A reporter named Josh Folk of the Express-Times wrote a piece this week, basically lambasting former Phillie Jayson Werth saying that he deserves to be booed by Phillies fans for the rest of his career. Why? Because all he cares about his money!
The outfielder left the four-time defending National League East champions for a perennial last-place team strictly for the big contract. Werth's desire for a huge payday is fine, but he shouldn't expect a warm reception at Citizens Bank Park because of it. He had the opportunity to take less money and stay with a winning franchise, but he chose against it. Now, he is stuck in Washington and has to deal with the losses and the fans' venom on road trips to Philadelphia.
Now, I have no doubt that Mr Folk and everyone who goes to Phillies games don't go to their jobs mostly for the money and they would all turn down better paying gigs simply out of loyalty to their current employer...
Ok, done laughing yet? It's odd that there's almost no other place in America where doing something for the money is frowned upon except in pro sports. It's totally fine with me if you want to boo the guy, but it really shouldn't be because he took that silly contract from the Nats. It's something pretty much everyone would have done. He wasn't going to ever get an offer anywhere near that from the Phillies or anyone else. They "made him an offer he couldn't refuse" and we shouldn't hate him for that.
Now, can we hate him because he's on a division rival (at least I guess you can call them a "rival" kind of)? Sure. Can we boo him to let Nationals fan know how funny it is that they see him as some kind of superstar destined to lead tham to greatness? Sure. Can we boo him when he's a mostly ineffective albatross of a contract when the Nats good young prospects are all finally at the show? Sure.
But money? We can't hate a guy for doing something every one of us would do ourselves.