As a follow-up to my recent article about Alex Rodriguez's productivity in the playoffs as a Mariner, here are some portions of an interview I did early this year with Kevin Kalal of the Tacoma Rainiers, the Mariners' AAA affiliate, in 1995. The excerpts deal with Kalal's impressions of A-Rod back then. When I asked the readers of Mariners' fan site Lookout Landing for their response to his favorable comments, they responded very negatively.
Some of them emphasized how much things had changed in 14 years, others are simply very ill-disposed toward Rodriguez over him leaving Seattle, and everything else that's happened with him this decade. And I don't think his performance these past few weeks will change that.
But, there's some merit to the opinions of someone who had personal contact with A-Rod as a minor leaguer. Or, at the very least, it's interesting to get a glimpse of what he was like back then and compare it to how Rodriguez is now, with him on the brink of his first World Series title. So, here are some of Kevin Kalal's impressions of A-Rod in the minors:
He was a real phenom. The first time you saw A-Rod he was 17, playing for Calgary [in 1994], and I said, “That’s something special.” You could see he was in the league of a lot of big-time guys.
He was such a special player. It’s so hard to understand all this stuff about the performance-enhancing drugs, knowing how hard he worked. He was a great player, but he really, really, really worked hard at it. He was very likable, not phony, not saying "look at me." Level-headed. I think Scott Boras was a great guiding influence.
There were a couple times Rodriguez would go on an eight-game road series against someone and get six homers along with 13 or 14 RBI. He went to and from Seattle four times in ’95, and he didn’t sulk after he came back down, he didn’t say, “Oh, they don’t know what they’re doing.” You just knew there was something special there.
I have fond memories of Alex as a player and person.
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