THEY were out. That is what the Yankees will always regret. Fifteen months ago, they were out from Alex Rodriguez.
He had famously – and crudely, of course – opted out of the final three years of his first 10-year contract. He did so during the clinching game of the 2007 World Series. As if the Yankees needed more evidence of why they should not reunite with the ultra-talented, but ultimately ego-deranged star, there it was: Rodriguez prioritizing his money grab over the good of the game – and common decency.
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The Yanks initially said they were done with him. Oh, how they will regret not following their instincts.
Instead, they were seduced by Rodriguez’s historic long-ball arc, beguiled by what his chase of the Barry Bonds home run record would mean at the gate and – more important – televised daily on YES. So they found a way back to reconciliation. They bribed him not only with a 10-year, $275 million contract that will pay him into his 40s, but with a $6 million bonus for each of five different homer milestones.
Except now Rodriguez is going to be just another baseball mug shot alongside Bonds. Forget the celebration. With the revelation yesterday by Sports Illustrated that Rodriguez tested positive in 2003 for two steroids, his chase becomes soiled. And, in the more immediate future, his association with the Yankees becomes more destructive.
Let’s face it, A-Rod is human Velcro. Everything negative sticks to him, whether it is sabotaging his relationship with Derek Jeter or canoodling with Madonna. His ego demands attention and his insecurity assures that he cannot handle it. And his stature assures that all of his problems will become the team’s problems. A-Rod giveth, and A-Rod taketh away.
“It is a p.r. nightmare, but nothing we can do anything about,” one Yankee official said.
The Yanks always are a media magnet. And this spring was going to bring more than the usual because of the off-season money spent and the fallout from Joe Torre’s book, specifically his smacks at A-Rod. Except now Rodriguez will think of A-Fraud as the good old days.
Now he carries the stigma of steroid cheat; that his whole power production is A Fraud. He committed the 2003 infraction reported by SI as a Ranger. But this is not going to be a Ranger story. Rodriguez is a Yankee. He is in their midst. He is their constant distraction.
There will be a defense mounted. One of his friends said yesterday that Rodriguez had not failed a test at either the 2006 World Baseball Classic or since Major League Baseball instituted random testing in 2004. Rodriguez won the MVP as a Yankee in both 2005 and 2007, just as he did in the disputed year of 2003.
“During a very clear testing period, he performed clean and sustained the same high level,” the A-Rod friend said.
It is a nice try. It is not going to work. This is Alex Rodriguez. Everything negative sticks to him. The Yanks knew that when he was out. They stupidly let him back in.
Let the regret continue.