So long, Alex Rodriguez. Your next visit to Yankee Stadium will not be pleasant, I can promise you that.
Once again, A-Rod has validated his reputation as a phony. There are worse things to be, that’s for sure, especially in a sports culture filled with abusers, cheaters and dog killers. But for a man who spends so much time trying to craft his image, he will never – EVER – be able to shake the label of “phony” from his otherwise sterling resume, no matter how many home runs he hits, no matter how many hits he gets (or doesn’t get) in October, no matter how impeccably he plays the game.
At least not in New York.
Let’s start with the good. Alex Rodriguez is without question the best regular season player in baseball today and is making a case for being one of the best in history. He is not only a dominating presence at the plate, but also a terrific defensive player, and an astute base-runner. Often overlooked is also the fact that Rodriguez plays the game as hard as anyone, always running hard down the first baseline and rarely missing a game due to injury. He is a special, once or twice-in-a-lifetime player who deserves accolades, especially in an era where homerun totals are inflated by performance-enhancing drugs. So far, there is no reason to suspect A-Rod of unnaturally augmenting his prodigious numbers.
Also, there is this: if Alex Rodriguez wants to leave New York because he feels he was mistreated over four tumultuous seasons during which he averaged more than 40 home runs, more than 120 RBI and a plus-.300 batting average, I’m OK with that. He’s going to win his second MVP as a Yankee in a couple of weeks and the booing always was out of line, especially since the Yankees don’t even make the playoffs this season without A-Rod’s incredible performance. He was clutch and unflappable, his mediocre performance in the ALDS notwithstanding. Hey, at least he got four hits against Cleveland when the rest of the team seemed to be swinging through water.
But now comes the announcement – and during Game Four of the World Series, no less – that Alex Rodriguez is opting out of the final three years of his record-setting, 10-year, $252 million deal, which he signed with Texas seven seasons ago. A-Rod and his agent say that part of the reason he opted out was because the Yankees are in disarray. The Yankees, who were counting on the $21 million Texas still owed A-Rod over the next three years, say they will not pursue their controversial third baseman on the open market, thus effectively ending Alex’s time with the Yankees.
Good for them, I say.
This is a difficult column for me to write because I have been an unapologetic supporter of A-Rod’s through his four tumultuous seasons in pinstripes. I even wrote a column referring to Derek Jeter as “Judas” because of his failure to publicly support A-Rod during his difficult season in 2006. Don’t get me wrong, I think Jeter is pretty spineless as well when it comes to his public image. He never says anything of interest, mostly because he wants to preserve the pristine appearance he has fostered over the years. Jeter could have come out and more vociferously defended his manager and maybe, just maybe, Yankees brass would have listened, knowing how popular Jeter is and how ugly it would have been to go against the captain.
But one thing about Derek Jeter. He is and always has been about winning over stats, over personal glory, even over money (though that is a guess on my part since Derek makes almost $20 million a year himself). And Alex Rodriguez can never again make any such claim.
Think about it. He says the Yankees are in disarray. Does he think for one second that with the amount of money this team spends, they won’t put a representative product on the field next season? Using Mariano Rivera’s and Jorge Posada’s free agency to justify the opt-out is typical A-Rod subterfuge. He’s trying to come off as a good guy despite his avarice, when he knows that those two guys will probably end up back in New York. And even on the off chance they don’t, do you think the Yankees are going to replace them with Steve Farr and Butch Wynegar? (That’s a reference for all you Yankees fans who suffered through the ’80s.)
The extension the Yankees reportedly were set to offer Greed-Rod was for 5 years/$140 million. All told, that would mean A-Rod would stand to make something in the range of $215-220 million over the next 8 years. In this man’s warped perception, he considered that a lowball offer. I guess he’s right if someone goes out there and gives him the 10-year/$300 million he’s looking for.
Here’s the thing: A-Rod owes the Yankees. Not in any tangible, contractual sense, of course, but because they stuck by him after last season’s playoff debacle, when everybody around here wanted him gone. He responded with a fabulous regular season, carried the team on his back for much of the summer and was adored by the fans (who are also phonies) in a way that suggested he had gotten through the hard times in New York and was on his way – if he stayed – to becoming a legend with his own monument in the new Yankee Stadium. What could top pursuing the home run record as a member of the most storied franchise in the history of professional sports?
The answer? More money and a less pressure-packed environment. This is a man who DID thrive under pressure this year, but more because of his phenomenal gifts than his mental toughness. He was able to maintain a veneer of self-control while putting up one of the best seasons in Major League history. One week in October does not invalidate those accomplishments; A-Rod went through plenty of slumps through the course of the season and another mini-one just happened to hit at the wrong time for him and for the whole team. Nearly all the Yankees have slumped in October the past three seasons.
But make no mistake about it: A-Rod is mentally weak. His spring training admission that he and Jeter are no longer as close as they used to be was a carefully-designed trick to cleanse his public image. Why did he need to say it out loud? Because the man requires constant reassurance. A-Rod was praised by the media for finally “being honest.” I think it was just another example of A-Rod being A-Rod (with apologies to Manny Ramirez).
In the end, he wouldn’t even meet with Brian Cashman face-to-face to explain his decision. Scott Boras sent a text message and upstaged the World Series, as is his classless style. Not that I mind the Red Sox getting upstaged, but baseball doesn’t deserve such a crass display of me-first nonsense.
I guess all those proclamations of how much A-Rod loved New York simply weren’t true. It’s tempting to blame Boras for all of this, but A-Rod should know enough now to be his own man. With all the criticism he received for taking that contract with the lowly Rangers seven years ago, you’d think he would have learned his lesson. Not so.
Alex Rodriguez, for all his wonderful ability, remains a man without a team identity. He is a mercenary who plays for stats and cash. And in the court of public opinion, maybe that isn’t so much better than taking steroids. Because nobody loves A-Rod. At least in San Francisco, Barry Bonds will always be a god.
Alex is only a god in his own mind.