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Alex Rodriguez once infuriated former Rangers catcher Einar Diaz and then-pitching coach Orel Hershiser after calling pitches from the infield. Andy Martino in his book "The Yankee Way," narrates the incident that involved A-Rod emulating Orioles legend Cal Ripken Jr.
During the early 2000s, as mentioned by Martino in his book, a friend of Rodriguez told him how former Baltimore Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken Jr. would call the pitches from the infield despite him not being a catcher.
Rodriguez, the flamboyant personality that he was, found it cool and started doing it with his own team, the Texas Rangers. That led catcher Einer Diaz and pitching coach Orel Hershiser to be fed up with A-Rod taking over the role of Diaz.
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"I was like, I am the catcher," Díaz said. "F**k that. He wanted to call every pitch. I was like, 'No.'"
Buck Showalter, who was the manager of the Rangers (2003-06) during the time, defended Alex Rodriguez's antics but mentioned that his actions rubbed people the wrong way.
"Our pitching was so bad, his heart was in the right place," Showalter says. "He was trying to help, but the route he was taking rubbed some people the wrong way.
"He was trying to be everything with his contract: 'Okay, I gotta help the pitcher. I gotta help the outfielders.' He wanted to bring everything that a guy making his kind of money could."
Ahead of the 2001 season, the Texas Rangers splurged big on Alex Rodriguez, signing him to a whopping 10-year, $252 million contract (biggest at the time). However, the partnership didn't work much, with the Rangers trading him away to the New York Yankees ahead of the 2004 season.
Andy Martino quotes players' thoughts on Alex Rodriguez's personality in the league
Andy Martino in his book mentioned how the league perceived Alex Rodriguez's personality in the early 2000s. He quoted some opponent players from the time who said:
"Guys around the league used to call him 'the human hand job when he was with Texas."
"He would try to be a leader, but it just came off as so phony, like he stroking people off and didn't really mean any of it. 'Oh, is so great,' when it obviously wasn't. That sort of thing," another said (via The Yankee Way from Andy Martino).
Alex Rodriguez, at the time, signed the biggest contract in the history of baseball. So it was natural for many to find him arrogant. A-Rod, for his part, went on to win three AL MVPs with the Yankees (2003, 2005 and 2007). He also won the World Series with them in 2009.
