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Lightning Rod: the Yankees' Alex Rodriguez has a talent for playing baseball—and ticking off his peers

Sporting News, The, April 15, 2005 by Ken Rosenthal

Alex Rodriguez scores on Hideki Matsui's bases-loaded double, and Gary Sheffield follows him down the third base line, ready to give the Yankees a 5-0 lead in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series.

"Run him over! Run him over!" Rodriguez yells at Sheffield, imploring him to barrel through Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek.

Sheffield scores, and Varitek turns to Rodriguez. "You would never do it," Varitek replies sneeringly.

The incident reveals two Rodriguez traits that infuriate oppolents--his irritating rah-rah act and his perceived pretty-boy approach. Then there's the biggest reason Rodriguez is openly disparaged by his peers: Many view him as a phony whose polished media act is anything but sincere.

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The focus on Rodriguez is as intense as ever as he enters his second season with the Yankees, one year after The Trade. His adjustment period over, he needs to reclaim his status as the best player in the game to satisfy the rising expectations of Yankees owner George Steinbrenner.

Denigrated by several Red Sox players early in spring training, Rodriguez has become the central figure in the biggest rivalry in U.S. sports. And with the Yankees playing the Red Sox in six of their first nine games, he's facing another opportunity to solidify his reputation in pinstripes.

At a time when some of the game's biggest stars are under scrutiny for their possible use of performance-enhancing drugs, criticism of Rodriguez's personality seems almost trivial. Yet even though Rodriguez maintains a squeaky-clean image, the attention he is drawing for peripheral issues threatens the appreciation of his Hall of Fame talent.

Rodriguez, who will turn 30 on July 27, dismisses such talk. He says he has received ample praise throughout his career, adding that disapproval from the Red Sox and others "doesn't matter." But his agent, Scott Boras, acknowledges that Rodriguez was eager to please during his first season with the Yankees, giving credence to the impression that Rodriguez, at times, was less than genuine.

"When you come to New York and you're there with an established team, playing with people you respect, it's like walking into someone else's home," Boras says. "You're going to be on your best behavior. You're not there to put your feet up on a chair and be yourself. You're there to learn the landscape of the home. Then, when the mortgage comes and the house is yours, you know more about who the person is."

The question is whether that day ever will come. Yankee Stadium, The House that Ruth Built, now is The House of Derek Jeter. Rodriguez is a superior defensive shortstop, but he moved to third base upon joining the Yankees to allow Jeter to remain at short. Jeter, the Yankees' captain, is a four-time World Series champion. Rodriguez, playing for his third team, hasn't been in a World Series.

The difference in how they are perceived is illustrated by the plays that defined them in 2004--Jeter's startling dive into the stands to catch a foul ball in a July 1 game against the Red Sox and Rodriguez's desperate attempt to slap the ball out of Sox pitcher Bronson Arroyo's glove in Game 6 of the ALCS.

"People in the media and fans don't get the look that we get on the field," says Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, perhaps Rodriguez's most outspoken critic. "There are things he's done and said that I've heard--I've seen--that I have a huge problem with, and I think other guys do, too."

Judging from the views of former teammates, opposing players and rival executives interviewed for this story, Schilling appears to be right. When asked about Rodriguez, players often roll their eyes in silent disapproval.

During Rodriguez's tenure with the Rangers, he occasionally would make like a Little League coach, shouting basic instructions at his younger teammates. "Get a secondary lead!" he would yell to a runner on first. "Get a secondary lead!" After Rodriguez left the team, one prominent American League veteran asked a younger Ranger with a chuckle, "How are you even able to play without A-Rod telling you what to do?"

That same veteran speaks disdainfully about the way Rodriguez and Jeter race each other to the top step of the dugout to congratulate teammates and celebrate important plays. He makes Rodriguez sound like a know-it-all valedictorian, observing sarcastically, "He's trying to be the perfect player." And yet, like every other player, he holds Rodriguez's game in the highest esteem. In comparing Rodriguez and Jeter, the veteran says A-Rod is "10 times better."

Rodriguez grew up idolizing Cal Ripken, hanging a poster of the Orioles great on his bedroom wall. Ripken, 6-4 and 225 pounds, proved to Rodriguez and other tall, strapping youngsters that they could play shortstop. Rodriguez still patterns himself after Ripken, mimicking several of his on-field mannerisms, not to mention his off-field diplomacy. But Rodriguez hasn't yet engendered the universal admiration Ripken received throughout his career.

Lightning Rod: the Yankees' Alex Rodriguez has a talent for playing baseball—and ticking off his peers

Sporting News, The, April 15, 2005 by Ken Rosenthal

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