It’ll take years — maybe decades — to understand Rodriguez’s role in the story of baseball, because of the unavoidable fact that he admitted to using steroids from 2001 to 2003 and missed all of the 2014 season due to a suspension stemming from the Biogenesis PED scandal, but ultimately he’ll be viewed as one of the greatest players who ever lived. As context fades, politics dissipate and only the numbers remain, and we’ll have no choice but to admit that is the case.
Before players like Bryce Harper were referred to as the “LeBron James of baseball,” James was the Alex Rodriguez of basketball. The no-brainer first overall pick out of Miami’s Westminster High in 1993, Rodriguez debuted as the shortstop for the Mariners at the age of 18. There was no need for a learning curve — he immediately made grown men look like they were playing an antiquated game. He finished second in AL MVP voting as a 20-year-old and set an early pace that no one — including Rodriguez himself — could match.
Rodriguez spent two decades chasing the expectations he set in those early years in Seattle, and for a while, he looked capable of achieving even the loftiest of goals. One thousand homers? Such an outlandish number should be considered comical, but for a stretch, it was discussed seriously when Rodriguez’s name was brought up in conversation.
Those expectations — and the belief that no bar was too high for the young prodigy — brought about one of baseball’s true turning points: Rodriguez’s 10-year, $252 million deal with the Texas Rangers. It was the largest contract ever signed in professional sports, doubling the previous high water mark — Kevin Garnett’s six-year, $126 million deal.
The quarter-billion dollar deal was worth more than the team he played for and the stadium he played his home games in — combined. That’s literal — Tom Hicks bought the Rangers and the Ballpark in Arlington for $250 million less than three years before Rodriguez signed.
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