Former MLB star Alex Rodriguez was “shocked and surprised” after former high school and New York Yankees teammate Doug Mientkiewicz made some negative comments about him in a recent podcast.
Last week, Mientkiewicz was a guest on the “Foul Territory” podcast and was asked by former Minnesota Twins teammate AJ Pierzynski if Rodriguez acknowledges him when they see each other in public settings.
Mientkiewicz said that Rodriguez does acknowledge him, but only “in a certain setting” and that for the most part, Rodriguez has just distanced himself from his high school teammates. Mientkiewicz also said that Rodriquez “will die a lonely man”.
“It’s like, ‘You’re just trying to get to heaven right now,'” Mientkiewicz said of Rodriguez. “I’m still friends with my high school team. We still text often, not as often as we should, but we still text, group together, constantly harass each other. He’s just far from it. I don’t care how good or how great you get and how far your career goes, you never forget your high school students.”
Those comments didn’t seem to bother Rodriguez, though the 14-time All-Star did tell USA Today that he was “shocked and surprised” and found the comments “strange” because I always considered Doug a friend.
In an interview with Fox 5 NY’s Rosanna Scotto this week, Rodriguez elaborated on how he felt about what Mientkiewicz said.
“There will always be people who have things to say, everyone has an opinion, but I would certainly never speak negatively about any of my teammates in public, especially someone from high school,” said Rodriguez. “I mean, look, we’re almost 50 now. This should be the good old days when we look back, and we cringe at some of the weird things that we did, and we’re proud of the relationships that we’ve built through the years. So you take that with a grain of salt and you wish everyone well and you move on.”