PORT ST. LUCIE – Don Mattingly reached a boiling point. The Dodgers’ hitting coach watches the TV, listens to the commentary and hears a steady stream of negativity toward Alex Rodriguez, and the Yankees icon can’t tolerate it any more.
“Honestly, I am getting tired of guys beating up on him,” Mattingly said when reached by phone in Arizona yesterday. “I see [White Sox manager] Ozzie Guillen acting like a buddy of his and trashing him. Here is how I feel: He did something wrong. He admitted [he used steroids from 2001-03], now let’s move on. The guy works hard. He is a good teammate. … He wants to be great. I have no problem with that.”
Mattingly has an intriguing vantage point to view A-Rod. He knows what it is to be the highest-profile Yankee. He was the Yanks’ hitting coach (2004-05) and bench coach (2006) in Rodriguez’s first three seasons in The Bronx. One reason Mattingly was moved to bench coach was because he was not connecting with Rodriguez.
“K-Long and him got along much better than me and him,” Mattingly said of 2006 hitting coach Kevin Long and Rodriguez. “Me and Alex were not on the same page. Our [hitting] language was not the same. But that is fine. I wanted what was the best for him and the team, and regardless of our connection, I had nothing but tremendous respect for how Alex prepares and plays.”
Then, like now, Mattingly also served on Joe Torre’s coaching staff, and as Torre’s recent book portrayed, he was not overly fond of Rodriguez. Mattingly finds A-Rod more endearing, and someone for whom he can root. Mattingly was a renowned worker as a player and, clearly, he sees that ethic in Rodriguez.
“I see all this talk about how that he was putting on an act when he teared up when mentioning his teammates,” Mattingly said of the Tuesday press conference. “I’m sure it was huge for him to have [Derek] Jeter and [Jorge] Posada there. It was probably hard to express. Now we are going to say his pause was too long. Come on. I am sure everything is not perfect, but this guy has been in the [drug-testing] system for four years and he has not come up positive and he was won two MVPs.
“Time to say the past is the past. He is just too easy of a target. Let everyone jump on the bandwagon, I want to be on the other side of the bash Alex thing.”