A-Rod Was Calling Pitches, Not Tipping Them, Got It?

Texas Rangers 3B/ ex-A-Rod teammate/ A-Rod's best friend Michael Young came out in his defense against Selena's Roberts' allegation that A-Rod tipped off pitches to opposing batters [Star-telegram.com]. In fact, it wasn't his pitch tipping that infuriated his coaching staff, but his pitch calling. With neither the Manager nor the pitching coaches permission, A-Rod took over the pitch calling duties from catcher Einar Diaz by directing the catcher from his SS position. Not surprisingly, A-Rod best friend Michael Young also defended A-Rod on his pitch calling duties.

"I played beside him for three years here, and never saw anything close to him signaling opposing hitters on what was coming. It’s crap. All crap," said Michael.

Based on what I was told Friday by three other members of the Rangers when Alex played here, Young is right.

These people asked to remain "unnamed," for a variety of reasons, one of them being my favorite:

"I never saw anything like that, and believe me, I would have eventually picked it up if it was happening," he said. "But Alex is the kind of person, I wouldn’t put anything past him. So I don’t want to say publicly he didn’t, and then the proof come in that he did, and I’d look naïve and stupid."

Another of the three said he "definitely" thinks there has been pitch tipping to the opposition in the majors, for the very reasons associated with A-Rod in the book, but he never had a reason here to think Alex was involved.

In Alex’s Texas days, the closest thing associated with any of this involved a controversy that swirled around him in 2003. But it was pitch calling, not pitch tipping. Without informing manager Buck Showalter or pitching coach Orel Hershiser, Rodriguez told new catcher Einar Diaz he would call the pitches for him.

"Buck and Orel caught on in a hurry, and a big blowup happened, particularly between Alex and Orel," said one person. "That story hit the papers, but it was bigger than even reported. Buck and Alex totally split because Alex wanted Buck to fire Orel and Buck didn’t."

Young: "I backed Alex on that. Heck, yes, I did. We had a catcher who was struggling. Alex was trying to help the team. He knew more about it than the catcher. If the pitching coach didn’t like it, he should have been on top of it."