AP Photo
Well so much for Alex Rodriguez’s lawsuit against baseball and the Player’s Association.
I think my friend Alec Sulkin put it best in his Twitter feed.
A-Rod has dropped his lawsuit against Major League Baseball, like any totally innocent guy would do.
— Alec Sulkin (@thesulk) February 7, 2014
He’s right. A-Rod’s fight was all bluff and bluster. But many writers, including the Daily News’ Bill Madden, believe this will be the end of Rodriguez’s playing days.
Well, his contract might be bought out and he will sit out the 2014 season.
But why does that mean his career is over? Because he is a pariah whom everyone hates and symbolizes the worst in sport?
Since when has THAT stopped anyone from getting a job?
Mark the date and time. Your pal Sully is predicting that Alex Rodriguez will play in the major leagues again.
Don’t believe me? Think he will be shunned?
AP – ESPN
Who was more shunned than Curt Flood? He challenged the foundation of how players earn money and signed contracts and took his case all the way to The Supreme Court. He was public enemy number one in the eyes of ownership and the players dared not have his back for fear of reprisal. He would not report to the Phillies in 1970 but came back and played 13 games with the 1971 Washington Senators.
How about Jim Bouton for a pariah? His book Ball Four scandalized all of baseball. The commissioner tried to get Bouton to renounce his own book and players hated him for breaking the code of silence in the ballpark. Several years after his book was published, Bouton pitched briefly for the 1978 Atlanta Braves.
Sure Alex Rodriguez was a steroid user! So were Jhonny Peralta and Bartolo Colon, who were so outcast by the game that they signed multi million dollar deals AFTER their suspension. (Nelson Cruz won’t wait long to join them.) And Manny Ramirez was given a shot by the Rangers organization just last year.
Of course A-Rod is a jerk. Is he a bigger jerk than wife beaters like Wil Cordero and Brett Myers? Or chronic racist John Rocker. They all got chances until they could no longer play.
In other sports, Latrell Spreewell choked his coach. Ray Lewis sped away from a murder. Lord knows what Pac Man Jones did.
Mike Tyson and Michael Vick both came back! So I’m supposed to sit here and say “No way Alex Rodriguez can come back! He’s damaged goods!”? Really?
Here’s a scenario and explain to me why it couldn’t happen.
1. A-Rod sits out the year with his 162 game suspension.
2. The Yankees buy him out of his contract, making him a free agent.
3. In 2015, he signs with an independent league team that needs the publicity. I bet a few are already lining up offers as I type this.
4. He plays for an obscure independent team and puts up big numbers.
5. While playing indy ball, he plays up the whole “doing it for the love of the game” angle to win back fans.
6. A major league team is ravaged by injuries and need an infielder but does not have deep pockets or a fertile farm system.
7. A GM takes a low risk high reward flier on A-Rod who plays the second half of 2015 in the bigs.
How is that crazy?
How about a simpler one?
1. A-Rod sits out the year with his 162 game suspension.
2. The Yankees can’t buy out his contract.
3. In 2015, an aging injury plagued Yankee team needs an infielder and figure “Well, as long as we are paying Alex Rodriguez, might as well use him.”
Bam! Three steps and he is back.
Photo: Noah K. Murray, USA TODAY Sport
Is that even much different than what happened in 2013?
Remember how almost every fan seemed to want him to go away? Remember how the sentiment was the Yankees were better off without him?
Then he started hitting. Then the Yankees offense was decimated with injuries and they were playing a lot better with him in the line up. He was no longer an MVP candidate, but man he was better than the parade of stiffs playing third base in his absence.
Suddenly he was not so much a pariah as protection for Robinson Cano and Alfonso Soriano in the lineup.
It isn’t over. Someone will give him another shot. As long as a player can produce, someone will give him a shot to play.
He very well may have played his last game as a Yankee (although the small matter of his guaranteed contract remains to be addressed.)
But if using steroids, being a racist, a convicted rapist, a wife beater, an accessory to murder or a psychotic slaughterer of dogs were not enough to keep players out of sport, then Alex Rodriguez should rest assured that he has not played his final big league game.
We’re not getting rid of Alex Rodriguez THAT easily.
Sully Baseball 
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