SARASOTA, Fla. – The sideshow becomes somebody else’s burden for the next few weeks, somebody else’s surreal diversion. Alex Rodriguez left the visiting team clubhouse at Ed Smith Stadium at 3:30, walked with his head down through a phalanx of outstretched hands and pens and notepads.
He was bound for a car, in which this time the other passengers were Mark Teixeira and Robinson Cano, far more acceptable car poolers than the one who joined him in Dunedin earlier in the week. It wasn’t a bad idea, all in all, since in less than an hour’s time he would be back in Tampa to start a two-hour meeting with two of his own lawyers and three officials from baseball’s investigations and labor relations departments.
Before heading off to the other side of the state, to Jupiter and the Dominican Republic national team, Rodriguez would engage in what was called a “cooperative” discussion, the latest hairpin turn in a spring training already rife with them. Today marks the two-week anniversary since A-Rod introduced the world to “boli” and to Yuri and to something that most definitely was not Tic Tacs coursing through his system from 2001 through 2003.
Two weeks. Two weeks that already must feel like two years to Yankee teammates who have tried to offer encouragement, support and high fives, which were in rich supply yesterday when Rodriguez slammed two doubles in his final three plate appearances as a Yankee for a couple of weeks.
“It hasn’t affected us at all, not really,” said Derek Jeter, who himself was readying for the shorter trip across the bay to Clearwater, where today the U.S. team will gather for the first time. “We’ve made sure that nothing affects the business at hand for us.”
Jeter said this, and he no doubt meant it, but as he did his shoulders slumped and his eyes rolled and he leaned against a locker stall; if he isn’t exhausted by all of this already – if they all aren’t – then they are even better friends and teammates than they’ve let on.
Because the whole thing has been exhausting, from the first revelation to the gentlemanly conversation with Peter Gammons to the 34-minute interrogation in front of 200 reporters to the overwhelming boos in two road games to the overpowering cheers at two home games to the inexplicable brain lock of allowing his cousin to chauffeur him from the first exhibition game to the when-when-when parlor game shadowing this meeting with baseball’s investigators.
“I’m just excited that I have a game every day,” Rodriguez had said a few minutes before slipping out the visiting clubhouse, artfully sidestepping with a half-smile any question that didn’t pertain to baseball, ardently trying to stay on message. “That’s where I belong. It’s fun to be back out there.”
In a normal spring, it would be the worst kind of disruption to have three-quarters of the Yankee infield – A-Rod and Robinson Cano to the Dominican, Jeter to the U.S. – amputated from camp for the first 3½ weeks of March. Just not this time.
This time, the Yankees can use the peace and the tranquility of a few A-Rod-free weeks. He belongs to the Dominicans now, gets to wear a different uniform, one he says fulfills the dreams of both his mother and his father. For Rodriguez, it will allow him to spend some working days out of the country, in Puerto Rico, where his acceptance promises to be met with far less derision.
And for the Yankees, it means an exhibition schedule free of September-level scrutiny whenever their first-string third baseman’s name is penciled on a lineup card.
Both are welcome diversions.
“I see him more relaxed every day,” Yankee manager Joe Girardi said of Rodriguez. “Really, the last five, six days, I don’t think he’s changed a bit. Pretty much the same relaxed guy. The first couple days you could tell it was weighing heavily on his mind, and I’m sure it’s still weighing on his mind, but time helps everything. Probably knows how to approach it better now. I think he has done very well.”
Even so, the exhale you hear is of the hurricane leaving town. For better or for worse, Rodriguez belongs to the Yankees for nine more years. Just not for the next couple of weeks. Few would argue that isn’t for the better.