Written in May 2010
Who is Alex Rodriguez? A genuine baseball lover, or a slimy, greedy, selfish jerk? One thing for is sure though. He is wealthy. The $252million man, well, now $275million man, is set for life financially, and probably for another two hundred lives. However, the chances of the legacy Rodriguez leaves behind being set as comfortably as his wallet are more questionable.
Fans from opposing teams disliking other players are common. Especially for good players, and in the case of Alex Rodriguez, the youngest player to hit 500 home runs in major league baseball history, and the wealthiest man in baseball, some sort of resentment from fans has always been prevalent. But when fans start to boo their own players, it is obvious there is a huge problem. So when Alex Rodriguez, the sure fire hall of famer, hit .133 and .071 in the 2005 and 2006 playoffs, respectively, Yankees fans began to become annoyed and frustrated. The Yankees represent baseball greatness, an elite, championship winning machine. So when the best player in baseball came to the Yankees, and suddenly, stopped playing like he had his whole career once the playoffs came around, they began to become annoyed and frustrated. A-Rod’s first five seasons in the Bronx were ugly, with constant struggle and urgency among the fan’s relationship with Rodriguez. Still, A-Rod continued to make his money, and was still an exceptional player in the regular season, winning the 2005 and 2007 MVP’s.
In December of 2007, while in the process of creeping up on Barry Bonds’ all time home run record, Rodriguez was interviewed on 60 minutes with Katie Couric, where they spoke on a broad variety of subjects, including Rodriguez’ career, future, and most of all, steroid use in baseball. When asked if he was among the many baseball players that had used PED’s, Rodriguez replied, "No. I've never felt overmatched on the baseball field. I've always been a very strong, dominant position. And I felt that if I did my work as I've done since I was, you know, a rookie back in Seattle, I didn't have a problem competing at any level. So, no,"
So upon the announcement that Rodriguez had tested positive for performance enhancing drugs, it’s safe to say that the foundation of the baseball world was shaken. On February 7, 2009, Selena Roberts broke the story that Rodriguez had tested positive for anabolic steroids in 2003, the same year he won the MVP with the Texas Rangers and hit 47 home runs. This devastated even those jealous of Rodriguez’s accomplishments, as even they wanted to see Rodriguez, a clean, steroids free baseball players pass the ultimate baseball villain Barry Bonds on the all time home runs list. A-Rod was supposed to be MLB’s “clean savior,” to wipe the history’s book clean of Bonds’ contaminated record and the evil era of illegal drug use which he represents. The revelation of Rodriguez’ steroids abuse not only damaged the future potential clean slate for baseball, but also pierced a hole in Rodriguez’s personal legacy.
Many thought that the combination truth of his steroid use becoming common knowledge, his constant ineffectiveness in clutch, playoff situations, and the revelation that he had a torn labrum in his hip that required surgery, would be the end of Alex Rodriguez, or at least Rodriguez as a productive baseball player. But against all the critics’ condemnations, Rodriguez came back, and came back with a bang. In his first at-bat of the season, Rodriguez hit a home run on the first pitch he saw. And from then on, all Rodriguez did was hit. He led the Yankees into the playoffs, and once there, he finally, finally hit home runs. He hit home run, after home run, after home run, and the Yankees went onto to win the 2009 World Series. Rodriguez had finally proved the critics wrong, and won the World Series, attaining a sense of sweet redemption.
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