-- See Pinstripe Alley for complete news and discussion about Rodriguez and the Yankees.
Jul 20, 2010 - I was asked recently what plans we had at SB Nation New York to commemorate Alex Rodriguez's imminent entry into baseball's exclusive 600-home run club.
Simple question. The answer, though, is anything but simple. Rodriguez is a complicated man, always has been throughout his career. How to feel about him as he nears becoming the seventh player in history to reach 600 home runs -- he enters play Tuesday night vs. Anaheim with 598 -- is also, of course, complicated.
Why would it be anything else?
Should we unabashedly celebrate him? Rodriguez, after all, is one of the most supremely gifted players to ever don a baseball uniform. It seems like just a blink of an eye ago A-Rod was hitting his 500th home run. Now, he sits on the verge of 600 and with his 35th birthday still days away the possibility for many more home runs -- maybe even record-shattering ones -- is still there. He has won three MVP awards
Should we excoriate him and turn our backs to his accomplishments because he is a 'cheater'? Rodriguez, as we know, has admitted using performance-enhancing drugs during at least part of his career. Do we lump A-Rod in with Barry Bonds, the all-time home run leader, whose accomplishments are scorned or simply ignored because of the substantial body of evidence that his numbers were enhanced?
Do we hate him because he is a New York Yankee? Fans around much of baseball do, simply because he gave up a shot at being the best shortstop of all time, took George Steinbrenner's money and ran to join Derek Jeter and the already hugely successful Yankees. If New York Knicks and New Jersey Nets fans -- not to mention Charles Barkley and Michael Jordan -- can bash LeBron James for giving up his throne as The King to join Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami in search for rings, can we not understand why fans outside of New York would feel that way. Is there a part even of Yankees fans who still feel Rodriguez never should have donned the pinstripes.
Do Yankee fans love him, for the simple reason that he is a Yankee? That in itself is a complicated question within this whole series of related complicated questions. He has a World Series ring with the Yankees. He has two MVP trophies as a Yankee. He has made the All-Star team every season he has been a Yankee. Yet, there are still all the sideshows he has put the Yankees, and their fans, through. The rift with Jeter going back to before they were teammates. The tension with Joe Torre. The playoff failures prior to 2009. Opting out of his contract only to wind up with an even richer one courtesy of Hank Steinbrenner.
Should we, in some odd way, feel sorry for Rodriguez? All, it seems, that A-Rod has ever wanted is to be loved, to be appreciated, to be considered the best. Currently, seems more at peace, outwardly, than he has ever been during his time in New York. Yet, can you say for sure that you 'like' him? That you don't feel that in at least some way all the sideshows, and the PED revelations, have made Rodriguez' career something less than what he -- and we -- hoped it would be?
Do the Yankees love having Rodriguez, or will they feel hamstrung by his 10-year contract (thru 2017) as he gets older? Brian Cashman or Hal Steinbrenner would never answer that question honestly, that is for sure. You can also be sure, though, that the Yankees know they won't get the marketing boost they hoped for from the $30 million in potential milestone home run bonuses he could collect (beginning with the 600th home run and ending with passing Bonds).
Each of these questions is complicated, and none of them carries an answer that is clear-cut. Thus, how is it truly possible to know what to feel or how to react as Rodriguez approaches this latest milestone?
It isn't. At least for me.
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I'm going to cheer him for it
You said it in your first paragraph. He’s one of the most supremely gifted players ever to put on a baseball uniform. Steroids don’t make or break a player, and the guys in the minor leagues who get caught with them and still never make it to the majors can prove that. They don’t give you hand-eye coordination, plate discipline and the ability to pick a pitch out in the AB, the ability to drive the ball to all fields, or his flawless mechanics. Those are all because of his natural talent, and his baseball ability. And those have a lot more to do with his 600 home runs than performance enhancing drugs.
I think the Yanks will still get a pretty significant marketing boost. It was a big deal when Bonds broke it, and he’s much more of the poster boy of this steroid era than Rodriguez is. It’ll get a ton of attention.
He’s one of the best of all time. So from me at least he has exactly what he wanted, because I appreciate him and I consider him the best of this generation. It was shown last year, when the Yanks played Ransom at 3B, how much he meant to this team. He went out last year and helped this team win a World Series. Any Yankees fan has to appreciate him after that.
"I'm looking at 600 as first base. I want to run right through it and use it as a platform and a spring board for more to come"- Alex Rodriguez
by nyyrocks29 on Jul 20, 2010 6:49 PM EDT reply actions
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