The Enigma: The End Of Alex Rodriguez’s Story
- Updated: August 9, 2016
On Friday night, Alex Rodriguez will end his 22-year major league career with the New York Yankees in the Bronx against the Tampa Bay Rays. He has been loved and hated by so many from day one of his playing career. Do you love him? Do you hate him?
As he calls this a career, Rodriguez is now a man with no place to go, he’s definitely not heading to Cooperstown in six years, he’s probably not going to play another game after Friday night, he’s just going to be an enigma to us for years to come.
Baseball has changed since Rodriguez stepped onto the field some twenty-two years ago. He changed the shortstop position with his size, power, and agility paving the way for the Troy Tulowitzki‘s and Manny Machado‘s at the position. The game has always revolved around numbers and Rodriguez has the numbers that are just simply something you would see on XBox or Playstation.
When you think of a player with 696 homers, over 2,000 RBI’s, 3,000 hits and the all-time leader in grand slams you have to think he would be a shoo-in for the Hall Of Fame, but these numbers will fall into the faded memories of fans just like 73 and 756. The accomplishments were many, but we will never see a plaque for this player in the most sacred place.
He will go down as the most complicated athlete of all times, but he did admit that he stumbled while making his journey and managed to get back up. We will always remember Alex for the missteps, the year-long suspension in 2014, the awkward press conferences when he had to explain his roles in the PED debates, Biogenesis, BALCO, HGH, and steroids will always be a part of his legacy.
On Sunday morning, we saw something that we have never thought that he had, true raw emotions. He mentioned his family and referenced that this is the way he wanted his love one to see him in his final time in uniform. We all know that Father Time is undefeated and in the end we all know that the end of the line was coming for Rodriguez. With diminishing numbers and a real lack of playing time, the Yankees had to make some real hard decisions on the direction of their franchise and used Rodriguez to get younger.
Don’t feel sorry for this guy, he has been the highest played player in the history of baseball and he will now become a special advisor for the team and still get the money he’s owed. He’s able to scout talent and will be good at it. Several other players that have been involved in the whole steroids debate have made impacts on other franchises, Mark McGwire in San Diego and Barry Bonds in Miami. They all will eventually find their way back into baseball, but just not in upstate New York in Cooperstown. The Yankees and Rodriguez are now at peace with one another and this was the way they both agreed to part ways with each other.
Related Posts
About Lavoy Briscoe
