Alex Rodriguez Attends First-Base School, but a Key Item Is Absent

The Yankees’ grand experiment of spring training, teaching Alex Rodriguez to play first base, began with a rudimentary lesson: Don’t forget your glove.

The new first baseman’s glove that Rodriguez had to procure vanished Friday morning, leaving Rodriguez to do drills at the position with his third baseman’s glove.

What was most striking about Rodriguez’s first workout at first base was how disengaged he appeared to be. While other Yankees did the drills at close to game speed, pitchers pouncing off the mound and fielders focusing on their footwork, Rodriguez went about his work with a degree of nonchalance.

ESPN: Maier’s Glove Is Up For Auction

Unique memorabilia opportunity:

The glove Jeffrey Maier used to catch Derek Jeter’s tying home run against Baltimore in the eighth inning of the 1996 American League Championship Series opener at the original Yankee Stadium will be auctioned. Heritage Auctions said Monday the glove will be put up for bids on Saturday in New York. The company did not identify the current owner, who it said had purchased the glove from Maier.

The Players’ Tribune: Jeter: The Clean Up

Now that we’ve got that World Series thing out of the way, we can turn our attention to important baseball developments, like Derek Jeter cleaning out his locker:

There were a few special items I knew I wanted to take home: The two bats I used for my last hits in Yankee Stadium and last hit at Fenway Park, the bases the Red Sox gave me from my final game. There were other items, too. But more than any one thing, I know what I’ll miss most of all is the people. So after spending way too long trying to figure out what to take, I just decided to box it all up and ship it to my house in Tampa. I wanted to spend my last afternoon hanging out with the clubhouse guys.

Photos at link.