The Derek Jeter/Alex Rodriguez relationship was pushed back into the national spotlight with the premiere of the seven-part documentary series, “The Captain,” and the duo’s former teammate joined Brandon Tierney on Thursday to talk about their complicated tenure as teammates.
John Flaherty was with Jeter and A-Rod at the start, sharing the pinstripes in 2004, when Rodriguez was first dealt to New York, and in 2005. All eyes were on the left side of the Yankee infield after the blockbuster trade, as the former friends’ decaying relationship was well known at the time.
Asked how different the two were in the clubhouse, Flaherty confirmed to Tierney that the two went about their business in very different ways.
“The couple of years I was there when Alex and Derek were together…Alex would walk into the clubhouse and he was concerned about what all the other 25 guys were thinking about him,” Flaherty said. “Every day.
“As professional baseball players, we walk in the clubhouse and we know what our job is every day and how to be prepared. Not saying I wasn’t paying attention to everybody else, but I knew what I had to do as a backup catcher. Alex was very concerned about what other people thought about him and what other people said about him. Derek didn’t care about any of that stuff.”
The two seem to have buried the hatchet, but will likely never be as close as they were when they were up and coming stars. But, as Flaherty noted, winning cures everything, especially for a player as driven as Jeter.
“There was some tension there early on, especially,” Flaherty said. “It seems like they’re probably past all of that, and winning a World Series probably cures a lot of that, but it was an interesting time, to say the least.”
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