Alex Rodriguez will not play in baseball’s All-Star Game at Cincinnati on Tuesday. That leaves some fans happy, some sad and many ambivalent.
“A-Rod” is a deeply divisive figure. He has the statistics and the notoriety commonly associated with the greats of the game, but he also was banned for the 2014 season for his involvement in the Biogenesis performance-enhancing drugs scandal.
Rodriguez turns 40 in two weeks. Given his age and the “rust” of a year off, it was widely assumed he would fade away this season.
Instead, he has been a steady contributor for a Yankees team who lead the American League East.
He has 16 home runs with 45 runs and 47 runs driven in. His on-base average is a strong .387.
His numbers are good enough that he aspired to make his 15th appearance with the American League squad in the All-Star Game, but Nelson Cruz of the Seattle Mariners was the top vote-getter in fans balloting for the designated hitter role, and Ned Yost, manager of the AL team, chose Prince Fielder as the backup DH.
Rodriguez is out, barring an injury to one of the other two.
If not for his drugs ban, baseball likely would have found a way to get Rodriguez to the “Midsummer Classic”, because he is at a point in his career where he reaches a significant milestone every few weeks.
In May, it was his 660th home run, matching the total hit by Willie Mays, who had been No 4 on the all-time list.
In June, Rodriguez became the 29th player, from the 18,564 men who have played Major League Baseball, to reach 3,000 hits.
Unsurprisingly, given Rodriguez’s recent history, the milestones turned into more than statistical thresholds.
The 660th home run was to have brought Rodriguez a US$6 million (Dh22m) bonus, per the 10-season, $275m contract he signed in 2007.
The Yankees, eight years ago, included five such bonuses in his contract based on the assumption of marketing windfalls, but baulked at paying the money in 2015, saying A-Rod’s drugs ban had destroyed their ability to monetise his achievements.
Also, the 660th home run, hit at Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox, the Yankees’ arch-rivals, was caught by a Red Sox fan who refuses to give the ball to Rodriguez, who, in turn, said he would not negotiate with the fan.
Rodriguez’s 3,000th hit, also a home run, brought more complications. That was to have been another $6m threshold.
The ball was caught by Yankees fan Zack Hample, who also declined to give the ball to Rodriguez without compensation.
The Yankees and Rodriguez agreed on one solution for two problems by giving $3.5m to charitable groups, with $150,000 going to a charity of Hample’s choosing and the fan giving the ball to Rodriguez.
The player will not pursue the second $6m bonus, but the status of the earlier bonus is unresolved.
The drama only reinforces the idea that nothing about Rodriguez is simple. “Good” things in his career often carry unpleasant complications, not least the reminders of the drug suspension and squabbles over enormous sums of money.
Rodriguez’s performance on the field this season seems to have brought him grudging respect inside the game, but most fans seem less forgiving.
Given their complicated feelings for him, it probably is better that the All-Star Game is played without him.
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