Jamie Tilley, a St. John's native who is living in Barrie, Ont., hasn't decided what to do with the ball he was lucky enough to get at Saturday's game at the Rogers Centre.
Tilley was sitting near the Toronto Blue Jays' bullpen with his three-year-old son, Matthew, when the New York Yankee hit the left-field foul pole for a fourth-inning home run to pass Mickey Mantle for 13th on baseball's all-time list.
Jays' bullpen catcher Alex Andreopoulos saw Tilley's son and tossed it up to them.
"I couldn't believe it," Tilley told the New York Post.
Tilley wasn't sure if it was the ball Rodriguez hit, but people seated around them said it was. As it turned out, the proof was on the ball -- yellow paint marks from the foul pole.
A Yankees' security official approached him later and offered to have him meet Rodriguez, take a picture with him and get a signed game bat -- presumably as part of some sort of exchange for the ball -- but Tilley declined.
The 36-year-old Tilley, who is in merchandising, is going to ask somebody who understands the market what the Rodriguez ball is worth before deciding what to do with the souvenir.
The home-run ball Rodriguez hit to tie Mantle on July 6 is apparently worth between $20,000 and $25,000, the Post reported. Rodriguez has that ball. The ball Tilley has may be worth between $10,000 and $15,000.
Kristie Ackert and Mark Feinsand via New York Daily News:
Is it a coincidence that the Yankees have scored 43 runs in the six games since A-Rod's return, after managing only 12 in the seven games previous? Joe Girardi doesn't think so."It changes our lineup drastically, it puts people back to where they were hitting most of the time," said Girardi.
Abreu, moved into the three-hole, down from the clean-up spot he occupied in Rodriguez's absence. He is 9-for-his-last 21.
Robinson Cano continued his resurgence again Sunday with a 10-for-19 streak, including game winning and game-tying RBIs in the last four games.
Even Jason Giambi is getting in on the action and now has eight hits in his last 21 at-bats against lefties.
It hurts me to think about where this team would be without Alex Rodriguez.
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A-Rod's message to those fans? Ramirez's accomplishment has nothing to do with the rivalry, but is rather an historic accomplishment by one of the game's great hitters. "This is bigger than the Yankees and Red Sox," Rodriguez said. "This is baseball history. How many guys have 500 home runs?"
A-Rod also has recorded a similar message for Cincinnati's Ken Griffey Jr., his former Mariners teammate who stands three homers shy of joining Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays and Sammy Sosa as the only players with 600. When the Red Sox contacted the Yankees to ask if A-Rod would take part in the video message — one of several players around the league invited to do so — team officials took the rivalry into consideration before approaching Rodriguez. Ramirez currently has 498 home runs.
The message? "Manny, I'm going to keep this short because I'm probably getting booed. Congratulations and many more."
Said A-Rod: "I was flattered that they asked me to do it."
According to the AP, Rodriguez hit several long homers, including a pair that went over the center-field backdrop. He also ran in the outfield. Rodriguez said the session went "good" and gave a thumbs-up as he left the field for the clubhouse.
Mark Feinsand/Bill Hutchinson New York Daily News:Cynthia Rodriguez gave birth to a girl in Miami late Monday, the superstar player announced on his Web site Tuesday.
"We are thrilled with the birth of our second child and the blessing of having two healthy, beautiful children in our family," said A-Rod, who flew from New York to Miami to be with his wife.
Rodriguez said his newborn, whose name was not immediately released, weighed in at 7 pounds, 2 ounces.
The 32-year-old proud papa was at his wife's bedside and is expected to miss a few games while he's changing diapers instead of batting cleanup.
The baby arrived in an undisclosed Miami hospital five days before Cynthia Rodriguez's April 27 due date.
A-Rod's first daughter, .Natasha, now 3, was born 10 days early.
The Yankees were in Chicago last night, playing the first of a three-game series with the White Sox. Skipper Joe Girardi said he expected the reigning American League MVP to rejoin the team tomorrow in the Windy City.
Besides getting to know his new girl, A-Rod will be able to rest the right quad he strained in Sunday's game against the Orioles in Baltimore.
The Yankees' $275 million man was in New York on Monday, receiving physical therapy for his ailing leg.
It was unclear when A-Rod got word that his wife, 34, had gone into labor, but Girardi indicated A-Rod made it to Miami in time for the delivery.
"I think he got there just in the nick of time," Girardi said Tuesday.
Girardi reached Alex Rodriguez by phone Tuesday and congratulated him and his wife.
"Everyone is doing well. He has a new baby girl, so that's exciting," Girardi said. "He was good. He was excited about his baby."
Rodriguez had hoped to travel on Sunday to South Florida, where his wife is due to deliver the couple's second child by the end of this week. Instead, he will see how he feels upon waking up on Monday morning, though he refused to say whether he would accompany the Yankees to Chicago or return to New York.
Next to Rodriguez, the Yankee most interested in the delivery schedule may be Morgan Ensberg, who will fill in for A-Rod if he has to leave the team for more than one day to be with his wife or recover from the injury.
