The Enigma of A-Rod

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Alex Rodriguez was considered the best player in the sport at the start of this century.

He was also hated throughout the sport because he seemed arrogant...he took little time for fans...and he signed a $250 million contract before that was the norm.

Many people forget that it wasn't the Yankees who paid him that money, but the Texas Rangers.

I remember thinking that they overpaid and that I didn't really care that A-Rod wasn't a Yankee.

And then he was...in a trade.

He wanted to go to New York.

Except in New York there was a player already at short.

Derek Jeter was everything A-Rod wasn't.

A winner. A fan favorite. A good guy, by all accounts.

And that crushed A-Rod.

He acted like a child sometimes. Evidently he cheated as so many had before him.

But when A-Rod cheated...the world took notice.

He became the poster boy for bad behavior. Yankee fans booed him. He owned up to the cheating the first time but no one forgave him.

Cause Jeter was standing just to his left.

A-Rod finally took his suspension...he had two, count 'em hip surgeries, and he celebrated his 40th birthday.

The Yankees still owned him.

We all yelled "Cut him!"

But $61 million is still $61 million...even to the Yankees.

So he came back...Jeter no longer to his left.

No one had any idea how it'd go.

A-Rod came to camp and said everything right.

He stood in the batter's box and started smoking line drives.

Friday night he hit a 95 mph fastball into the seats in right for his 3,000 hit.

Only 28 others have done that.

In history.

He blew kisses to his daughters. He choked up during the interview.

I felt a tug.

Yeah...for a guy who's made half a billion dollars. A guy who shamed the 27-time World Champion Greatest Franchise in the History of Organized American Sports.

A little tug.

Good for him to rise above it when no one thought he could.

(I was always a sucker for the Rocky movies).

And then the enigma of A-Rod showed itself again.

The guy who caught the ball in the stands basically told A-Rod to jam his request for the ball in the spot where the steroid needle went.

A-Rod laughed it off.

That'll be the history of the guy.

Do you root for him?

Do you hate him forever?

He didn't kill people.

He made his fortune with a ball.

On Friday he got another moment in the sun.

There's a lesson in there somewhere.

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