A-Rod does it better: Alex Rodriguez works hard to be the game's best player: slugging third baseman earning his pinstripes as baseball's top all-around performer

Baseball Digest, Oct, 2005 by Tom Gage

ALEX RODRIGUEZ TURNED 30 LAST JULY 27, A NO longer a kid.

Sure shows, doesn't it?

At the time of his birthday, the poor guy was barely on a pace to hit 43 home runs this year, barely on a pace to knock in 135 runs ... and there's no chance at all, none, that he'll have 500 career home runs by the end of the season.

Rest your weary bones, old man. You're falling apart.

Not.

A-Rod has gracefully, impressively and progressively become what everyone predicted he would be, the consummate talent--and, therefore, the consummate All-Star.

He plays his position well, hits a ton, gets along with his teammates and says nothing whatsoever that would ...

* Get him in trouble.

* Make headlines.

* Embarrass his family or neighbors.

* Irritate his bosses--in this case, THE Boss.

Plus, he's the youngest player ever to hit 400 home runs.

He's the guy you detested in fifth grade because he did everything well, said all the right things, made it look easy, and you didn't.

BE THE BEST

Has it really come easily for Rodriguez, though?

Not exactly. His natural talent gave him a head start, but "he takes nothing for granted," Yankees manager Joe Torre said. "Nothing. His work ethic is the best. Kids should all be aware of that.

"With so much said about his natural ability, some people think he doesn't have to do much, but his work ethic is the best. He just physically works at it."

Just as he's worked to overcome those who would take him down a notch.

"If you were to just read about me," Rodriguez recently told Ron Blum of The Associated Press, "you would think I'm a committed felon sometimes."

Just as he also worked to recover when his father, Victor, left his family.

Rodriguez was born in New York. His family moved to the Dominican Republic and then to Miami. By the time Alex was 10, his father was gone. With three children to support, Rodriguez's mother worked two jobs--secretary during the day, waitress at night.

"It was hard," Rodriguez told Sports Illustrated. "I did my best around the house and bring home good grades to make my mom proud. All the love I had for him, I just gave to my mother. She deserved it."

What began to drive Rodriguez as a boy is the same motivation that drives him now as a man.

It's not the money, with which he's been handsomely, even uniquely rewarded. His $252 million contract with the Texas Rangers after the 2000 season stunned the entire baseball industry.

Leaving the Mariners for such an amount is the reason Rodriguez still gets booed whenever he returns to Seattle.

But his former Mariners infield-mate, Joey Cora, said Rodriguez isn't in it for the money.

"He's in it to be the best," said Cora, who played second base for the Mariners for four of the years that A-Rod was the shortstop.

Cora was so convinced he's correct in his analysis of A-Rod that he said "he wants to be the best" or the equivalent eight times during a three-minute interview.

"He wants to be the best player ever, no doubt," Cora said. "He worked harder than anybody else because he wants to be the best and he might be that by the end of his career.

"I don't see two personalities as some people say, I see a guy driven by the fact he wants to be the best player ever. He'll do whatever it takes to get there, whatever is asked. If it means taking your mother out at second base, he'll do it.

"That's the way I see him. With Seattle, he wanted to know everything about baseball, so he asked everybody questions. But I tell you, he wants to be the best player ever. That's what drives him. In my opinion, he has a pretty good chance.

"Obviously he has an enormous amount of talent, you've never seen talent like that. But I've seen players with a lot of talent who end up satisfied with just being good, make a few All-Star teams and that's that.

"But A-Rod isn't about All-Star teams, he's about being the best ever. That's what he wants."

What about winning a World Series?

"He wants to win a World Series," Cora said. "But for me, his No. 1 reason to be a baseball player is to be the best ever. What puts A-Rod above others with talent is that he knows he's talented but wants to keep working at it to be the best ever.

"Great guy, no doubt about that, but he has to work his butt off. I don't think he has an offseason. I can imagine him on his honeymoon working out."

His honeymoon? Need you ask why? "Because he wants to be the best player ever."

Tigers catcher Pudge Rodriguez, the I-Rod in Texas to Alex's A-Rod, said he thinks it could happen.

"I bet he can break all the records," Pudge said. "If he stays healthy, he can be the all-time home-run hitter. I think he can. His swing is always there, he's always driving the ball. He's a strong kid, a guy I respect a lot.

"If he stays healthy, he's going to break every record you can think about."

NEW YORK FRAME OF MIND

If you hadn't noticed, A-Rod has adjusted to playing in New York.

Switching from shortstop to third base, and from Texas to the big city, he actually felt some pressure. More than that, he looked as if he felt some pressure--which might have been a first.