As Alex Rodiguez plays in his final game with the Yankees (we assume) I thought it was a good time to tell about a positive experience I had with ARod.
I know. Amazed I actually have one of those.
About 20 years ago, I went to a Red Sox vs. Mariners game at Fenway. Actually, looking at the ticket stub it’s almost exactly 20 years ago. A coworker of mine bought the tickets, so we were sitting in Section 9. We were sitting there before the game, and it was raining. Hard. They were actually telling people that there were thunderstorms in the area and they should take cover under the grandstand. We must have been under the roof, because we were sitting in our seats. (Or, I suppose, we might have been young and stupid enough to sit in the rain.) As we sat there, we noticed a crowd was forming just to the left of the visitor’s dugout. Someone was signing autographs in the rain.
Alex Rodriguez.
My coworker was a big ARod fan. And, why wouldn’t he be? ARod was having a monster year, and should have ended up winning the MVP. So, we discussed whether or not we should go over and try for an autograph. As you know, section 9 is out right field, so it would be quite a distance to walk over there. Not that we weren’t up for the walk. But, really, how long would a guy be out there signing? In the rain?
We decided that we might as well give it a shot and made our way over. Amazingly ARod was still out there when we got there and added ourselves to the scrum. Eventually ARod made his way to me, and I was able to acquire this.
Yup. He signed it upside down. Makes sense, I suppose. The ironic part is that ARod did stop signing not long after we got there, so my coworker was not able to get an autograph. Naturally, I framed up mine nicely and kept it in the office where he could see it at all times.
You may wonder why this game isn’t included in my ARod Live list. Well, did I mention the rain? After sitting in it for long enough, we gave up and went home. Of course, my coworker tried to insist that he needed my ticket stub in order to get a refund for the ticket after the game was rained out. I assured him that I was willing to eat the cost and keep my stub. As it turned out, the rain did eventually stop and they got the game in after all.
I always thought it was incredibly nice of ARod to be out there. It was raining. Nobody else was out there doing anything. But there he was signing autographs in a visiting park. It wasn’t for Mariners fans, it was for Red Sox fans, and he was still out there.
Have to give him credit for that.
