OAKLAND, Calif. — A younger man might have been able to nimbly slide around Oakland catcher Josh Phegley. Then again, such a maneuver would not have been necessary for a younger man — he would have arrived home far before the throw from center fielder Billy Burns.
But Alex Rodriguez, closing in on his 40th birthday in July, is no longer a younger man.
He runs upright, arms pumping, like a Sherpa chugging up a hill with a cord of firewood on his back. Rodriguez covers ground just as slowly. And thanks to surgically repaired hips, he now changes directions as deliberately as a school bus.