Joe has new respect for A-Rod
By JOHN HARPER
DAILY NEWS SPORTS COLUMNIST
Posted Wednesday, May 16th 2007, 4:00 AM
CHICAGO - Three hours before game time, Joe Torre walked purposefully out of his office, down the long, narrow visitors' clubhouse until he encountered Alex Rodriguez, the player he was looking for.
"I need a favor," the manager said, putting his hands on A-Rod's shoulders. "I need to move you up to the three-hole, see if we can do something to get us going."
"Sure," said A-Rod, and that was that, as manager and player nodded at each other and walked in opposite directions.
It was nothing out of the ordinary for Torre, who almost always makes a point of informing players of any moves that he thinks might mess even slightly with their delicate equilibrium.
Of course, you couldn't watch this brief exchange yesterday without thinking about last October in Detroit, and the day Torre dropped A-Rod to eighth in the lineup in Game 4 against the Tigers. He didn't say a word to A-Rod before he posted the lineup on that day, which told you all you needed to know about his level of exasperation with his third baseman.
And now, here was Torre, careful to let A-Rod know he was moving him from fourth to third, from one glamour spot to another, as he searches for a lineup that:
a) Won't be as vulnerable to lefthanded pitching. The Yankees are 3-6 in games started by southpaws, and after last night's game against the White Sox was rained out, they will now face rookie lefty John Danks today.
b) Will be more consistent, in general, than an offense whose lack of situational hitting this season is reflected in the Yanks' 5-11 record in one and two-run games.
c) Limits the rally-killing damage that Bobby Abreu can do.
It made sense for Torre to insert Derek Jeter, A-Rod, and Jorge Posada, by far the Yankees' best hitters so far, into the 2-3-4 spots, while dropping Abreu to seventh to face Danks. But that wasn't the point so much as Torre's gesture of respect toward A-Rod was a snapshot of how things have changed on this ballclub.
A-Rod is not the problem, obviously. He seems to have survived a mini-slump of sorts, when he went from hitting 14 home runs in 18 games to chasing sliders for a couple of weeks, and though his power numbers have stagnated, he is still hitting .329.
One AL scout who saw him in Seattle over the weekend noted that he hit several balls hard, a few deep flyouts, and said, "He looks ready to get hot again. He got jumpy there for a couple of weeks. He wasn't as relaxed at the plate as he had been when he was so hot, but he still managed to get his hits."
Torre concurred, saying, "He's not as selective as he was (during his hot streak), but he's better than he was a week ago. He hit a couple in Seattle that would have been out of some ballparks."
A-Rod, for his part, continues to keep a low profile, as he has since the season began. Yesterday, with no batting practice on the field due to rain, he kept his distance from the media, staying mostly in the trainer's room, the batting cage, or the back area of the clubhouse, where he watched video of White Sox pitchers.
Even so, A-Rod was a most visible presence, in part because the Chicago-Sun Times, which was sitting on a table in the visitors' clubhouse, featured him on its pages yesterday, with a headline that read: "In A-Rod They Trust?"
Well, you knew this was coming. From the minute his opt-out clause became a story, speculation regarding his future was inevitable, in New York and elsewhere. His historic home run spree to start the season only makes it more inevitable, and here was the first real taste of it, a Sun-Times columnist urging owner Jerry Reinsdorf to take the plunge for $200 million or so next winter and sign A-Rod to be a savior for a White Sox team that has underachieved so far.
So who knows, maybe A-Rod will have his choice of teams in this city, considering his relationship with Cubs manager Lou Piniella.
And everyone presumes that Arte Moreno will offer A-Rod partnership as an owner to get him to come west to play for the Angels.
At what point does all of this become a distraction? A-Rod has sworn since spring training that none of this will affect him, and maybe it won't. But it is surely just the start.
In any case, the lineup changes Torre was ready to make yesterday weren't about A-Rod. There are plenty of culprits, starting with Abreu and Robinson Cano, and Torre has made a point of talking to them the last couple of days, offering support.
But it was the way he approached A-Rod, with a deference you didn't expect to see again after that day in Detroit last October, that was a reminder:
One way or another, A-Rod can't help but be in the middle of everything that happens to the Yankees this season.
I just want to say everyone knows my stance w/ Joe Torre since 2004 I thought he should have stepped down and even 2 yrs. before that, but I loss respect for him after what he did to Alex in the Detroit series, pretty much w/o saying a thing he was telling the club Alex is the problem, I've been saying for sometime for Alex to be a better hitter put him in the 3 hole, it took the Clueless one 3 years to realize that !!!!!!!!! that is and was what he is. I give Alex credit because it's funny a coach that doesn't like you now realizes the favorites isn't going to save his job, so now Alex Rodriguez has to save Torre's job isn't this so hypocritical of Joe.
