Tampa Bay Rays pitcher will forever hold in his memory that he will be the last pitcher to strikeout his boy hood hero Alex Rodriguez. “I was trying to be humble and reserved about it, but when you bring that up it’s amazing”, Archer stated after his team’s loss on A-Rod’s Friday night.
Archer, 27, one of the up and coming players in the game reflected on that moment of facing Rodriguez one last time and how it meant to him, “Growing up I wore number 13 in little league, I played shortstop and wore big Oakley’s”.
“I’m kind of getting chills just talking about it, he’s had some trivial things go on in his career but he’s always treated me with respect. My parents taught me to judge someone of how they treat you and that will always mean something to me what happened out there”.
Pretty amazing that in the most recent years with any sort of Yankee milestones or magical moments it’s the Rays that are in the middle of it. David Price, former Rays pitcher served up Derek Jeter’s 3000th hit for a home-run and now Chris Archer who gave A-Rod his final hit and RBI along with his final strike out.
Even in the game today, with the future stars making their way into the show, Rodriguez still has had an impact on those players and it’s safe to say he will continue to do so moving forward. Archer also put himself into a unique situation that will be remembered down the road, he became a trivial question; Who was the last pitcher to strike out Alex Rodriguez?
Now we look to the future and hope to see young players like Archer pave the way for the next generation of superstars. Despite it all, Rodriguez has always been a great mentor of the game and we hope to see him continue it with the new wave of youngsters already making big waves in the Yankees organization.