Alex Rodriguez will play his final game with the Yankees on Friday and it could very much be his final Major League Baseball game. If it is, boy, what a career -- in so many different ways.
A fun exercise I like to take part in is to try and use the least number of words possible when it comes to describing A-Rod to someone who knows nothing about baseball. You can't cover everything needed with a short answer. It's just impossible. I know there's a tarnish for some people that can never be scrubbed clean, but look back on his entire career. Remember the early years?
Out of high school, A-Rod was the first overall pick in the 1993 draft. Scouts called him a can't-miss talent and some believed he would be a Hall of Famer. It wasn't just his skills. I remember being at a camp with a few scouts in 1995 and they raved about how his demeanor. We were told to model ourselves after how he approached the game. He was always smiling, enthusiastic and hustling. Team that with his extraordinary skills, and we had the chance at a transcendent player.
We started to get that player in 1996, when he was just 20 years old. He won the batting title that season, hitting .358/.414/.631 (161 OPS+!) with 215 hits, 54 doubles, 36 homers, 123 RBI, 141 runs and 15 steals. He led the league in runs, doubles, average and total bases. He finished second to Juan Gonzalez in MVP voting and it was, actually, a pretty terrible vote based only on home runs and RBI.
Two years later, A-Rod would join the exclusive 40-40 club, hitting 42 home runs while stealing 46 bases. From 1998-2000, A-Rod's average season for the Mariners was as follows: .305/.379/.582, 31 doubles, 42 homers, 122 RBI, 27 steals.
He was everything -- an early-20s super-duper star who looked the part, got along with pretty much everyone and was truly beloved by the fans.
And then Rodriguez signed a 10-year, $252 million deal with the Rangers.
Everything changed for many fans at that very point. We know all about what happens when a darling signs a gigantic deal to leave his team. He doesn't care about the fans. He doesn't care about winning. He's not who we thought he was. He only cares about money.
A-Rod was saddled with all of that, fair or not. In his three seasons with the Rangers, the only thing that really changed was that he was now perceived to be a stat-hound player who couldn't help his team win. He put up ungodly stats. His average season line: .305/.395/.615 with 30 doubles, 52 homers, 132 RBI, 127 runs and 15 steals. Yes, that's a three-season average. Insanity. He won his first MVP in 2003.
Of course, the Rangers never won more than 73 games with A-Rod. So now not only was he greedy, but he wasn't a winner.
Next up was a trade to the Red Sox, in which A-Rod agreed to take a pay cut. Only the MLB Players Association didn't like the precedent that would set, so the deal was nixed. Then the Yankees swooped in and got a deal done for him instead, sending young second baseman Alfonso Soriano and a player to be named later (Joaquin Arias).
George Steinbrenner's statement afterward that Red Sox owner John Henry should be "embarrassed, frustrated and disappointed by his failure in this transaction" cemented the Yankees as the "Evil Empire" and now A-Rod was the centerpiece of the most polarizing team in sports. Yankees fans let out evil laughs while other fan bases grew deeper in their hatred. Of course, 2004 was when the Red Sox came back from a 3-0 deficit in the ALCS to historically take down the Yankees and then win the World Series.
During that four-game comeback by the Red Sox, A-Rod was 2 for 17 (.118). In fact, from that point through the 2008 season, the Yankees wouldn't win a playoff series while A-Rod hit .148 in 17 playoff games. The team missed the playoffs altogether in 2008. A-Rod won two MVPs along the way and continued to put together one of the best regular-season resumes in baseball history, but the October failures were continuing to earn mockery among the A-Rod Haters, some even coined him "Mr. April."
Opting out of his contract during Game 4 of the 2007 World Series (which the Red Sox again won) didn't help his reputation either.
