ANAHEIM, Calif. — When someone brought up an A-Rod question to Torii Hunter yesterday in a group interview, the Angels center fielder clearly wanted to move away from the subject of Alex Rodriguez and the slugger’s pounding of the Angels, saying, “Next question.”
Later, after the media crowd departed, Hunter again was asked about the new Mr. A-Rod-tober and how far he has come this season. Rodriguez started the year talking about “Boli” and apologizing for his steroid use. He started spring training under a huge drug shadow.
At the time it looked as though Rodriguez’s world completely had blown up and that his chances of regaining his unique stature in the game had slipped away. The Yankees were stuck with A-Rod and all his troubles.
This postseason, though, Rodriguez has created a whole new clutch name for himself, and Hunter is quick to give him credit for that all-around, turnaround success.
“Today, what is he? He’s the real deal,” Hunter said of Rodriguez, who has hit in nine straight postseason games, has homered in the last three games, has five homers this postseason, and has driven in a run in eight straight postseason games. He is batting .375 in the ALCS and .407 for the postseason.
There still is a long way to go, because October really means success in the World Series, but Rodriguez is knocking on the door. To make this truly a season to remember, Rodriguez will have to keep up this kind of production in the World Series, provided the Yankees take care of business against the Angels and win one more game. They lead this series, 3-1 and will look to clinch tonight.
“He may have made his mistakes, just like everybody else made mistakes,” Hunter told The Post. “But it’s how he handled it after he admitted he made a mistake. It seems like he’s handling it pretty well. He’s doing good. I definitely feel these next 10 years are going to be crucial to him, just proving how he acts in the public eye and everything, and I definitely feel he’ll be in the Hall of Fame.”
Simply put, A-Rod peers are amazed with what Rodriguez is doing and how hard he is hitting the baseball, how relaxed he is at the plate. He is a one-man wrecking crew, and Hunter said the key mechanical adjustment for Rodriguez is that he has shortened his swing. But his success is more than that.
“If he can do what he’s doing without that stuff,” Hunter said of performance enhancing drugs, “that’s amazing. And he’s been doing it without it.”
Hunter has been watching Rodriguez perform on a baseball field for a long, long time. Eighteen years ago he saw what kind beast was coming baseball’s way.
“When we were about 16 we played together in the Junior Olympics,” Hunter said. When Hunter went back home to Arkansas he told everyone about this phenom he had as a teammate.
“I promise you, I knew what type of player he was when I left the Junior Olympics and when I went back to high school I told all my friends, ‘You are going to see the greatest player ever.’
“Back then everybody was asking, ‘Is he better than Shawon Dunston?’ Shawon was big back then. I said, ‘Ten times.’ ”
Hunter said he has seen a change in Rodriguez disposition.
“He’s having fun and everything,” Hunter said. “He’s the highest paid hitter in the game ever. No one is going to pay you that kind of money unless you’ve got that in you.
“I wouldn’t pay anyone unless they got it in him. He’s got it in him. CC’s got it in him,” Hunter said of Sabathia. “Mark Teixeira has got it in him.”
The Yankees have it going; the Angels don’t seem to have a prayer. They don’t have anyone who compares with A-Rod, who is finally in a league of his own postseason zone.