Alex Rodriguez, third baseman for the New York Yankees, made the final out in last night's American League Championship Series Game Six, which gave the Texas Rangers a 4-2 series victory and its first ever trip to the World Series.
Alex Rodriguez started his big league life as the starting shortstop for the Texas Rangers, but he left that club back in 2003 so that he could go play for "a winner" (said Yankees). He had played for the Rangers since 2000, and was, after only 3 seasons, not patient enough to stay and be the center around which the Rangers would build a championship team. He was so desperate to leave that he even deferred to Yankees' shortstop Derek Jeter, moving of his own volition to third base.
Yes, it took another 7 years, during which time the Yankees have won it all (they are the defending World Series champions), but the Rangers have their championship at last . . . after they struck out the man who was slated to be their leader yet who'd bailed on them the first chance he had. That it was the final out of the ALCS was deliciously ironic.
Such poetic justice would not be believable in a novel. It's too perfect. But in real life, it is a treat to be savored.
Now if we could only get rid of artificial turf and the designated hitter rule . . .
