THAT'S WHERE Eddie Rodriguez(no relation)first met Alex, when the 8-year-old
came into the club in the Coconut Grove section of Miami.
“He was a tall, lanky, skinny kid who wanted to play baseball,”is how
Eddie recalls the first impression. Friends called Alex“Cheech,”after Cheech
Marin of Cheech and Chong movie fame.
But it was only a few years later that Eddie remembers,“J.D. told me one
day,'Alex is the best player in the country.'”
J.D.Arteaga went on to a six-year minor league career in the New York Mets
and Houston Astros organizations and now is the pitching coach at the
University of Miami, but it's a stretch to think he was that much of a
teenage talent scout.
“That was my Dad; he told me that,”says J.D.,who met Alex at Everglades
Elementary School when the kid with the Dominican background eased into
lifelong relationships with boys with the Cuban heritage more common in the
neighborhool.
“I think Mr. Arteaga saw the potential,”Socarras says.“Alex had these
big hands and big feet even though he looked five years younger than everyone
else. He was very strong. In eighth grade, he played basketball with some of
the varsity players.He was as strong as the seniors and juniors.
“I remember the first time we tried to use weights,”Socarras says.“We
go in there and I'm spotting for him. He gets on the bench and, I don't
remember how much weight it was, but he puts it up six or seven times. So
I figure it can't be too bad. The first time, it almost broke my chest.
I couldn't get it off.”
Juan Arteaga was the boys' youth league coach and, more importantly,
one of several men who helped fill a void after Alex's father left. But Juan
never got to see his prediction come true, dying when the boys were 16.
Eddie Rodriguez had a surrogate role that continues to this day and Hofman
remains important enough that Alex still brings him to major league games,
including All-Star Games and that reunion last year Boston. The
longest-running of the relationships is with Eddie, who hangs on every swing
of Alex's bat.
“I'd be proud if Alex was a .220 hitter with 10 homers,”Eddie says,“just
if he was in the big leagues. But to be No.1 and everything he has done,
this is special. But it creates so much pressure. We sweat together. I sweat
for him everyday.”
No more so than through hundreds of workouts over the years as part of a
relationship that stands above all the other lives Eddie has touched in 33
years at the club.
“I have a special love for the place where I work,”Eddie says.“We've had
15 or 16 guyss make it. Rafael Palmeiro came through here, Jose Canseco,
(former big-league pitcher)Alex Fernandez. They all were special but he
has helped me, too. He has returned my love, my support. We have different
motivations but we have the same goals. His goal is my goal.”
A smiling Alex has a more succinct description of their relationship:
“He's been screaming at me since I was 8.”
“I would train with him every day,”says Eddie, a prideful man determined
into his 50s not to let his kids get the best of him, whether it's a
cross-country run or a workout in the gym.“I would say,‘let's,' but it
always turns out he pushes me.”
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