What should be a "proud" day, as Alex Rodriguez said, isn't.
What should be a celebratory time...well, the balloons are flat.
Few men leave this game dragging a legacy as complicated as A-Rod, and one enormous foundational piece of his legacy is this: He took far more from the game of baseball than he ever gave.
The man drilled 696 career home runs, but his mountain of baggage ascends even higher.
Who invokes his opt-out clause in the middle of a World Series game, diverting the spotlight from baseball's showcase event straight to himself, as he did in 2007?
Who admits using performance-enhancing drugs (2001-03), then apologizes (while blaming a cousin, by the way) during a spring training press conference dutifully attended by all of his teammates, promises he will stay clean...and merrily dives off the high board straight into the Biogenesis pool?
Who sues baseball, sues the Players Association and, while he's at it, attacks the late head of the Players Association, Michael Weiner?
Yes, yes, bygones. Water under the bridge. Blah, blah, blah.
Except the pattern of A-Rod's narcissism stretched far too long to overlook at the end, and it wasn't simply one or two missteps.
Forgive? Sure. Forget? Not possible.
Sure he loves the game.
But A-Rod always loved A-Rod more.
And so, Sunday was about what you expected. Broken down at the plate, breaking down at the podium, he nevertheless figured out a way to do what he does: He spun the story his way, saying he was happy with the agreement he reached with the Yankees.
This might have been the grandest press conference ever for a guy who was essentially released. New York has not wanted him around for a long time now. Manager Joe Girardi stopped playing him. He had become the "pink elephant" in the room, a malaprop he once uttered at one of his more infamous press conferences.
Managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner approached Rodriguez on Wednesday to begin what essentially was an exit interview. Headed in a fresh, new, younger direction after the trades of Carlos Beltran, Aroldis Chapman and Andrew Miller and the retirement of Mark Teixeira, the Yankees decided their next step had to be pushing A-Rod off their roster. So they began working with him to hatch a plan that would lead to a graceful ending for both sides.
Maybe the most shocking thing given all of the vitriol of the past is that, after last year's reunion, A-Rod and the club were able to negotiate that graceful ending.
He gets all of his money, of course, as he should. Nobody twisted New York's arms into signing that 10-year, $275 million deal back in 2007. So next year, at a cool $21 million, A-Rod will set a salary record for an organization's special instructor/adviser.
"I'm at peace with the organization's decision," A-Rod said, providing a clear window into both whose decision the endgame was and how peaceful $21 million more and some $400 million over a career can be.
In the end, he was cornered by time and circumstances. His production began to deteriorate rapidly last August, and it never picked up (he's 3-for-30 since the All-Star break and hitting .151 versus relievers). During these past few weeks, his playing time diminished so much that there were times, according to a person close to the club, when A-Rod didn't even bother to put his cleats on for games.
The plan is for him to simply disappear and go home following Friday's game against Tampa Bay, a final Yankee Stadium sendoff, then to return in the spring as an instructor.
"The last four weeks have been very painful and embarrassing and awkward," Rodriguez said Sunday. "I'm very happy we found a solution."
Of course, A-Rod being A-Rod, rarely is the path linear. He will have some television opportunities—the guess here is on national broadcasts with Fox. And he also becomes an unrestricted free agent with his unconditional release Friday, which means he still could choose to pursue his 700th career homer—and perhaps 714 and beyond—somewhere. At home in Miami with the Marlins?
That, though, would preclude him from wrapping himself in Yankees pinstripes for eternity, which is another part of the deal he reached with Steinbrenner that is highly advantageous to him. No matter what happens during his role as an instructor/adviser next year, if A-Rod doesn't work for another organization, he's a Yankee.
Given his love for the game, though, it's difficult to not see him involved somehow well beyond next year. Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said Sunday he could see A-Rod as an owner one day, and in that, Cashman wasn't alone.
"The one thing I'm most proud of is that I've been able to mend some relationships at every level," Rodriguez said. "Starting with the fans, the commissioner's office. The fact that I'm able to stay a Yankee is something I'll be able to share with my [daughters] forever."
And: "I do want to be remembered as someone who was madly in love with the game of baseball, as someone who loved it at every level.
"As someone who tripped and fell a lot but kept getting up."
So, adios to A-Rod, the Yankee Tripper.
Both sides got what they wanted: A-Rod got the grand stage, and the Yankees, after some false starts with him, used him to help win their 27th World Series title.
"I'm wearing the '09 ring," Cashman said Sunday. "That doesn't come along without Alex's contributions."
As for the rest, yes, the Yankees will still be docked the luxury tax on A-Rod's contract in 2017. And including what he's owed this year, A-Rod will walk away with roughly $28 million more.
"He gets everything he deserved," Cashman said.
The GM was talking about the contract. But the statement speaks volumes, and covers so much more territory.
Scott Miller covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.
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