Why I Can't Forgive A-Rod

It's been over 72 hours since I heard the news about A-Rod testing positive for steroids in 2003, and I'm still wrestling with how to cope with it. The moment I think I've reached a conclusion, another one of my friends comes out of the woodwork and starts steering me in another direction. "Bottom line is he's a Yankee", "Dude, everyone was doing it back then", "At least he admitted to it", "We really don't have a choice", etc. So if I start rambling, forgive me. I'm just still not exactly sure how to feel about all this.

Since I heard the news, I've felt like an idiot, a hypocrite, less of a fan, but more than anything else, naive. See, I actually thought Alex was the one who would save us from the asterisk. That's really been one of the worst parts. I pride myself on being a self-proclaimed "all-knowing" sports fan, and I didn't see this coming... and I absolutely should have.

Alex Rodriguez has irked me since day one. It started off simple: "Who is this purple-lipped guy trying to steal Griffey's thunder?" Basically, I hated for the sake of hating. I'm far from above that when it comes to sports. Fact of the matter was, every baseball fan chimed in on the "Who ya got?? A-Rod/Nomar/Jeter" debate, and there really wasn't any statistical evidence to back up Derek Jeter. I stood strong with my "winning is the only statistic that matters" argument, all the while building up animosity towards Alex Rodriguez.

Then came the infamous GQ article where he referred to Derek Jeter as nothing more than "a #2 hitter." Sure, of course this is going to make me completely turn on A-Rod because he attacked my favorite Yankee of all-time, but that's not what really bothered me. Alex and Derek were "good friends", and Jeter never had a bad thing to say about anyone. It was 100% unprovoked and if they really were friends, it's just that much worse. I am a sucker for those who try to do things the right way. Give me Jack Shephard, take Sawyer. Give me Hulk Hogan, take Andre the Giant. Give me Joe Paterno, and take your Bobby Bowden. I want to root for the guys who are honorable, which is why this A-Rod fiasco is such a dilemma (Any time you can use fiasco and dilemma in the same sentence, you just can't pass it up).

Of course, none of this A-Rod stuff really mattered to me because he was winning 65 games a year with the Texas Rangers. He was off my radar. However, there was something about Alex that you just knew he wasn't content with racking up monster, albeit enhanced, numbers in the AL West. The Yankees/Red Sox rivalry was back, and it was all the rage. I don't think A-Rod cared so much that he wasn't winning championships as much as he cared that nobody was talking about him. So, as fate would have it, only after a ridiculous back-and-forth with the Boston Red Sox (Hello, red flag #37), Alex Rodriguez became a New York Yankee.

I still remember when I actually found out about this. It was literally the first day I had been out of bed after having pneumonia my for 3 weeks during my senior year, and I was out to dinner at a place I was very fond of called Briody's. I received a text from Pat Briody, yes of Briody's fame, and my stomach sank. I thought they must have traded Jeter, since A-Rod had always played shortstop. Again, my initial reaction to getting the "Best ballplayer of his generation" was "Oh God, no." (These red flags are just popping out everywhere) Then I heard A-Rod was going to play 3rd base, and this is where the story gets interesting...

I hopped on the A-Rod bandwagon with hopping-speed that hadn't been seen since the guy from Good Charlotte bought Nicole Richie a drink. By this time, Nomar's ship had sailed and it was just Jeter or A-Rod, this ended that argument and now, both men were playing on the same side on the infield for the New York Yankees. He deferred to Jeter, and that's all I needed. In retrospect, my flip-flopping got me what I deserved.

Ever since Alex came to the Yankees, our greatest highlight has been the closing of Yankee Stadium. His first season with the Yankees had the single worst ending to a Yankees season that I could have ever imagined, just short of Jeter and Torre getting caught making out inside the room Gherig went to cry during his last days as a Yankee. It never got much better. Attempting to punch the ball out of a glove. Batting 8th in the playoffs. Sunbathing in Central Park. Canadian she-male strippers. Madonna. It was just relentless, but that's my relationship with A-Rod as a Yankee fan in a microcosm.

To fully understand the relationship, let me take you back to the 2007 World Series. I spent the majority of that World Series on egg shells. My girlfriend is a Boston fan, and she's the right type of fan. Now, I will never root for the RedSox, but suddenly blatantly rooting against them had its downside. It wasn't much fun silently watching the Sox pummel the Rockies each game and giving out half-hearted congratulations to my girlfriend, roommates, and friends, but I'm a better man for it (or at least my girlfriend tells me I am). Point is, the 2007 World Series already wasn't the best of times for me in terms of sports, and then it happened.

