[新聞] A-Rod feels nostalgic while hosting clinic

看板A-Rod作者Ally1213 (No other way)時間16年前 (2007/11/18 12:20)推噓5(5推 0噓 7→)

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http://tinyurl.com/3dtnlc A-Rod gets in touch with roots Superstar hosts 85 youngsters for two-hour baseball clinic By Charlie Nobles / Special to MLB.com MIAMI -- Alex Rodriguez was filled with nostalgia and the memories came flood- ing back Saturday as he returned to the baseball fields of his youth to con- duct a clinic for 85 youngsters between 9 and 14 years old. The celebrated third baseman described the Southwest Miami Boys & Girls Club as a "sort of third parent for me, because my parents were so busy working. I spent hundreds of thousands of hours here -- seven days a week." Rodriguez remembers falling asleep on a couch in a coach's office, recalls hitting perhaps his favorite home run here, thinks of the day he wept as a 10-year-old because he felt he disappointed his mother. In that later memory, he said about 1,000 people crowded around the club's main field, which he equated to having 300,000 at Yankee Stadium. He said he was feeling particularly nervous about a big game because his mother, brother and sister would attend. A high throw came toward him at one point. When he couldn't get his glove on it, he thought he had let his mother down, even though he went on to hit the game-winning home run. "To me, it was a barometer beyond disappointing her," he said. "It was pro- bably that I cared too much and that I wanted to be great really bad." Rodriguez said baseball soon was to become his hope for a better life and getting out of Westchester, a lower-middle-class neighborhood about 10 miles from the club. And he gave a similar message to those at Saturday's clinic. "You can do whatever you want with baseball," he told the youngsters as the two-hour clinic began. "I also want you to think a lot about education, about the SAT. The SAT will be one of the most important things you take in your life, because it can influence what college you go to, maybe what opportu- nities you get along the way. I am passionate about education." After a pause, he added, "I always wanted to be better, but I didn't really think it would be baseball for me. I really didn't think I had the ability to be what I am today. But with time and hard work and confidence, I've become that person." Then he talked about alcohol and drugs. "A bunch of garbage," he said, noting that he is proudest that he has never touched a drug. One youngster asked him what kind of sacrifice it has taken to become a Major Leaguer. Rodriguez described the sacrifice in anecdotal terms: he missed his senior prom at Miami Westminster Christian High because he played in a baseball all- star game (it was the year he became the No. 1 overall pick in the country); he said he hit near the bottom of the order on his Little League teams, but that never stopped him from working harder. For instance, he would arrive at school in the seventh grade an hour and a half early every day so he could keep a workout schedule. "I don't recommend anybody doing that because you wind up smelly and stinky before homeroom," he said to chuckles from the kids. "But it's the kind of thing you do as a kid that could drive you to the next level." Rodriguez said that once he became a touted prospect in high school, he would joke among his friends that if he could ever play five years in the Majors and make $1 million, "I'd be the happiest guy in the world." Rich Hofman, Rodriguez's high school coach at Westminster Christian, couldn't contain himself. He interjected with a laugh, "Are you saying you are 275 times happier now?" That was in reference to Rodriguez's looming deal with the Yankees in the range of $275 million over 10 years. Rodriguez didn't respond. Instead, he happily introduced Hofman as the "John Wooden of high school baseball coaches," and Hofman began breaking the young- sters into three groups for instruction. As you might guess, Rodriguez handled much of the instruction on hitting. He told the kids that he hits off a tee virtually every day of the season, that it is a wonderful tool to gauge one's swing. Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long, who has signed a three-year extension with the team, was at the clinic to verify the statement. After each youngster hit several balls, Rodriguez would invariably say, "Nice job" or "Good job." One youngster hit the ball with unusual power, albeit on an arc that might suggest an uppercut swing. Rodriguez rolled a ball about six feet in front of the plate and said, "Try to hit that ball." The youngster then took a more level swing, hitting a hard grounder. A little later, with another group, Rodriguez gathered them at the end and said, "The greatest thing is you have to know you can hit, you have to want to hit and you've got to be confident in the box. So if you're ever in that box, you tell yourself, 'I'm better than the guy on the mound.' I want you to never forget that, OK?" To another group, he said that six of the youngsters at the clinic would wind up in the Major Leagues. Then he said, "The question you have to ask yourself is, 'Am I going to be one of them?' Many parents of the participants gathered around the fences to try to pick up every word from Rodriguez, who was dressed in a black shirt and black workout pants. Leanne Trigoura, there to see her 10-year-old son, Jorge Trigoura, seemed typical of the appreciative parents. "It's inspiring to him to see someone who has been successful," she said of her son. "Not only inspiring when he plays baseball, but other sports as well and in studying hard." At clinic's end, each youngster was treated to lunch and given a red bag that included two batting gloves, a fielder's glove, miniature bat, a hat and a Rodriguez children's book entitled, "Out of the Ballpark." Rodriguez told them, "When you see me on television, when you see me here, know I am the most humble and blessed human being on this earth. And that's why I think it's a responsibility for me to be here. You don't even have to thank me. It's my duty; it's my obligation. Now it's your job to try to live your dreams and play with me in the Major Leagues." As a send-off, he told them that he once attended a clinic conducted by Alex Fernandez, then a pitcher for the Chicago White Sox, and they played against each other in the Majors just seven years later. 我個人相當喜歡這篇新聞，溫馨，有趣，又帶點小傷感(阿肉童年那段) 另外MLB首頁就可以看到大約一分多鐘的阿肉訪談，大家不要錯過囉 :) -- 『可否答應我最後一次，如我所想你般地想我一天？最後，讓我再放肆且溫柔地向你說一聲──我愛你。』 -- ※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc) ◆ From: 219.91.97.243

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