On the opposite side of the spectrum from Alex Rodriguez stands Victor Cruz.
“I pinch myself every morning, man, every morning I wake up and I’m driving down here and I see the stadium … it’s a dream come true each and every time, man, I never take it for granted,” Victor Cruz tells The Post.
For a while there, before he was outed as a liar and cheat, possibly of Ruthian proportions pending MLB’s imminent verdict, Alex Rodriguez would be pinching himself, getting a dream chance to break Barry Bonds’ tainted home run record in pinstripes, doing it, no less, in the House That Ruth Built.
By most indications, Cruz, 26, appears to have a chance to be an anti-A-Rod as he catches the life of a celebrity and tries not to drop it.
“I don’t know, man. I try to not tell myself that I am one — the outside people looking in may call it that,” Cruz said, “but I just try to live my life comfortably and just go out and do normal things. But, obviously, it’s a little bit of a challenge. … But this is what you asked for. You want to be able to be a football player and go out there and make big plays and get all the notoriety. But obviously, all of that comes with some off-the-field notoriety, so you just got to live with it and roll with the punches and live your life as normal as possible.”
I showed Cruz I had written the word privacy on my list of questions for him on my iPhone, and he laughed.
“It’s tough. … You just try to not give so much,” he said. “You just try to be as inside as much as possible, only give yourself to your family and to your friends, and try to be as … introverted as possible, because [the media will] take anything and make it larger than what it is and make it a story. So you just try to stay close to your family and friends that keep you humble and keep you sane and just go from there.”
I asked Cruz to give me an example of how much of a challenge it is for him.
“You just want to do things that are normal, and sometimes that’s not possible,” he said. “You can’t go to the movies on a Saturday night with your family, or with your daughter. You can’t go to the Meadowlands Fair on a Saturday night when it’s going on because it’s going to be a challenge. You know, people notice you and they want pictures and they want a piece of your time. I mean, that’s just normal things that you have to deal with, and you go about them accordingly. I still do those things, but we just do it in a less invasive manner, I guess.”
Success came early to A-Rod, whose major-league debut came at the age of 18. Cruz showed up as a 23-year-old free agent from the University of Massachusetts. A-Rod blamed the pressures of living up to that obscene 10-year, $252 million contract from the Tom Hicks Rangers as the reason he turned to Aroids. MLB clearly has a case the Yankees’ 10-year, $275 million extension in 2007 didn’t help him stay clean. Cruz recently signed his five-year, $43 million deal.
“It won’t change me, I’m still the same person. I know where I came from. I know where I come from. I know where I grew up, I know my mother wouldn’t have it any other way, “ Cruz said. “She doesn’t care how much money’s in my bank account, how many cars I have — she doesn’t care about any of that stuff. As long as I remain the same Victor Cruz that comes by once or twice a week and helps out with my sister and helps out with taking the garbage out, helping her around the house, that’s exactly what she wants.”
Playing in the NFL so close to his Paterson, N.J. home would have been exactly what his father Mike Walker, who committed suicide in 2007, would have wanted. A-Rod grew up without a father figure. Walker made a major impact on Cruz, who can only imagine how his dad would have reacted the day his boy’s rags-to-riches dream became a multi-million dollar reality.
“At basketball games, he’s yelling at you because you went left instead of going right,” Cruz said, smiling again. “He’s one of those dads. He would have just been crazy. He would have been there with me hugging me. He would have been all over the place, telling all his friends. …. He would have went nuts.”
Cruz and his longtime girlfriend, Elaina, have an 18-month-old daughter named Kennedy. Cruz believes fatherhood has changed him.
“Oh man, it’s made me a more patient man. It’s made me a more caring individual — just understanding that someone wants to have you around all the time. They don’t care what’s going on in their life — win, lose or draw, they want you around. And that’s the one thing that keeps me going, is definitely her.”
Asked to describe her personality, Cruz said: “Oh man … she’s very, very bright, … is very inquisitive, … always bright-eyed, … always asking questions, ‘What’s that, who’s that?’ She always wants to know what’s going on. She looks around whenever she’s somewhere, she looks around, makes sure her surroundings are safe before she actually has fun. So she’s very inquisitive, and I love that about her.”
He laughs when I ask him how Elaina feels about him being a sex symbol now.
“I don’t think she’s fully aware that I’m a sex symbol right now,” Cruz said.
Are you?
“I’m not either, this is news to me,” Cruz said, still smiling. “I guess if that’s what I’m being categorized as it’s not half bad.”
He is represented by Roc Nation, has a personal relationship with Jay Z, and has become a darling of Madison Avenue, and of the Newton, Conn. community after he honored six-year-old Sandy Hook shooting victim Jack Pinto by writing the boy’s name on his cleats and gloves in a game against the Falcons and visiting the family in the aftermath of the tragedy.
“I kind of have all of my dream endorsements right now. I’m not going to let them out of the bag just yet, you’ll see them when they come out,” Cruz said with a smile. “It’s definitely a dream come true, the endorsements that I have, and I’m thankful for all of them because they see something in me that I probably didn’t see in myself growing up.”
Now it’s time to chase another Super Bowl. What can Giants fans expect from Victor Cruz?
“More of the same, more consistency, just catching the football, less drops. That’s my goal this year,” he said, “and hopefully some more salsa, so I’m trying to get in the end zone as much as possible.”
Do you know Alex Rodriguez?
“I’ve met him, I don’t really know him,” Cruz said.
Any thoughts about his imminent suspension from baseball?
“No, … I mean it’s unfortunate. You don’t want to see it happen to a guy like that, such a great player in his time, and a great player even now to this day. But you don’t want to see something like that happen, and it’s unfortunate.”
I said to Cruz: “Don’t change.”
He laughed on his way out the door and said: “Absolutely not!”