November 7th, 2005 is a day that will live in infamy. Two things happened that day that will forever change the course of history. First, Tom Brady lost to Peyton Manning for the first time. That it happened on Monday Night Football and was the only game the world was watching made it even worse. Second, arguably the most famous athlete on the planet at the time, Alex Rodriguez, flipped me off. This is the oral history told by two of the three participants in what should have been the biggest scandal of ARods career:
It was a typical fall Monday night in the sleepy neighborhood of South Miami, Florida. Two friends had just got off a shift at a local restaurant and decided to have some happy hour drinks at local watering hole Sunset Tavern. At the time, Kevin Mulvoy, 27 and Adrian Gonalez, 26, were just killing time until the big Monday Night Football matchup pitting defending Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots against Peyton Manning and the high powered Indianapolis Colts.
Kevin Mulvoy: We had just got out of work and went to happy hour. Adrian went out to make a phone call. I was inside drinking a coors light when he came back in and motioned for me to go outside, telling me “A Rod is out here.”
Adrian Gonzalez(via text): Yeah I don’t remember much.
Mulvoy: It was like 5 in the afternoon.
Gonzalez: We were drunk I think and my memory is horrendous. He flipped us off and he tripped?
Did he ever trip. After Gonzalez called Mulvoy outside, the two men watched as ARod talked on his cell phone across the street. Then, the unthinkable happened. As he went to step up on the curb, Rodriguez tripped. He was quick to catch himself with his right hand just before his whole face smashed into the brick driveway across the street. The two onlookers took this opportunity to gloat at the fallen hero. Mulvoy, an avid Red Sox fan still feeling the high of the 2004 ALCS and WS victories, was especially boisterous in his taunting of the Yankee third baseman.
Gonzalez: You or me said something smart to him. I said something.
Mulvoy: We both started laughing and pointing at him.
Gonzalez: It referenced when he tried to swat the ball from the first basemen.
Gonzalez is correct when he says he has a horrible memory. The play he is talking about took place during Game 6 of the American League Championship Series in 2004. The Sox were on the verge of tying the series after falling down 3-0. In the 8th inning with Boston leading 4-2, Derek Jeter on first base and one out, this happened.
As you can see, ARod tried to swipe the ball out of the Bronson Arroyos hand. Regardless, after ARod fell down outside Sunset Tavern, the two men let loose with catcalls and mock laughter.
Gonzalez: I said a bad joke I can’t remember. It had to do with that incident that had just happened.
Mulvoy: It was in ’05 so a year after the greatest collapse in sports history. I said I was a Red Sox fan and that is when he flipped us off.
Rodriguez did more than just flip the two innocent men off. After Mulvoy mentioned he was a Red Sox fan and that he was just messing around with him, ARod turned and looked at both men and formed a cross with his arms while extending the middle finger of his right hand straight up and the middle finger on his left hand out to the right. A move neither men had seen in quite some time and neither has seen since, almost 13 years later.
Gonzalez: I don’t remember anything.
Mulvoy: It was an amazing 2 minutes of my life. The fact he went with the cross armed double salute is still amazing to me, all this time later.
In the interest of fairness, The Last Stawp reached out to ARod via twitter to try and get his side of the scandal. Alas, no answer.
@AROD hello, I’m in the process of writing an oral history of the time you flipped me off outside Sunset Tavern in South Miami. I would like to hear your side of the story if possible. No funny business. Just the truth. DM me for details. Thank you!
— TheLastStawp (@TheLastStawp) May 25, 2018
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Hello, @AROD. Im writing an oral history of the time you flipped me off outside of Sunset Tavern in South Miami and would really like your recollection of what happened. It’s no hit piece. DM me for details. Thank you
— TheLastStawp (@TheLastStawp) May 25, 2018
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@AROD hi again. Just wanted to see if you want to throw in your two cents about what happened the time you flipped me off outside sunset tavern in South Miami. Last time I ask before I go to press with the oral history. Can’t say I didn’t try to get your side
— TheLastStawp (@TheLastStawp) May 30, 2018
The Last Stawp 
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