Love him or hate him, Alex Rodriguez was supposed to give Major League Baseball a clean slate. He was the one looked to who was going to bring purity and meaning back to the most hallowed career number in baseball – 762* (or 755, if you prefer). A-Rod was five good years away from passing Barry Bonds and re-capturing the title as someone who deserved it.
Now he’ll be lumped into the same class as Barry Bonds forever.
In case you missed it, Sports Illustrated published a report showing that A-Rod took performance enhancing drugs (PED) back in 2001-2003, during a time he felt “tremendous pressure to perform” and live up to his new 10-year, $252 million contract. His positive tests occurred at a time when there were no repercussions in place and Rodriguez will not be punished for any of his illegal actions. At least, not by Major League Baseball; fans may not let him off the hook that easily.
Since Rodriguez entered the major leagues, he was seen as an immensely talented golden boy that everyone could love. From his early days on the Mariners with Ken Griffey Jr. to his three-year stint in Texas to his current run in New York, he was the player that you could hate because he was a little too good. Everything seemed easy for him and he was compiling gaudy numbers at a record-breaking pace. He even became the fastest player to ever reach the 500 career home run mark when he did so in the 2007 season.
However, now he has (at least) three years tarnished in his career – three years where he hit a total of 156 home runs and won an MVP trophy for the last place Texas Rangers.
If those years were stricken from the record books, A-Rod would be left with 397 career home runs and a 33-year-old body. If he were to break Barry Bonds’s career mark, he’d have to average over 40 home runs per year for the remainder of his newest 10-year deal. Though no one would put it past A-Rod to accomplish such a feat, he has failed to reach that mark in three of the past five seasons, tallying totals of 36 (in 2004), 35 (2006) and 35 again (2008).
A-Rod’s immense talent was overshadowed only by the constant controversies he found himself immersed in. Whether it was him slapping a ball from Jason Varitek’s glove; calling, “Mine!” against the Blue Jays, causing a pop-up to drop; his wife’s profane shirt; or the Madonna saga, Rodriguez has continually found himself in the news for all the wrong reasons.
This latest A-Rod drama may be perhaps the most serious of all, though, and the one he can’t charm his way out of. He did what Miguel Tejada and Mark McGwire never did – he admitted his use, which is the first act to his fans’ acceptance. Though apologizing is not enough to erase his transgressions or remove the tainted association fans will have of him, it is a definite step in the right direction.
The biggest question that remains, though, is what will happen when he (inevitably) breaks the home run record. How will the Yankees feel, considering the $30 million bonus in Rodriguez’s contract if he breaks the record in pinstripes? Will Major League Baseball – and, more importantly, its fans – respond with a warmer reception than the one they gave Bonds?
If fans and MLB place an asterisk next to his name, as they’ve done with Bonds, McGwire and company, the player with perhaps the greatest chance to break Rodriguez’s eventual record will be Albert Pujols (currently 29 years old with 319 career home runs). Or, perhaps further down the road, maybe someone like the Reds’ Jay Bruce (who hit 21 home runs in his rookie campaign last year) will eclipse all records.
Only time will tell. Maybe the best way for Rodriguez to win over Yankees fans’ hearts is to don a World Series ring come November.
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