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Sandy wrote:
AROD, who for a time was viewed as perhaps the best player of his generation, will hardly be anything more than an expensive footnote in the pantheon of Yankee talent.
And that's the sad thing about ARod.  For all his millions, leaving the Mariners has made him ultimately a hall of famer without a team.  Had he signed with Seattle, he'd be the most beloved of all Mariners, if not all Seattle sports heroes.  ARod would have been the bridge between the Mariner greats of 1995-to the Mariner greats of 2000 & 2001-to whatever Mariner greatness awaits in the near future (and what greatness there could have been).  Like DiMaggio, bridging the Babe and Gehrig with the Mick.  And he'd still be rich beyond his dreams. 
But he'll never be fully embraced by the Yankees.  It's Jeter's team.  It's Cano's team.  New York is merely the place ARod ended up.  Like you said, Sandy: a footnote.
I'm a season ticket holder of the UW basketball team, as I watch the amazing freshman Tony Wroten, and our super soph Terrance Ross, I think about Brandon Roy, and look up at the rafters, where his number is one of only two Husky greats retired.  As the NBA scouts swoop in, I hope these kids consider Brandon Roy as well.  Nobody remembers much or cares much for Spencer Hawes, and certainly not for Martell Webster.  Had Martell, instead of jumping immediately to the NBA, played for the Huskies with Roy for just one season, I remain convinced we'd have been in the final four, and maybe champs.
But Isaiah Thomas, Q-Pon, Roy...these guys will forever be remembered in Huskyville.  And they made good money besides.  I have hope for Wroten, who tore his knee up playing football for Garfield.  This of course was after everyone told him how stupid a move that was - he did it anyway - suffered the worse outcome and lived to tell about it.  Seems to me he's a kid like this understands the real "big picture".  You get a chance to play football for Garfield, you play football for Garfield.  You'll never get that chance again. Be true to your school. And he did, after all, stay in town.
But to return to ARod: To paraphrase: what good does it do a man to gain the world, and lose his baseball soul?
Well, I'm gonna shut up now before I talk Prince Fielder into staying in Milwaukee :-)