Following the wet and rainy fanfare of Alex Rodriguez’s final game in pinstripes, the New York Yankees returned to business as usual on a blistering hot Sunday afternoon in The Bronx, continuing a three game set with the Tampa Bay Rays. You would figure with him so close to hitting records, which include four away from 700 home runs, 18 away from typing Babe Ruth on the all-time record and 59 from typing Hank Aaron for second on the all-time home run list, there is still a chance the 42-year old will be out on a field at one point or another.
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It may be hard, but over the past two years, a transformative period in his life, Rodriguez has come to the conclusion that there are more important things than baseball milestones.
Asked if he considered Rodriguez capable of adapting to the NL, he said, “I think so”.
“A-Rod” will now become a club advisor.
Before the game, with the field covered by a tarpaulin for a threatened thunderstorm, the Yankees staged a modest tribute to Rodriguez with a video salute to him on the huge centerfield screen with family and friends joining him near home plate.
With the sellout crowd of 46,459 chanting “We want A-Rod!” Well, that’s if you don’t count the thunder that cracked when his name was announced during a pre-game ceremony.
“The last time I drive up Broadway and through Harlem and through the neighborhoods that have brought so much comfort to me”, he said.
Despite the awkward release/retirement that ended Rodriguez’s tenure with the Yankees-and until otherwise noted, his career-Girardi tearfully said at a press conference after the game that, “If this is the last time he [A-Rod] plays, I wanted it to be something he never forgot”. In addition, Mattingly was the Yankees’ hitting coach during Rodriguez’s early years in NY.
Rodriguez had criticized Girardi for benching him for most of the past month. Yankees manager Joe Girardi sent him to third base for the first time in 15 months at the start of the ninth inning as the organist played “Thanks for Memory”.
“Baseball has a amusing way to tap you on the shoulder when you least expect it and tell you it’s the end”, he said. I don’t think we’ve been able to replace that. The controversial slugger has likely played in his final major league game.
In a 4-for-47 funk, Rodriguez started for just the third time in 19 games, the 2,784th and perhaps final regular-season appearance in a career that started with Seattle in 1994, moved on to Texas in 2001 and then NY three years later.
New York’s move leaves the team responsible for $27,103,825 remaining in his $275 million, 10-year contract. I saw Gary Sanchez have a series in Boston, and I looked at him and said, ‘I can’t do that anymore.’ And I was happy about it.
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“I’m going to savor every moment, every at-bat”, three-time American League MVP and 14-time All-Star Rodriguez told reporters before the game. “And I was happy about it”.
