Alexander Emmanuel Rodriguez was drafted by the Seattle Mariners in 1993 with the first pick of the draft. He got his first taste of Major League playing time as an 18-year-old in 1994. For years, he was one of the best shortstops in the league, and he signed a monster deal to play for the Texas Rangers in 2001. With so much money invested in A-Rod, the Rangers sucked and did not make the playoffs in 2001, 2002, or 2003. Meanwhile in the Bronx, Aaron Boone's epic Home Run against the Red Sox sent the Yankees to the World Series in 2003. They lost the World Series that year, and then Boone hurt himself during the off-season, and the Yankees needed a third baseman. So, before the 2004 season began, the Yankees traded away Alfonso Soriano, Joaquin Arias, and cash to the Texas Rangers in exchange for Alex Rodriguez and his massive contract. With Derek Jeter entrenched at Shortstop, Rodriguez was signed to play at the hot corner.
In 2004, the Yankees blew a 3-0 series lead in the ALCS to the Red Sox, who went on to win the World Series for the first time since 1918, breaking the Curse of the Bambino. In 2005, Alex Rodriguez was the AL MVP. In 2007, Alex Rodriguez was the AL MVP, with 54 Home Runs and a career-high 156 RBI. The Red Sox won the World Series again. A-Rod opted out of his contract. The Yankees re-signed him to another 10-year deal, worth even more money than the one he had just opted out of. The Yankees failed to make the playoffs in 2008, their final year in the old Yankee Stadium. Alex Rodriguez, known to have used steroids, though admitting that it was only when he played with the Rangers, was naturally the lightning rod for many of the problems that the Yankees had. He was paid an absurd amount of money, he was a known PED-user, his playoff numbers with the Yankees had not been up to expectations, and he was known to be kind of a narcissistic asshole. He divorced his wife in 2008, the same year they had their second daughter together.
But in 2009, redemption came at last. Everything went right for a year. Rodriguez had his 12th of 13 consecutive seasons with at least 30 HR and 100 RBI, led the Yankees into the playoffs, and hit 6 Home Runs during the playoffs, driving in 6 runs in each series, and the Yankees were World Series Champions again, for the first time since 2000, and during their first year in the new Yankee Stadium! A-Rod still wasn't in the same category as other Yankees greats like Jeter and Mariano Rivera, but Yankee fans embraced him and loved him still.
But A-Rod never hit another playoff home run, nor did he do much of anything else positive in the playoffs, and he ended up getting hit with a huge suspension for using PEDs while he was with the Yankees, which caused him to miss the entire 2014 season, losing tens of millions of dollars in the process. A-Rod had lied to the Yankees, the fans, and tried to sue everyone under the baseball sun. But then he came to his senses, dropped the lawsuits, and quietly prepared for 2015.
And for A-Rod, 2015 was another redemption year. Alex played the game right. He went about his business on the field, and wasn't a distraction to the team on or off the field. Improbably, he hit 33 Home Runs and had 86 RBI, serving largely as the team's Designated Hitter. But he was a target once again, A-lightning-Rod. Opposing pitchers sometimes decided that they wanted to hit him. His manager and teammates defended him, as did the Yankee fans, who began to love him again. Alex turned 40 during the season, and the Yankees got knocked out of the playoffs in the Wild Card game. And in 2016, A-Rod's statistics took a nosedive. The Yankees decided to become sellers at the trading deadline, re-stocking their farm system, getting younger instead of older. Playing time for Alex dried up, and the Yankees talked with him and decided it was time to release him, but keep him around as a special adviser to help mentor the younger players in the farm system. And so it was announced that Alex Rodriguez was slated to play his final game for the Yankees on August 12.
