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Mariners vs. Yankees |
Mets vs. Cardinals
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Saturday, October 21
Season over, A-Rod heads to the market
By Jayson Stark
ESPN.com
NEW YORK -- The clock had ticked way past midnight in the clubhouse of the Seattle Mariners late Tuesday night. And there was something fitting about that.
Their season was over. And that wasn't all.
|  | | With Seattle eliminated, Alex Rodriguez is left to wonder where he'll be playing next season. |
An era was over, too. Just no one had announced it yet.
Dozens of media types stood around the locker of the man whose almost-inevitable departure will pull the final plug on that era. But they weren't staring at Alex Rodriguez.
They were staring at a clubhouse man packing up every last piece of gear from A-Rod's locker.
The blue T-shirts were folded up first. Then the pants. Then the uniform jerseys with the familiar No. 3 on the back. Then the shoes, with the mud from A-Rod's final game as a Mariner still caked around the spikes. Then the cap. And finally, seven black bats, Alex Rodriguez models.
A TV cameraman began to shoot this eerie scene -- the great A-Rod's Seattle career being wrapped up in two neat little equipment bags.
"Please don't," said the clubhouse man. And the camera was dutifully turned off. The wait for A-Rod's farewell speech continued.
When the packing was done, the clubhouse man looked up at the No. 3 posted atop the locker. He carefully slid the number out of the slot and took it away. Next time it's above that stall when the Mariners come to town, it's impossible to say who will own that number.
But you can bet it won't be Alex Rodriguez.
When Rodriguez finally appeared at that locker, shortly before 1 a.m., he didn't say so long and thanks for the memories. But if it looks like a goodbye speech, smells like a goodbye speech and sounds like a goodbye speech, you might as well call it a goodbye speech.
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Once, this was the franchise of Junior Griffey and Randy Johnson and Alex Rodriguez. Now, with Rodriguez and manager Lou Piniella almost certainly heading for the exits, who knows what this franchise will look like in future. ” |
The moment the Mariners were eliminated by the Yankees on Tuesday, he became the most attractive free agent ever. He may with the Mets by the time next spring rolls around. He may be with the Braves. He may be with the Indians. But those are details to be filled in later -- right next to a dollar sign and a whole slew of zeroes.
"My decision is going to take time," Rodriguez said, speaking softly, choosing his words carefully. "I'm going to test the free-agent market and gather all the information and then make my decision. That doesn't mean Seattle is not my first choice, because I'm very fond of this team. But I need to gather the information and then go from there."
If this was his final game as a Mariner, it was one to remember. He doubled in the first run of the night, in the first inning. He doubled again to start a sixth-inning rally that ended with the bases left loaded.
And when he came to bat in the eighth, his team trailing by five runs, it appeared he was doing so for the final time in a Seattle uniform. He promptly pounded a home run that came to earth beside the fabled Yankee Stadium monuments in left. If this wasn't quite Ted Williams saying farewell with a home run at Fenway, it was still very cool.
Except the Mariners kept plugging away, scoring three runs in the eighth to pull within two runs. And that created a scenario in which the great A-Rod stood to be the man making the final out of his final season in Seattle.
Except he wasn't going to let it end that way. He thunked a swinging bunt toward third base. Luis Sojo charged it and couldn't make a clean barehand pickup. So Rodriguez had his fourth hit. The Mariners were alive for one more hitter. And the tying run, in Edgar Martinez, came to the plate to face Mariano Rivera.
"My whole goal in that inning was to give Edgar a chance," Rodriguez said. "He's probably the only guy on this planet who's had success against Rivera."
But not this time. Martinez hit a soft chopper toward Derek Jeter.
"For a moment, I thought it was an infield hit," Rodriguez said. "Then I remembered it was Edgar running. I thought maybe Jeter was going to have time to run over to first and get him out."
But Jeter threw it instead. Yankees began jumping up and down. And Rodriguez trudged deliberately off the field as Sinatra crooned.
Asked to describe his emotions as he walked off that field, Rodriguez tried his best to dodge the obvious connotation.
"Obviously, I was devastated," he said. "I really had a vision of having this team in the World Series. We gave it our best effort. But we left it all on the field. We pushed those guys. Obviously, we didn't push far enough."
And if his own emotions were welling up inside, he hid it well.
"My mind's been so concerned with trying to beat the Yankees," he said, "I haven't really thought about my situation."
But over the months to come, he'll be thinking about it pretty much nonstop -- along with half the baseball world. And in Seattle, they'll be thinking about where he'll be heading and what he's left behind.
Once, this was the franchise of Junior Griffey and Randy Johnson and Alex Rodriguez. Now, with Rodriguez and manager Lou Piniella almost certainly heading for the exits, who knows what this franchise will look like in future.
"It's hard," said Martinez, who has hinted he might retire if A-Rod and Piniella leave. "We have a lot of guys here who we don't know what's going to happen for next year. It's tough. You make friends. You have teammates for a long time. And sometimes they move on. But right now, I'm not able to think about next season. I'm just trying to think about all of the good things from this year."
A-Rod was one of those good things. He hit .316, with 41 home runs and 132 RBI. He's already fourth on the all-time list of most career homers by a shortstop (with 189). And he's only 25.
So there are many, many records in his future. But one of them is coming up in his very near future:
The record for most dollars on one contract.
Asked if he'd thought about whether this was his last game for the only team he's ever played for, Alex Rodriguez replied: "I don't want to think about that right now."
Then off he went, toward a bus, toward a plane, toward a future in which just about the only certainty is that it will be spent someplace other than Seattle.
Jayson Stark is a senior writer at ESPN.com.
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