Maybe it’s much more than his pathetic on field performance.
In a story that seems too ridiculous to be true, except that it’s A-Rod, the New York Post quotes unnamed witnesses at Game 1 of the ALCS saying Rodriguez openly flirted with two female fans sitting near the Yankees dugout after he was taken out for a pinch hitter in the eighth inning. He even had a bat boy toss the women a ball with instructions to write their phone numbers on it — which they did. This is the same game in which Derek Jeter broke his ankle.
The timing of the flirting is somewhat important. The Post seems to say that it began before the Yankees’ incredible rally in the ninth, before Raul Ibañez hit his most recent tying home run.
"Alex was holding a pen and wrote a note on a ball which was thrown at the women by a ball boy,’’ the witness explained.
"The girls, who had already caught two balls, seemed bemused at first and tried to hand the ball to another fan, but other fans noticed the note on it and yelled at them to read it.
"The note asked them to write their phone numbers on the ball and throw it back,’’ the witness said.
“One of the girls, with darker blond hair, wrote . . . on the ball and threw it back at A-Rod, who gave her a big smile.”
"They exchanged a few glances after that,’’ as A-Rod took a powder while a pinch-hitter took his place at the plate.