Paying the price

Disingenuous A-Rod is feeling the effect of Two-Fifty-Two

It's not easy being A-Rod. You would think that when a guy signs a 10-year, $252 million contract, everything would suddenly become peaches and cream -- or should we say, fifties and hundreds? Sure, Alex Rodriguez is so rich he could have hot and cold-running Dom Perignon pouring from his faucets, in mansions big enough to make the Taj Mahal look like a pool house. Granted, Rodriguez has more cash than he can ever spend, so much dough that his children's children will probably carry gold-plated lunch boxes to school. (Flash forward 40 years to little A-Rod III unwrapping his sandwich: "Man, caviar again?)

But Rodriguez, the Texas Rangers' shortstop, has problems, folks, and we're not just talking about the dilemma of whether to drive the Porsche or the Maserati to the ballpark. Seems Texas, the team that's shelling out the Two-Fifty-Two, the club that has made him the highest-paid athlete in all of team sports, happens to be lousy. Despite his individual brilliance, during Rodriguez's three years in the Lone Star State the Rangers have spent more time in the cellar than your weird uncle. Poor A-Rod (well, maybe not "poor" A-Rod, but you know what we mean) finds it just so emotionally taxing to labor for a loser.

But A-Rod, always a giver, just wants what's best for team owner Tom Hicks and the Rangers, and if that means trading the 28-year-old superstar to a better club -- there aren't many worse ones -- he says he'd be a trouper and allow some other team to pay him the rest of the Two-Fifty-Two. "If the Rangers felt they could be better off without me, whether now or a year or two down the road, I'd be willing to sit down and talk," Rodriguez told reporters last week. It's not that A-Rod wants to get out of Texas and go to a team that can actually think about getting to the World Series without giggling, you understand, he's merely thinking of the Rangers and their needs.

Thank goodness Rodriguez isn't just another athlete who regrets that his approach to free agency consisted of just two words -- highest bidder -- and is trying to bail out on his team. If he weren't so selfless, we might point out that he turned his back on his original club, the Seattle Mariners, who all but begged him to stay, and he bypassed other suitors like the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves. All of those teams had more successful pasts and promising futures than the Rangers and would have paid A-Rod in excess of $100 million, which, let's face it, is as rich as anyone needs to be, but none of those clubs would have gone anywhere near the Two-Fifty-Two. If it were anyone but A-Rod -- sweet, smooth-talking A-Rod -- we might suggest that last place is exactly what he deserves for chasing every last dollar.

A cynic would suggest that A-Rod is so manipulative, so deceptive that he should run for office. If someone as polished and media-savvy as he is openly discusses the possibility of leaving, you can bet he has already instructed the valet to pack his bags. By merely hinting that he's dissatisfied in Texas, he makes other teams start contemplating the possibility of acquiring him, and faster than he can say "Get me out of here," the trade market is buzzing.

But that's the cynic speaking. We know better. We understand that A-Rod isn't thinking of himself here, just as he wasn't thinking only about the Two-Fifty-Two when he left the Mariners high and dry in 2000. We feel A-Rod's pain. He just wants to win, that's all. In fact, we're sure he would give some of his Two-Fifty-Two back if the Rangers needed it to sign other players to help the team improve ... although, it's funny, Rodriguez didn't put that scenario up for discussion when he was talking about being traded.

Aren't the Rangers lucky? They dug deep into their vault to purchase A-Rod, and now they know exactly what they got.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Phil Taylor writes about a Hot Button topic every Monday on SI.com.

 

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