Alex Rodriguez arrived to Yankees camp in Tampa, Florida today, first completing a physical before doing his first workout at the team’s minor league complex. Normally teams would applaud their players for reporting early. It’s showing initiative. But this is A-Rod we are talking about, so of course somebody has a problem with it.
According to Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News, Yankees officials were “fuming” that A-Rod didn’t give them a heads up about his early arrival. Really:A-Rod’s early arrival was a bit of a surprise, as many had pegged him for a Wednesday appearance when position players are slated to report to Steinbrenner Field.
Roughly 20 reporters and a handful of cameras were on hand at the minor-league complex to greet A-Rod, a fraction of what had been expected for his arrival.
But while the early start may have lessened the media boom, it also caught the Yankees by surprise, leaving Brian Cashman and the team’s media relations staff scrambling for answers when asked about Rodriguez’s rumored arrival.
The Yankees had no issues with A-Rod arriving on Monday, but team officials were fuming that he hadn’t alerted them to his plans.
“He’s learned nothing,” said one baseball executive. “He’s the same old guy. He just did what he wanted to do.”
And if A-Rod merely reported on time with the rest of the position players, we’d likely hear an anonymous source saying the Yankees were disappointed he didn’t get there early to show that he means business after his year-long PED suspension. We’re in damned if you do, damned if you don’t territory here and it’s beyond silly. But it’s also oh-so-predictable.