BOSTON — There were no gifts for Alex Rodriguez on Thursday, in his final game in Yankee road grays. So Rodriguez took one for himself before batting practice: the No. 13 from the famous left-field scoreboard at Fenway Park.
“I wanted to spend some time underneath, inside the Green Monster,” he said. “I thought that was cool. I’ve never been there.”
Rodriguez left a gift, too, giving his bat to a young Yankee fan in the stands. The Red Sox fans howled at him, as they always have, and Rodriguez went hitless in four at-bats. His average fell to .199, but a dribbler in front of the plate scored a run in the Yankees’ 4-2 victory.
Now it is back to Yankee Stadium, one last time under the lights on the big Bronx stage. No player can match the marquee value of Rodriguez, with his dazzling highs and confounding lows. He always made you notice him. That was part of his value to the franchise.
When the Yankees signed Rodriguez to his outrageous 10-year, $275 million contract extension in 2007, they did not know he had used steroids in the past and would use them again. But Rodriguez’s fame only rose with his infamy. And fame is essential to the Yankees’ brand.
“He’s always been the lightning rod,” Manager Joe Girardi said. “That’s who he is — and that’s never going to change.”
The curtain now falls on Rodriguez’s playing career for the Yankees. The team decided he had no use as a player, but Hal Steinbrenner granted him an encore so his family could see him play again. A command performance, one night only. A splendid time is guaranteed for all.
That is how the Yankees should treat this: as a celebration of a complex character who will remain in the family. Steinbrenner could have simply cut Rodriguez, without keeping him on as an adviser and instructor. The boss wants him to stay.
So why won’t Girardi have more fun with this? Rodriguez asked Girardi on Tuesday if he could play third base in his final game. Girardi said no.
“I totally get the answer,” Rodriguez said. “But obviously, as a Yankee, a big portion of it was playing third base. I thought it would have been fun.”
If Girardi had a sense of the moment, he would have let Rodriguez play shortstop — not third. Remember, in 2004, Rodriguez wanted so badly to be traded to the Yankees that he left his Gold Gloves behind in deference to Derek Jeter, an inferior shortstop but an imperial presence. Rodriguez has never started there for the Yankees, and he never will.
“If he said no at third,” Rodriguez said, laughing, “I wasn’t going to go to short.”
The Yankees will honor Rodriguez with a ceremony before Friday’s game, which will start at 7:35 p.m., a half-hour later than usual. The weather may make them wait longer.
Jeter’s final home game — in 2014, as Rodriguez served his Biogenesis suspension — was also threatened by rain. But it was Jeter, of course, so the skies parted and the hero won the game with a single in the bottom of the ninth.
Girardi did not start Rodriguez in the first two games here this week, reversing his pledge on Sunday to let Rodriguez determine if he would play. Girardi apologized for that, but he makes no apologies for sticking rigidly to his job description: Win games, period.
Never mind that in 2014, Girardi refused to hit Jeter anywhere lower than second, even though Jeter had a meager .304 on-base percentage for the season. Girardi’s bosses traded three stars this summer, but he concedes nothing. Rodriguez will not get a final start at third, because he has not practiced there lately and the games still matter.
“It’s not that I wouldn’t like to see it,” Girardi said, “but we’re in a part of the season where we’re trying to win. We’re still in this.”
It is all so contradictory, though. Rodriguez’s Yankee playing career is on death row, his execution scheduled for late Friday night in the form of his unconditional release. Wherever Girardi plays him, he is using a dead man walking.
At 58-56, the Yankees’ record is only three and a half games behind Boston’s; they may yet escape fourth place. As they try, though, is Rodriguez really a good matchup against the hard sliders of Tampa Bay’s Chris Archer? Again, the contradictions.
“He’s going to play tomorrow; that’s the bottom line,” Girardi said, tersely. “Hopefully he hits a three-run homer.”
If he reprises Thursday’s performance — two infield popouts, a strikeout, and that squibber to the catcher — Rodriguez will be stuck on 696 home runs. But as first reported by MLB Network’s Jon Heyman, the Miami Marlins are already flirting with the notion of bringing Rodriguez home as a player.
Rodriguez would not discuss that on Thursday, but he did show deference to Steinbrenner.
“Anything that I do,” he said, “I would clear with Hal first.”
Rodriguez’s batting average would indicate he has nothing left. He disputes that — “Look,” he said, “I know I can play baseball” — but maybe the Marlins or another team will have more fun with this than Girardi.
The spectacle of a certified celebrity swinging for the fences, trying to slug a few more homers to pad his grand career total? It’s been done.
On May 25, 1935, as a member of the Boston Braves, Babe Ruth lugged a .153 average into Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field. He slammed three home runs that day to give him 714. He never got another hit.
Told about this on Thursday, Rodriguez smiled. The Babe might be beyond him.
“I have enough pressure as it is,” he said.
