Doug Mientkiewicz lets loose on his former high school teammate Alex Rodriguez
It's unclear if it bothers Alex Rodriguez, but Doug Mientkiewicz doesn't like that the former MLB superstar – who now co-owns the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx – doesn't appear to hold close the relationship they and others had as high school teammates.
Mientkiewicz, who starred for the Twins from 1998 to 2004 and later played with Rodriguez as a Yankee in 2007, was teammates with Rodriguez at Westminster Christian School in Florida. He vented about his former buddy during a guest appearance on the Foul Territory podcast when host and ex-Twins teammate A.J. Pierzynski asked if Rodriguez acknowledges him in public.
"In a certain setting," Mientkiewicz said. "Like, if it's a baseball setting, if we're doing something for Westminster, our high school, yeah, if he's not sleeping at the table. We honored my coach for his three millionth win and there he is in his Timberwolves shirt sleeping in a chair. It's like, come on, man."
Mientkiewicz believes Rodriguez will "die a lonely man," and then continued to unload on A-Rod's lack of communication with him and their high school classmates.
"I’m still friends with my high school team. We still text often, not as often as we should, but we still text, group thread, constantly badgering each other. He’s just distanced from it. I don’t care how good or how great you become and how far your career goes, you never forget your high school dudes. Like, your high school and your college teammates are brothers till the end," said Mientkiewicz.
“He’s just nowhere to be found, even when we do high school stuff for our coach. I have a picture of him sleeping at the table in his Timberwolves shirt. I’m like, ‘Are you serious? Go Wolves. No wonder they suck.’"
Mientkiewicz then recalled playing with Rodriguez in New York in 2007 and told a story of how Yankees legends Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada noticed how A-Rod acted different around him.
"I'm like, 'It's on you guys. You guys let him get away with this s***.' Like, if you call him out on the dumb a** stuff he would do. He would make a kid carry his glove and his belt. I'm like, 'What the f***, you can't carry your own belt?' Like, what's wrong with you? Put it on. No one cares. Everybody else here is making $30 million, too," he said.
"Shame on you for letting him get this way. You guys could've stopped this s***."
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.