I was talking about this with some friends the other day; is there a player with a legacy further disconnected from their actual production than Alex Rodriguez?
Nobody likes A-Rod, for a bunch of obvious reasons. He's the punchline to a bunch of jokes, not only from Sox fans but from Yankee fans as well. He was never beloved in New York, which left him without a real home fanbase to stick up for him when everyone else shit on him. And again, rightfully so, A-Rod was/is a jerk that deserves to be mocked.
Yet as we move further away from his career and his peak as a player, his mind-blowing level of talent and production seems like it is going to be forgotten. Alex Rodriguez is one of the 5-10 most talented baseball players ever. He was basically the perfect baseball player by the time he was 20. He signed multiple record-setting deals and lived up to them. From a pure statistical perspective, he has a very strong case as being the best infielder in the history of the game.
I've noticed in recent years there has been a softening an appreciation for Barry Bonds--not forgiving Bonds the person, but an acceptance that while he used steroids, it should still be appreciated just how insanely gifted and productive he was. Will A-Rod get any of that? Or was he just too much of a prick and too easy to mock? I could see in 20 or 30 years, he has become a footnote in history, a guy that you can see in the record book, but not a lot of people will talk about watching him play.
Nobody likes A-Rod, for a bunch of obvious reasons. He's the punchline to a bunch of jokes, not only from Sox fans but from Yankee fans as well. He was never beloved in New York, which left him without a real home fanbase to stick up for him when everyone else shit on him. And again, rightfully so, A-Rod was/is a jerk that deserves to be mocked.
Yet as we move further away from his career and his peak as a player, his mind-blowing level of talent and production seems like it is going to be forgotten. Alex Rodriguez is one of the 5-10 most talented baseball players ever. He was basically the perfect baseball player by the time he was 20. He signed multiple record-setting deals and lived up to them. From a pure statistical perspective, he has a very strong case as being the best infielder in the history of the game.
I've noticed in recent years there has been a softening an appreciation for Barry Bonds--not forgiving Bonds the person, but an acceptance that while he used steroids, it should still be appreciated just how insanely gifted and productive he was. Will A-Rod get any of that? Or was he just too much of a prick and too easy to mock? I could see in 20 or 30 years, he has become a footnote in history, a guy that you can see in the record book, but not a lot of people will talk about watching him play.