CLEVELAND – Alex Rodriguez and Joe Torre said they have no problem with the comments Chipper Jones made Wednesday, when he said the closer Rodriguez gets to Barry Bonds’ home-run record, the more the Yankees third baseman will have to answer questions whether he used performance-enhancing drugs.
Speaking last night before the Yankees’ 6-1 win over the Indians at Jacobs Field, Rodriguez and Torre each said Jones’ words were not harmful and understood where the Braves star was coming from.
“Chipper and I go back to high-school days. I don’t think Chipper said anything that was out of line,” said Rodriguez, who hit his 37th homer of the season in his return to the lineup after sitting out Wednesday night in Toronto with a bruised right calf. “That’s the reality of it. You can’t be naive. I mean, the era we are in, with great accomplishments come a lot of questions. That’s going to be inevitable. I don’t think Chipper was talking specifically about me, but in general.”
Many have installed Rodriguez, 32, as the favorite to surpass Bonds’ home-run record some day. Rodriguez is the youngest player to hit 500, and if he stays healthy, it’s not out of the question he could breeze past the 800 mark. Bonds was at 758 and counting.
Slugger turned author Jose Canseco has hinted he has information about Rodriguez and steroids but said he is saving it for follow-up book to his bestseller, “Juiced.”
Torre read Jones’ comments and said they didn’t match the headlines.
“It all goes back to gaining the trust from the people and from what I got out of the article was that it wasn’t anything like the headline,” Torre said. “All [Jones] said was that when he gets to that point there are going to be some people asking questions. It doesn’t mean I question Alex, it means it is where we are. We have to gain the trust back. People are going to be looking down their noses at us.”
