WHY WORRY? Brett Gardner, blasting a three-run homer in the second, said he doesn’t have time to be concerned with the accusations against Alex Rodriguez. (Neil Miller)
I want to let you in on a secret, so come closer. No, closer. OK, no one in the Yankees clubhouse cares about what is going on with Alex Rodriguez and Biogenesis and possible 100-game suspensions.
We ask the questions. Because we are supposed to. They answer the questions. Because they are supposed to. But it is all dumb theater. A stupid script that probably should be ripped up.
These guys become professionals because of, yes, the freakish athleticism, but also because they are so good at blocking out stuff that obsesses you on your sofa or us behind a keyboard.
In group interviews — after grimacing when the subject becomes clear — players find the most tactful way to say nothing and something at the same time. But when I got a few Yankees alone, it was clear that what is going on with A-Rod is like what is going on with the replay debate, something that is circling around them that they don’t really have time for now.
For example, when I asked Phil Hughes if anyone with the Yanks cared about the A-Rod hullabaloo, he said, “probably not in this room. You hear stuff, but you are immune to it. This is not like football where you don’t play six days a week. We play every day, so who has time for that?”
This is not selfishness as much as survival. As Brett Gardner said, “I am too busy to worry about what I don’t have to worry about.” Or Chris Stewart, who offered, “It doesn’t affect us here. The 25 guys who have been here have done a good job of worrying about who is here, not who is not.”
This only rises to relevance if A-Rod actually makes it back from hip surgery and skirts suspension. Then when Rodriguez is in the Yankees’ presence, we will see if he impacts the clubhouse ecosystem and if he can still play and help, or if he is just a 24/7 distraction. In the now, he is a detached story in the papers and on TV to this club.
Heck, half this team is made up of Reid Brignacs and Preston Claibornes and Adam Warrens who have no relationship with A-Rod and are trying to figure out how to stay Yankees, not about MLB’s case against its Most Wanted. The Yanks have gotten to 34-25 without Rodriguez and a bunch of other seemingly important pieces, largely by ignoring the absent and concentrating on the job.
“Only negatives could come on dwelling on people not here,” Stewart said.
It is understandable why the front office is fixated on Rodriguez. If he doesn’t play this year because of his hip surgery, the Yankees will recoup about 80 percent of his contract via insurance. If he is actually suspended for 100 games, that would be about $15 million saved. Maybe the right set of dominoes could play out where A-Rod just decides to retire, which might provide another insurance-based financial bonanza. Or the MLB investigation could open the slim road for the Yankees to try to void the remainder of his contract (don’t hold your breath).
But the players? They don’t take any of this into the batter’s box or onto the field. It is in the clubhouse really only when they are asked about it, roll their eyes, take a deep breath, and give rote answers. And this isn’t even a broadside at Rodriguez. No one is thinking much about Derek Jeter, who is more beloved, or Curtis Granderson or Michael Pineda.
In the world around the Yankees, yesterday might have been about Rodriguez being chased by the baseball law again. But for the Yankees it was about CC Sabathia, who was perfect early and persistent late when the team needed him to go the distance to rest a taxed pen. It was about another former Indian, Travis Hafner, cranking a two-run homer and Gardner a three-run shot that gave him six homers this year. That is six more than Rodriguez has. Six more than A-Rod might have all season. Maybe the rest of his career.
“We keep going,” Sabathia said when asked what happens if A-Rod is suspended for 100 games.
Which is funny, too. What if A-Rod is suspended from a season he is not even participating? Is that the tree falling in the forest of baseball?
Again, he is not here. He might be in July or August, and then these Yankees are going to have to adapt to the real thing — life with Alex. Until then, this is like a series playing on the clubhouse TVs above their heads — The Hunt for Alex.
They know the guy in the pictures, but there is a season to play. So they don’t much care.
joel.sherman@nypost.com