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Always in the Spotlight, for Good and Ill
By BEN SHPIGEL
Published: December 26, 2009
The dominant story lines in baseball this decade revolved around one player.
Wherever he went and whatever he did, Alex Rodriguez found himself, for
better or worse, at the center of it all.
In the 2000s, Rodriguez signed the heftiest contract in history (twice) and
intensified the best and fiercest rivalry. He suffered after the most
memorable series (the epic 2004 American League Championship Series) and
rejoiced at being the centerpiece of the biggest trade. He switched
allegiances in the World Baseball Classic and acknowledged his role in the
steroids scandal, baseball’s largest blemish.
His two strikeouts notwithstanding, Rodriguez had little impact on the
quirkiest episode, the 2002 All-Star Game in Milwaukee that ended in a tie,
but he was in the building that night. Everything worked out seven years
later as the A.L. won the 2009 edition, putting Rodriguez’s Yankees in
position to clinch the World Series championship — and the title of best
team of the decade — in the Bronx.
In becoming baseball’s version of Forrest Gump, Rodriguez could be mistaken
at times for a hyperinvolved high school student seeking a prominent place in
every yearbook photograph. Rodriguez towered above his competition this
decade — attributed in part, as we later learned, to his use of
performance-enhancing drugs. He led all players in home runs (435), runs
scored (1,190) and runs batted in (1,243), although his production was
sometimes overshadowed by his knack for courting controversy.
When the decade dawned, Rodriguez was seen as baseball’s next great
ambassador, its perfect pitchman. His good looks and bilingual skills,
combined with his immense talent, made sure of that. But his sheen started to
fade in December 2000, when he bolted from Seattle to sign what was at the
time the most lucrative contract ever for a professional athlete, a $252
million, 10-year deal with Texas (surpassed only by his $275 million
agreement with the Yankees).
Despite multimillion-dollar riches, star athletes like Cal Ripken Jr., Peyton
Manning and Derek Jeter, Rodriguez’s current teammate, have succeeded at
maintaining likable and smooth public images in part because of their loyalty
and commitment to one organization, one city. An avalanche of resentment
greeted Rodriguez’s move to Texas, and he responded by buckling under the
pressure, if not on the field, then behind clubhouse doors.
Convinced he needed to perform at a high level every game, Rodriguez said, he
started taking performance-enhancing drugs. His contract hurt the Rangers,
too, limiting their ability to surround him with a strong supporting cast.
They finished in last place in each of his three seasons in Texas.
A trade was inevitable, and imagine how differently his life, his career —
even baseball history — might have unfurled had a proposed deal to the
Boston Red Sox before the 2004 season not been nullified. Instead, Rodriguez
wound up in pinstripes, on the other side of the rivalry, and the Red Sox won
two championships before he could win two playoff series.
A miserable postseason record haunted him until last season, when everything
changed. Even as taunts — A-Roid! — followed him from stadium to stadium,
Rodriguez played as if freed by his admission of steroids use. Coming off
serious hip surgery, which allowed for much self-reflection, Rodriguez
returned to fit neatly into the Yankees’ pie-throwing dynamic.
He homered in his first at-bat last season, and again in the last at-bat, and
no one was more of a force in October — and November — than he was.
Rodriguez won, after all these years, his first title, and his reaction after
the final out was symbolic. He launched himself into the middle of the
ecstatic mob, blending in but still, as always, as distinctive as ever.
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