Unlikely BFFs: A-Rod Gets Advice From the Hit King

As a mesmerized A-Rod listened, mouth agape, Rose told him he got 4,256 career hits without watching a single frame of film. He said he never hit off a tee, barely lifted a weight and had an offseason program that consisted of playing full-court basketball. He told A-Rod every game was a “four at-bat war,” that he was a “grinder,” that he remembered every pitch a pitcher ever threw him. He told him he didn’t buy into this notion of “hitting inside the ball or outside the ball,” that his only goal was to hit the thing hard someplace.

I looked, and there before me was a pale horse. Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him.