SMOOTH SAILING: Alex Rodriguez, not Derek Jeter (above), has been the player who has managed to avoid controversy lately, Post columnist Joel Sherman says. (AP)
SMOOTH SAILING: Alex Rodriguez (above), not Derek Jeter, has been the player who has managed to avoid controversy lately, Post columnist Joel Sherman says. (Neil Miller)
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CLEVELAND — In this bizarro portion of the Yankees schedule, Derek Jeter is the controversial one and Alex Rodriguez is — wait for it — the singles hitter with “intangibles.”
Jeter is going for a milestone amid a firestorm that he cannot extinguish and, boy, doesn’t that remind us of someone else on the team. It is like one of those body-switch movies Hollywood adores so much. Who will Nicolas Cage play this time?
Jeter was in another of those uncomfortable positions he has been in a lot recently, exasperated as he explained in the pregame how he successfully pleaded his case to get into last night’s lineup.
Then he had the kind of game that justified his desire to start. More of that and the debates about how much he should play and where he should bat will quiet, as well.
He walked and doubled to move within three hits of 3,000 as the Indians prevailed 5-3. Jeter now has an extra-base hit in each of the past two games or one more than Rodriguez has in his last nine. How the bizarro world turns.
Not long ago, in the early years of their union as Yankees, Jeter had distaste for and distance from Rodriguez because — among other things — the orderly shortstop did not like the soap-opera distractions Rodriguez routinely caused, and his inability or unwillingness to douse the flames quickly.
But now the four-alarm blaze is around Jeter and — to his dismay — he is having difficulty tempering the heat.
Meanwhile, Rodriguez has slid under the radar despite going 81 at-bats without a homer, the longest single-season drought of his career. That would have consumed all other life around the Yankees for most of A-Rod’s tenure. But, of all things, Jeter’s issues are overshadowing everything with the Yankees. Rodriguez has remained quiet, avoided the public psychiatrist couch he used to favor where he would inevitably say a knucklehead thing that would turn Yankees coverage into all-A-Rod, all-the-time.
He actually even is performing in a Jeter-esque fashion. While fourth on the team in homers with 13, Rodriguez led in batting (.299) and singles (his 58 is one more than Jeter has). And when you ask about his value to the club, you get another Jeter-esque similarity.
“I don’t think Alex gets enough credit for the intangibles,” hitting coach Kevin Long said. “This guy is always helping teammates maximize what we do.”
Whether it is talking secondary leads with Nick Swisher or the proper moments to bunt with Brett Gardner or lecturing Boone Logan on having a plan worked out well before facing a key lefty, Rodriguez has a baseball gym rat side he likes to share. He has mentored Robinson Cano and is forming an association with Eduardo Nunez. And, yes, his relationship with Jeter is now rather tension free; actually it approaches relaxed, respectful and comfortable.
He, of course, will never replace Jeter in hearts or minds of Yankees world. Jeter is homegrown and a cornerstone to dynasty. He never was reckless with words or deeds like Rodriguez. So, for example, A-Rod’s 700th homer will not be met with near the warmth, appreciation and adoration that Jeter’s 3,000th hit will evoke from the faithful. Nevertheless, he has come a long way baby as a Yankee, able to meld into the background; not feeling the insecurities that would trigger a need to step on Jeter’s moment or to embrace a new controversy.
Still, Rodriguez is not paid to be a singles hitter, and thus is getting a big break now that Jeter is dominating Yankees coverage. He hurt his right knee June 19 in Wrigley Field and has run gingerly and swung more with his upper body since then. It would be no surprise if he begged out of the All-Star game to rest those weary legs, tried to find a way to regenerate a cleanup game for the second half.
Which is a reminder that Rodriguez turns 36 in three weeks and is facing a fourth straight year of declining slugging percentage. He would be under a microscope about his absent power, retreating skills and if he is going to become a financial albatross to the Yankees, except there is someone else already absorbing the substantial majority of questions on those subjects.
The suddenly controversial 37-year-old shortstop of the Yankees.