Alex Rodriguez and Doug Mientkewicz spent only one year as teammates in the major leagues, so it may make sense they would not have the best relationship ever.
However, that was not their only time as teammates – the two played both baseball and football together at Westminster Christian School outside of Miami.
However, despite knowing each other since childhood, Mientkewicz unloaded on his former teammate, a three-time MVP and World Series champion with Hall of Fame numbers.
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Doug Mientkiewicz, #11, and Alex Rodriguez, #13 of the New York Yankees, walk on the field before the game against the Texas Rangers on May 8, 2007 at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
“I’ve always said this, he’s going to die a lonely man,” Mientkiewicz said on “Foul Territory.” “This whole ‘father of the year’ stuff, God bless him with his daughters, because it’s got to come a long way. But it’s like, ‘You’re just trying to get into heaven now.’ I’m still friends with my high school team. We still text often, not as often as we should, but we still text, group thread, constantly badgering each other. He’s just distanced from it. I don’t care how good or how great you become and how far your career goes, you never forget your high school dudes.”
New York Yankees Alex Rodriguez, #13, and Doug Mientkiewicz, #11, upset in their dugout during Game 1 against the Cleveland Indians in Cleveland Oct. 4, 2007. (Heinz Kluetmeier/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)
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Mientkewicz said that Rodriguez recently attended a celebration for their old high school coach to celebrate “his 3 millionth win,” but Rodriguez was “in his [Minnesota] Timberwolves shirt sleeping in a chair.”
The pair teamed up in the majors with the 2007 New York Yankees, but Mientkewicz recalled a time when catcher Jorge Posada told him the Yankees should have acquired him long prior, because he would put Rodriguez in check.
“He’s like ‘Alex is completely different around you.’ And I’m like ‘it’s on you guys. You guys let him get away with this s— …,'” he said. “He’d make a kid carry his glove and his belt … and I’m like, ‘what the f—? You can’t carry your own belt? What’s wrong with you? Put it on. Everyone here is making $30 million, too.'”
Rodriguez, though, did not return the favor.
“That was actually strange, because I always considered Doug a friend,” Rodriguez told USA Today. “I was shocked and surprised. My daughters sent me the articles, my mom, my brother, all people that really like Doug. I was really close with his mom and dad.
New York Yankees Alex Rodriguez running to third base in a regular season game against the Boston Red Sox played at Yankee Stadium in Bronx, New York. Red Sox defeated the Yankees 11 – 4 on April 27, 2007. (Bryan Yablonsky/Getty Images)
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“One thing I’ll never do is speak poorly about any of my teammates, especially one of my high school teammates, so I wish him well.”
Rodriguez won the AL MVP Award the one year they were teammates when he led the majors with 54 home runs, 156 RBI, and a 1.067 OPS while hitting .314. However, those Yanks were bounced in the American League Division Series by Cleveland in four games.
Mientkewicz was part of the 2004 Red Sox that came back from 3-0 down against the Yanks in the American League Championship Series and eventually went on the break the Curse of the Bambino by winning Boston’s first World Series in 86 years.
