1	BOOKS New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez debuts his new children’s book Out of the Ballpark. But, why now? read more...
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THE LATIN FORUM

BOOKS

THE HUMAN TOUCH

By Victor Cruz-Lugo

New York Yankee third baseman Alex Rodriguez promotes his children’s book while riding out waves of preseason controversy.

There are presently few professional baseball players who can spark controversy as effortlessly as the 31-year-old, Dominican-American New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez, affectionately known as A-Rod. With a 10-year $252-million contract, poor performances and playing in arguably the most aggressively critical sports town, in the nation, A-Rod has become a lightning rod for complaints.
Following lackluster postseason batting stats in 2004 and 2006—wherein the Detroit Tigers made swift work of the Yanks in four games—high profile jabs by Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillén and fellow Yankee Jason Giambi, sloppy fielding, as well as rumors the living legend would leave the Yanks on a contractual technicality, Rodriguez was left sailing through a perfect storm of preseason controversy while in the middle of a book tour.
And so an event as apparently benign as a book signing for the second children’s tale Rodriguez has penned—Out of the Ballpark ($16.99, HarperCollins)—can take on vaguely menacing characteristics.
When Hispanic Magazine caught up with the living legend at Books&Books, the prominent Miami indie book shop, the place was buzzed with subdued chatter about a previous signing event wherein the Yankee slugger had a baseball thrown at (and not to) him. But at the Miami signing, A-Rod, in black T-shirt and jeans, sitting before and signing a mountain of copies of Out of the Ballpark, looked as diligent and determined as the boy protagonist depicted in his book.
His representative Steve Fortunato gamely responded to a quip about how the caramel-colored, green-eyed slugger looked bigger in person than in real life, by responding, “that’s because Alex has been hitting the weights.” Meanwhile, A-Rod’s adoring fans, nonplussed by the negative side of the hype, formed a growing line that ran outside the store and nearly the length of the block waiting to purchase a signed copy of Out of the Ballpark.
The 30-page book, intended for 4- to 8-year-olds, is illustrated by artist Frank Morrison, and includes a special edition Topps baseball card featuring Rodriguez as a kid, as well as a three-page photo album of A-Rod’s sports-frenzied childhood. The thin, square tome tells the tale of a boy A-Rod who drops a ball during the “playoffs,” then obsessively practices and gets the clutch hit at an even more important championship game. Hmm. The tome finds its limitations in its, perhaps unavoidable, inclusion of baseball jargon not every kid is going to get without some explaining. Its strength lies in the illustrations, which are first-rate.
“One reason I do this is because it’s a way of promoting literacy,” explains
Rodriguez, looking up momentarily from his swift work signing books. “It’s also a way of encouraging parents to sit down with their children and get close to them by reading to them,” he adds.
Rodriguez—who skipped college to become in 1994, at 18, the youngest player to start a professional game in 16 years—is today an avid reader. He can quote you a lengthy list of favorite recent titles and like his weight training, his reading is results-driven with a heavy emphasis on books about success.
Among other dazzling stats, Rodriguez was twice voted Most Valuable Player in his league, and is the only person in baseball history to hit 400 home runs before turning 30. It took a postseason slump, and lots of bad press, to almost make him one of us, the mortal and the flawed. That said, baseball is—perhaps mercifully so—a long-term game of averages. It is not therefore too much to hope, or even to expect, that Rodriguez will be back with better postseason stats and even a newer, improved children’s book before long.
To reiterate the plotline of Out of the Ballpark’s narrative: A child A-Rod chokes during a big game, regroups, gets back to the fundamentals, then hits it out the park.
“That’s how you define baseball. It’s a sport that can bring anyone to their knees,” says Rodriguez. “For me, while this past year was the toughest in my career, it was also, in some way, the most rewarding. For many people I did become a lot more human ... and [they] realized that I’d been just as down as anyone else, but I think that going through adversity, once you get through it, gives you a boost of confidence not just as a ballplayer, but also as a man.”
One look at the line of loyal fans eagerly awaiting a signed book shows there’s no shortage of faith in Rodriguez despite the precipitous ups and downs of professional sports.

Bookshelf

What’s A-Rod—who prefers to peruse several books at once—reading?

The Prince of the City: Giuliani, New York and the Genius of American Life
By Fred Siegel
Encounter Books

The Winner Within
By Pat Riley
Putnam Adult

Jack: Straight from the Gut
By Jack Welch
Warner Business Books

Gustavo Cisneros: The Pioneer
By Pablo Bachelet
Planeta

From Good to Great:
Why Some Companies Make the Leap ... and Others Don’t
By Jim Collins
Harper Business

The Art of Seduction
& The 48 Laws of Power
Both by author Robert Greene
Profile Books

Plus he reads anything by investment billionaire Warren Buffett.