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."

A Child Of The Canseco Era

Selena Roberts did a 45 minutes interview with Bob Costas about her A-Rod allegations. MLB.com posted a condensed 5 minute version of her interview accompanied by an article summarizing her major points.

Roberts also spent a portion of the interview defending the existence of her book, which critics have derided as an unnecessary attack on Rodriguez's character. Yankees manager Joe Girardi vocally denounced the book prior to Sunday's scheduled game that was rained out against the Angels, saying he does not "understand why someone would write a book like that, anyway."

Roberts said that she began her work under the assumption that Rodriguez was clean, and that the book grew more negative due to the nature of what her reporting uncovered.

"To say that he's not worthy of the book would be to say that he is not worthy of inspection, when he is one of the greatest players to play the game," Roberts said. "He's the richest player to play the game. He's somebody who's certainly been polarizing."

Rodriguez opted out of the final three years of a record $252 million contract during the 2007 World Series, only to re-sign with the Yankees for 10 years and $275 million.

The money, according to Roberts, hints at his psychological insecurities, which she says stem from a father that abandoned him and a "Joe DiMaggio" complex that made him yearn for the public spotlight. Much of the book details Rodriguez's personal life, particularly his relationship with pop icon Madonna and his resulting divorce.

In a lot of ways, it's worse than steroids and HGH

Ex-teammates of A-Rod on the Texas Rangers respond to allegations of pitch tipping [SI.com].

That explanation wasn't sufficient for Glanville or Dickey, who said "There's no situation that would ever justify him doing that on any level. That's somebody's ERA that's somebody's livelihood, that's somebody trying to provide for their family. I'm holding on to the belief that it's not true. No one with a conscience could do that. Blows me away."

Dickey does, however, have first-hand knowledge of Rodriguez's involvement with calling pitches. "My first year there (2001) there were a couple of games where he called the pitches from shortstop or helped the catcher called pitches, in a couple of my starts I know he did that," he said. "Einar Diaz was our catcher and Alex did that on occasion on a couple of my starts. I never knew it until after the fact but he helped [our] catcher out a couple times. But as far as giving away pitches I couldn't speak with any amount of knowledge on that subject."

Dickey pitched in several blowout games with the Rangers during his years there but said he had no recollection of anything like this happening. "I can't recall any of those games and even if I could I would never be thinking along those lines that my teammate could be giving away pitches" he said. "I could never think 'For sure he must have done it then.' That's just so far off the radar dude."

Glanville suggested that perhaps A-Rod's mannerisms that led to suspicion were actually a way to alert his fellow defenders what pitch was coming next, something the shortstop often does during a game. But Roberts' sources said that the key difference is when Rodriguez would signal. "The thing Alex would do, and this is the critical difference between signaling your infield as quarterback and giving away the pitch to the hitter, is when you flash the sign," she said. "This was done to give the batter plenty of time to see it and figure what to do about it. What would usually happen would be for Alex to do something as the pitcher is in the windup; that way the batter is focused on the pitcher. These signs Alex would flash came before the windup and that made it even more noticeable."

I’m telling you he did not do it

Former A-Rod teammate Jeff Brantley doesn't buy that A-Rod tipped pitches to opposing batters. Excerpts of his Chris "Mad Dog" Russo interview can be found over at Watchdog.

Host, Chris Russo: “It says here in the excerpts [of the book] today [in the New York Daily News], that the opposing team, in a blowout game, a friendly [player] would tell A-Rod what pitch was coming to help break him out of a slump. How about that?”

Brantley: “No, no, no. That’s b.s. There’s no way. There’s nobody that is going to do that, not in this game. Not even the worst of the worst.”

Russo: (reading from the NY Daily News article) “’In one shocking disclosure, the book accuses A-Rod of “pitch tipping” when he was with the Rangers – letting a friendly opponent at the plate know which pitch was coming in lopsided games.’”

Brantley: “That did not happen. There’s no way that happens.”

Russo: “So there’s no way A-Rod could tip off a friendly opponent batting against Jeff Brantley in a blowout game one way or the other? That could not have occurred?”

