What Might Have Been

A-Rod was on the 2000 Seattle team that won 118 games during the regular season and then lost to the Yankees in 5 in the ALCS.

I didn't much care for him then, but knew that he was a supreme talent.

There was little doubt that he could turn into the greatest player ever.

Everyone also knew that he would also outgrow Seattle and sign a huge money contract somewhere.

But he didn't go to Boston or New York...

...instead he signed down in Texas...

over $250 million dollars!

We all screamed:

No one is worth that!!

Turns out he wasn't.

Texas was finishing near the basement despite the fact that A-Rod was hitting nearly 50 home runs every year.

I still didn't much care for him.

And then the rumors started.

Boston was going to get him.

It was a done deal.

But the commissioner stepped in and said that the money couldn't be deferred in the way that the Suck Sux wanted to do it.

And A-Rod was traded to the Yankees.

I didn't know what to think.

I still didn't like him.

But I decided to root for him when he hit homers.

The Yankees didn't win a championship with him though, and he seemed supremely jealous of Derek Jeter, who didn't seem to care for him.

A-Rod was just too much of a diva.

But all was forgotten in 2009 when they beat the hapless Phillies to win #27. (A-Rod was actually very good in the series).

All right, I guess I could live with him on the team.

And then the steroids.

And the lies.

And wanting to sue MLB.

Listen...there were about 80% of major leaguers cheating, but A-Rod became the poster boy for all that was wrong.

Too bad, I thought. He made his bed.

Then he spent a year on the sidelines.

"Cut him!" I screamed.

I still didn't much care for him.

I kept thinking about what might have been and how a man could ruin his life by never accepting 'good enough.'

But here was where it turned for me:

A-Rod took his medicine.

He showed up in shape.

He started hanging with the children before the game.

He acted human!

I started to like him a little!

Actually like him!

And now his skills are gone.

The Yankees are done with him.

And A-Rod will limp off into the sunset:

Forever being the guy who might have been the greatest player ever.

But he blew it.

Take your half-a-billion and go home...

...buy your ticket into Cooperstown to watch Jeter get inducted.

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