Five things I’ll never forget about the final night of Alex Rodriguez at Yankee Stadium.
1. The metaphors write themselves
Alex Rodriguez has been compared to Derek Jeter his entire career. They were close friends in the early days of their careers and were inextricably linked in the press from then on. On Jeter’s last day at Yankee Stadium it stormed and rained the entire day, but as we walked from the parking lot to the stadium, the sun came out and the night turned into a storybook ending of Jeterian magic. For A-Rod, on the other hand, had the complete opposite weather. It was sunny all day, but as we go up to the metal detectors at the Stadium the wind began to whip up, and a gust knocked over a metal barricade. A dark cloud was bearing down on us and we could see it was raining in Harlem. By the time we reached the Food Court inside the stadium they were putting the tarp on the field. At 7:00 PM Alex took the field for a pregame ceremony, and a crack of thunder made us all jump. Thunder, lightning, and then a downpour of such Biblical proportions that we could no longer see the bleachers. Alex, his family, and dignitaries such as Reggie Jackson and Mariano Rivera, ran for cover. You could say a dark cloud hung over him. That he was always a lightning rod. That the ceremony was as weirdly truncated as his career. (And then a rainbow came out a few minutes later.)
2. The crowd was there to love him
This is a preview of what Old Timers Day will be like for Alex Rodriguez. Throughout the game chants of “A-Rod (clap clap), A-Rod (clap clap)” and “Let’s Go A-Rod” rang out, sometimes when all Alex was doing was taking a lead off second base. Toward the end of the game, after he’d had what would be his final at bat unless the Rays managed to send the game to extra innings, the entire upper deck was chanting “We want A-Rod, We want A-Rod.” Moments later Joe Girardi granted our wish, sending him out to play third base. While he was on the field the chants and cheers were continuous. Do you remember the days when Alex would get booed fairly mercilessly by the Yankee Stadium crowd? There were no boo birds there tonight. It was a love fest from start to finish.
Then the whole upper deck started chanting We Want ARod ! #ThankYouAROD pic.twitter.com/FgG8NBxzbT
— cecilia tan wilbb (@whyilikebb) August 13, 2016
3. An RBI never meant so much
I know a home run would have been more Hollywood. But an earlier, less mature A-Rod would have swung for the fences and probaby gotten the Golden Sombrero in his last game. This A-Rod did what he preached to Didi Gregorious and Starlin Castro: don’t try to do too much. His double in the gap tied the game and set the Stadium a-roar.
Career hits:
Alex Rodriguez: 3,115
The Rays' starting lineup combined: 3,133— Jon Tayler (@JATayler) August 13, 2016
4. Elder statesmanhood
This A-Rod seems entirely ready to take on the mantle of elder statesmanhood. The brightness of his smile during the postgame on-field interview and the poise with which he handled the later press conference give us a glimpse of what he’ll be like as a future Hall of Famer (once HOF voters get over their bias against PED users, which I truly feel they’ll eventually soften on).
5. But is he done?
The only question he didn’t fully answer in his postgame presser was whether he had taken off a major league uniform for the last time. Among fans in our section rumors were swirling that the Miami Marlins want to give him a chance. Given that they’ve got Barry Bonds as a hitting coach, you know they’re not afraid of lightning-rod type personalities, and they’ve got Ichiro as a pinch hitter, but he’s gotten his 3000th hit now and so maybe the Marlins are looking for their next attendance booster? After all, A-Rod is a Miami native…and has been known to make some terrible, ego-driven decisions in the past. We shall see if this was truly the final moment in his playing career or not (remember when Roger Clemens came out of retirement?) but certainly everyone in the stadium not named Alex Rodriguez took it as such.
Alex Rodriguez was probably the only player I ever interviewed who was kind of an asshole at the time, but that didn’t stop me from cheering him tonight and crying like everyone else. (One benefit of watching the game from the stands instead of being professional media these days is I get to yell and scream all I want.) I was in Florida at spring training when the rumor swept through that the Yankees were getting A-Rod, and I was at Legends Field when he showed up. I personally got to witness the first and last times he wore pinstripes, and I find myself honored by that privilege. Good luck and godspeed, Alex Rodriguez.
ARod went third base and took some infield dirt and put it in his pocket. #ThankYouAROD Not a dry eye in the house right now folks
— cecilia tan wilbb (@whyilikebb) August 13, 2016
me and corwin at the stadium! #mobilizingnyy @Yankees pic.twitter.com/U57rqC5cJB
— cecilia tan wilbb (@whyilikebb) August 13, 2016
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