Alex Looks to Help Lead Mariners This Season
In the Seattle Times on February 28, 1999
by Bob Finnigan
PEORIA, Ariz. - An All-Star in each of his three full seasons and an MVP candidate in two of them, Alex Rodriguez would like to give more to his team.
Having just become only the third player with 40 home runs and 40 stolen bases in a season, he wants to help lead the Mariners.
He wants to join Jay Buhner, Edgar Martinez and Ken Griffey Jr. at the forefront of the club.
Buhner leads with outrageous fire, Martinez with quiet steadiness, Griffey with boundless enthusiasm. Where does Rodriguez fit in this group?
"Essentially, by performance, by sharing my effort with my teammates," Rodriguez said. "By pushing others as Jay pushed me, as Junior pushed me."
Rodriguez's timing couldn't be better - in a personal sense, since he has shown the numbers, including the 42 homers and 46 steals last year, and effort and, even at age 24, veteran status; in a team sense, since leadership will be massively important this year.
Last year with Buhner on he disabled list and Randy Johnson, an erstwhile leader, on Mars, the team suffered.
But little is done around the Seattle club that does not involve Buhner and Griffey, certainly not a desire to share their role. Showing respect for their stature and time on the team, Rodriguez talked with the two outfield stars over the winter on the appropriateness of joining them in the leadership.
"Leadership is a role you have to earn in order to be effective," Rodriguez said. "Those other guys, along with Edgar, have been our leaders, and I think I can help them in a collective sense."
The others agreed.
Buhner called it "Alex's time."
"He's young, but that has nothing to do with it. No one works harder, plays harder or gives more," the outfielder said. "When it comes to leading by example, with the attitude to give someone a kick in the butt if they need it, Alex will be a super leader."
Martinez said: "You can't declare yourself a leader. You show it with all you do, and Alex does it. He has the qualities and he is respected."
Griffey, whose leadership is anything but declared, did not speak so much about Rodriguez but about his perception of the role.
"Everyone decides for himself when it is their time to lead," said the nine-time All-Star and nine-time Gold Glover. "You can do what you want, as long as it doesn't affect me. Leader is just a title, and I don't have a problem with anything as long as a we win. It's a case of, don't interfere with my space and I won't interfere with yours."
For years, Griffey has put his own interpretation on leading. While he knows everyone looks to him, he said: "I'm not a leader, but I'm not a follower. Alex may learn that for a guy with our talent it's tough to lead."
His point is that teammates think superstars are in a different category, saying, "I can't do what you do."
"White-collar players can't lead, blue-collar player can," he said. "Alex shouldn't worry about it. He should just go out and play. His leadership will be determined by how he plays. As he plays, that's how he leads . . . that's it all."
Rodriguez has a different take on the role, something he picked up from observing leaders on his teams over the years, and emphasized by a memorable conversation with Michael Jordan in December.
He and the Chicago Bull star shared a limo ride after a round of golf. They got stuck in traffic and Rodriguez used the opportunity to quiz Jordan about his concepts of effort and leadership.
"Here's a guy who had done it all, won it all, thus with extreme reasons to be complacent," Rodriguez said. "Yet he was the hardest-working guy in pro sports. He was filled with desire and hunger. He dedicated himself to showing up, no matter how he felt, and going hard every day, and not tolerating anything less from his teammates. That's how he led."
Rodriguez said Jordan confessed then that he didn't feel that hunger any more, and that's why he was considering the retirement he subsequently announced.
"He simply had nothing else to prove," Rodriguez said. "We wanted him to keep going for selfish reasons because he was on top of his game. But he knew he wasn't ready to pay that price and rather than tarnish what he had established he would stop."
Rodriguez's decision to lead, "by work ethic, with an occasional, `let's go,' " is a result of what he saw from his team last year.
"Too often, we just didn't come to play, we didn't give effort or execution, and I'm including myself in that," he said. "We just stunk."
It ate at him long into the offseason. "It disgusted me," he said.
So he's back this year, resolved to help Buhner - "we missed Jay so much last year," he said - and Griffey and Martinez take this team back to where it had been in previous seasons.
"We lost our right to swagger, so you have to work for it, to be worthy of it," he said. "It was a summer, then a winter, I never want to go through again and I hope to do all I can to see it never happens again."
Leaders, it is said, are born, not made. If it is only a matter of accepting the responsibility, it is indeed Alex Rodriguez's time.
"I want to step forward," he said. "I don't want to step on anyone's toes doing it. But if I do . . . too bad."
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