Sun, Apr 04, 2004 page22

• A-Rod enjoys his rock-star status in NY

  MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL Alex Rodriguez's massive US$252 million contract isn't special in the Yankees' clubhouse, but he still is a lightning rod for attention

  • AP
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  Alex Rodriguez must have had a premonition.

  Before just about every game he played for the Texas Rangers last year, he put on a recording of Frank Sinatra's greatest hits as he got dressed to go to the ballpark. Now, he's in the center of the bright lights of New York, New York, counted on to bring a World Series title to the Yankees.

  

  New York Yankees' outfielder Alex Rodriguez, center, prior to a game against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays at the Tokyo Dome in Japan, Wednesday. The Yankees won 12-1.

  PHOTO: EPA

  "I just really think it's the greatest city in the world. It's the biggest challenge that a ballplayer can have," he says. "I think when it's all said and done and we're old and gray and fat, it's like the Sinatra song, either you made it or you didn't make it."

  He'll be under scrutiny like he's never known it. He went 1-for-9 with no RBIs in the opening series against Tampa Bay in Tokyo. A few more games like that, and Yankees owner George Steinbrenner is likely to make his opinions known in the usual manner -- blared across tabloid back pages.

  His US$252 million contract may not stick out in the Yankees' clubhouse of All-Star multimillionaires the way it did in Texas, but A-Rod still is a lightning rod for attention. If there's no business like show business on Broadway, there's nothing like the Yankees in baseball.

  "Every little thing you do -- and sometimes you don't even have to do anything -- and you're talked about," says Derek Jeter, his new partner on the left side of the infield. "The biggest thing is everything is under the microscope here."

  Coming off his first AL MVP award, the Gold Glove shortstop agreed to move to third base in order to get out of Texas and put on the pinstripes. His relationship with Jeter already had been dissected. Rodriguez says he just wants to fit in.

  He didn't in Texas, especially last year. He tired of the losing, and didn't seem to get along with manager Buck Showalter.

  At first, it appeared he was headed to Boston. But that deal fell through. Then came the mid-February trade to New York, the city where he was born, up in Washington Heights.

  All through the offseason, Rodriguez and his wife, Cynthia, seemed a little agitated. He's not used to that. During his time in the public eye, he's always been a model: Slick in a suit or uniform, hair in place, teeth pearly white.

  "For me, it's the most emotional I've ever been in my life," he recalled one afternoon at Legends Field, the Yankees' spring training base. "I try to pride myself to be pretty cool under pressure. My emotions got the best of me there. We didn't know where we were going to go."

  And then came the deal on Feb. 16.

  "It happened so quick, and I was so jaded with the Boston [situation], I really didn't believe it," he says.

  While he went to Tampa to make the transition to third base, Cynthia came to Manhattan to make the switch to New York.

  Some players don't want to deal with the craziness of the city, preferring to largely limit themselves to leafy suburbs and the ballpark. Rodriguez, like Jeter, Hideki Matsui and Jason Giambi, is a New York kind of guy, looking forward to the restaurants, museums and urban life.

  He may be one of the few major leaguers to own a Picasso, a portrait of Jacqueline.

  "In the minor leagues, when I first came up, all my teammates would make fun of me because they were all buying two and three and four cars, and here I am saving up my money to buy a piece of art," he says.

  Rodriguez and his wife own three cars -- one for each plus a truck they share. But before he got married, he had another passion, one that brought him an outfitting deal with Giorgio Armani.

  "I used to be a clothes horse, but not any more," he says. "The last three or four years, I think my wife has taken a lot of that role."

  Cynthia laughs.

  "I have a lot of catching up to do," she says.

  Fans are more interested in his style on the field. Just 28, he's already hit 345 homers, including 197 in the last four seasons. He's a seven-time All-Star and two-time Gold Glove winner.

  His long, lanky swing usually is found with left-handed hitters, not righties. He has 20-10 vision in both eyes, and huge hands -- he wears XXL gloves. He uses his 1.90m, 99kg frame to maximize power through the strike zone.

  It's easy to tell when he's in the batting cage. He hits the ball so hard, it has a much louder sound coming off the bat, the same as Mark McGwire's in BP.

  "I think my hands have a lot do to with it," Rodriguez says.

  Because he's a right-handed hitter, his power statistics may decrease at Yankee Stadium, which is more favorable to lefties. He's a career .289 hitter in the Bronx with 14 homers and 32 RBIs in 41 games.

  "It's my favorite stadium in the world," he says. "I wouldn't admit that before, but privately I knew it was always my favorite. I love the energy. I love the background. They have great lights, real, real bright lights.''

  And how.

  Fans will be talking about him when he makes his home debut next Thursday against the Chicago White Sox.

  Then comes the first game at Boston, a nationally televised matchup on April 16.

  And a week later, the Red Sox play at Yankee Stadium for the first time since New York won Game 7 of last year's AL championship series.

  Compared to this, Dorothy had an uneventful trip to Oz.

  "I've had kind of a weird ability that the more chaotic things are around me, the better I play," he says. "My comfort level is probably in the eye in the storm, perhaps.''

  Some players take time to adjust. Just ask Giambi, who hit just four homers during his first month with the Yankees in 2002.

  "Learning to set my boundaries was the biggest thing," Giambi says. "You play on a team like the Yankees, you're a rock star."

  Yankees' fans are waiting to pounce. They can recite flops like Andy Hawkins, Ed Whitson and Jeff Weaver.

  "There are many players who are traded from other teams to the Yankees or the Mets in the history of baseball and failed in the first year or their second year because of the pressure of playing in New York," says former New York Mayor and Yankees fan Rudolph Giuliani.

  Rodriguez pushed for Texas to deal him because he wanted to play for a winner. He made it to the playoffs three times with Seattle but never made it to the World Series. With the Rangers, he finished last three times in three years.

  "In Seattle, it didn't bother me as much because my whole thing is I wanted to emerge as a major league baseball player. I didn't know if I was a major league baseball player, so I had to look in the mirror and say, win, lose or draw, man, I have a family to feed. It's that kind of urgency of survival.

  "In the middle point of your career, now you're trying to establish yourself, and maybe become an All-Star and become one of the better players in the league. And now, you get to a point where you've accomplished all that. Now the next step is to try to become world champions."

  He worked hard in spring training, arriving at 6:30am most days to work on the shift to third base. He talked about the switch analytically -- perhaps because he spent the offseason reading business books by Jack Welch and Donald Trump.

  During the season, when he's not at the ballpark, he watches baseball on television much of the time.

  He projects the image of a driven player, always with something to prove. At the ballpark, he always seems to be doing something. And when out on the town, he always appears dashing

  He disagrees with the notion that image is important to him.

  "We do enjoy our privacy," he says. "Image is a word that I don't like. I just think an image can be built over six months and it can be sometimes fake or not authentic. But a reputation is something that Wayne Gretzky and Dan Marino and these guys, they've built over 20 years. And I think that's what the fans get."
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