#360view: A-Rod marches to his own beat

Jay Asser 22:00 10/08/2016
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  • Dropping a bombshell: Alex Rodriguez during shock press conference.

    His exit from the sport as a player – at least for the moment – marks a weirdly fitting end for one of the most polarising figures to be on a diamond in recent memory.

    In a day and age when future Hall of Famers like David Ortiz are taking victory laps, being showered with gifts and receiving tributes from opposing teams in their final season, A-Rod is going out in a nondescript manner, running completely counter to what his existence in our consciousness has been.

    We’re not even getting a full week to say goodbye to Rodriguez after he announced in a press conference that Friday will be his final game in pinstripes.

    Yankees fans should be at peace with A-Rod’s time in New York following a love-hate, hold-and-cold relationship since his arrival to the Bronx in 2004.

    When he joined the most successful baseball franchise in history in 2004, Rodriguez was in the prime of his career and carrying daunting expectations of adding to the team’s then-cabinet of 26 World Series titles.

    It took until 2009 for that goal to be completed and leading up to it, A-Rod struggled mightily when it mattered most: the post season.

    But he and the Yankees finally broke through in 2009, with Rodriguez hitting at a torrid pace to help the club claim their first championship since 2000.

    Then in 2013, after catching a 162-game suspension for the entire 2014 season for performance enhancing drugs as a result of the infamous Biogenesis scandal, A-Rod went from love-him-or-hate-him to universal villain.

    Just when the dirt was being poured onto his grave though, he returned in 2015 and clubbed 33 home runs at age 39 to become one of the most surprising underdog stories and in the process, won back several Yankees fans.

    Now that his time in Gotham is up, it’s fair to say A-Rod, for everything he did at the plate and on the field, was often taken for granted.

    It’s also hard to imagine him breaching the moral high ground that Baseball Hall of Fame voters have taken up and getting a plaque in Cooperstown, which he and all the other tainted stars of the steroid era deserve. The Hall of Fame, after all, is about recognising history, not righteousness.

    I doubt we’ve seen the last of A-Rod’s playing days though. We’re talking about a player who’s just four home runs shy of the 700 milestone and 18 bombs from tying Babe Ruth for third all-time.

    If and when he puts on another uniform, we’ll pay attention, even if it’s out of the corner of our eye.

    We’ve had strong opinions on him for too long not to.

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