NEW YORK — Four years ago, it was easy to know what to think.
It was easy to know how to feel.
Derek Jeter got to 3,000 hits in the most Derek Jeter of ways, and it wasn't just Yankees fans who celebrated. Even now, four years later, the pitcher who gave up Jeter's 3,000th hit can talk about how "special" that day was.
"I still have no regrets," David Price said Friday, just a couple of hours before the 28th member of the 3,000-hit club (Jeter) was joined by the 29th member (Alex Rodriguez).
He did it like Jeter did, with a home run off a great pitcher. But he did it nothing like Jeter did, because Alex Rodriguez never does anything that way.
It's complicated with him. It's always complicated with him, even on a night like Friday.
He's done that to himself, but he's also done it to all of us. He's left us wondering what he could have been without the drugs, the suspension and the controversy, but he's also kept us wondering who he really is.
"I'm not touching that," Justin Verlander said, when asked to compare the Jeter and A-Rod emotions a few hours after he gave up A-Rod's 3,000th.
He wasn't, but across the Tigers clubhouse, Miguel Cabrera was. Cabrera was running the bases when the game ended, and when it did, he headed not to the Tigers' third-base dugout but instead directly to Rodriguez, whom he grabbed in a big hug.
To those who would say A-Rod isn't worthy of such love, Cabrera said later, "They don't know him."
And to those who believe that everyone in the game still hates A-Rod, this was the strongest of counterpoints.
Obviously, he's no Jeter. Not everyone was celebrating Friday night. But obviously, he's not universally viewed as a villain, either.
"Those numbers," Cabrera said. "Only Hall of Famers do that—3,000 hits, 600 home runs, 2,000 RBI. That's amazing.
"That's amazing."
Down the hall in the Yankees interview room, A-Rod was talking about the night with his usual planned-out thoughts. He brought up one of the biggest contrasts with the Jeter 3,000 game, which was that the guy who caught Jeter's home run couldn't wait to return it, while the guy who caught A-Rod's homer at first refused to even negotiate with the Yankees on a return.
"The thing I was thinking about was where's Jeet's guy," Rodriguez joked. "I wasn't so lucky."
The contrasts will always be there, no matter what. But the contrasts always come with contradictions for A-Rod.
The numbers were steroid-aided. We know that. But we also know that plenty of guys used steroids, and none of the others came up with these numbers.
The drugs and the lawsuits turn plenty of people off, in plenty of big league clubhouses (including, often, his own). But we also know that plenty of former and current Yankees tell friends what a great teammate Alex is.
We know there are players like Cabrera, who had no problem with showing him respect in the most public of ways.
"The thing that I'll take away is that after the last out, Miguel Cabrera gives me a hug," Rodriguez said. "Twenty years from now, that's what I'll think about. ... Miggy is such a class act, and he'll arguably go down as the greatest right-handed hitter of our generation.
"That was special for me."
A-Rod could have gone down as the greatest right-handed hitter of his generation, or the greatest hitter, period. But it's never that simple with him.
It wasn't simple, not even Friday, not even on what should have been one of his best days.
He hit the first pitch he saw, a 95 mph Verlander fastball, three rows deep into the right-field seats. The Yankee Stadium fans rose in anticipation, and if they didn't cheer him the way they cheered Jeter, they at least gave him an ovation worthy of 3,000.
When A-Rod came out for a curtain call, it didn't feel forced. ESPN Stats & Info noted A-Rod's accomplishment:
Four years ago, Jeter came into the game against Price needing two hits for 3,000. He got them in his first two at-bats and then added three more hits in a 5-4 Yankees win over the Rays.
The whole day felt like a celebration. Four years later, it still feels special, as Price said Friday.
Four minutes after A-Rod's 3,000th, the moment already seemed to have passed. When he came to the plate for his next at-bat, it may as well have been another day in August, for as little reaction as there was from the fans.
They don't hate him here. That's obvious, even if many other fans in many other places still do.
But it's not love, not unconditional love, not Jeter-like love, not at all.
It's complicated with him. It always is, even after all these years.
Even after 3,000 hits.
Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.
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