Alfonso Soriano

Alfonso Soriano is the answer to a piece of New York Yankees trivia that still makes fans wince: he's the guy the club traded away to get Alex Rodriguez (yes, that trade). That's a rough legacy to get stuck with, because the version of Soriano who wore the interlocking NY from 1999 to 2003 was one of the most electric young players the Bronx had seen in years -- a second baseman built like a shortstop who ran like he'd stolen something and swung like he was trying to detach the freakin' ball from its stitching. He came back for one more ride in 2013-14, long after his prime, but the first stint is the one that made him a Yankee worth remembering.

The Kid Who Almost Ran the Table

Soriano debuted in September 1999 as a late-season call-up and took over second base full-time in 2001. His rookie year was ridiculous for a guy without much of a track record: .268, 18 homers, 43 steals, good enough for third in the Rookie of the Year vote (behind Ichiro Suzuki, who basically ran away with it, and CC Sabathia). Nobody remembers third place, but the numbers held up fine on their own.

Then came 2002, when Soriano turned into an honest-to-God monster. He hit .300 with 39 home runs, 102 RBI, and 41 stolen bases -- missing the 40-40 club by exactly one home run. (One. Hit one more in September and we're talking about him completely differently.) He led the American League in hits, at-bats, extra-base hits, steals, and runs scored, made his first All-Star team, and finished third in MVP voting. That's not a good season. That's a season people build shrines for.

Ten Days That Still Sting (In a Good Way)

Soriano's signature Yankee moment came in the 2001 World Series, and people mix up the details constantly, so let's get it straight. Game 4 belongs to Tino Martinez and Derek Jeter, who tag-teamed Byung-Hyun Kim for the "Mr. November" walk-off. Soriano's night came 24 hours later, in Game 5: Scott Brosius tied it with another ninth-inning homer off Kim, and in the 12th, Soriano lined a single to right to score Chuck Knoblauch and put the Yankees up 3-2 in the Series. Three nights later, in Game 7, he came up again with a leadoff home run off Curt Schilling that gave New York a 2-1 lead in the eighth. Mariano Rivera couldn't hold it. The Yankees lost the Series in the ninth, but Soriano spent that whole October doing exactly what a 23-year-old with no fear is supposed to do.

The Trade

On February 16, 2004, the Yankees sent Soriano and Joaquin Arias to Texas for Alex Rodriguez, swallowing the bulk of A-Rod's record contract to make it happen. Soriano was 28, coming off a 38-homer, 35-steal season, and giving up a real player for a reigning AL MVP still counts as one of the more lopsided trades of the era. He made two more All-Star teams with the Rangers, went 46-homer, 41-steal with the Nationals in 2006 to become the fourth 40-40 player in history, and that November signed an 8-year, $136 million deal with the Cubs. He retired a seven-time All-Star with 412 career home runs, comfortably inside the 400-homer club.

Back for One More Ride

The Cubs sent him back on July 26, 2013 (for a minor-league arm named Corey Black), and the second stint played out like you'd expect from a 37-year-old on the downside -- useful in stretches, overmatched in others. He hit .221 with 6 homers in 67 games in 2014 before New York released him that July, then announced his retirement that November, closing a 16-year career that started as a September call-up and ended as a guy trying to find one more swing.

Soriano never got to be the sentimental, one-team icon like Jeter or Rivera. He's the guy in the trivia question, the price the Yankees paid to land someone else's legend. But for five seasons in the Bronx, and one electric October, he was exactly the kind of player who made you want to get to the ballpark early.