Right before the Sox were about to clinch it, Joe Buck reported that Alex Rodriguez was opting out of his contract with the Yankees, a move the Yankees continually said would lead to him in a different uniform. The fact that A-Rod and that snake Scott Boras decided to upstage the biggest moment of the baseball season was bad enough. In fact, if smell-o-vision existed, the TV would've emitted a mixed scent of a rotten egg, Star Jones's feces, and leather dossed in cheap cologne. Still, this wasn't the worst part. The worst part was that by opting out, A-Rod was saying "Fuck You!" to the most prestigious franchise in all of sports, and it wasn't a cool fuck-the-establishment F-U, it was a "I am the fucking franchise" F-U. I was beside myself. (Channeling Seth Meyers) Really, Alex Rodriguez, really? You want to call the Yankees bluff, really? After the worst 4 seasons of the Joe Torre era, you want to opt out of your contract, really? The highest-paid contract in the history of sports, yeah, that contract? Really? You do realize Joe Torre had to move you down to the bottom of the lineup just a few months ago? You do? Really? You do realize that a heaven and hell just might exist? Really?

What did I do? What any rational human being would do. A few days later, I was bored, and my roommate Jamie (who, from this point on, will only be referred to as Hood) and I decided to light my Alex Rodriguez jersey (the same jersey I tried to sell to people in my dorm sophomore year for $10, JoeCaj offered $5) on fire and film the burning on our cell phones, paying no attention to the mass amount of leaves in our driveway. I felt cleansed. From that point on, I started defending the female lead in movies when she dramatically returned all the stuff that reminded her of him to her boyfriend. She needs some closure goddamnit.

Fast forward to a week later, the New York Yankees have signed Alex Rodgriguez to a 10 year, $275 million contract, the largest contract in the history of sports. Guess who was back on the bandwagon? It was a little different this time though. I was more aware of what I was in store for, weary of what lied ahead. I was numb to all the Madonna stuff, and the Canseco stuff as well. I just wanted the Yankees to be winners again. New manager, last year of The Stadium, we could do this! That's the most disturbing thing about looking back at the past few seasons with A-Rod. The best thing about him was completely hypothetical. Imagine A-Rod hits an Aaron Boone-like walk-off! Imagine he gets the monkey off his back like Peyton! Imagine! He never delivered.

That brings us to today. I don't have anything left. I have given all I can. I simply do not want to root for this guy anymore. Everything about his personality I hate, and now, you can definitively add cheater and liar to that list. I actually feel blessed to have been raised a Yankee fan. My parents wasted no time. I witnessed an opening day at Yankee Stadium before I was even a year old. I have no qualms admitting that the waterworks were flowing when I watched the Yankee Stadium DVD that was released this summer at 2 in the morning. It might be silly, but it is a part of who I am. A-Rod has put a permanent blemish on the New York Yankees. No one has treated the franchise like he has. 2004. The opt-out. I've already covered it, and we continued to give him chance after chance. How has he re-paid us? He has given us the pleasure of rooting for the biggest phony in all of sports for the next 9 years.

Thanks to A-Rod's selfish, callous decisions (or according to him, the pressure of a GUARANTEED $250 million contract), I'll be watching Sportscenter when I'm 30, and they will still be talking about asterisks. Except next decade, the villain will be in pinstripes while he treats our nation's past time like one of his Canadian Chyna-dolls. He didn't have to do this. He had all the talent in the world. He did it because quite simply, he is a piece of shit. A piece of shit who looked Katie Couric in the eye and told her a pompous, bold-faced lie. A piece of shit who's penalty for all this is $243 million over the next 9 years. A piece of shit who's never respected the uniform he wears 162 days a year.

I'm done rooting for that piece of shit. He's proved he couldn't care less about anyone else, whether it be his ex-wife Cynthia, the Yankee fans who pay his salary, or the American public. The saddest part is he is not the first and won't be the last to get away with being a piece of shit because of his celebrity and athletic ability. He is going to get cheered in the new Yankee Stadium this year, but he shouldn't, and I will not be one of the thousands to cheer for him. At some point, a stand must be taken to tell such prima-donnas that it is not OK to do whatever you want. You can't show a consistently blatant disregard for everyone else and still be considered a hero. A-Rod is the furthest thing from a hero, but over time, he will be received as one again, and probably because Yankee fans are so dedicated to their team, even though A-Rod has continually given nothing back to that team or its fans. The lesson learned will be it's OK to cheat as long as you can still win. It's OK to lie as long as you're decent at apologizing. So you won't be in the Hall of Fame? Who cares, right? What would you rather have a plaque in Cooperstown, NY or a half a Billion dollars? A-Rod should've been one of the few people who preferred the plaque.

I'm glad that I had the foresight to apologize ahead of time for rambling. It's basically all I did. I'm just disappointed that I was dumb enough to buy into this idiot, time and time again. And please, make no mistake, I'll never stop rooting for the Yanks.But mark my words, I will never root for Alex Rodriguez ever again, and unless you want history to repeat itself, neither should you.