Tuesday, August 9, 2016

How I Will Remember Alex Rodriguez


T-Minus less than a week until Alex Rodriguez is no longer listed as a player in uniform, what a bittersweet feeling for many Yankees fans including myself. I kind of ragged on Mark Teixeira in my “How I Will Remember” post about him but I just can’t do that to Alex for some reason. Call it being a homer, call it being bias or whatever label you want to put on it but I find it hard to stay down on someone for long who just wants to play the game and to win. That was Alex. Alex was a student of the game up until the day he announced he would walk away from it and while he has his issues and his imperfections I truly believe his intentions were pure. That’s just one of the many things I will remember about Alex Rodriguez. 

I can remember watching the 2009 version of the Yankees like a kid in the candy store. The Yankees had assembled the best infield of all-time, my opinion at the time anyway, but all those dollars spent and all those huge contracts meant nothing without the heroics of #13 in the postseason. Alex went from being called A-Rod to Clutch-Rod as he broke out like a 13-year old boy over summer vacation leading the Yankees to their 27th World Series championship and his first championship of his career. 


No one was more disappointed in Alex than I was when he went on television with Pete Gammons and admitted to steroid use and begged for the countries and the game’s forgiveness. He got my forgiveness and I fought for him until the second time a steroid scandal broke out, this time with Biogenesis. Again, utter disappointment rained down from the masses when they learned Alex had used not only once but twice and that was about the time I stopped going to bat for him. 

I stopped going to bat for him but I never stopped rooting for him. Even if he came out and said he has used a third time before hanging up his cleats I would still consider myself to be an Alex Rodriguez fan, I’m loyal like that and loyal to a fault I guess. I just always loved to study him at the plate, study him in the field and modeled my own game after him. I feel pretty guilty about saying this with hindsight being 20/20 and all but while most kids around me in Little League in New York were trying to be Derek Jeter I just wanted to be A-Rod. I wanted to be the big shortstop that could hit 50 home runs a season. I wanted it all, just like A Rod. 

So this is a bittersweet retirement party for me when it comes to Alex Rodriguez. I want to see the youth come up and get a shot and I want the Yankees to put the best 25 guys out there day in and day out not only in 2016 and beyond and Alex just isn’t that anymore. At the same time it’s hard to see the end of an era and it’s equally as hard to see one of the players you grew up watching and idolizing as a kid say goodbye. It shows mortality and I’m not quite ready to feel mortal yet. 


So Alex, congratulations on an awesome career and good luck in everything that you do going forward. And thank you. For everything. 

4 comments:

  1. Great job buddy, this is your Twitter friend Vincent Rizzo Sports. I'm glad you didn't kill him, besides his big mistakes his on field play makes him a great NY Yankee.

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    1. Thank you buddy. Glad to have you here by the way. I couldn't kill him, too much of a fan. For better or worse. Also understanding in my nature, people screw up. We're human.

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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)