FanHouse

We may never know the true story involving Alex Rodriguez's brief flirtation with the Mets in 2001 before eventually signing that huge deal with the Texas Rangers. But the nugget that A-Rod recently divulged is quite interesting, and may have explained why, after he opted out of this contract last season, he crawled back to the Yankees.

"I went for the contract when my true desire was to go play for the Mets," Rodriguez said of his decision to ink his $252 million deal with Texas eight years ago.

As A-Rod looked back on the events of the past offseason, he seemed haunted by the idea that in breaking free of the Yankees he could have made another decision based strictly on money and wound up as unhappy as he was in Texas for three years.

The three-time MVP says that at some point after his opt-out decision in October, he realized he could have been heading for a similar scenario, with (Scott) Boras dictating his next destination.

"So to make the right decision just feels really good," Rodriguez said, "versus being taken down a road where I'm like, 'Oh, my God, where am I? Oh, $400 million to play in some place I hate? Great, I'll blow my --- head off.'

How fortunate for Rodriguez that even the "right decision" involved accepting the richest contract in the history of baseball. How very "love of the game-ish" of A-Rod.

So how would history have changed if he made the "right decision" back in '01 and took a deal with the Mets? Well, if everything else had stayed the same, he would have played for Art Howe ... and along side mere mortals such as Jeromy Burnitz and Shane Spencer. So who's to say that A-Rod wouldn't have blown his head off anyway?