Rodriguez focuses on elusive postseason success

NEW YORK (AP) — Alex Rodriguez has become the Phantom of the Clubhouse, hardly ever seen by his locker during times the room is open to outsiders.

Other players’ high-tech stalls at the new Yankee Stadium are filled with family photos or personalized in some way. Not A-Rod’s.

For much of the last month, the only momento was a baseball in a plastic case. A bottle of bubbly was added during the last homestand.

Following more distractions in his first five seasons with the Yankees than most players have in their careers — from his ties to Madonna to the photo shoot where he kissed his reflection in a mirror — A-Rod appears to be all business. His spring training news conference to admit steroids use and subsequent hip surgery seems to have changed his outlook. Having survived those ordeals, he is far more relaxed.

He homered on his first swing of the season, waking the Yankees from a 13-15 start when he returned from the surgery, and hit a grand slam on his last as the team finished at 103-59.

“I hit rock bottom this spring, between the embarrassment of the press conference and my career being threatened with my hip injury,” he said Sunday in the visitor’s dugout at Tampa Bay. “I think my life, my career, was at a crossroads. I was going to stay at the bottom or I was going to bounce back.”

Rodriguez then went out and had the greatest offensive inning in American League history, hitting a three-run homer and a slam to reach 30 homers and 100 RBIs for the 12th consecutive year and 13th time overall.

Six of his RBIs during the season tied games and 29 more put the Yankees ahead, according to STATS LLC.

That’s fine in the eyes of most Yankees’ fans, but right now they’re more concerned with fall flops than summer success.

He is 8-for-59 (.136) in the postseason dating to 2004 and is hitless in his past 18 playoff at-bats with runners in scoring position.

If the Yankees are to win their first World Series title since 2000 — and if A-Rod is to even make it to the series for the first time in 16 major league seasons — he is going to have to perform more like Mr. October, Reggie Jackson, than Mr. May, Dave Winfield, as the postseason stretches past Halloween into November.

“People talk about the failures of one guy, but one guy does not win a series or lose a series,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. “When I look at the last playoff, there were a lot of guys who didn’t hit. And because he’s the biggest name, or people like to talk about him the most, everyone focuses on his numbers.”

That’s what a record $275 million, 10-year contract will do.

Rodriguez famously opted out of his previous deal, a then-record $252 million, 10-year agreement, after going 4-for-15 (.267) with one RBI during the Yankees’ first-round loss to Cleveland in 2007.