TAMPA – Today in Dunedin, Fla., Alex Rodriguez gets the first taste of what baseball fans without an NY on their hat or in their heart think about his admitted steroid use.
It certainly won’t be the last.
Rodriguez will travel out of the protective pinstriped cocoon, where he has been sheltered since reporting to spring training, for the first time today when the Yankees face the Blue Jays. And though you don’t expect a 65-year-old man in bad shorts, black socks, free shirt and sandals to launch syringes at Rodriguez, the reception isn’t going to be pleasant.
“I have had good practice the last eight years,” Rodriguez said about dealing with rowdy and rude fans away from home.
Fenway Park and Citi Field immediately surface as venues where Rodriguez will be brutalized.
But Seattle, where Rodriguez spent the first seven years of his career, hasn’t been easy. And since he mentioned the Rangers’ “loosey-goosey atmosphere” when he admitted using steroids from 2001-03 while in Texas, expect a fierce reception when the Yankees play the Rangers.
Rodriguez, who is awaiting word on a date to meet MLB investigators, apparently still plans on playing for the Dominican Republic in the upcoming World Baseball Classic.
“Yeah,” he said when asked if he was playing. Yet, when asked if he had thought about not playing, Rodriguez said, “I am just focusing on [today’s] game and taking it one day at a time. Then go to Jupiter, spend four or five days there and go to Puerto Rico,” where the Dominican team opens WBC play vs. the Netherlands on March 7.
According to Yankees manager Joe Girardi, Rodriguez – and Derek Jeter (USA) and Robinson Cano (Dominican Republic) – will play today and tomorrow, take Friday off, and play Saturday and Sunday. Then they split for their WBC clubs with the possibility of not returning until March 24.
Just because Rodriguez will be involved in the WBC, he shouldn’t expect to not be booed. Last week he explained he always prepares for the worst when he goes on the road, and there are no WBC games in the Dominican. Yesterday, he was asked what was the worst reception.
“At some point since the 2000 season it’s been somewhere,” said Rodriguez, who has had coins thrown at him and has been hung in effigy in Seattle.
Rodriguez said he hadn’t heard from MLB officials about a meeting to discuss his steroid use and where he obtained the drugs.
“I haven’t talked to anyone,” Rodriguez said. “I am just waiting to hear from somebody.”
When MLB gets done with Rodriguez he likely can expect a visit from federal investigators who will want to know who supplied the drugs and who carried them illegally from the Dominican Republic to the United States.
“It will be curious, it’s something we haven’t been through before,” Girardi said of Rodriguez stepping out of George M. Steinbrenner Field. “I am sure there are going to be some people who will be upset, some people who will be supportive and some people in between. Alex is going to have to block out distractions and be able to play. I expect him to be able to do that, but we are going to see how it goes.”
Girardi views today as the first rung of a very slippery ladder.
“I think it’s an initial step,” Girardi said. “I don’t know what to expect tomorrow. Alex is obviously a very popular player and a lot of times in road cities he is not so popular.”