Today in The Journal News
Posted by: Peter Abraham - Posted in Misc on Sep 11, 2007 
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Alex Rodriguez’s historic season had its start last winter when he would roll out of bed at 5:15 a.m. to work out. With some help from Doug Mientkeiwicz, here’s a look behind the scenes.
Great story. Works hard is the only way to be success. Thanks Pete.
My god, man. Go to sleep. Wait… nevermind
Just checked, Cleveland won that long rain delayed game.
WHAT A SEASON
140 games in the books, and we’re all bunched up. What a finish this is gonna be, it’s like the crescendo of an episode of Star Wars or Harry Potter.
Over at the Nation – Papi is on his last leg, Manny is out, Wakefield is breaking down, Dice-L is imploding, and 38-Donuts has a flat tire.
Indians and the Halos are scrapping over the 2nd seed.
Detroit is spinning into the ground, and they would be farther back if Toronto didn’t take a dive tonight.
Leaving the final chapter to be written by The Empire and The Ghosts of 1978.
Just checked, Cleveland won that long rain delayed game.
WHAT A SEASON
140 games in the books, and we’re all bunched up.
What a finish this is gonna be – its like the crescendo of an episode of Star Wars or Harry Potter.
Papi is on his last leg, Manny is out, Wakefield is breaking down, Dice-L is imploding, and 38-Donuts has a flat tire.
Indians and the Halos are scrapping over the 2nd seed.
Detroit is spinning into the ground, and they would be farther back if Toronto didn’t take a dive tonight.
Leaving the final chapter to be written by The Empire and The Ghosts of 1978.
That A-rod article is the type of thing that really pisses off the Red Sox.
I guess the million dollar question would be who’s bed was he rolling out of at 5:15 a.m.?
Dr. Acula,
Yup, the top 4 teams in the AL are all bunched up, separated by 4 in the loss column. If the Yankees take care of business they can really shake up the seedings. Momentum is everything (well besides, you know, pitching) and it’s definitely on the Yankees side.
Here’s a whole foto gallery of Britney in all her glory:
http://www.nypost.com/gossip/c.....hoto01.htm
Mel-
as Yogi says, “half of this game is 90% pitching!”
Now I’m really confused. I was set to get my plane ticket to see the first two games of the angels series, cuz it looked like they were gonna host us. Now, who knows who will get the first two seeds.
so Mel, you haven’t told us, in what part of NYC digya live and on which island do you currently reside?
Me, I lived in Greenpoint (G LINE!) and Red Hook no Lines
and now in the Oakland Bay Area.
On a slow day, I’ll do a photo shoot of greastest, fastest, smartest, funniest, sexiest, and most photogenic city in da world.
Doncha love how mean the Post can be.
RIP Coney Island (sniffle)
http://tinyurl.com/39m9ns
_who’s bed was he rolling out of at 5:15 a.m.?_
Lucky ARod, I just hope Cynthia is gett’n some. Ya know what I mean, she’s a good grrl, tee-shirt and all.
http://tinyurl.com/yrv48n
Check out Peter working Torre over during the Subway Series.
http://tinyurl.com/323u3l
Very nice article Pete.
Tenth!
OK now where’s my coffee?
Thanks Pete a great great article. You’re the best as always. And about A.rod Now you guys wonder why he makes this much? a hard working player who delivers.
Please remember at 8:46 AM ……
http://www.farrockaway.com/carol/newyorker.html
Hey, is Sai Woo still open? Great Chinese restaurant near Yonge Street, as I recall…
C’mon, Pete. get out of the hotel a little bit.
A-Rod has to be kept by the Yankees. At any cost. Not just for what he produces, but, like Clemens, his work-ethic is a great thing for younger players to see. A-Rod’s numbers are not a product of accident – he has incredible God-given talent, but he does not take it for granted, working hard to excel at what he does. Not everyone has the same talent, but anyone can learn from the work habits he has.
