Alex Rodriguez understands.
He gets that not everyone will react positively to his latest cause. That the many who dislike him will not change their opinions based on the activity that brought him to New York on Sunday.
But there he was on Sunday, sitting at La Marina restaurant in Upper Manhattan, offering words of comfort and ideas to the family of Avonte Oquendo, the autistic 14-year-old who left his Long Island City school (Center Boulevard School) on Oct. 4 and, unable to communicate verbally, hasn’t been seen since.
“Damned if you do, damned if you don’t,” A-Rod told The Post, following a nearly two-hour get-together. “I’m doing this because it comes to my heart. This is a very serious situation. I have a lot of things I can do with my time. I thought for me, this was something that was important.”
So Rodriguez reached out to Fernando Mateo, president of Hispanics Across America — that’s right, the same group that has been protesting in front of Major League Baseball headquarters during the days of A-Rod’s appeal of his 211-game suspension — and Mateo and his deputy Sergio Rodriguez arranged for a meeting with the family here at this restaurant, of which he owns a share. Present were Oquendo’s mother, Vanessa Fontaine, his brother, Jason Fontaine; and his grandmother, Doris McCoy.
“I appreciate Alex coming to meet with us,” Jason Fontaine said. “He didn’t have to do this.”
A-Rod and Mateo created cotton blue, rubber bracelets that read: “AROD13 in solidarity with AVONTE OQUENDO.” Said Mateo: “We made about 1,000 of them. It reminds people that he’s still not here.”
That’s why Mateo invited The Post to attend this meeting. Oquendo’s family politely expressed their frustration that they’re losing momentum in their effort, since so much time has passed. “Most people think we found him,” Vanessa Fontaine said.
Their belief is that someone has taken in Oquendo, as he would have been found already if he were still walking around the city. “By now, if he was still in the same clothes, he’d be freezing,” Jason Fontaine said. “That was short sleeves.”
Search parties routinely survey the area surrounding Oquendo’s school, and A-Rod said he intends to appear soon in the neighborhood to generate further attention. “What we want to do,” Rodriguez said, “is participate as much as we can, physically.”
He flew up from Miami on Sunday to meet with Oquendo’s family, and said he was headed back to his South Florida home soon. His appeal hearing resumes in Manhattan on Nov. 18. “I’ll make time,” he said. “This is a priority right now.”
Alex Rodriguez hugging Brian, the 13 year old autistic nephew of Fernando Mateo, co-owner of La Marina restaurant in Upper Manhattan.
Vanessa Fontaine said they’re still looking for volunteers to come to the area around the school, so a chance to meet A-Rod — yes, plenty of fans still actually like him — could increase the enthusiasm for such an endeavor.
“We want to get Alex into the community and have him speak to people in the area,” Mateo said. “At the time [Oquendo] disappeared, it was the middle of the day. It was busy. Someone had to see something. Many people have poured their hearts out, but we haven’t had a big name.”
While A-Rod didn’t want to get into specifics, indications are that he’ll be donating money to the search — and as long as we’re on that subject, Oquendo’s family wanted it known that if you happen upon a website stating its collecting money on their behalf, it’s fraudulent. The age of social media seems to bring out the worst in many people, sadly.
And that brings us back to A-Rod. His name has been associated lately with chaos and negativity. It won’t be long at all before his attorneys and MLB’s attorneys are going at each other once again.
If people look at this episode as one of opportunism, he’ll deal with it. But there’s a family in great pain, and if A-Rod can use his fame to help them, then why not?
“I’m glad that I’m here,” he said. “I’m glad that I am going to be involved.”