A-Rod On The Move SI Writers • Verducci: The 'ultimate team move' • Head2Head: Good for baseball? | Reactions • CNNMoney: The rich are getting poorer • Tale of the Tape: Red Sox-Yankees • Taylor: Another hired gun for Steinbrenner • Donovan: A-Rod's shameful about-face • Analysis | Photo Gallery | Fantasy File Latest news • Rodriguez-Jeter friendship remains strained • Yankees introduce latest prize catch • A look at A-Rod's current contract

Things change. I understand that. Everyone understands that. Minds change, attitudes change. Times change. What's true in November and December and January is not necessarily so in February. Happens all the time.

But this Alex Rodriguez thing ... I mean, I'm not sure that anyone in baseball was really ready to believe that Rodriguez actually would be playing in Texas this season, no matter what came out of his mouth the past few weeks. Not until he showed up in Texas with a Rangers uniform on, anyway. There just weren't many people who bought the idea that A-Rod, suddenly, had come to some sort of peace with the idea of playing for the sad-sack Rangers. Or that the Rangers suddenly believed that they could win while still forking over about a third of their payroll to Rodriguez.

So, three weeks after Rodriguez and Rangers manager Buck Showalter supposedly mended their beat-up fences, three weeks after the skipper named the American League MVP the Rangers' first captain in 20 years, three weeks after A-Rod muttered these now-asinine words -- "I definitely think I'm going to be here for a long time" -- and three weeks after Texas owner Tom Hicks said this -- "Alex will not only be our starting shortstop on Opening Day, but our captain" -- A-Rod is gone.

Not quite two months after the A-Rod-to-Boston deal publicly and painfully fell through, Rodriguez has turned in his captain bars, waived his no-trade clause, waved goodbye to Showalter, thanked Mr. Hicks, jumped ship and started packing for the New York Yankees' spring training camp in Tampa, Fla.

Strange? Absolutely. Shameful? Yeah, you could call it that, too. But shocking? No. Not really. This is nothing new for Rodriguez, the Rangers or baseball, for that matter. It's the rich getting richer. The little guys falling further behind. And the Boston Red Sox finishing second. Again.

Rodriguez signed a 10-year, $252 million contract with the Rangers before the 2001 season and instantly declared his devotion to the team. It didn't take him long, though, to realize that the Rangers couldn't win with him making that kind of money. So he let it be known that, if trading him turned out to be the best thing for the Rangers, he'd be amenable to a trade. You know. If it were good for the Rangers.

Well, the Rangers long ago came to the realization that A-Rod's contract was a stone dragging them straight to the bottom of the AL West standings. So they talked to the Red Sox and almost had a deal before the players union nixed it and, with it, seemingly any chance the Rangers had of freeing themselves of A-Rod and his monstrous contract.

Since then, the Rangers and A-Rod said all the right things. A five-hour meeting in New York on Jan. 25 reportedly cleared some rotten air. The move to make A-Rod captain installed him as the clear team leader. A-Rod supposedly settled in for the long term.

But when Aaron Boone, the Yankees' third baseman, blew out his knee playing basketball, the Yankees (the only team, other than Boston, that could even dream of taking on Rodriguez's contract) and Rangers started talking. A-Rod, the AL Gold Glove at shortstop, said "Sure, I can play third." The Rangers said "Absolutely, we'll help pay some of A-Rod's contract if you want him."

Vlade Divac looks semi-comatose next to these floppers.

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The truth is, A-Rod would never have been happy in Texas because, with A-Rod in Texas, the Rangers would never be winners. Not in that division. And the Rangers, as much as they'd love to have the league's best player on the team, would be nothing near the best with him in Arlington. That was true when he signed the contract. And it's true now, despite what A-Rod and the Rangers said these past few weeks.

When you add a couple of peripheral issues into the equation -- mainly, the icy relationship between A-Rod and Showalter and the icy relationship between A-Rod and some of his teammates -- A-Rod and the Rangers were in for a long, terrible ride.

The nice talk between the two sides in these past weeks was just that. When the opportunity came, these two took their shaky marriage and bolted for the first place that could give them a quickie divorce. When Boston couldn't, George Steinbrenner stepped in and did the honors. It was probably A-Rod's last chance to leave.

So the richest player in baseball goes to the Yankees. The Red Sox take it in the shorts. Rodriguez looks out for No. 1.

Sure, things change all the time. This, sadly, isn't one of those times.

John Donovan is a senior writer for SI.com.