A-Rod helped mold the future leaders of the world at Miami's graduation

Alex Rodriguez gave a speech at the University of Miami. (AP Photo)
Alex Rodriguez gave a speech at the University of Miami. (AP Photo)

Alex Rodriguez may have skipped college, but he still got to experience graduation. The former New York Yankees star was a part of the University of Miami’s graduation ceremony Thursday.

He didn’t walk off the stage with a degree in hand, though. Instead, Rodriguez was selected to give a speech to the graduating class.

A-Rod recognized the irony of that situation, and made sure to provide the world with visual evidence of him finally attending a college graduation:

While Rodriguez did not attend the University of Miami, he has strong ties to the school. He grew up in the area, and was even slated to play baseball at Miami before turning down that opportunity to jump straight to the pros.

Rodriguez still remains a fan. He’s been spotted at plenty of Miami football games, even wearing a large “The U” chain at a game in November.

Given A-Rod’s missteps in baseball, you might question why he’s been picked to mold the future leaders of the world. But it’s probably those mistakes that make Rodriguez a compelling speaker. He’s a successful person — both athletically and in business ventures — but he’s failed too. That’s at least more interesting than a rah rah speech about positivity.

Naturally, that leads us to wonder what A-Rod discussed? The University of Miami hasn’t posted video of the event … yet … so all we have is our imagination here.

We’d like to think he took on current events and preached to students about not buying things — like a local sports team — with money you don’t have. We would also love to think he used this as a recruiting pitch for A-Rod Corp. Maybe he picked up a couple new low-level managers?

The truth is probably much duller than that. Until we know the for sure, though, we’re going to hold on to our dreams. Someone told us that once. Probably the speaker at our college graduation.

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Chris Cwik is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at christophercwik@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik