Alex Rodriguez has bounced back from a year long hiatus to have a quietly productive year. Aside from reaching his 3k hit milestone, he’s also on pace for over 30 home runs and over a 100 RBI.
The Yankees making A-Rod their everyday DH might have been their best move all year; but regardless, the fans have refused to recognize a large portion of his performance due to his involvement with PEDs and subsequent year long suspension.
Now the All-Star votes have been counted and Rodriguez is officially left off the list of selected players.
How would he respond?
“I’m obviously disappointed,” Rodriguez told reporters from the New York Yankees clubhouse before Tuesday’s game against the Oakland Athletics. “It would have been fun to go out and represent the American League, that’s for sure. But I know that while serving the suspension, the time off was very good for me. I hope the four days will be, too.”
Not exactly the fiery, quotable A-Rod we’ve come to expect from over the years, but then again, I believe we’ve seen a different A-Rod all year long. He’s began to embrace his role as a villain, and I would argue that you have Exhibit A. right here in this article.
“But I know that while serving the suspension, the time off…”
So now he’s bringing back up his year long suspension, unprompted? That doesn’t sound like the Rodriguez of old. He probably would have refused to acknowledge that a suspension had even occurred.
A-Rod demonstrates his new-found humbleness once more at the end when he states,
“I wish I could tell you it was (a goal to make the All-Star team),” he said. “My goal early on was to make the team and I had no idea what to expect. I didn’t know how many at-bats I was going to get.”
That sounds like a man who gets it.
Nobody knew what to expect from him coming into this season, but now he’s shown that he can still produce. Rather than acting like a pretentious fool as he’s done in the past, he simply admits that it’s a minor miracle he’s even still on the squad.
It’s tough for many people in America to admit, but you have to give credit where credit is due: A-Rod is making himself hard(er) to hate.
H/T theScore