Story of the Decade

The last nine years have given us plenty of contenders for the title of "Best Sports Story of the Decade". There was Kobe Bryant's rape saga, which would have been a shoe-in for the honor had there actually been a prolonged trial and conviction. There was The Malice At The Palace, which saw Ron Artest star in the most famous sports brawl in recent memory as he charged into the stands at The Palace at Auburn Hills to confront, of all people, Pistons fans. There was the much-anticipated Mitchell Report, which yielded a few big names but no real surprises(unless, of course, you were a huge Dave Justice fan). There was not ONE, but TWO Red Sox pennants after a near-century long draught. There was the Patriots run at history that was surprisingly deterred when the Giants pulled off the greatest Super Bowl upset in NFL history by beating the then 18-0 Pats.

Then, of course, there's the man who has dominated the news for the past month: Tiger Woods. Tiger Woods enters 2010 as the head and shoulders favorite for Sports Story of the Decade ten years from now with the bizarre turn of events that has included everything from adultery, a mysterious one person car accident, the daily unveiling of a new Tiger mistress, and now the news of Tiger's doctor being charged with possession of PEDs. When you have the biggest sports star in the world(a man who was named Athlete of the Decade, mind you) involved in both a creepy sex scandal AND a possible steroid scandal, it will take a story of 9/11 proportions to top it(Side note: As only BoomRoastedSports can, we have a list of 10 Scenarios That Would Have To Happen To Top Tiger-gate in the works).

However, with Woods' drama still in the midst of unfolding even as new details pop up instantaneously, it's hard to give him the Story of the Decade honor without having any real closure. So, by default, I decided to give the award to what I felt was the next best thing.

It seems only fitting that Alex Rodriguez dominated this decade both on and off the field. After all, he started off the new millennium by signing the richest contract in all of sports history -- a staggering 10-year, $252 million dollar deal with the Texas Rangers. His new money turned him into an enemy to people who saw his big, fat contract as a sign of the apocalypse for baseball as they knew it(which, in essence, it was). The hatefest for A-Rod grew larger and larger with every losing season in Texas, even as Rodriguez was putting up MVP-caliber season after MVP caliber season. To make matters worse, Rodriguez was inevitably sent to arguably sports' most hated franchise, the New York Yankees, in one of the biggest trade bidding wars in recent memory.

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Still, with all the unjustified hatred the American people felt toward A-Rod, he still represented a ray of hope. For all the darts thrown at Rodriguez for his greed, narcissism and inability to show up in big moments, baseball fans still had no choice but to get behind A-Rod since he was perceived to be the only steroid-free, great ballplayer in Major League Baseball and was believed to be Commissioner Bud Selig's only hope of wrestling the all-time home run crown from legendary baseball villain, Barry Bonds.

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That all changed in February of 2009.

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Sportswriters Selena Roberts and David Epstein obtained word from credible sources that A-Rod has tested positive for anabolic steroids back in 2003. Suddenly, the venom spewed at A-Rod switched from his homo-erotic obsession with his own good looks and his poor October numbers to a league-wide campaign championing his new nickname: A-Fraud(or A-Roid, which you preferred). A-Rod, in one of his classic SPAM-like, pre-processed interview sessions, came clean about his steroid use to Peter Gammons. It was a move that earned him some sympathy with baseball fans, but very little and certainly not enough to keep his pretty mug out of the media crosshairs. A-Rod's steroid scandal combined with a messy divorce that led to, of all things, rumors that the third part of the Rodriguez love triangle was ancient sex symbol Madonna created a PR nightmare that threatened the long term validity of what seemed like baseball's golden child.

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However, as Rodriguez was nearing a return from a hip injury that kept him out for nearly the first two months of the '09 season, the momentum began to change in A-Rod's favor. For one, Roberts played herself by selfishly pushing the release of her A-Rod tell-all up to coincide with A-Rod's return. That move tend to make Roberts' motives seem a bit dubious even to the most jaded of A-Rod critics(It also helps that, when it came time for A-Rod's return, all the PED focus had shifted to Dodgers slugger and former Boston rival Manny Ramirez). With Roberts' credibility starting to take a hit, A-Rod put on another MVP-worthy performance over the remainder of the '09 season, hitting .286 with 30 homers and driving in 100 runs(Though, he still inexplicably finished 10th in the AL MVP voting, behind guys like Chone Figgins and Kendry Morales). It would appear he was just getting warmed up. Long criticized for his annual postseason fade, Rodriguez came up big in October and November. Rodriguez hit .280 with 6 home runs and 18 RBIs in the playoffs, culminating in Rodriguez finally capturing the World Series ring that had escaped him his entire career.

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And that's what makes A-Rod's 2009 drama the most compelling of any story this decade -- the fact that it came full circle. In 11 months, A-Rod went from being an egotistical, self-absorbed choke artist to a convicted cheater to a World Series champion. Suddenly, the radioactive aura that had shrouded Rodriguez his entire career, and never more so than the last few years in New York, had disappeared. While it remains to be seen what his fellow Yankees truly feel about A-Rod The Teammate, we all can agree that he's in a much better place than he was at the beginning of the year.