This is the end
His legacy in tatters, A-rod should get used to isolation
It must have been a lonely birthday for Alex Rodriguez. A-Rod turned 38 on Saturday and probably didn’t get a card from his employer, the New York Yankees, or baseball commissioner Bud Selig. In fact, the next correspondence he gets from anyone in baseball may be notice of a lengthy suspension, one that could represent the end of his career.
In 2004, Rodriguez was pursued by the two richest teams in baseball. In 2007, he signed an astonishing 10-year, $275-million contract, the most lucrative in baseball history. Today, nobody wants anything to do with him. The Yankees have shunned him, stalling his return from injury in hopes that a suspension will be imposed before Mr. Rodriguez, as they have taken to calling him in news releases, is back in their clubhouse.
There will always be cheaters in sports. The money and glory, plus the pressure to perform, are too tempting for some athletes to resist seeking an advantage. Though you might not forgive it, you can relate to the player with borderline talent who takes illicit drugs because he perceives it as his only chance of making the big leagues. You might even understand the cyclist who cheats with the rationale that, since everyone is doing it, it creates a level playing field.
But players like Rodriguez and Ryan Braun, who this week was suspended for 65 games, it seems something else altogether: A combination of arrogance, greed and insecurity. There is no indication that either player couldn’t have had a respectable career and lucrative salary without drugs.
The pathology of such deceit is almost impossible to comprehend. In denying what he is now being punished for, Braun didn’t just betray his fans, but his friends and business partners, like Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
Likewise, in February 2009, just over a year after signing his fat contract, Rodriguez was forced to acknowledge he had taken steroids earlier in his career, something he had previously denied. He claimed he had been “young and stupid” and insisted he had stayed clean since joining the Yankees.
It turns out there are reports now linking him to Anthony Galea, a Canadian doctor accused of administering human growth hormone to athletes, in March 2009, precisely one month after he characterized his drug use as being in the distant past. Additionally, Rodriguez has been implicated in the Biogenesis investigation that led to Braun’s suspension.
Perhaps if his first transgression had been the end of the story, Rodriguez might have been able to salvage a bit of respectability. There has been some level of forgiveness for the first round of drug users in baseball and other sports, given the lax regulations and testing. But Rodriguez appears to be a serial cheater and liar. Both the sport and its fans are far less forgiving of such characters.
There are predictions that A-Rod’s punishment may be even more severe than Braun’s, perhaps including the rest of this year and all of next. If that’s the case, by the time it’s over, Rodriguez will be pushing 40, meaning he’ll be old AND stupid, a much less appealing and more unforgivable combination.
Like Barry Bonds, Rodriguez craved the respect afforded to baseball’s greatest players. In the end, he’ll get none of it. One day, he will turn on SportsCenter and see Derek Jeter, the teammate whose iconic status always caused resentment in Rodriguez, having his number retired. There will be a plaque for Jeter in Yankee Stadium’s Monument Park, and then his induction in Cooperstown.
Rodriguez likely will never receive any of these honours. Beyond that, there probably will be no Old-timers Days, not even a regular invitation back to the ballpark as a retired player. He will live the rest of his life like Shoeless Joe Jackson, but with a lot more money.
And how much consolation will that be? Even to the most selfish of cheaters, I suspect no amount of cash is worth substituting ignominy for glory. I doubt any Hall of Famer would trade his hallowed place among the game’s greats for A-Rod’s career earnings.
Recent behaviour suggests Rodriguez is already a desperate man. He foolishly tried to apply public pressure on the Yankees to reinstate him. “Enough doctors,” he said this week. After the Yankees deemed him unready to return, he provided the second opinion of his own doctor, who was quickly revealed to be a quack.
Even if he was ready to play, who would want him? Whether it’s due to aging or we’re finally seeing the abilities of a clean A-Rod, his skills are clearly in decline. His slugging percentage last year was a mediocre .430, the lowest since he was 19 years old. In his minor league rehab stint this year, against far weaker pitching than he’ll see in the big leagues, A-Rod has hit .200 with two home runs in 13 games.
A-Rod’s future should serve as the greatest lesson to anyone else considering cheating, especially those chasing superstardom and not just a place in the big leagues. The very benefits he sought by taking drugs are now lost to him forever. He will live his retirement in obscurity. Then, as now, few people will have anything to do with him.
Rodriguez should get used to the feeling of isolation he’s been experiencing over the past few weeks. It may last for the rest of his life.