As summer of redemption turns to fall, Alex Rodriguez, Yankees in it together
— -- NEW YORK -- Let it be recorded that the redemption of Alex Rodriguez was completed on the morning of Sept. 29, 2015, just outside the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Montclair, New Jersey, where the funeral mass for Yogi Berra had just been completed.
Rodriguez, one of a handful of current Yankees present at the service, found himself side by side with Randy Levine, the New York Yankees team president with whom he had been embroiled in a bitter and public feud.
"We happened to be walking out of the church at the same time, and I just turned to him, stuck out my hand and said, 'Hi, Alex. How you doing?'" Levine said. "We were right there together and it just seemed like the right thing to do."
Ironically enough, about 12 hours later Alex Rodriguez would hear his first real boos from a Yankee Stadium crowd since Opening Day, when he struck out leading off the eighth inning of what would be a 10-4 loss to the Boston Red Sox, delaying the clinching of the club's first playoff spot in three years for another day.
But those boos were of a different character than the Opening Day boos, when he was being booed simply for the crime of being Alex Rodriguez. These boos were the type reserved for any member of the Yankees who had the nerve to let the fans down. That, too, was a victory for Rodriguez, because perhaps for the first time in his 11 years in pinstripes, he was being treated like just another player.
He had yet to reach that level with the Yankees' front office, however, which still seemed to hold him accountable for overtaxing their payroll, hamstringing their roster, blocking their prospects and (worst of all) embarrassing them in public.
Until last Tuesday, that is.
That handshake and greeting were by most accounts the first time the two had engaged in a civil discourse since before the winter of 2013, when Rodriguez was appealing MLB's 162-game suspension of him for PED use connected with baseball's Biogenesis investigation, and Levine was rebutting the assertions made by A-Rod's lawyers that the Yankees were complicit in trying to run their $275 million man out of baseball.
It got so bad that a group of A-Rod supporters took to picketing the grievance hearing every day bearing signs reading, "Randy Levine is the Devil." Levine, of course, countered by saying the Yankees were no longer obligated to pay Rodriguez a $6 million bonus for hitting his 660th home run. The two had not spoken since, and a settlement of the deal was brokered by Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner, with Levine nowhere in sight.
But now, here were the two exchanging a very public handshake, the last step in a redemption process that began back in April when the Yankee Stadium crowd, which booed A-Rod's introduction on Opening Day almost out of obligation, started to realize that maybe this disgraced 40-year-old slugger, who hadn't swung at a big league pitch in nearly two years and was no longer capable of playing the field, just might be able to help their team after all.
Now, six months, 33 home runs and 86 RBIs later, Alex Rodriguez is a Yankee in good standing once again and probably the team's regular season MVP. Suddenly, things that had seemed laughable at the beginning of the season -- future Old-Timers' Day appearances, one of those cushy "guest instructor" spring training gigs, possibly a plaque in Monument Park someday and maybe even a seat in the YES Network booth as an analyst? -- are all back in play.
There is even talk of him winning the Comeback Player of the Year Award for 2015, although no player has ever won it by "coming back" from a yearlong disciplinary action.
By any standard, he had a terrific season, and if you had asked anyone in spring training which was more likely to happen, that a 40-year-old A-Rod would be able to hit 30 home runs or stay out of trouble for an entire season, it would have been tough for any rational mind to come up with an answer.
Incredibly, he has somehow managed to do both, while also winning back the fans, his teammates, his manager, and now, his greatest antagonist in the Yankees' front office.
"The year has meant a lot to me," Rodriguez told ESPN.com in the Yankees dugout before a game last week against the Red Sox. "I don't think anyone in our universe knew what to expect from me, and rightfully so. And honestly, I didn't know what to expect, with so much time off and so much going on. It's been an incredible year, a year where I've had a lot of fun."
And yet, the specter of the postseason looms once again, a season in which the fans have always seemed to replace the No. 13 on Rodriguez's back with a great big bull's-eye.
The last time the Yankees were in the postseason, in 2012, a year in which the entire team batted a collective .211 in the American League Division Series against the Baltimore Orioles and .157 in the AL Championship Series against the Detroit Tigers, Rodriguez once again became the scapegoat, being dropped in the lineup, pinch hit for and ultimately benched by Joe Girardi, his miserable 3-for-25 postseason a symbol to many of everything that was wrong with the team.
Rodriguez will not discuss those dark days -- "This is not an individual sport, we always win and lose as a team," he said -- but hints that this time around, things will be different, at least from his viewpoint.
"I'm at the point in my life where I don't really care what people say about me anymore," he said. "I surprised myself this year and now I'm going to enjoy the playoffs. The fun part about this time of year is, what you've done in the regular season really doesn't matter. You're going to be judged by your next at-bat, and that's all I want to be judged by."
Rodriguez realizes that had the Yankees known he would hit 33 home runs this season, they would have signed up for it in the time it takes a Dellin Betances fastball to cross home plate. He knows they would have been delighted with 23 home runs, or maybe even half that.
And he seems to believe that whatever happens the rest of the way will have no bearing on how his 2015 season is perceived, or remembered. "Playing with house money," is how he puts it.
In fact, he is likely to find that this year, there will be any number of scapegoats to take his place if the Yankees make an early exit.
Jacoby Ellsbury, whose seven-year, $153 million contract has great potential to replace A-Rod's deal as the one Yankees fans love to hate, is already beginning to cultivate his share of Stadium boobirds. Brett Gardner, who made the 2015 All-Star team, hit .210 in the second half. Carlos Beltran has hit well but his lackadaisical outfield play draws scorn from the fans. Chase Headley led the club in hits (150), but also in errors (23), and the Stadium holds its collective breath whenever the ball is hit to him.
By comparison, Rodriguez has been a productive player all season, and unlike some who are as much as 10 and 15 years his junior, has remained healthy all season, no doubt helped tremendously by his shift to full-time DH. This season, Rodriguez played the most games he has since 2007 (151).
And while there has been a second-half drop-off -- he batted .278 with 18 home runs, 51 RBIs and an .897 OPS in the first half and just .218 with 15 home runs, 35 RBIs and a .776 OPS in the second half -- Rodriguez remains the most dangerous bat in the Yankees' lineup now that Mark Teixeira is out with a fractured leg.
Rodriguez attributes his late-season decline to "getting my pitch and not hitting it," the result, he said, of timing issues and perhaps not picking up the ball as well as he had earlier in the season.
Girardi said he thought some of A-Rod's struggles could be linked to his age. "There's some concern there about fatigue, of course," he said while the Yankees were still scuffling for the last win they needed to clinch their postseason berth. "But I can't afford to give him a day off. We need him now."
Those words would have sounded ludicrous six months ago, when GM Brian Cashman was saying Rodriguez would have to earn a spot on the roster, and the team president wasn't saying anything about A-Rod at all, at least not for publication.
But a lot has changed between the start of spring training and the start of the playoffs, as it always does, and nothing has changed more than Alex Rodriguez's standing among the Yankees and their fans.
"My only real goal this year was I was hoping to play as much as possible," he said. "Remember in spring training I was just looking to make the team. Then after that I was just looking to contribute. Now, my goal is to help us battle for a world championship."
Whether A-Rod has brought the Yankees to the postseason or vice versa is now a moot point. The only thing that is important is that they are here together. And for the first time in a long time, both sides seem happy about it.
