5 defining moments of A-Rod's Yankees career
Twelve years ago, Alex Rodriguez arrived in the Bronx. Tonight, New York said goodbye to A-Rod.
Despite dazzling as a teenager in Seattle, then tearing up Texas as the highest paid athlete in professional sports history, it was in New York that Rodriguez forged his complicated, endlessly fascinating legacy; in the city that doesn't sleep, for more than a decade, Rodriguez's ungodly talents and irrepressible vices shined brighter than Rockefeller center on Christmas, turning the 41-year-old into the polarizing and indelible superstar he is today.
So, with Rodriguez donning pinstripes for the last time Friday, let's look back at five of his defining moments from his Yankees tenure.
"Varitek and A-Rod going at it!"
No player better personifies that rancorous Yankees-Red Sox rivalry of the early-mid aughts than Rodriguez, who was seemingly at the center of every clash between the divisional rivals. In the summer of 2004, just months after Aaron Boone crushed the Red Sox with his iconic home run in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series, relations between the two clubs turned violent when Bronson Arroyo plunked Rodriguez at Fenway Park on July 24, sparking the infamous brawl that saw the Yankees third baseman get a face full of Jason Varitek's glove.
"He swatted the ball out of Arroyo's hand!"
About three months after that brawl in Boston, Rodriguez came within an umpire review of getting his revenge on Arroyo, albeit through nefarious means. With the Yankees down by two in the eighth inning of Game 6 of the 2004 ALCS, Rodriguez famously swatted the ball out of Arroyo's glove as he tried to tag him following a slow dribbler up the first-base line, allowing Derek Jeter to score from first while Rodriguez, ostensibly the tying run, moved up to second. At the behest of Red Sox manager Terry Francona, however, the play was reviewed by the umpiring crew, and Rodriguez was called out for interference and Jeter was sent back to first. Boston escaped with a 4-2 victory, and, not long after, Reversed the Curse.
"Alex Rodriguez has delivered for New York ..."
For years, Rodriguez carried around a well deserved reputation for crumbling in the postseason, given that, in his first four trips to the playoffs with the Yankees, the perennial MVP candidate hit just .245 with an sub-standard .808 OPS. Then, in 2009, things changed. That autumn, Rodriguez was a man possessed, hitting .365/.500/.808 with six homers while delivering perhaps the biggest hit of his career with a go-ahead, ninth-inning double in Game 4 of the World Series that lifted the Yankees to a 7-4 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies and offered Rodriguez some much needed catharsis. "It's even better than you can imagine," Rodriguez said. The Yankees took the series in six games. They haven't returned to the Fall Classic since.
"The youngest man ever to get to 600 home runs!"
In many ways, 2010 was the last true A-Rod season - it marked his 13th straight (and, ultimately, final) year with at least 30 homers and 100 RBIs; in the six years since, he's only eclipsed 122 games played once - and, fittingly, it featured one of his most memorable milestone moments. With the Yankees playing host to Toronto for a Wednesday matinee in early August, Rodriguez, at 35 years, eight days old, became the youngest player in history to reach 600 career home runs when he launched a two-run shot off Shaun Marcum onto the netting above Monument Park.
"He did it in style!"
On June 19, 2015, nobody in Yankee Stadium cared about Rodriguez's sordid past - the tabloid stories, or the suspension, or the acrimonious relationship with Yankee management. That afternoon, Rodriguez was cheered and celebrated like the legend he is after taking Justin Verlander deep to right-center for the 3,000th hit of his amazing career, becoming the 29th player to reach that vaunted plateau (and the second Yankee in a four-year span to join the club with a home run.) Grinning from ear to ear before he even reached first base, Rodriguez was mobbed by teammates after touching home, and received a well deserved curtain call from the 44,588 fans in attendance in the Bronx.
(Videos courtesy: MLB.com)