Flashbulbs popped. Cable news networks went live. And Rodriguez, traded by Texas for Alfonso Soriano, was introduced Tuesday with Derek Jeter, Joe Torre and Reggie Jackson at his side. The manager even took a moment to adjust Rodriguez’s new Yankees cap to show more of his smiling face for the cameras.
Start spreading the news: Rodriguez is the new star in town.
“Wow! What a reception,” he said at the Yankee Stadium news conference before going to City Hall to meet Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “I still feel like someone’s going to pinch me and wake me up.”
He repeatedly deferred to Jeter, the Yankees’ captain and shortstop, a stark contrast to Jackson, who arrived before the 1977 season and proclaimed he was the “straw that stirs the drink,” a slap at Thurman Munson.
Rodriguez is seemingly happy to move to third from shortstop, the position he played in Seattle and Texas. The reigning American League MVP, who was born in Manhattan, wasn’t about to stir up anything, especially on his first full day with the team.
Conflict? Ego?
All media hype, Rodriguez and Jeter insisted.
“Derek has four world championships and I want him to have 10. That’s what this is all about,” Rodriguez said.
Yankees owner George Steinbrenner watched on television from the team’s minor league complex in Tampa, Fla. Asked where the acquisition ranked for him, Steinbrenner said: “Probably right up there with Reggie. I’m not going to say No. 2. How can you argue when you get arguably the best player in baseball?”
Jackson believes there will be plenty of room for all the egos in the clubhouse. But Jackson, like all Yankees fans, knows Rodriguez could be just an 0-for-4 or error away from angering Steinbrenner.
“If he doesn’t do his thing, he’ll have to deal with George,” Jackson said.
Jeter dubbed the new pairing the “dynamic duo” and called Rodriguez “arguably the best player in baseball.”
“I think we’re going to make a great tag team over there,”’ Rodriguez said.
Much has been made of Rodriguez’s criticism of Jeter in an Esquire interview three years ago, when he questioned the Yankee captain’s leadership. Both tried to put any controversy behind them, with Jeter saying it was like a spat between brothers. If the pair are as slick on the field as they were at the microphones Tuesday, the Yankees should be in great shape for years to come.