By the way, there was a good article in the Newark Star Ledger last week about Melky Cabrera teaming up to work out with A-Rod, and how it’s paid off. Anyone else see that?
I thought A-Rod worked hard every year in the off season. So what was different about this year?
To me, the difference is that he also appears to have spent a lot of time working on his personality in the off season. Great, gifted athletes sometimes have personalities that aren’t as well developed as their talent. But no matter what you think about Rod, he seems to be having an MVP year as a person as well as a player and that’s the key to this season. Maybe he just had a lot of growing up to do to face the supreme challenge of playing in the Bronx. But hats off to him for doing it because that’s a lot harder than lifting weights, doing sprints and infield practice. You gotta love the Yankee bullpen breaking his shoes by doing the shoulder thing after he parked that HR in there the other night.
Great piece with Manky, btw.
Here’s the money quote: “He never stops trying to get better, and that’s what makes him great.”
Frame it.
Doreen -
Saw the article and yes it was a good one.
It’s good to see Alex taking Melky under his wing and it’s paid off. He should work with Robby Cano next.
Sai Woo great place. Nice fortune cookies.
Great article Pete…
Here’s to the victims, families, and survivors of September 11, 2001… our hearts and minds are with you.
A very impressive story. A-Rod is expensive, but he certainly makes himself worth that much money.
Mark –
That was my thought on reading the article, too. Where’s Robby!
murphydog –
I agree with your regarding Alex’s personality work-out. But I think perhaps the difference in his workout over this past off-season was the chip on his shoulder — the purpose was a little different. He had something to prove, and that provided an edge. A little extra incentive, if you will.
That was a great article Pete. I also loved a article in another paper last week about his workouts with Melky. It’s great to know that he works so hard to get better all the time if that’s even possible. Also cool he donated 4 mill to build that facility.
Hopefully, the Twins will make Santana available via trade… wonder what they’d ask for him…
The best part of that article is that it was others talking about A-Rod rather than him talking about himself. I hear some people who think his season means nothing unless he comes through in October but I hope those people also realize that without him this year, there is no October.
In order for A-Rod to have a magical post-season, those around him need to step up so he sees some pitches to hit.
sunny615 -
I hope Santana is not available for trade. he’ll be a free agent the following season, and I think it’d be better to get him for $$ rather than give up players. Plus, if the Yankees are hesitant to trade players for him (what with all the untouchable pitching prospects), someone else may get him and sign him to an extension.
The older a player gets, the more important (absolutely essential) it is to follow a year-round (esp. in the off-season) conditioning program. I know this sounds like an “of course they do” kind of deal, but look at Damon, Mussina, Giambi, and maybe others on this year’s Yanks. They really weren’t in solid shape for or coming out of ST and it cost them and us! OTOH look at Posada, Pettite, Rivera, Jeter, and A-Rod coming out of ST ready to roll. This off-season will be yet another test for our veterans to work out and be in tip-top shape for the season. And this heavy work out routine helps to prevent injuries!
Plan your work and work your pla. Sounds like a plan to me. Go Arod! Bawston take notice.
Morning everybody,
A-Rod. Whew. Thats quite a story. A nice lesson too. It pays to work hard.
My favorite part is how he literally has keys to the gate. Good stuff!
too bad the early am workouts didn’t help mientkiewicz. of course the article doesn’t say he actually went when arod called. that it was arod calling shows he’s the one with the extra drive to excel. the yankees need to do everything they can to extend him. players like him come along once in a generation.
The difference this year is he magically adopted the magical, fabled ability to “handle new york”
It must certainly has nothing to do with simple statistical variation of a human athlete’s performance from year to year, why if he had been traded to the LAA for Chone Figgins as 50% of NYC was clamoring to happen, and put up these # in LA this year, folks would go: “See, proof he couldn’t handle NYC, he would never do that here.”
Wang is the ace-
Yup, and it would have been Steve Phillips leading that charge.
But, Let us not dwell on what could have been!
