When the clock struck midnight on October 30th, 2014, the baseball season was over. Just two hours earlier, Pablo Sandoval caught a Salvador Perez popup in foul territory to clinch the San Francisco Giants’ third World Series title in five years, and sent Major League Baseball into the offseason. While reporters converged upon a champagne-soaked Madison Bumgarner, whose postseason dominance would be the story of the day, another narrative loomed. Alex Rodriguez’s suspension had just expired.
In the two years since his suspension was lifted, Rodriguez mastered the art of reinvention.