FT. LAUDERDALE – You can’t appreciate Alex Rodriguez, until he’s gone.
“Losing him would be a serious blow,” Dominican Republic manager Felipe Alou said yesterday.
Alou is holding out hope A-Rod will play in the World Baseball Classic even though Rodriguez is troubled by a hip injury that figures to force the Yankees to take back their slugger.
“I expect him back,” Alou said. “I expect him back, even if it is to tell me, ‘Listen they told me I can’t play.’ But I expect him back to play. I think he will play.”
Rodriguez flew to Colorado yesterday to be examined by hip specialist Dr. Marc Philippon. The Dominicans desperately want Rodriguez to remain on their team, and for good reason. He’s their power guy, along with David Ortiz. And he wants to play for the Dominican for his mother. This also really establishes him in Latin America.
“We definitely need him,” Big Papi said. “Hopefully everything is all right with him.”
In his short time here, Rodriguez has found a home. “These guys have been great,” Rodriguez said Tuesday morning. Rodriguez said a couple teammates even went so far as to say, “You’re nothing like we thought you were going to be.”
So much is made of A-Rod’s personality, but that personality has fit in with the Dominican team.
“I’m so happy he is on our team,” Pedro Martinez said.
If the Yankees do not allow Rodriguez to play in the WBC, Pedro the optimist added, “I think we are going to be all right. We’ve still got plenty of talent on the team. We wish him well. I hope he comes back and he’s OK, but we still have plenty of talent and talent good enough to actually win it.
“Even without Alex we are still a dangerous team and a very good team.”
Not really.
When asked if he had noticed any problems with Rodriguez’s right hip, Martinez offered this revealing answer: “Alex doesn’t show too many things to us. He comes early, works out, he does his thing. He doesn’t complain a lot. He sits down, says, ‘Hi, Hi,’ every time he passes by you.”
Sounds like the perfect teammate.
And we all know how highly Rodriguez thinks of shortstop Jose Reyes. On Tuesday, when asked about Reyes’ laser running ability, A-Rod gushed, “I wish he was leading off on our team or playing on our team, that’s fun to watch.”
Reyes said that he did not think that was a shot at Derek Jeter. “No way,” he said before DR’s 6-1 loss to the Orioles.
Jeter didn’t respond to A-Rod’s comment, telling reporters in Tampa, “I’ve got nothing to say, man.”
There really is nothing to say. Rodriguez was trying to be a nice guy to his new teammate. Never forget that Rodriguez is a huge fan of the game. He wants to know about players on other teams. So it was quite natural for him to make a gushing comment about Reyes the first time he played with such a talented young player.
Wouldn’t that be A-Rod’s public relations luck. To play only one exhibition game with Reyes, make that comment – a comment he tried to defuse a few minutes later, sending word through a WBC official – and have it all blow up in his face. Then have the hip issue and be out of the WBC. That’s one tough day.
Alou said not having A-Rod would be difficult.
“If he’s not in the Classic, I don’t think there’s any team in the world that wouldn’t miss a player like that,” Alou said.
The Yankees understand that, which is why they have to be careful with Rodriguez, who has felt tightness in that hip dating back to last season.
The Yankees can’t afford to lose Rodriguez, just as the Dominicans can’t afford to lose him for this tournament.
Despite everything, A-Rod is A-OK with them.