‘He Was Concerned About Putting Numbers’- 4-Time World Series-Winning Manager Opens Up About ‘Selfish’ Nature of Alex Rodriguez in Yankees Clubhouse

Despite doing so much for the game, Alex Rodriguez will go down as one of the most controversial and self-obsessed players in Major League Baseball. A-Rod was an excellent hitter of the game. No doubt about that. But him being a team player still raises multiple questions.

In any sport, depending on individual performances will not be successful in the long run, regardless of the player’s skill. And the same goes with Alex Rodriguez. He was a serial hitter in baseball. But to win the title, teamwork is the most important thing. Something that A-Rod perhaps lacked at the Yankees.

Before signing with the Yankees, A-Rod had played for the Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers. And he was the spearhead of those teams. But he did not get the same environment in the Yankees clubhouse. Because everyone was a proven winner there. Talking about the same, the former Yankees manager, Joe Torre, opened up about A-Rod’s obsession with numbers.

Was Alex Rodriguez not a team man?

As earlier said, to get success in the long run, it is essential to play as a unit rather than depending on an individual. An individual might win several games, but in the knockout games, only a better team ends up getting successful results.

In an old interview with Graham Bensinger, Joe Torre revealed that Alex Rodriguez wanted to put individual numbers, instead of playing as a unit. Notably, who better to talk about this than someone like Torre, who won four World Series titles with the Yankees?

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“He was concerned about putting numbers up. And that really was not what we were all about. We were all about winning games. That was the only statistic that was important for us. But Alex and again his defense, he just felt if he put certain numbers that the wins would take care of themselves. So, I think he put pressure on himself,” Joe Torre said.

Torre also praised A-Rod for putting brilliant performances during the 2009 postseason games. A-Rod played a crucial role in winning the 2009 World Series title.

“Alex did it so well in 2009. Because he was super in the postseason,” the former Yankees’ manager added.

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