Alex Rodriguez is sorry.
The New York Yankees slugger met with team officials on Tuesday and offered a full apology for his part in the Biogenesis performance enhancing drugs scandal and his attacks on the franchise.
Just weeks after secretly meeting new Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred in a bid to “get on the same page”, A-Rod’s goodwill tour took him to Yankee Stadium where the 39-year-old met owner Hal Steinbrenner, team president Randy Levine, general manager Brian Cashman and assistant general manager Jean Afterman along with his counsel Jim Sharp. After their little chat, the Yankees released the following statement: “Alex initiated the meeting and apologized for his actions over the past several years. It was an honest and frank discussion on all of the issues. As far as the Yankees are concerned, the next step is to play baseball in spring training”
And so there you have it – after two long years, Rodriguez says “my bad” to his bosses and moves on to his next hurdle - the A-Rod show of remorse press conference (one we’ve seen before actually) that we’re waiting for down in Tampa in roughly two weeks time. If he nails it, and gives the public what they really want to hear, will the baseball community forgive A-Rod and allow him to neatly push aside his checkered past?
Unlikely, and for good reason(s), a few of which are listed below.
We’re talking about the player who declared an all-out war on Major League Baseball, his team and even his own players’ union while fighting off a year-long, PED suspension he would eventually serve.
A player who admitted to federal investigators that he made monthly payments of $12,000 for PED’s, only a few weeks after dropping his suspension battle against MLB.
A player who sued the New York Yankees team doctor, Chris Ahmad and New York Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center, for allegedly misdiagnosing his 2012 hip injury.
A player who was once old to “shut the fuck up” by his general manager, Brian Cashman, after signaling via twitter, not via the team, that he was ready to rejoin the team after rehabilitation.
A player whose timeline of transgressions spans way beyond his involvement with the Biogenesis PED scandal.
No, none of this will ever go away.
However, there can still be (some sort of) peace in our time between Alex Rodriguez and the New York Yankees franchise, and Tuesday’s statement proved that both parties are on board with such a sentiment. Why? Because there’s much more at stake than the $61m A-Rod is owed for the next three seasons.
The New York Yankees are an organization whose fan base is increasingly less fanatical about the team on the field. The retirement of icon Derek Jeter resulted in a spike in attendance and television ratings, but with the “core-four” of the former captain, Jorge Posada, Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera grazing on golf courses, New York are desperate for another showpiece to bolster their bottom line while trying to bring back electricity and playoff baseball to the Bronx.
We have no idea what Alex Rodriguez, who has had both of his hips surgically repaired, can contribute on the field in 2015, so much so that New York re-signed Chase Headley to occupy his third base position. We do know that despite the scandal and uncertainty that is A-Rod, he remains the single most interesting personality in Major League Baseball.
And it isn’t even close.
Masahiro Tanaka, Jacoby Ellsbury, Carlos Beltran, Mark Teixeira, Brett Gardner, Brian McCann, CC Sabathia, Dellin Betances - good players, most of which will almost definitely be more productive on the field. Publicity machines they are not. So yes, the intrigue surrounding an A-Rod comeback is exactly what the franchise needs to stay relevant.
That’s right - the Yankees need A-Rod, who, believe it or not, right now, is the face of the Bronx Bombers. If they didn’t need him they would have already swallowed the $61m by releasing him.
They need A-Rod to swipe away the cobwebs and surpass Willie Mays for fourth on the all-time home run list with his 661st blast (even if the Yankees are reportedly refusing to pay him additional “milestone bonus payments” for moving up the ranks). They need him to compete for a job at third base. They need him to get caught with strippers, be admonished for playing in illegal poker games, say awkward things at bizarre times and to regularly land on the front and back pages of New York’s tabloids. They need him to bring interest to a team in transition, one with question marks across the pitching rotation.
The feeling is, of course, mutual - A-Rod badly needs the Yankees. One undisputed fact about Rodriguez - the man loves the game, deeply, that despite dragging the sport though the baseball mud. He doesn’t want to play out the career in obscurity and he doesn’t want to wind up like his recent training partner, Barry Bonds, who hit 28 home runs as a 42-year-old and then couldn’t get a job. A-Rod always wants to be in the middle of it, and that can only happen in New York.
If A-Rod fails, both the slugger and his franchise will pay the price - Rodriguez loses his limelight, New York lose $61m and a whole lot of attention. There’s also the possibility of A-Rod being unable to hold up physically, meaning the team could find relief by recouping some of that cash via insurance.
Yes, the Yankees brass mostly detest Rodriguez, but there are millions of reasons he’s still in pinstripes - they’re ideal partners, and now, somewhat improbably, they’re back in business, together.
