A-Rod 'Not Bothered' By Joe Torre

Alex Rodriguez has always been an object of fascination, but never one of sympathy. After all, how do you sympathize with a super-duper-millionaire who plays baseball for a living? Even for ardent fans of the guy, his clubhouse weirdness, his Madonna thing -- he doesn't make it easy, does he?

Still, if there's one thing we've learned about A-Rod throughout this whole Joe Torre book nonsense -- besides the "Single White Female" anecdote, which is hilarious -- it's that Torre apparently has the power to make A-Rod a sympathetic figure. Who knew?

Such is the response to A-Rod's quasi-quotes today in the New York Daily News, which are attributed to a "source" close to A-Rod, and which say the slugger isn't concerned with Joe Torre because he's in a super place in his life right now. OK then:

"He laughed at the stuff because he is so beyond all of that," one person close to A-Rod said Monday. "Personally he feels like he's in a great space in his life and felt very comfortable last year in the clubhouse and with his relationship with his teammates."[...]

"He's heard the A-Fraud stuff, and he has admitted he tried too hard to make everyone like him when he came over to the Yankees. But since then he has become more at ease in the clubhouse, and he believes he is more accepted as one of the guys. He has taken the young Latin guys like Melky (Cabrera) and (Robinson) Cano under his wing and they really look up to him. He believes things are a lot different now."

A former Yankee teammate of A-Rod's agreed with that assessment Monday night. "He did come off as a phony when he first came over," the player said, "and I'm not sure he'll ever be one of the boys, but he did seem to relax and stop being 'on' all the time after the first year or two."

See, Joe Torre? Everyone takes Alex's side! So THERE.

It is true, though, that if this book does anything to either man's stature, it's going to hurt Torre's. It may not help A-Rod's, sure, but if anything it casts Torre as opportunistic, vindictive, and petty. A-Rod just seems like a kid who really wanted to be liked by his teammates. We can all empathize with that.