A-Rod deserved better

A farewell to the best baseball player of his generation

Alex Rodriguez has spent 13 years with the Yankees.
(Image credit: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

Alex Rodriguez will have his last at-bat for the Yankees, and likely as a Major League ballplayer, on Friday. He is not going out limping like many greats, or going out after a long series of commemorations and celebrations like his former teammates Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter. The end of his Yankee career can be described with the same word that always seems to be applied to the way A-Rod presented himself: forced.

It is like a divorce being reported in the society pages. Alex Rodriguez was the trophy wife who once made the Yankees too excited, too loose with their wallet, and too emotional to cope with everyday life. And now, the Yankees are looking for emotional closure, and achieving it by sending A-Rod away with the balance of their pre-nuptial agreement.

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Michael Brendan Dougherty

Michael Brendan Dougherty is senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is the founder and editor of The Slurve, a newsletter about baseball. His work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, ESPN Magazine, Slate and The American Conservative.