A-Rod still an outsider
NEW YORK – Alex Rodriguez knows he’s the focus, and perhaps a bull’s-eye. The $252 million contract, the good looks, the gaudy stats all combine to attract the spotlight. And then he went and joined the Yankees, where not just every hit and out is recorded, but also every breath and stare, smile and pout.
He spent much of 2004 struggling with a new team, a new position and a new lifestyle in a new town. A-Rod became one of those one-name-only New Yorkers, such as Donald, Martha and Rudy, liked and loathed in equal amounts.
But this year he’s back to being one of baseball’s best players, a Triple Crown threat who has helped keep the Yankees from sinking during their most dismal first half in a decade.
He jokes, he laughs, he smiles.
And he hits, too.
“Scrutiny follows me everywhere I go,” he said during an interview at Yankee Stadium. “If you were to just read about me, you would think I’m a committed felon sometimes. It’s just the way things are with me, especially after I left Seattle. Before that, I couldn’t do anything wrong, which is kind of funny.”
In June he became the first twentysomething to hit 400 homers – he doesn’t turn 30 until July 27. He’s a nine-time All-Star, a two-time Gold Glove winner and the 2003 American League MVP.
But in the Bronx, that counts for … nothing.
That’s because he has no World Series rings.
He’s in a clubhouse in which Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams, Mariano Rivera and Tino Martinez have four each, a quartet of Yankee heroes beloved by fans for their feats on October nights. He’s never ridden down Broadway in a parade, ticker tape fluttering down on his gold-tinged hair.
Reggie Jackson knows the feeling. He won the A.L. MVP award with Oakland in 1973 and helped the Swingin’ A’s to three World Series titles. But he became Mr. October only when he won championships with the Yankees in 1977 and 1978.
“It’s been harder for him than any other player that has come here since,” Jackson said. “He carried himself like the player he was, a great player, and that doesn’t sit well with a lot of people. He was a great player before he got here. Now you have to prove that all over again when you get here.”
Rodriguez said in May that he had been seeing a therapist at the behest of his wife, becoming one of the few athletes not to publicly shrink from the topic. His father, Victor, left his family when he was 9, which deeply hurt his young son.
“I’ve gotten more positive response for that than for anything else,” Rodriguez said, adding that perhaps fans find the disclosure of his therapy made him “more real, more touchable, like one of them, maybe.”
“I think they can relate with me because of that,” he said.
He’s also more popular with Yankees fans this year because he’s back up among the major league leaders. He entered today with a .320 average, 23 homers and 72 RBIs, including 10 in one night against the Los Angeles Angels on April 26, when he hit three home runs.
The St. Louis Cardinals’ Albert Pujols and Rodriguez are consensus picks to have the best chance at becoming the first player to win a Triple Crown since Boston’s Carl Yastrzemski in 1967.
“The expectation level is so high,” Jeter said. “It’s impossible, probably, for him to reach our expectation level.”
Jason Giambi knows exactly what Rodriguez went through. He won the A.L. MVP award with the Athletics in 2000, then got a $120 million, seven-year deal from the Yankees and battled early in 2002, his first season in New York.
“There’s another level being here. There’s a lot of other responsibilities. You’re on the biggest stage in the world,” Giambi said. “It’s a different type of pressure because you put it on yourself more than anybody else because you want to play well here. You come in here to win a world championship. As soon as you walk through this door, anything less than you having a great season and getting to the World Series is kind of a failure.”
Rodriguez had been in New York plenty of times before – he was born in the Washington Heights section of Upper Manhattan, played at Yankee Stadium as a member of the Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers and made Christmastime visits, staying at a luxury midtown hotel.
But the Big Apple treats its own differently. On Feb. 17, 2004, hours before his introductory news conference, he met Yankees officials at The Regency, the morning gathering spot for many of New York’s movers and shakers and the hotel where Yankees owner George Steinbrenner stays when in town.
“I started at breakfast the first morning explaining to him this is like no other place. Things are going to be created here. You don’t have to have a smile on your face all the time. You’re allowed to be unhappy,” Yankees manager Joe Torre said. “Something that seems almost insignificant takes on a bigger life.”
Rodriguez had to deal last season with questions about his relationship with Jeter; his switch from shortstop to third base; his lack of production with men on base in the first half of 2004, the slap play against Boston in the A.L. Championship Series (in which he was mocked for knocking the glove off pitcher Bronson Arroyo).
This year began with criticism for discussing his off-season workout regimen, and sniping by the Red Sox during the early part of spring training. Boston outfielder Trot Nixon praised Rodriguez’s playing ability but said: “He can’t stand up to Jeter in my book or Bernie Williams or (Jorge) Posada.”
Rodriguez rarely shows displeasure. He’s so well spoken, his answers to postgame questions sometimes seem like they’re polished to a sheen. And those answers often are blared across back pages, front pages and the airwaves, unlike anything he had to deal with before.
“Everything is intensified,” he said. “It intensifies to the umph degree.”
