones that portray him in any negative light. This book has generated serious buzz and I can understand why she would write it; it was guaranteed to get read by a lot of people. I don\'t necessarily condone it, but I understand it. It\'s the general public\'s fault for succumbing to its strange desire for dirt on famous people that they don\'t even know and, in all likelihood, will never meet.

Unfortunately, Rodriguez has become a celebrity first and a baseball player second, but it\'s not all his fault. He\'s not blameless, but he doesn\'t deserve the magnitude of criticism that he receives either. If you want to talk about his link to steroids or even his struggles in clutch moments, that\'s fine, but I would love to live in a world where we didn\'t have to hear about who he\'s dating, where he\'s tanning or what sex clubs he attends. Leave his personal life out of it and get back to baseball. Isn\'t that the reason he should be famous, for being one of the most talented players to ever pick up a baseball? I understand he cheated and obviously I don\'t absolve him completely, but let\'s not crucify the guy. He\'s human. Yes, he\'s A-Rod, but also try to think of him as Alex, a real person.

People used to follow the Yankees and purchase New York Yankees tickets because they loved watching baseball. Now some people are trying to make the players bigger than the game, which isn\'t right. Rodriguez needs to do a better job of keeping a low profile, but we, as fans, need to do a better job of minding our own business as well. Baseball is a game, and games are supposed to be fun. What\'s fun about digging up dirt on a player or ridiculing him for who he dates?