Yankee Stadium on Friday was spectacular. The Stadium was electric as the lightening brightened the skies before the game. It had the feel of a postseason game, a feeling this franchise knows too well. However, Friday was no playoff game. This game was about Alex Rodriguez. It was a game that bid farewell to one of the greatest.

Rodriguez has put together a Hall-of-Fame worthy career. He finished his Yankees’ career with a .295 career batting average, 696 home runs, 2,086 RBIs (ESPN.com), and won a World Series in 2009 with the Yankees. His numbers match up with any of the greatest players that have played this game.

His farewell from the Yankees was not a proper reflection of this amazing career. Neither side is to blame, both sides are equally at fault.

The Yankees needed to move on and infuse some youth. They’ve been successful for over two decades. But the Yankees needed to change their approach. Gone are the days where signing stars to rich contracts meant competing year in and year out. Baseball has changed and the focus is on developing through the farm system. Combined with revenue sharing, this new approach allows teams to keep and sign their young studs to contracts that only the Yankees could pay out in the past. The league has adapted to compete with the Yankees, and the Yankees need to adapt accordingly.

However, the Yankees could have given Rodriguez a proper sendoff. Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, and Mariano Rivera received proper adieus. They were celebrated in their final games as Yankees. They had farewell tours and played every game up until the end of the season. As a matter of fact, Jeter played and batted second in the lineup day in and day out, even though his defense at shortstop was below average.

Even during this current season, Rodriguez was singled out. He was not the only player whose production was faltering for the Yankees. Brian McCann, Mark Teixeira, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Chase Headley are also having putrid seasons at the plate. Out of everyone, Rodriguez was the only one that got benched and the only one that saw his playing time being cut. And with the roster expansions in September, they could’ve kept him on the roster and let him play out his career. Instead, the Yankees got their way and pushed him out.

With that being said, Rodriguez did not help out his own cause. He handled the biogenesis and steroids controversy very poorly. In order to save his reputation, Rodriguez blamed everyone else. He sued and went after the player’s union. This is the same union that fights for player’s rights and ensures they are treated fairly.

In addition to the player’s union, he also sued and fought against the Yankees’ front office. In particular, General Manager Brian Cashman and Rodriguez haven’t said nice things about one another in the media. Back in 2013, Cashman told Rodriguez to “shut the f— up” when Rodriguez tweeted about his rehab process (Wally Matthews), There is definitely no love lost between these two men. His actions during this period turned people in the organization and around baseball against him.

As bad as Rodriguez handled that particular situation, he deserved better. Rodriguez performed at an all-star level as a Yankee. In 2007, he batted .314, hit 54 home runs, and had 156 RBIs (ESPN.com). These numbers are unheard of for a right-handed Yankee hitter because Yankee Stadium favors lefties with the short porch in right. When he came over to the Yankees, he switched from shortstop to third base, even though he was a better defensive shortstop than Jeter. All he wanted to do was win, and in 2009, he carried the Yankees in 2009 to the franchise’s 27^th World Championship.

Even though Rodriguez took performance enhancement drugs, he played in an era dubbed “The Steroids Era.” Maybe he might have hit a few less home runs without performance enhancement drugs, but his talent was real. On Friday night, the Yankees and all of baseball bid “farewell” to one of the greatest of this generation.