Yankee Stadium was buzzing, and there was a ceremony to honor A-Rod before the game. The clouds rolled in. I told my friend Chris who I went to the game with that Reggie would probably be there with A-Rod. He was. Then I told him that it would probably rain on his ceremony. It did. Dark clouds rolled over Yankee Stadium. The ceremony began. At one point, the announcer said, "Alex, you've spent 12 of your 22 seasons with the Yankees." Loud thunder crashed immediately, as if on cue. Wow. Well-timed, God. Nah, God could do better. The ceremony continued. Swirling rain rolled in. Then the announcer said, "Ladies and gentleman, let's have one more Yankee Stadium ovation for Alex Rodriguez..." Possibly the loudest thunder that I've ever heard interrupted the announcer's sentence at that point. Maybe God is a baseball fan. Chris and I looked at each other in awe. We were sitting in the first row of the main level down the left field line, and at that moment it really started to pour, so we walked back up to the concessions area.
The rain soon stopped and the game was underway by 8. A-Rod had an RBI double to tie the game at 1 in his first at-bat (causing an F-Bomb from A-Rod if you watch the replay), and the Yankees ultimately won 6-3. The fans, myself included, were chanting for A-Rod the entire game, especially right before he came out to play third base in the bottom of the ninth, and then after he was removed from the game for the final time one out later. And then after the game, as A-Rod got some dirt from the third base area and acknowledged the fans. There he was, tipping his hat to the crowd. A man who hit 696 Home Runs, drove in 2,086 runs, scored 2,021 runs, stole 329 bases, recorded 3,115 hits, won 3 AL MVP awards, and, most importantly, won one World Series.
It's possible that Alex will play baseball again, but he may not. Either way, five years after he hangs up his cleats for good, he will be on the ballot for entry into the Baseball Hall of Fame. But will he get in? Rafael Palmeiro, Sammy Sosa, and Mark McGwire have not been able to muster up many Hall of Fame votes, despite great career numbers. The steroids and the lies haunt them. Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds have mustered up some support, but are still far from getting the call from Cooperstown. Same reasons. Roger won an insane 7 Cy Young awards! He was among the handful of the best pitchers to ever play the game. Bonds won an insane 7 MVP awards! He was one of the few best hitters of all-time. A true five-tool player, he hit more Home Runs than anyone ever did, in a season and a career, he stole 500 bases, and his numbers from 2001-2004 are mind-boggling. How the hell do you play the whole season and have a .609 On-base percentage like he did in 2004? That's more ridiculous than his 73 Home Runs in 2001!
If I could cast a vote for the Hall of Fame, I would vote for Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Alex Rodriguez. I would vote for David Ortiz too, five years from now. I'd even vote for Palmeiro, Sosa, and McGwire. Andy Pettitte and Manny Ramirez eventually too. These are the guys I grew up watching. They were the best in the game. I get it. They messed up. They used banned substances. Pettitte came clean right away, saying he used HGH back in 2002 to help accelerate his return from an injury, and Yankees fans immediately absolved him of his sins. Some haven't admitted it. A-Rod has admitted it, although it took him a very long time to finally do so, but he did, and he apologized. Speaking of eventual apologies, I think Pete Rose should be in too. He never did steroids, but who cares that he bet in favor of his own team? Really, the guy had more hits than anyone who ever played the game, and he played the game the right way. Yeah, he was a flawed liar and kind of an asshole, like Bonds, like Clemens, like A-Rod, but he was one heck of a baseball player.
The truth is that we don't know who used performance-enhancing drugs during the steroid era, before the bans and testing expanded. It could have been anyone (not Jeter or Cal Ripken, but, you know, almost anyone). There are rumors that Mike Piazza, and potentially others who are already in the Hall of Fame like he is, were users. Maybe what it will take to bust open that door is confirmation that there are already Hall-of-Famers who used performance-enhancing drugs. Then what do you do? You can't kick them out. You have to let their peers in if they put up numbers that are worthy of induction. And as for A-Rod, it has been one heck of a roller-coaster ride of a career. Like most Yankees fans, I've booed him and I've cheered him, but it has truly been a pleasure to watch him play. Love him or hate him, or love him AND hate him, he is one of the greats. Thank you, A-Rod!
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