Maybe Money Can Buy Him a Little Happiness

The scene remains vivid. I will always remember approaching Alex Rodriguez and asking for an interview in the Seattle Mariner clubhouse at the Kingdome. It was 1996 and Rodriguez was 21, in the process of driving in 123 runs, hitting 36 homers and winning the American League batting title with a .358 average in what was tantamount to his first full major league season.

“Sure,” he said. “Let me get you a chair. Would you like something to drink?”

In 41 years of covering baseball, that was the first and last time a player offered to provide room service.

Then again, agent Scott Boras had made sure Rodriguez was on the right course from the start, the Mariners having made him the first player selected in the 1993 draft, just ahead of the Dodgers selecting Darren Dreifort.

Boras knew the microscope Rodriguez would be under and provided public-relations specialist Andrea Kirby as a tutor.

The tutoring clearly took. Rodriguez still puts his best face and spin on virtually every subject, leaving a listener to wonder if that’s really what he thinks and how he feels.

Now, of course, he has $252 million worth of reasons for painting a positive picture, and there he was Monday afternoon at Dodger Stadium, in another in a series of dugout news conferences in each new city the Texas Rangers visit, insisting . . .

* He has no regrets in leaving the Mariners, who are so far ahead of the Rangers in the American League West that Rodriguez would have to make a trip to the Griffith Observatory to locate them.

* He supports the Rangers’ recent decision to begin what could be a three-year rebuilding program.

In other words, only six months after signing Rodriguez to that record 10-year contract, and also acquiring Ken Caminiti, 38, Andres Galarraga, 40 next week, and Randy Velarde, 38, the Rangers say they are through providing social security and will rebuild around shortstop Rodriguez and catcher Ivan Rodriguez.

The latter is eligible for free agency after the 2002 season, which means the Rangers will have to go with younger and inexpensive players if they plan to pay A-Rod and I-Rod alone some $45 million a year.

Is A-Rod disappointed with this course? After all, he said he was joining a winner when he received that stunning contract in December.

Now the Rangers are 22-40, 26 1/2 games behind Seattle and headed for 90 or more losses.

“It all depends on what you call rebuilding,” Rodriguez said before the interleague opener with the Dodgers. “We rebuilt in Seattle last year in six months. We went from losing 80 some games to winning 92. We did that with pitching and defense and good character guys. When you’re rebuilding to win a world championship, it doesn’t mean you have to lose a hundred games.

“I mean, our core players here are just as good [as those in Seattle]. It’s a matter of finding the right young players. I’m here for the long haul, and I don’t want to be up and down. I want to set up a team that can win for the long haul.”

In what has already been a long season for the Rangers, Rodriguez is headed back to Seattle for the July All-Star game. He is batting .329 with 19 homers and 55 runs batted in. Those numbers would have been a nice fit in Los Angeles, but the Dodgers poured $77.5 million into Dreifort, basically a six-inning starter, and Andy Ashby, who was coming off a 12-13 season at 33 and is now headed for season-ending elbow surgery.

Rodriguez reflected and said the most “surprising element” of his free agency was the lack of response from the Dodgers and New York Mets.

He said the Dodgers had been near the top of his interest list and he had wanted to meet Chairman Bob Daly, having heard only positives from Boras.

“I think he did OK without meeting me,” a smiling Daly said Monday. “Scott asked me to meet with him at least 20 times. I said, ‘Scott, I know he’s a great guy and a great player but I just can’t afford him.’ I didn’t know he’d get $252 million but I knew it would be in the stratosphere and I wasn’t going to contribute to that.”

Texas owner Tom Hicks did, neglecting to improve a pitching staff that had the highest earned-run average (5.52) in the big leagues last year and has been even more explosive in 2001, burdening a generally potent attack by giving up more than six runs a game and prompting Johnny Oates to resign as manager before he was axed. Interim manager Jerry Narron was recently extended through 2003 as an early step in a plan aimed at capitalizing on A-Rod’s long-term commitment.

“If we’re going to sacrifice a couple years, this is the time to do it,” General Manager Doug Melvin said. “Alex is 25. If we’re going to . . . get the club where we want it to be for the five years when he’s 27 to 32, it makes more sense to do it now than to be unrealistic and put it off for three or four years. I mean, it’s simply a matter of recognizing where our season is and what Seattle has done, giving them credit.”

In maintaining their division dominance of the late ‘90s, the Rangers often made imprudent decisions. Now, Melvin said, they will be more patient with their young players, trading fewer, giving more a chance. By the end of next year, he added, “we hope to have an idea where we are”

In the meantime, Rodriguez insists he doesn’t yearn to be back with the blazing Mariners. Neither, he said, is he totally surprised by their performance “since we won 92 games last year with [pitchers] Freddy Garcia and Jamie Moyer hurt in the first half.” Thus, he said, he could envision the Mariners winning 105 or more games this year, particularly since he was also familiar with Ichiro Suzuki and knew he could pick up some of A-Rod’s own offensive slack.

Then again, Rodriguez added, there was no anticipating one of the best starts in history.

“Obviously, we haven’t done our part, but even if we were playing great, we’d probably be 14 or 15 out, so that’s not to say we were going to win the AL West no matter what,” he said, putting one more spin on it.