Can A-Rod redeem himself — and baseball?
Of all the potential suitors, the Texas Rangers seemed among the least likely, but in December 2000, owner Tom Hicks's record-setting $252 million, 10-year bid convinced Rodriguez to sign on with a last-place team. Just like that, Rodriguez and Boras had redefined the market for top-tier talent. Within days, a handful of other players signed deals worth more than $100 million, but of all that off-season's reason-defying deals, it was A-Rod's that took the most heat.
The accusations that Rodriguez didn't care about winning and that he was ruining baseball ate at the sensitive superstar, especially since Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter didn't face any such criticism when he signed his own $189 million deal to stay in New York for another 10 years. Ever since they broke into baseball, the press had tied Jeter and Rodriguez together — they were the golden boys, destined to define the game for years to come. The fact that they were close friends who spoke on the phone a couple of times a week only cemented the connection.
But that December, during an interview with Esquire's Scott Raab, A-Rod finally snapped. Why was it, he asked rhetorically, that reporters lionized Jeter? "He's never had to lead... You go into New York...you never say, 'Don't let Derek beat you.'" Those sentences wrecked the two stars' friendship and solidified Rodriguez's reputation as a prima donna. What was ignored at the time — and has been all but forgotten since — is that Boras, who was present at the interview, had egged A-Rod on by reminding him of how many more home runs he'd had than either Jeter or Boston's Nomar Garciaparra, the third shortstop in what was then a kind of holy trinity.
Rodriguez was devastated by the article, but he never made any excuses, never claimed that he had been misquoted, never protested that he had lauded Jeter countless times during that same interview. And Boras, who'd made $12.6 million off of A-Rod's contract, never stepped in to take any of the heat.
In February 2004, the Yankees shocked the baseball world with the announcement that they'd snared Rodriguez from the Rangers in return for Alfonso Soriano, their hard-hitting second baseman. The initial response in New York was rapturous. The Post compared Rodriguez to Babe Ruth, while the Times lauded him as "tall, regal, and eloquent" and "as polished a player as there is" in baseball.
Upon arriving in New York, Rodriguez tried desperately to fit in. Despite the fact that he was vastly superior defensively, he switched to third base in deference to Jeter. (An academic paper presented at a recent American Association for the Advancement of Science conference concluded that A-Rod was one of the game's best defensive shortstops, while Jeter is the worst.) He stressed that his only goal was to help the Yankees win another World Series. But as soon as he faced some early-season struggles, it became abundantly clear that A-Rod wasn't being embraced — not by the fans, who questioned his toughness and authenticity; not by his new teammates, who couldn't understand why someone would want to spend his spare time hanging out at Art Basel Miami Beach and shopping for Picassos; and not by Jeter, who had never forgiven his onetime bosom buddy.
Rodriguez finished that first season in New York with decent, if not extraordinary, numbers. But it was his performance in that fall's American League Championship Series versus the Red Sox that would come to define him in New York. He went just 2 for 17 in the Yankees' four straight losses, and his awkward — and illegal — attempt to slap the ball out of pitcher Bronson Arroyo's mitt in Game 6 became one of the iconic images of his career. Plenty of players go through cold stretches, and plenty of players slump during the playoffs: Jeter, despite his clutch reputation, went just 4 for 19 during those final four games, but it was Rodriguez's performance that people focused on. Even his teammates got on the bandwagon. The following spring, when Boston's Trot Nixon said Rodriguez wasn't a "real" Yankee and mocked his off-season workout regimen ("He's running stairs at six in the morning while I'm sleeping and taking my kids to school... I'm not a deadbeat dad"), at least one veteran Yankee called up Nixon to spur him on. When Roger Clemens talked about how hard he worked over the winter, it was a sign of his impressive work ethic. When A-Rod did the same thing, it was seen as showing off.
- Discuss StoryOn Newsvine
- Rate Story:
LowHigh - Instant Message
MORE FROM BASEBALL |
 Baseball Section Front |
| Add Baseball headlines to your news reader: |
Sponsored links