Alex Rodriguez
Alex Rodriguez was a superstar almost from the day that he reached the Majors, setting many record for being the youngest to reach a milestone, but his verified use of steroids put a black mark on a career that would have been great without them.
Rodriguez was the #1 pick in the 1993 Draft, and made his Major League debut with the Mariners the following season while still 18 years old, making him the youngest player in the league. He split time between the majors and minors for his first two years, before becoming the full-time starting shortstop for good in 1996.
His first full season with the Mariners was a great one. He led the league with 141 runs, 54 doubles, 379 total bases, and a .358 average, making him the 3rd-youngest ever to win a batting title. He came in second in the MVP voting as well, quite the accomplishment for a 21 year old.
In 1998, he led the league with 213 hits, and also became the third member of the 40-40 club, having reached 40 in both home runs and stolen bases, joining Jose Canseco and Barry Bonds, a couple of players that he would end up having another thing in common with later in his career.
He would exceed 40 home runs for each of the next two seasons with Seattle, also surpassing 130 runs and RBI in 2000, which earned him a 3rd place finish in the MVP voting. He was a free agent after that season, and decided to leave Seattle for Texas, where he was offered the largest contract in pro sports history.
In 2001, he led the league in runs, home runs, and total bases, and reached 50 home runs for the first time in his career. He also reached 200 hits that season, becoming the first player in nearly 70 years to have 50 homers and 200 hits in a season.
The following season, he raised his performance again, this time knocking 57 home runs and leading the league with 142 RBI. His home runs were the most by an AL player since Roger Maris hit 61 in 1961. He finished as the MVP runner-up again that year, his third top-3 finish without winning the award.
His numbers dropped off slightly in 2003, but he still led the league with 47 home runs and 124 runs scored, and it was enough to finally earn him an MVP award, becoming just the second player in history to win the award on a last-place team. He also led the league in slugging for the first time, which would become common for him.
He was traded to the Yankees after the season, becoming just the 2nd reigning MVP in history to be traded. He switched to third base in New York, because Derek Jeter was the starting shortstop, and in his second year with the team he had nearly the same stat line he had in 2003, which earned him his 2nd MVP award.
His best season came in 2007, when he led the league in homers for the 5th time, with 54, and also led the league with career highs in runs (143) and RBI (156). He also reached 500 home runs that season, becoming the youngest to reach that milestone, just as he had been with 400, 300, and 200. He won his 3rd MVP that season.
After that season, he opted out of his contract in order to sign a new deal that broke his previous record as the largest in history, but his performance dropped off a bit on the new deal. He had the reputation for not playing well in the playoffs, only having played well in the 2000 playoffs up to that point, but in 2009, he finally put it together in the postseason, batting over .300 with 6 home runs and 18 RBI over 3 rounds as the Yankees won the World Series, earning Rodriguez his first and only championship.
Exactly 3 years after his 500th home runs, Rodriguez hit his 600th, becoming the 7th player to reach that milestone, and the youngest as well. During the 2013 season, it was announced that Rodriguez was being suspended for using PED's, but he was allowed to continue playing during the appeal process. He eventually admitted to cheating and was suspended for the entire 2014 season. He did return for two more seasons afterward, but was not very effective.
Rodriguez is near the top of many prestigious leaderboards, including #8 in runs scored, #6 in total bases, #4 in home runs, and #3 in RBI's. He was regularly one of the top all-around regular season players, and was the best player for the Yankees on their 2009 World Series championship team, though that was one of his only good postseason performances. He may have cheated to improve some of those numbers, and there's no way to tell how much of a difference it made or how long it went on, but there is no doubt that he is still one of the greatest to ever play the game.
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