That caused him to build sort of a cocoon existence, not letting reporters or other newcomers get too close. He walks into the clubhouse in blue jeans (and lately an Arsenal soccer jersey), changes into his uniform and quickly heads out to the field, the batting cage or the players lounge.
“I don’t let anyone in anymore,” he said. “I learned, you just can’t trust anyone. You trust your teammates, and you trust your family and friends.”
He says his relationship with his teammates is good, that the reason they didn’t come to his defense during the Red Sox trash talk was that it was insignificant. It doesn’t bother him that it appeared to some that his teammates wouldn’t defend him.
“I don’t care what the perception is,” he said. “You think when I’m 50 years old, someone is going to say in 2005 there was a little feud? Who cares? Not important.”
Tabloids and talk radio don’t look that far down the road. For many fans, the only thing that matters is the last game – an attitude that filters down from Steinbrenner at the top of the pinstriped pyramid.
When he got key hits last year in the first-round playoff win over Minnesota – Rodriguez hit .421 with three doubles and a homer – he was a hero. When his 20-10 vision didn’t prevent him from going 2 for 17 in the final four games of the ALCS, he was a bum.
Rodriguez said after the collapse against Boston that he felt “embarrassed.” Torre said he’s cautioned Rodriguez that he doesn’t have to be a team spokesman.
“That’s one thing I think was the toughest thing for him to adjust to,” the manager said. “He’s been the one that’s always been the voice of every club he’s been on. That’s not necessary here. Not that you want to ignore him, but he certainly doesn’t need to be the face of this team, having to talk about the losing game, the winning game and how he affects it and all that stuff.”
Rodriguez went to Texas with huge expectations, as well as a record 10-year contract, as a free agent before the 2001 season. The Rangers raised ticket prices about $2 each right after he signed his contract, still the richest in sports history, and hoped he would lead the team to its first World Series berth.
Then the Rangers finished last in his first season, 43 games out.
And they finished last in his second season, 31 games out.
In his third season, they were still last, 25 games out, and he didn’t get along with new manager Buck Showalter – who regarded Rodriguez as a prima donna.
In February 2004, three months after Rodriguez won the A.L. MVP award and two months after a deal with Boston fell through, the Rangers traded Rodriguez to the Yankees for Alfonso Soriano, agreeing to pay $67 million of the $179 million Rodriguez was owed.
He switched to third because of Jeter, the Yankees’ shortstop, captain and fan favorite. Rodriguez spent early morning hours at spring training fielding hundreds of grounders. He spent many hours conducting interviews.
But his first season began with a bust, a 1-for-17 performance during a four-game April series at Fenway Park. He went on to hit .286 with 36 homers and 106 RBIs during the season, his lowest average since 1999 and his fewest homers and RBIs since 1997. With runners in scoring position, he hit .248. And he was 0 for 10 with the bases loaded until a three-run double against Tampa Bay on Sept. 6.
Those XXL gloves were failing to whip the bat through the strike zone the way they had before.
“That’s not a very good year for him,” Jackson said. “The homers was all right, but the RBIs – he’s not a .285 hitter, that’s not a good average for him.”
He’s made a number of adjustments this year, and not just on the field. His first child, Natasha Alexander, was born in November.
Instead of living in the hotel where he spent early last season, he’s in a rental apartment on Manhattan’s East Side. Instead of listening to Frank Sinatra before he goes to the ballpark, he puts on hip-hop. Instead of having a car take him to Yankee Stadium, he drives himself.
“I feel like a New Yorker when I drive,” he said. “When you’re driven, you almost feel like a tourist.”
Hitting coach Don Mattingly notices Rodriguez is far more comfortable this year. Mattingly, who played for the Yankees in 1982-95, has seen big stars come to New York and flop.
“There’s expectations. They’ve already established themselves numbers-wise in other places,” he said.
And there’s no preparation for the fishbowl existence of the Yankees clubhouse.
“Until you actually go through the day-to-day stuff you deal with,” he said, breaking into a knowing smile. “You’ve got to experience it.”
This year, Rodriguez is more focused at the plate and has hit when it matters: He has a .304 average with runners in scoring position and is 4 for 8 with 12 RBIs when batting with the bases loaded. He’s cut down on his availability to reporters, usually dressing quickly after games and then going home with his wife, Cynthia.
A player who’s far from routine has gotten a routine down in the Bronx.
“That’s part of learning in your first year and moving on, assessing your first year and making adjustments,” he said.
He can never be one of those one-team-only Yankees, such as Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford and Mattingly. But, with a ring, Rodriguez would stamp himself a winner, perhaps earning a Yankees cap on his Hall of Fame plaque.
Players admire his feats. Approval from fans, however, depends on the bottom line. Remember, the song played endlessly at Yankee Stadium reminds players all the time that they must be “king of the hill, top of the heap.”
“He’s good looking, he speaks well,” Jackson said. “He’s very confident about himself, which he has earned and has the right to be. And a lot of people are jealous of him. They’ll appreciate him when he’s gone.”