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Texas star Rodriguez says lure of winning took him to Rangers
Updated: Tuesday December 12, 2000 3:49 PM
Alex Rodriguez's monumental free-agency decision came down to this stunner: he signed with a franchise that never has won a postseason series in its 40-year existence -- the Texas Rangers, a franchise that began, in 1961, as the Washington Senators. "They used to say the same thing about the Seattle Mariners when I got there [in 1995]," Rodriguez told me in an exclusive interview Monday. "Look what happened. We got in [to the playoffs] three times and won [the Division Series] twice. I believe the same thing will happen in Texas, and hopefully more. It's a great team and a great organization. I was so impressed with Tom Hicks. He's committed to winning and so am I." Hicks, the Rangers' owner, outbid every team with the record $252 million, 10-year pact -- a deal he said still allows the Rangers to be profitable next year, in great part because of new over-the-air and cable TV contracts the club signed last year. The Seattle Mariners never came close to such numbers. The Mariners offered Rodriguez $92 million over five years, according to Major League Baseball sources. The Mariners released a statement saying they offered to make Rodriguez the highest-paid player in baseball. That average annual value of Seattle's offer ($18.5 million). however, would have been exceeded almost immediately by Manny Ramirez's deal with the Red Sox (eight years, $160 million) and likely by the contract under discussion between Derek Jeter and the Yankees. When agent Scott Boras informed Mariners officials that Rodriguez chose Texas, a high-ranking Seattle executive responded, "Would a couple more years matter?" It was too late. "I'm really happy with the decision," said Rodriguez. "The Texas people were very impressive throughout and clearly emerged as the best choice. It's a great place to live, it's a great park to hit in and it's a warm-weather city. "It's been an incredible learning process. I found out free agency is so hard to predict. People speculate, but there's no way of really knowing what will happen until you go through it. People might not have expected me to go to Texas, but people didn't expect Mike Hampton to go to Colorado, Kevin Appier to go to the Mets and some other moves. You just don't know until you go through it." Under baseball's new unbalanced schedule, the Rangers will make three trips to Seattle. Rodriguez said he is looking forward to returning to Safeco Field. "It's real tough to leave Seattle because I enjoyed my time there," he said. "I'll especially miss the guys on the team, like Edgar [Martinez], Jay [Buhner] and Lou [Piniella] and all the rest. I'll take with me great memories of the city of Seattle, the people and the team. I'm looking forward to going back there to play during the season and the All-Star game. It should be real interesting. Hopefully they won't boo me too badly."
Sports Illustrated senior writer Tom Verducci covers the baseball beat for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com.
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