Alex Rodriguez Got Super Drunk When Potential Red Sox Trade Fizzled

Remember that time that Alex Rodriguez was almost traded to the Red Sox in the winter of 2003? ARod has partnered with Barstool Sports in a string of podcasts that have recently been released and the number of cool stories are endless. In a recent interview with the Pardon My Take guys, ARod reveled that he was so devastated that a potential trade to the Red Sox didn’t go through that he got super drunk to cope with it.

“The emotions were so high and it was such an almost-get and I mean get for me being a Red Sox and for the Red Sox to acquire me (ARod said via Barstool) it was like this all this foreplay, all this teasing, you can taste it, you can feel it,” he said. “They already had jerseys of me, and I could feel it, I wanted to go play in that place. And all of a sudden, boom, ‘Report in, A-Rod is not going to the Red Sox, he’s staying with Texas.’

“That was a like a [expletive], it was like this [expletive] big buzzkill. I think the game felt it, I know I felt it. I was saddened by it. I went out one night, there’s this place called Life, and I just got toasted drunk that night. I threw up, I was so bummed. Anyways, I went back home and just dusted off and said let’s go, gotta go play ball. And of course the Yankee thing happened. And I think because of that, when I go to Fenway for the first time as a Yankee, I mean, come on. Nothing could be meaner or more cruel. I think that’s where the emotions started.”

I love what if questions. You may think as a Red Sox fan that I hate ARod but I really don’t. He’s a super smart guy and really brings it on TV. Derek Jeter is the one who is actually the asshole that everyone should hate. I wanted the Red Sox to trade for Alex Rodriguez until I found out that the Red Sox would have traded Manny Ramirez as part of the transaction. I was not ok with that.

The what if’s are so crazy. 2004 never happens. I can’t imagine my life without that moment. The Sox probably don’t win in 2007 either. The Red Sox maybe don’t become the modern day baseball dynasty. ARod was good for the first portion of the contract but it became disastrous in the later stages. What we do know is Rodriguez wanted in on the Red Sox and Yankees rivalry and he wanted to be on the good side.

“I thought the rivalry of Yankees-Red Sox was ripe,” he said. “[2003] was a year they almost beat the [Yankees] … and I thought they were just one step short. I knew once I met with Theo [Epstein] and Jed [Hoyer], we met here at the Four Seasons, underground, kind of snuck into the hotel. At the time, we were around the same age, and I saw the way these guys thought and the way they think about architecting the house and putting it all together, and I go ‘Holy [expletive], these guys are really, really smart.’ I knew they were going to win and win big, so I knew I wanted to be a part of it. The Yankees weren’t part of the equation at the time, so I was like ‘This is perfect. It creates sort of a Magic-Bird scenario. Great for baseball, great for us, both shortstops, pretty cool.’”