No fightin' words

A-Rod looks to cool Bosox feud

BY SAM BORDEN
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
*Alex Rodriguez says he's not proud of fight with Jason Varitek. *

SARASOTA - In the days after his fight with Jason Varitek last summer,
Alex Rodriguez said he didn't regret his role in the brawl at Fenway
Park and was simply responding to being "called out" by the Red Sox
catcher.

But yesterday, before an exhibition game with the Reds, A-Rod said he
now has a new perspective.

Fatherhood, apparently, has changed his view.

"When you get caught up in the heat of the moment of New York-Boston,
sometimes you do things you regret," he said. "I'm not really proud of
it now that I have a daughter (Natasha, born Nov. 18), but you play hard
and you live."

The impetus for the questions about Varitek was a story out of Boston
yesterday that detailed a plan created by a group of elementary school
students suggesting the Yanks and Bosox should shake hands on the field
before renewing their rivalry this season.

A-Rod didn't get specific about whether he would be willing to shake
Varitek's hand when told about the story, but praised the Sox captain
instead, saying, "I do have a lot of respect for Jason. He's a world
champion and I'm not."

While the spirit of the plan certainly is admirable, it may be not
realistic. The kids sent letters to both teams as well as commissioner
Bud Selig, and a spokesman for George Steinbrenner said The Boss thought
the plan was a "good idea" and would "encourage" his players if they
wanted to implement it, but certainly wouldn't order the Bombers one way
or another.

"It's up to them," Steinbrenner said through his spokesman, Howard
Rubenstein. Joe Torre pointed out that Red Sox and Yankees often greet
each other and shake hands during batting practice before a game, so a
ritualized greeting probably isn't necessary. The Dodgers and Cardinals
shook hands after St. Louis won last year's division series, prompting
some question as to whether the Yanks and Sox would do the same after
last year's ALCS, but neither team was particularly interested. Players
on both sides said their sentiment didn't mean they didn't respect their
opponent, but rather, they just didn't need to show it openly.

The rivalry reached new levels last season and got even hotter during
the winter when Curt Schilling and A-Rod had a back-and-forth through
the media after the Boston ace criticized Rodriguez for his infamous
"slap play" in Game 6 of the ALCS. Schilling's teammates then piled on
A-Rod at the start of spring training, asserting that A-Rod wasn't a
"true Yankee," among other barbs.

Things have cooled since then, with Sox skipper Terry Francona asking
his players to tone down the rhetoric and Rodriguez (and his teammates)
refusing to take the bait. Schilling even praised A-Rod last week when
talking about the steroid speculation surrounding many of the game's
past and present stars, singling Rodriguez out for being a "genetic
freak" and noting that his 42-homer, 46-stolen base season for Seattle
in 1998 makes him "truly the only 40-40 guy to play the game."

Rodriguez kept his tone positive when discussing the Sox.

"I don't have a problem with those guys," he said. "They're world
champs. I actually have a lot of respect for those guys. They're great
players who play the game right."


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