"It's something that's in the back of my mind, so it's something that doesn't ambush you because we've known it since Spring Training," said Ensberg. "It's not as though when you lose a loved one and you're thrown in there. My routine for batting [and fielding] practice pretty much remains the same."
Alex Rodriguez left today's game with a strained right quadriceps (go figure); the Yankees said he is day-to-day.
Rodriguez let up while running to first base as Bobby Abreu was forced out at second on his sixth-inning grounder. A pitch later, manager Joe Girardi and assistant trainer Steve Donohue went to first base to check on A-Rod, and he was removed from the game.
A strained left quadriceps recently forced teammate Derek Jeter to miss six games.
...until Jeter is healthy again!?If it were longer, who knows? As you know, Alex Rodriguez was once a pretty fair shortstop. For a variety of reasons, it seems highly unlikely the Yankees would move Rodriguez back to shortstop barring a season-ending injury to Jeter, yet the shocker of the night was that Girardi didn't dismiss the notion when someone asked the inevitable A-Rod question.
"We have a lot of options that we'll discuss internally," Girardi said.
"Is that one of them?" he was asked.
"It's something we'll talk about internally," he said.
So either Jeter's injury is worse than anyone was willing to admit Monday night, or Girardi didn't realize he could be making a huge mistake by allowing the idea of A-Rod at shortstop to linger even a little bit.
More likely it was the latter. He didn't sound like he was actually considering such a move, but merely looking for a diplomatic way to answer the question. Still, he should have been firmer in saying no, no, no, A-Rod wouldn't be moving to short unless Jeter's leg falls off.
After all, Jeter and A-Rod seem to be on the best of terms again, a development that can only be good for a team that has been searching for a winning formula and the right chemistry in recent Octobers.
As much as A-Rod seemed to let go of his Jeter obsession last year in telling the world they were no longer buddies, he was obviously delighted during spring training when Jeter himself seemed to let go of whatever grudge he'd been holding since the famous Esquire magazine article of 2001.
"We seem to be having a honeymoon," A-Rod joked at one point during spring training. "It's almost the way it was when we were kids."
Article courtesy of John Harper for the New York Daily News (Click Here To Read Full Story):As A-Rod looked back on the events of this past offseason, he seemed haunted by the idea that in breaking free of the Yankees he could have made another decision like the one he made in 2000 when he shunned the Met's for the big contract in Texas and wound up being unhappy for three long years.
The three-time MVP says that at some point after his opt-out decision this October, he realized he could have been heading for a similar scenario, with Boras dictating his next destination.
"So to make the right decision just feels really good," Rodriguez said, "versus being taken down a road where I'm like, 'Oh, my God, where am I? Oh, $400 million to play in some place I hate? Great, I'll blow my --- head off.'
"I wanted to remain a Yankee and for once I put my money where my mouth was. It felt good to make a decision on my own and execute it - to deal with Hank and Hal (Steinbrenner) on a one-on-one basis and get a deal done.
"If people want to question why I did it, I don't care because it made me happy. If I had gone to Team X, Y or Z, it wouldn't have made me happy. It would have been because Scott wanted me to go - it would have been for the most money. And then I'm always going to be known as a guy who always wanted the most money."
A-Rod said he was motivated to break free from Boras partly because of his fear that Hank Steinbrenner was serious about closing the door on his possible return to the Bronx, and because he was simply at a different stage of his life compared to when he had signed with the Rangers.
"My wife and daughter both love New York," said A-Rod. "Four days after I opted out (and was living in Miami), my daughter says, 'I really miss my bedroom and my toys in New York.' I wanted to shoot myself. I said to my wife, 'What the --- are we doing?' "
Dawn Klemish of MLB.com has the news:
Alex Rodriguez walked through the Yankees' clubhouse with a heat pack on his right throwing shoulder on Friday morning, not a good omen for the day's game ahead.
Not much later, it was revealed the Yankees third baseman would only be the designated hitter in New York's game against Houston because of right shoulder discomfort.
Rodriguez said he's hampered "just a little bit" by the shoulder, but only when he throws. He was able to participate in all of the pregame drills that didn't involve a throwing motion.
"I certainly wouldn't miss a game during the regular season or have to DH," Rodriguez said. "But I think right now, it's just being smart."
Rodriguez said he probably would rest the shoulder for a couple of days, but he would continue to DH if that remained an option.
Catcher Jorge Posada was also a late scratch from Friday's game as well after he felt discomfort in a lateral muscle while throwing on Monday. Posada, too, feels no pain when hitting, but he will rest the muscle until Monday. He's listed as day-to-day.
PeteAbe just had some great quotes from A-Rod that really, really got me excited for this season. Thanks Pete!Alex Rodriguez predicted today that Derek Jeter would win the MVP and that Bobby Abreu would have a monster year.
“I think Jeter is going to have an MVP season. That’s my prediction for the year,” Rodriguez said. “And Bobby’s going to have a monster year.”
Why Jeter?
“I think he’s going to have an explosive, monster season. I think he’s in great shape. I think he did some great things this winter with his workouts. I’m very excited for his year.”
Wow, that is music to my ears!!! Lets not be so quick to dismiss the influence Joe Girardi is already having on this team. :-)
