Maybe all Alex Rodriguez wants from the Yankees is a “pat on the ass.”
Baseball’s hit king, Pete Rose, speaking on ESPN Radio yesterday about the much-maligned Yankees third baseman, said he never has seen a superstar player with such a “lack of confidence.”
“All the texts I had with A-Rod, and I got a lot of them from him and I texted him back, they were all about his confidence,” Rose told host Colin Cowherd. “For a guy making $25 [million], $27 million a year, hitting 50 home runs, knocking in 120 runs, hitting .300, I never seen a guy that was so lack of confidence like he was. All he needs someone to do is pat him on the ass every damn time, [say] how good he is or how good he was.”
Rodriguez is currently in limbo with the Yankees. He seems to be fully healed from offfseason surgery to repair a torn labrum in his hip. But over the weekend he complained about a tight quadriceps. The Yankees brought him to New York for an MRI exam, which showed a Grade 1 sprain. But a second opinion from Dr. Michael Gross turned up “nothing significant” from the exam, Gross said Wednesday.
Rodriguez released a statement yesterday, saying he and the team “crossed signals.” He is supposed to begin a rehab assignment by Thursday.
All of this is happening beneath a cloud of suspension for his involvement with performance-enhancing drugs. Brewers star Ryan Braun was banned for the rest of the season this week and he is tied to the same anti-aging clinic Biogenesis — as Rodriguez.
Rose, who is banned from the game for life due to gambling, advised drug cheats to “come clean as quickly as you can.
“If you come forward as quickly as possible, everybody is going to be better off,” Rose said. “They will get you. They have the resources, they have the investigators. They will nail you.”