Alex Rodriguez may have been referred to as “A-Fraud,” but it was in jest, says former Yankee coach Larry Bowa.
In Joe Torre’s latest book, “The Yankee Years,” it’s reported that Yankee players referred to A-Rod as “A-Fraud.”
But yesterday, Bowa – Torre’s third-base coach with the Dodgers who filled the same role with the Yankees in 2006-07 – told The Post that former Yankee bullpen catcher and batting-practice pitcher Mike Borzello, a good friend of A-Rod, used to joke around with the star player by sometimes referring to him as “A-Fraud.”
ANDY OKS 1-YEAR YANKEE PACT – WITH $10.5M PAY CUT
KERNAN: ON 2ND THOUGHT, PUT JOBA IN ‘PEN
Bowa, though, was adamant that it was always done as a joke, simply from one of A-Rod’s friends. Never, Bowa said, was it done with malice.
“I have never heard players say it,” Bowa said.
“When Alex walked in, [Borzello would] go, ‘What do you got today?’ ”
If Rodriguez felt good, he was referred to as A-Rod. If not, it might be A-Fraud, Bowa said.
He added it might even depend on the opponent – that if, say, Toronto’s Roy Halladay was on the mound, the joke might have been, “We might have a little A-Fraud today.”
“It wasn’t a malicious thing,” Bowa stressed. “It was when you stretch and guys joke around with each other. It wasn’t malicious at all.”
On a conference call yesterday, Yankee pitcher Andy Pettitte said he didn’t hear players referring to Rodriguez as “A-Fraud,” either. In fact, the veteran lefty said, he had “never one time heard of the term ‘A-Fraud’ until I saw it rolling on the TV” once news broke about Torre’s book.
“I have not heard one word and have never heard that term used before, and Alex is a very good friend of mine,” Pettitte said.
Added Johnny Damon yesterday, “We never called him that, not us.”
Rodriguez’s agent, Scott Boras, declined comment.
GM Brian Cashman speculated that perhaps this latest A-Rod situation could help things, rather than hurt them.
“I think we’ve gone through so much of the Alex stuff that, if anything, maybe this brings people closer together,” he said on a conference call.
Cashman also said that when Pettitte, Mariano Rivera and Rodriguez all were free agents two offseasons ago, both Rivera and Pettitte told Cashman, “We need Alex.”
“That was not asked for,” Cashman said. “It was offered up. There’s always going to be some controversy that surrounds this club, and the best thing to deal with it is [to] rally around each other the best you can if there’s real feelings there.”
Cashman also reiterated what he said on Sunday at the Baseball Writers’ Association of America Dinner in Manhattan, after the GM had received a call from Torre on Sunday from Hawaii.
“I don’t know what’s coming out in this book, and I’m sure there are aspects that I might not necessarily agree with,” Cashman said. “But I can just tell you I’m thankful for the time that Joe was here.
“I’m comfortable with my relationship and how we interacted throughout the entire process. And I appreciated his call from Hawaii, where he called me to lead me to believe that our relationship is strong. But I had not seen what is in this book, and I’ll just leave it at that.”
Additional reporting
by Kevin Kernan