Brantley: “Now, I’m not going to say that he couldn’t do it but I’m telling you he did not do it.”

Russo: (reading from the NY Daily News) “’Rodriguez expected players he helped would do the same for him when he was having an off night and needed to get his batting average up and it would not affect the outcome of the game.’ You’re saying that is not accurate?”

Brantley: “No way. No way.”

A-Rod's Man Boobs

Fast forward to the :40 mark to see A-Rod's infamous man boobs. Freaked me out the first time I saw it.

Who's Hotter, Me Or Jeter?

NY Daily News latest A-Rod leak centers on his Prima Donna ways, including his interest in the ladies.

His Bomber teammates regarded A-Rod as a phony and a hypocrite because he tried to project an All-American public image while pursuing a swinger's lifestyle.

During a series in Texas, Roberts writes, A-Rod went to a sex club while his wife, Cynthia, pregnant with their first child, was at home in New York.

Rodriguez also turned off teammates by bragging about wild nights with strippers - and by making clumsy passes at other players' wives and girlfriends.

"He would use these corny pickup lines on a guy's wife," one former teammate told Roberts. "He just wanted to know that he could, not that he would act on it. Seemed like an ego thing."

Selena Roberts interview

In this SI interview, Selena Roberts goes into more detail about A-Rod tipping pitches to opposing batters in blow-outs.

SI.com: How would he tip the pitches?

Roberts: If it was a changeup, sources say, he would twist his glove hand. To indicate a slider, he would allegedly sweep the dirt in front of him, and he would bend in the direction of where the pitch was going to be, inside or outside. I don't know that it's easy to decode. You're talking about people who see a player on an every-day basis, day after day, year after year. I don't know that it would be at all obvious to people who are watching or to a television audience. These are people who would know how to detect when things don't feel right. If it happened once or twice, people might say, Let's give him the benefit of the doubt, maybe we didn't see what we thought we saw. But according to the people that I spoke with, this was a pattern of behavior.

SI.com: So if teammates noticed it, how did they handle it?

Roberts: At least one teammate in a very gentle way did say, "Hey, you might be tipping a little too soon out there." What would usually happen would be for Alex to signal the pitch to his teammates as the pitcher was in the windup; that way the batter is focused on the pitcher and not able to see the sign. However, these signs Alex would flash came before the windup and that made it more noticeable. This is the critical difference between signaling your infield as quarterback and giving away the pitch to the hitter: when you flash the sign. This was done to give the batter plenty of time to see it and figure out what to do about it.

But one player trying to be diplomatic told me that he said, "I think you're tipping a little too soon," and the response from Alex was, "What are you talking about?" I don't think Alex was irritated at the player; I think he felt that he had been scrutinized too closely, that someone else was trying to tell him how to do his job. These people who knew about it or witnessed it knew how it would play in the clubhouse if it became an issue. These were all reasons why it didn't become a bigger deal than it was, because people wanted to keep it under wraps.

Did A-Rod Take Steroids As A Yankee?

Selena Roberts new book alleges that A-Rod took steroids or HGH while he was playing with the Yankees, and started doing steroids as far back as high school. I can't say that I'm too surprised.

In addition, an unnamed major-leaguer is quoted as saying Rodriguez and steroid-tainted pitcher Kevin Brown were seen together with human growth hormone - HGH - in 2004.

Brown, who was named in the Mitchell Report on steroids, denied through a lawyer that he ever shared the hormone with the highest-paid player in baseball.

Two other anonymous Yankees said they believed A-Rod was using based on side effects they saw - and a clubhouse staffer said management wondered if he was using banned substances.

"No one ever asked Alex directly that I know of, but there was a lot of suspicion in house," the employee is quoted as saying.

... "Was he on steroids in high school?" he said. "I think probably so. I worked out with him when he was 18. He could lift almost as much as I could."

Rodriguez put on 25 pounds of muscle between his sophomore and junior years, and word was that his connection was a dog kennel owner.

A former high school teammate told Roberts the future No.1 MLB draft pick was on steroids and his coach knew it.

Another student said the son of coach Rich Hofman admitted he saw Rodriguez use steroids.

[Tracy Connor/ NY Daily News]