No love lost between A-Rod, Boston

BOSTON -- There isn't a visiting player in any sport who has a more complicated history with a Boston team than Alex Rodriguez has with the Red Sox.

Ever.

LeBron Jameswas in town last week, talking about how much Boston and its sports fans meant to him.

"They know sports,'' he said, "so for me to have some type of history in this city, it means a lot for my legacy."

It should be the same for Rodriguez, who comes to Boston with the New York Yankees this weekend needing one home run to tie Willie Mays on the all-time list. The many and varied experiences he has connecting him to Boston, and the Red Sox, are unmatched.

But where no one will question the greatness attached to James' legacy, the judgment on Rodriguez comes filtered through a far darker prism, one more condemning than celebratory. Especially here. This is the place Rodriguez began his big league career nearly 21 years ago, as an 18-year-old prodigy with the Seattle Mariners. Ken Griffey Jr. followed him into the trainers room with a fistful of McDonald's coupons -- so that he could buy his teammates dinner, Griffey joked, when he was sent back down to Double-A the next week.

This is the place -- after the Red Sox experienced the heartbreak of their Game 7 defeat to the Yankees in 2003 -- that was prepared to embrace him as savior, wooed personally by the owner at the expense of Nomar Garciaparra (or so he believed), a New England icon who never forgave the Sox. He would have been centerpiece of one of the biggest trades of our time:Manny Ramirez and a young pitching prospect named Jon Lester to the Rangers for A-Rod, followed by Nomar being dealt to the Chicago White Sox for Magglio Ordonez. Those deals were in place, but never consummated, the players' union denying Rodriguez the ability to give back money to Texas in a restructured contract.

Instead, after third baseman Aaron Boone tore up his knee playing basketball, Rodriguez was traded to the Yankees on Valentine's Day 2004 andsucceeded where the Red Sox had not, which only deepened the antipathy Sox fans had both for the Bombers and their newest bauble.

This is the place where catcher Jason Varitek rubbed his glove in A-Rod's face on a Saturday afternoon in July, a photo that showed up behind as many New England bars as JFK's did.

This is the place where A-Rod, in what would have been sweet revenge, placed himself in line to win MVP of the '04 ALCS when the Yankees won the first three games over the reeling Sox. He scored five runs and drove in three more while hitting a home run deep into the night off Bronson Arroyo in a 19-8 Game 3 humiliation of the home team, when all hope seemed lost. But then the Yankees faltered, losing the next two games in Boston, and when the series returned to Yankee Stadium, A-Rod slapped at Arroyo and knocked the ball out of his glove, an act of desperation that for many marked him as utterly incapable of pinstriped dignity.

This is the place where, the following April, A-Rod was grudgingly shown a touch of gratitude when he swept an 8-year-old boy out of the way of an oncoming truck on Newbury Street, but the affection was short-lived.

This is the place where, in June 2007, with New York's tabloids filled with stories of A-Rod's fling with a nightclub dancer, hundreds of Sox fans showed up in the stands wearing blond masks to taunt the Yankee slugger.

This is the place where A-Rod has 133 hits, more than any other ballpark in which he has played only as a visitor.

This is the place where A-Rod has struck out 106 times, more than any other park in which he has been only a visitor.

This is the place where A-Rod collected his first major league hit, an infield single off Sergio Valdez, on July 9, 1994.

It was against the Red Sox, on April 16, 2008, when A-Rod passed the greatest of Sox players, Ted Williams, hitting his 522nd home run off Clay Buchholz.

It was against the Red Sox, on July 6, 2008, when he tied the beloved Mickey Mantle with home run No. 536 off Tim Wakefield.

And this is the place where, on April 20, 2012, he hit the 631st home run of his career, off Buchholz, to pass his old Mariner teammate, Griffey, and move into the spot he currently occupies on the all-time home run list, fifth. Only Mays, Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron and Barry Bonds lie ahead.

This is the place where this weekend, once again, Alex Rodriguez can make history. His next home run will not only tie Mays, but will draw him even with another Hall of Famer, Reggie Jackson, in home runs at Fenway Park: 25, a number exceeded by only 10 players.

This is the place that, in spite of all the memories he has created here, would sooner forget him, it seems, than honor him. For all the respect he can expect here if he hits No. 660 this weekend, unless Boston has a collective change of heart, Alex Rodriguez might as well be playing in an empty Camden Yards.