A chat with A-Rod:
Rodriguez talks about his teammates, the present and future and a year away to reflect on missteps.
He hears the boos everywhere, but nowhere with more gusto and less mercy than at this place. Still, Fenway Park is special, he says. He made his major league debut here, 19 days shy of his 19th birthday in 1994. He also hit his 660th home run here in May.
On the last Friday of the first half, after hitting a home run against the Boston Red Sox and rounding the bases, Alex Rodriguez gave his batting gloves to a boy sitting in the first row near the New York Yankees’ on-deck circle. The look on the boy’s face — and that of his dad’s — told everything. Although neither had on Red Sox or Yankees regalia, they likely are now A-Rod fans.
But the gesture was not part of a personal public relations campaign, trying to sway opinions or perceptions, getting people to like him, Rodriguez says.
“No, no, I don’t know if I can change that,” he says. “I’m too old for that.
“But this is kind of a unique setup, where you have a long walk from the dugout to the on-deck circle, and the wall is so low. So you get a real chance to interact with the fans. ... I told the kid that if I hit a home run, I would give him a ball or something. I forget what I said. And then the dad said, ‘Well, how about if you just get a hit?’ I said, ‘OK, that’s a deal, too.’ It’s just nice to share those moments.”
Rodriquez, who turns 40 on July 27, entered the 2015 season surrounded by questions, concerns and controversy after more than 18 months away from the game while serving a suspension for using performance-enhancing drugs. Would his surgically repaired hips hold out? How would he fit into the Yankees clubhouse?
“He’s earned his spot,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi says. “I kind of talked to him about it before the season. It’s almost like being a rookie again, where you have to earn your spot. And that’s exactly what he’s done.”
Rodriguez began the season batting seventh for the Yankees. He has moved up to the third spot and solidified the lineup. He is batting .278 with a .898 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, 18 home runs and 51 RBI.
He leads qualified designated hitters in home runs, on-base percentage (.382) and slugging percentage (.515) and is third in batting average.
“I always had high expectations for him,” first baseman Mark Teixeira says. “Because I knew as a DH it would really help out his body, not having to pound on his legs every day at third base was really going to help his bat.
“I think he’s handled it very well this season. It’s been a tough couple of years for him. But this year he’s kind of owned up to what happened and hasn’t dodged any questions. He’s gone out there and is playing the game and proven a lot of people wrong.”
It wasn’t a matter of allowing him back into the fold, his teammates say.
“We don’t need to take him back,” outfielder Carlos Beltran says. “He’s part of the team. We didn’t think about it. I think all the speculation that goes around the media, we think differently than the media.
“We’re a team, so we’ve got to support each other. It doesn’t matter what you have done in the past.”
Catcher Brian McCann is in his second season with the Yankees, his first with Rodriguez as a teammate.
“Getting to know him, watching him go about his business every day has been absolutely incredible,” McCann says. “His work ethic is second to none. He’s there willing to help you out daily. It’s been very impressive to watch every day.”
“He probably knows the game better than any teammate I’ve ever had before,” says outfielder Chris Young, also in his second season with the Yankees. “So, seeing how the game’s moving along, little tips I can pick up here and there to help win the game. If he sees something in my swing, he lets me know right away what he’s seeing, and we’ll go in the cage together. We’ll work together. We’ll go out to dinner together.”
‘GRATEFUL, APPRECIATIVE’
Rodriguez, who has made three starts in the field — two at third base, one at first — didn’t know what the season would bring.
“First of all, I (had not) been on the field for a long time,” he says. “I was nervous and anxious, like a rookie going into spring training. I truly didn’t know what to expect at any level.”
His 3,020th career hit Sunday, a sixth-inning double that helped the Yankees stretch their American League East lead to 31⁄2 games, tied Rafael Palmeiro for 25th on the all-time hits list.
“Never count out great players,” Red Sox manager John Far-
rell says. “He’s had a tremendous year. He’s obviously in great shape. The bat speed is there.”
Rodriguez enters the second half as one of the most important players in the Yankees clubhouse, a vital part of a first-place team.
“If I had to give you two or three words, it would be grateful, appreciative, thankful,” Rodriguez says. “To the organization and to the league for giving me an opportunity to re-enter the game under difficult circumstances for everyone.”
He and the Yankees even ended their feud over the bonus he was due for tying Willie Mays with home run No. 660 on May 1 by agreeing to donate $3.5 million to charity.
“I think he’s done a good job,” Girardi says. “I think he understood where he was at, what he was going to go through, and I think he’s done it in a humble fashion, and he’s tried to give back. I think he’s really trying to do the right thing.”
Girardi said he probably would have to plan strategic days off for his DH. Rodriguez continues to be an important bat in the middle of the lineup.
He is signed through 2017. How long he wants to keep playing, though, is uncertain.
Asked what he would like his legacy to be, Rodriguez pauses before answering.
“I don’t know,” he says. “I’d like to think I’m still working on that. Hopefully writing my last few chapters, and I just hope it includes another world championship because 2009 has been my proudest moment as a Yankee and in my 21-year career.”
He nearly saw that career taken away from him. What has he learned from his experience?
“Do you have enough paper?” he asked with a wry smile, pointing to a reporter’s notebook. “I’ve learned you have to be accountable for your mistakes. You have to surround yourself with good people, and there’s consequences to your decisions. I just hope to finish my career doing the right things and making my mother and my (two) daughters proud.”
But there is a question that will always hang over him: Why did he do it?
He pauses again, this time for more than 30 seconds. He doesn’t shy away from the answer. But it’s one he’s still searching for.
“I need to think about that a little more,” he says.
It’s a question he has asked himself.
“I’m trying to make the best out of a tough situation here.”