Always in the Spotlight, for Good and Ill By BEN SHPIGEL Published: December 26, 2009 The dominant story lines in baseball this decade revolved around one player. Wherever he went and whatever he did, Alex Rodriguez found himself, for better or worse, at the center of it all. In the 2000s, Rodriguez signed the heftiest contract in history (twice) and intensified the best and fiercest rivalry. He suffered after the most memorable series (the epic 2004 American League Championship Series) and rejoiced at being the centerpiece of the biggest trade. He switched allegiances in the World Baseball Classic and acknowledged his role in the steroids scandal, baseball’s largest blemish. His two strikeouts notwithstanding, Rodriguez had little impact on the quirkiest episode, the 2002 All-Star Game in Milwaukee that ended in a tie, but he was in the building that night. Everything worked out seven years later as the A.L. won the 2009 edition, putting Rodriguez’s Yankees in position to clinch the World Series championship — and the title of best team of the decade — in the Bronx. In becoming baseball’s version of Forrest Gump, Rodriguez could be mistaken at times for a hyperinvolved high school student seeking a prominent place in every yearbook photograph. Rodriguez towered above his competition this decade — attributed in part, as we later learned, to his use of performance-enhancing drugs. He led all players in home runs (435), runs scored (1,190) and runs batted in (1,243), although his production was sometimes overshadowed by his knack for courting controversy. When the decade dawned, Rodriguez was seen as baseball’s next great ambassador, its perfect pitchman. His good looks and bilingual skills, combined with his immense talent, made sure of that. But his sheen started to fade in December 2000, when he bolted from Seattle to sign what was at the time the most lucrative contract ever for a professional athlete, a $252 million, 10-year deal with Texas (surpassed only by his $275 million agreement with the Yankees). Despite multimillion-dollar riches, star athletes like Cal Ripken Jr., Peyton Manning and Derek Jeter, Rodriguez’s current teammate, have succeeded at maintaining likable and smooth public images in part because of their loyalty and commitment to one organization, one city. An avalanche of resentment greeted Rodriguez’s move to Texas, and he responded by buckling under the pressure, if not on the field, then behind clubhouse doors. Convinced he needed to perform at a high level every game, Rodriguez said, he started taking performance-enhancing drugs. His contract hurt the Rangers, too, limiting their ability to surround him with a strong supporting cast. They finished in last place in each of his three seasons in Texas. A trade was inevitable, and imagine how differently his life, his career — even baseball history — might have unfurled had a proposed deal to the Boston Red Sox before the 2004 season not been nullified. Instead, Rodriguez wound up in pinstripes, on the other side of the rivalry, and the Red Sox won two championships before he could win two playoff series. A miserable postseason record haunted him until last season, when everything changed. Even as taunts — A-Roid! — followed him from stadium to stadium, Rodriguez played as if freed by his admission of steroids use. Coming off serious hip surgery, which allowed for much self-reflection, Rodriguez returned to fit neatly into the Yankees’ pie-throwing dynamic. He homered in his first at-bat last season, and again in the last at-bat, and no one was more of a force in October — and November — than he was. Rodriguez won, after all these years, his first title, and his reaction after the final out was symbolic. He launched himself into the middle of the ecstatic mob, blending in but still, as always, as distinctive as ever. source：http://0rz.tw/uj0mt --

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