The reality is, there's been a change in the relationship over fourteen years and, hopefully, we can just put it behind us. You go from sleeping over at somebody's house five days a week, and now you don't sleep over. It's just not that big of a deal.
-Alex Rodriguez on teammate and former best buddy Derek Jeter


And it's been a long time since he's played marbles with me. That used to be like, what, every three days? Now, you know... absolutely nothing in that department. We do get ice cream once in awhile. That's fun. But it doesn't feel like it's really about us, you know? It's more about the taste.

Those were the days, though. The sleepovers. That guy used to really know how to have fun. This one time, Derek put his gerbil in his maid's bed while she was sleeping! Oh man. Talk about a blast. Gee whiz.

It's just not a big deal, though, okay? It's just part of growing up. You mature and things change. Like, for instance, me and Derek. Used to be we'd argue about how the T-Rex would kill a triceratops faster. Nowadays? No way. Never comes up. He doesn't seem like he wants to talk about it, so I just don't bring it up. Just not really where Derek and I are at right now, okay? It happens.

But we're still fine. Things just change. (It's normal). We still talk. You know, about stuff. Runs and stuff. Hits. RBIs. Whatever comes up. Doubles. Doubles, sometimes. Umpires, sometimes. Sometimes we just shoot the breeze. Chit chat. Just last week we were talking about whether or not Mr. Torre could take the Hulk in a fight. We decided he probably could. Definitely, if he got a few punches in while the Hulk was still Bruce Banner.

Okay, I lied about that. I had that talk with somebody else. Or maybe just with myself. That's some of the stuff we used to talk about at our sleepovers, though. Me and Derek. But please, don't worry about us. We're a-okay. Superduper cool. Awesome possum.

You shouldn't take it as any sort of sign if you hear anything, either. Like if I call Derek a big stupidhead behind his back, or if he and Jorge Posada start laughing and pointing at me a lot during batting practice. It's just how the friendship has progressed. Totally not a big deal. But I will say one thing, if Gary Sheffield was still here I'd give him fifty bucks to give Derek a wedgie. Then maybe we'd all go back to Gary's and have a sleepover and prank call the pizza place. And everything would be okay again.

« Previous Next »