DailyNews- “This is a tough day. I love this game and I love this team. And today I’m saying goodbye to both,” Rodriguez said, pausing several times while fighting back tears. “The answer is, sure, of course, I think I can play baseball. You always think that you have one more hit and can help your team win one more game, for sure.
“That wasn’t in the cards. That was the Yankees’ decision. I’m at peace with it." Rodriguez, who is four home runs shy of 700 for his PED-tainted career, said Steinbrenner first approached him with the idea of becoming an organizational member on Wednesday. After veterans Aroldis Chapman, Andrew Miller, Carlos Beltran and Ivan Nova were dealt away before last Monday’s trade deadline, a source told the Daily News last week that A-Rod’s release “could happen” before the end of the regular season as part of the organization’s rebuilding purge. GM Brian Cashman confirmed that A-Rod will be paid the remainder of his $20 million salary for this season (around $6 million) and $21 million for 2017 ($20 million in salary and a $1 million signing bonus). Those numbers will count against the team’s salary cap for luxury-tax purposes next season, Cashman added. I am not mad, I am just...disappointed. Not about to sit here and curse the name of a guy whose name has been cursed hundreds of millions of times before, but I will disapprovingly shake my head at his choice to leave the game of baseball in a respectable fashion. The one thing I had finally grown to love about A-Rod and he throws in the clubhouse garbage can on his way out the door. I thought I could count on the man that has a painting of himself as a half human, half horse to always display an unapologetic amount of self-indulgence. I thought I could trust the guy that did a photoshoot in which he kissed his own likeness to always look in the mirror and worry about nothing more than his own personal vanity. I guess we should always expect the unexpected from athletes, because Alex Rodriguez generously doing the Yankees a favor by calling it quits just 4 homers shy of 700 is so out of character that it makes me sick. I was never a fan - by any means - but at least I could appreciate how shamelessly he was himself. This decision to abruptly retire mid-season with very little notice or fanfare is not reminiscent of the A-Rod I used to love to hate, and without that conviction in his his conceit he officially has ZERO redeemable qualities as far as I am concerned. Sidenote: Has any all time great player ever been as passionately disrespected as Alex Rodriguez? I feel like the entire sports viewing world has completely put aside that he's been building a resume that will come up just a shade short of 700 home runs while they were busy turning his entire existence into a running joke for the last decade. I know that the best players always receive the most criticism, but their games usually garner the most appreciation too. I can't say that for someone that's been largely mocked while playing for the most prestigious franchise in all of sports. I don't care if he was juicing more than the most insufferable of Crossfit fanatics, Alex Rodriguez is unquestionably one of the most talented athletes to ever grace a baseball diamond. Yet everyone (myself included) has basically treated him like he's been wearing a clown nose throughout the later stages of his career. Oh well, I guess you could make the argument that he brought it upon himself...
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