How Alex Rodriguez will be remembered

Once upon time, Alex Rodriguez was the pride of baseball. In the face of blatant PED abusers like Barry Bonds or Mark McGwire, he was the last true hope. His five-tool superiority was predicated on God-given talent and hard work. Many were hopeful he’d one day to take back the all-time home run record for The Good Guys.

Instead, in his twilight years as a Major League ballplayer, the Yankees third baseman is a pariah among peers and fans. He is the ire of those who love the game of baseball, and it is to their pleasure that he has dwindled to potentially being a role player for the Yanks as he enters the 21st year of his career.

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His own team, which gleefully cooperated with Major League Baseball in last year’s season-long suspension of A-Rod for his involvement in the Biogenesis doping scandal, also wish to tear down the once-iconic Yankee in hopes of keeping him off the field again or running him out of the game altogether. The Yankees’ latest move is to apparently contest marketing bonuses built into Rodriguez’s contract should he eclipse certain milestones, such as the impending 660 home run mark, citing that his past use of performance-enhancing drugs renders all future achievements “worthless” and “invalid,” according to the New York Daily News.

The Yankees are likely correct in their assessment, and thus, their case may hold a lot of weight. It’s hard to imagine anyone other than Alex Rodriguez will celebrate hitting his 660th home run, a moment that should have been met with great honor and fanfare.

Since inking his 10-year, $272 million deal in the winter of 2007, the 39-year-old’s star has fallen dramatically. His PED use has twice shone a negative light on himself and the Yankees organization with his image unquestionably tarnished en route to becoming the most hated player in baseball—potentially ever.

His play, meanwhile, has tailed off dramatically since winning the 2007 AL MVP. He has hit just 136 home runs and driven in 466 runs while missing 383 games over the last four seasons due to a variety of injuries and his suspension throughout 2014.

Rodriguez’s final years are hardly what most would have predicted when he was first acquired by the Yankees from Texas 11 years ago. He was beloved by many and seen as superior to the man he would become teammates with, Derek Jeter. To A-Rod, the Yankee pinstripes offered the opportunity to prove he truly was better in every imaginable spectrum.

Instead, Rodriguez made himself the villain from the moment he first donned those pinstripes. To the people of New York, he could never be better than Jeter, and it seems that reality turned A-Rod into the monster he is today: an insecure, self-absorbed jerk whose mere presence has become a mockery of the game.

Rodriguez’s insistence on playing again in 2015, despite obvious frays in his relationship with the Yanks and his Major League potential in question, is a testament to his own narcissistic ways. His return is most certainly not about the Yankees or competing for a championship, but rather A-Rod knocking a few more balls out of the park while he still can and getting vastly overpaid to do it.

He has long been hungry to unseat Bonds atop the all-time home run list, a sinful desire more threatening to his career than Jeter or World Series rings ever were. Rodriguez, like Bonds, allowed his ego to conquer him a long time ago, and a fiery pit in baseball hell awaits A-Rod alongside him as a result.

No matter what he is able to contribute this year, it will unlikely amount to anything of value, and it will never compensate for the black eye his past transgressions have caused the sport. His spot on the Yankees’ 25-man roster would only be taking away from another younger, more deserving player.

Once a surefire Hall of Famer, Alex Rodriguez will be lucky to survive the first ballot. He has become the enemy of the game, and it’s a wonder if there will come a day when he is less welcome in a ballpark than the ostracized Pete Rose. That is, assuming that day has not come already.