A-Rod cuts off questions about Torre
New York Yankees' Alex Rodriguez, left, runs the bases after hitting a two-run home run, as Arizona Diamondbacks' Stephen Drew watches. (June 22, 2010) Credit: AP
PHOENIX - Alex Rodriguez didn't even try to fake it.
While several of his teammates talked before last night's game about their warm feelings for Joe Torre, A-Rod showed some hard feelings linger. "Business as usual," Rodriguez said of this weekend's series against the Dodgers and, more specifically, of seeing Torre in the other dugout.
Later Rodriguez cut off another question about Torre.
"No more of those questions," he said evenly. "Any more questions about anything else. I'm not going to get into that."
In Torre's 2009 book "The Yankee Years" he described Rodriguez as nearly obsessive in all matters relating to Derek Jeter, along with disclosing that some teammates often referred to the third baseman as A-Fraud.
And, of course, well before the book came out there was Torre embarrassing A-Rod during the 2006 Division Series against the Tigers by dropping him to eighth in the batting order for Game 4.
However, Rodriguez was expansive in his praise of Don Mattingly and Larry Bowa, two coaches who followed Torre to L.A. "Donnie, you can't say enough great things about Donnie," A-Rod said. "He's a class act and he was always really, really good to me. And Bowa obviously left a mark in me as a player. I had him in Seattle, then I had him back in New York. He's taught me a lot about the game and I know Robby [Cano] feels the same way. So I'm definitely looking forward to seeing those guys."
Just not, obviously, their boss.
