The Great Yankee Misfit

Tomorrow (August 12) A-Rod will play his final game as a Yankee. When a legend retires its rarely graceful. The team’s job is to make that exit as graceful as possible. That has not been the case with A-Rod. It has been the complete opposite.

Despite being just four homers shy of 700 he has had seven plate appearances since mid-July. The team approached him last week and informed him of their plans to release him. It’s understood that he asked for one final game in the Bronx and was granted the request by Hal Steinbrenner.

After tomorrow’s game A-Rod will be paid the remainder of his contract and kept on as a special advisor and instructor. There are many ways to describe the way the general manager Brian Cashman and owner Hal Steinbrenner handled this — petty, heartless, spiteful, embarrassing to name a few— but surprising is not one of them.

Brian Cashman never wanted A-Rod. When the Texas Rangers called the Yankees GM in 2004 to gauge the team’s interest in acquiring the best player on the planet Cashman felt there was nowhere to put Rodriguez. Obviously Derek Jeter was not leaving shortstop. But the thought of Aaron Boone preventing A-Rod — the LeBron James of baseball at the time — is not only idiotic it showed Cashman never wanted the headache.

Boone was coming off an ALCS-winning walk-off against the Boston Red Sox, but when you can get the best player in baseball you get him. Not to mention he is a native New Yorker. To put this into perspective that would be equal to the LA Angels calling this winter offering Mike Trout (also from the NYC area), but Cashman feels there is nowhere to put Trout since Jacoby Ellsbury is already in center field. Stupid right?

It took Boone to shred his knee before Spring Training and the MLB to veto a Rangers-Red Sox trade for Cashman to make a move.Trying to pin point exactly why Rodriguez was never wanted is difficult. His rivalry with Derek Jeter is a good starting point.

Jeter and A-Rod were LeBron and Dwyane Wade before LeBron and Dwyane Wade. Jeter was the captain of the clubhouse and face of the Yankees. A-Rod was the best player on the planet coming to town. It was plausible Cashman took look at the possible clubhouse dynamic and saw a dumpster fire of New York tabloid headlines in the future.

But that is only plausible assuming A-Rod wanted to be Jeter. His willingness to move to third showed that he was not trying to replace The Captain. Not on the surface at least. Maybe he wanted some of the limelight, but who wouldn’t?

In his first seven seasons A-Rod proved to be worth every possible headache. He hit no less than 30 home runs and 100 RBIs and took home MVP honors in 2007. During that MVP campaign he made baseball must-see television (how often do you see those words together?) as he belted 54 home runs and drove in a career-high 156 runs. It was like watching a live simulation of Road To The Show on Rookie.

Even then A-Rod was never completely loved. There were still nitpicks. He was labeled as greedy after opting-out of his deal in 2007 to sign an earth shattering ten-year $275 million extension, one-upping his $252 million contract with the Rangers in 2001. He was labeled as a choke who never performed in the postseason.

In 2009 he ended that narrative. Before the season started he admitted that he experimented with steroids during his years with the Rangers. The bullseye on his back grew tenfold. If he did not produce he would be run out of the Bronx.

Quick tangent on steroids: For those that have never played baseball, steroids is not Michael Jordan’s Secret Stuff. It does not give you unworldly powers to crush fastballs 500 feet. It takes an incredible amount of skill to hit a major league fastball let alone hit a home run. The competitive advantage is that it helps your body recover faster thus reducing injuries.

Despite the renewed hatred he delivered his best season in my eyes. With the media, fans, and for all we know Yankee management, opposing him he finally got over the hump. On way to his first and only title he hit .365 with 6 home runs and 18 RBIs and gave the Yankees their first ring since the Joe Torre Era dynasty.