“I thought A-Rod worked hard every year in the off season. So what was different about this year? ”
along with all of the other good stuff people mentioned above, let’s not forget that he had a very specific workout goal: lose bulk. he lost about 12 pounds and dramatically lowered his body fat.
then he went into the cages with Kevin Long and got back to thinking about going to right field.
everything has paid off enormously. it’s what happens when you have the rarest of combinations: other-worldy talent combined with an insane work ethic and unparalelled dedication to his craft.
his bat speed this year vs. last year has been like night and day. he is also quicker and more agile at 3B.
I got bad news loyal blog readers. None other than Steve Phillips said today the Yankees will make the playoffs, he sees no way that Detroit catches them. I’m afraid that may have been the kiss of death for this great season. I can only hope I’m wrong.
steve phillips is eating humble pie. and that pie is served with some melky and some shelley duncan.
Jeff NJ…don’t worry about that icehole Phillips…He is just trying to save face…Even a monkey could see that the Yankees are a lock for the playoffs and he just doesn’t want to be a COMPLETE IDIOT come playoff time. But give him time….he’ll show us soon that he is a 99% idiot.
oh yeah! for alex it is just about the money. the same money he would make without the work. money my @ss!
Time to break out the 1996 mantra for the rest of the season; “We play today, we win today, das it”
I’ve been sitting here trying to think of something to say to bash steve phillips. But I can’t decide which aspect to bash him on..
So ill just go with: I dislike Steve Phillips.
I don’t want Steve talking about the Yankees!!
So when Detroit is 4 back, the Wild Card is still up in the air
But now that it is 3.5, they can’t catch the Yankees
Steve Phillips is good at making sense.
Dave K-
Not only is he good at it, hes PAID for doing it…
I think Steve is trying to jinx us, since it hasn’t worked all year saying we were done, he has now taken the opposite approach.
hmmm:
When the mental aspect of the game gets away from you, all the talent in the world is not going to overcome that. I agree with you that A-Rod was too bulked up last year, hence slow through the zone and on his feet and all the rest. He made a mistake to get bigger and did the right workout this off-season.
But Torre, Reggie and everyone else talk about Rod having “fun” this year. It’s very Zen…. hitting a lot of home runs requires a player not to try to hit a lot of home runs. I’m trying to give the guy a big compliment for doing the personal work to get to this place, where his talent is maximized by his ability to just let it happen without pressing or thinking he has to come through every time.
Credit him for a brutal and correct physical regimen. Credit him also for some important personal growth.
Pat – bring in Tony Fernandez as bench coach! “Das it”
murphydog-
Ya it is Zen-like isn’t it?.
Nice description.
POSITIVE PROJECTION : Yankees will win their next 6 games and combined with Tampa putting the screws to the Red Schmanks for the next 2 days….we leave Fenway’s Little League Park Sunday Night with a 1/2 game lead in the division and actually up a full game in the loss column….and the historic comeback from 14.5 games back on May 29th will be on it’s way to completion….GO YANKEES…Boston is a sputtering race car,,,,outta gas…just ASKING for the Yankees to BLOW BY THEM to take the checkered flag !!! The Carnage continues tonight….Yankees win 9-3…Boston loses 8-4…BOOK IT, DANO !!!
wow 5:15 AM ? that I never knew just makes me love him more than I did all his years in NY, I knew about the work ethic but wow..
*Alex can you bring Melky & Robi to this years winter workouts*
..
Yankees and Mets need to win one today for New Yorkers. My prayers go out to all affected my 9-11. Six years went quick, feels like I was staring at the cloud from Jersey shore a month ago.
Rollez-
Yah 6 years… Incredable. It seems like it went by so fast, yet so much has happened in that short time..
Bronxie Brenda,
That was beautiful. Thanks
Hey Pete, good article. From the link, I was hoping to get some more details of what he actually does to work out, like his weight lifting regimen and his field drills. Any chance we could get info like that? I’m sure it would help a lot of kids out there looking to emulate ARod.