Earning His Stripes

Reggie Jackson relaxed in a chair beside Alex Rodriguez’s locker, beaming like a proud father at the achievements of his protege.

Eight months after Rodriguez was acquired from Texas, he truly arrived as a Yankee on Wednesday. No matter that he batted .286 this season with 36 home runs and 106 runs batted in. His postseason performance has solidified his fit in their lineup and their clubhouse and suggested he might be worthy of the “Mr. October” mantle once owned by Jackson.

“This is a real indication of how high his ceiling of talent is,” Jackson said after Rodriguez collected four hits, drove in three runs and scored two in the 7-6, 12-inning victory that brought the New York Yankees even with the Minnesota Twins at one game each in their American League division series.

“He enjoys it. He wants it.”

In Seattle, where Rodriguez began his career, and later in Texas, where he became baseball’s first quarter-billion-dollar man, he was a big fish in small, stagnant ponds. In New York, he became just another star on a team that orbits around Derek Jeter emotionally and competitively. Jackson urged him to learn from Jeter’s professionalism and indomitable will, and to respond positively under duress.

“We’re always checking in with each other,” Jackson said. “If I’m not around, he’ll say, ‘Where have you been?’ I was in Boston [recently] and was in the TV booth and he said, ‘You’re not visible enough.’

“We’ve talked about the pressures of playing in New York. He plays next to a guy who knows how to play. He’s right next to a guy who’s rock-solid.”

Rodriguez has been impressive in the first two games against Minnesota, batting .600 (six for 10) with a home run and three RBIs. That’s after a season in which New York tabloids criticized him for not earning his astronomical salary or producing when it mattered, a notion Minnesota Manager Ron Gardenhire couldn’t comprehend.

Gardenhire recited Rodriguez’s regular-season statistics and smiled. “We don’t have one of those guys on our team,” he said, “so to criticize a guy with those kind of numbers, I always think that’s kind of funny.

“This guy is one of the best players in the game. This is his table. This is the playoffs. Stars shine in the playoffs.”

Manager Joe Torre’s decision to move Rodriguez to second in the batting order in early September, from third or fourth, has also helped that light to shine.

“He went from [Seattle] to Texas and he has been really the guy that everybody has looked to for leadership,” Torre said Thursday, before his team worked out at the Metrodome in preparation for Game 3 against the Twins today.

“And then he comes over to our ballclub, and you look around and there are people who are there for one purpose and that’s to get to the postseason. He, I don’t want to say was uneasy with that, but he was, I think, more tentative in how he should assert himself....

“He has a lot of confidence in himself, but when he got here, he realized that there is more to it than just the mechanics of hitting. It took him a little time. It took him a little time to get used to the people around him and maybe the goals being a little bit different.”

Rodriguez has said and done all the right things lately. He deflected credit for his success to his manager and teammates, and he embraced the potentially intimidating Yankee mystique, calling Tuesday “the most special day of being a Yankee” because Hall of Famer Yogi Berra hugged him before the game.

“Since Joe put me in the two slot I feel like I’ve had a lot more opportunities to produce and contribute,” Rodriguez said, “but we’re not looking for individuals to do great things. We’re just looking to win games and contribute.”

However, he was hesitant to declare his performance in Game 2 his defining moment. “Hopefully, that game hasn’t come yet,” he said. “But it’s getting better.

“September has been a good month for me, and the start of October is pretty good. But we’ve got a long ways to go.”

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Settling In

As if it wasn’t enough that Alex Rodriguez was asked to deal with the greater pressures of the spotlight in New York after being acquired by the Yankees in the off-season, he was also asked to learn a new position. Rodriguez responded with a consistent performance at the plate, and the former shortstop ranked as one of the league’s best-fielding third basemen:

RODRIGUEZ BY MONTH

*--* Month AB R H HR RBI BA March/April 91 13 23 4 7 253 May 102 22 34 8 22 333 June 99 21 26 7 19 263 July 104 18 30 8 19 288 August 96 17 29 5 11 302 Sept./Oct. 109 21 30 4 28 275 Totals 601 112 172 36 106 286

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AL THIRD BASEMEN

*--* Player, Team G PO A E DP Pct. 1. Hinske, TOR 153 107 242 8 23 978 2. Chavez, OAK 125 113 276 13 31 968 3. Randa, KC 119 85 241 11 22 967 4. Rodriguez, NY 155 100 262 13 25 965 5. Crede, CHI 144 91 243 12 23 965 6. Koskie, MIN 115 79 207 11 14 963

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