And then, in the spring of 2009, A-Rod's legacy took a blow that will certainly cost him the Hall of Fame. Sports Illustrated reported that back in the 2003 survey drug testing (to see if MLB needed a testing system in place) Rodriguez had tested positive for testosterone and an anabolic steroid. He was one of 104 players who were supposed to remain anonymous, but the story made him public. He admitted it and apologized.
After an injury kept him out for the first month of the season, A-Rod returned and had another big year. The Yankees would get to the World Series this time, due in part to A-Rod hitting .438/.548/.969 with five homers and 12 RBI through the first two rounds (nine games). In the World Series, he'd hit a big two-run homer in a Game 3 win and doubled home the go-ahead run in the ninth inning of a Game 4 win. Suck on that, "Mr. April" haters. A-Rod had a ring and did an awful lot on his own to earn it.
Still, he was really bad at being likeable over the years, even aside from the PED business.
Remember when he slapped the ball away from Bronson Arroyo while running to first base in the ALCS?
Or the time he yelled "I got it" -- or "ha," according to him -- to distract the Blue Jays?
Even when it didn't seem like he did anything wrong and someone else (Dallas Braden here, angry about A-Rod walking over his mound) went a little nuts, most people still sided against A-Rod.
It wasn't only on the field. He supposedly had a picture of himself painted as a centaur above his bed, so he could look at it while he's nodding off to sleep? The vanity reached an all-time high with this picture for Details Magazine.
He's making out with himself in the mirror? For real?
There were other areas worthy of public mockery, such as then-girlfriend Cameron Diaz feeding A-Rod his popcorn at the Super Bowl.
And on and on. As good as he was at baseball, he was that bad at managing his public image.
And then, in 2013, A-Rod was popped by Major League baseball for his involvement in the Biogenesis scandal. They announced he was suspended for the rest of the season and all of the following season. The other players suspended just accepted their suspensions, but A-Rod fought his in an appeal that lasted all the way until the middle of January. He ended up being suspended for all of 2014.
He completely disappeared from the world as far as Major League Baseball was concerned, other than for many to speculate about how he'd never see the field again. The Yankees tried to get out of his remaining contract and weren't even too secretive about it.
Then came 2015 and he was completely different. It felt like he had his "screw it" moment during the suspension. He stopped trying too hard to be liked. He was more laid back and smiling more often, at least it felt that way.
More than anything, he appeared to have finally achieved self-awareness:
C'mon, he's laughing at himself for doing that photoshoot. That's true self-awareness.
This came after a season in which he rebounded to hit 33 home runs and that wasn't even his best performance. That came during the postseason when A-Rod became part of Fox's pre-game and post-game shows and he was fantastic. With no prior experience, I don't even think it's a stretch to say he was their best analyst.
The Redemption of A-Rod year in 2015 was followed up with this steaming pile of .204/.252/.356. It sounds like the Yankees were just going to cut him, but instead came to an agreement to let him go out on Friday, tantamount to a retirement without forgoing his pay for the rest of this season or even next season.
What we're left with are historically great numbers. Seriously, his top comparables per baseball-reference.com are Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Ken Griffey Jr., Frank Robinson and Barry Bonds. Without the baggage, this is an inner-circle of all-time great, along with the likes of Aaron, Ruth, Mays, Ty Cobb and Honus Wagner, among many others.
Instead, many fans get fighting angry every time his name is mentioned. Others laugh for the reasons outlined above.
It's truly fascinating how many different aspects there have been to A-Rod's career. Polarizing is the best possible word to describe it. I know that the haters think everyone agrees with them, but that's not true. A-Rod has legions of fans who still love him. He also has just as many, if not more, who despise him.
Maybe that's his legacy? The most polarizing great of all-time.
Of course, this might not be the end. He's so close to 700 home runs and spoke in the press conference about how much good baseball he believed was still in him. He's free to sign with another club after his release and is getting paid in full through next season for the Yankees. If he does come back, there will be a whirlwind of attention mixed with a smattering of loud boos and some cheers.
Basically, it'll be just like the rest of his career.