As has been said in another context: "He may be a son of a b*tch, but he's our son of b*tch." 

I almost crashed the car this morning listening to the press conference announcing his retirement -- they set this Friday as his last game, and so I immediately whipped out my phone to get tickets before they sold out or became completely unaffordable.  Managed to get a pair of really good seats in the short right field porch (section 106 for those familiar with the stadium) for under $100 per ticket.  Maybe A-Rod will go the other way this Friday and give me a souvenir.

Edward, that's cool that you will get to see his final game.

Mort, your view on A-Rod might be tinted by the Mariner perspective.  They had Griffey before AND after A-Rod, so Rodriguez is always going to seem less classy when presented against that background.  It doesn't help that he's yet another pinstriped PED user.