"I'll be 30 this year, Alex is going to be 34," Teixeira said yesterday. "We want to be great into our late 30s and into our 40s. Alex and I are hoping that we're going to be here for a long time and winning a lot of championships together."Remember when Teixeira signed here last year and a lot of people were saying that these two hated each other? Well, I guess that was just the media trying to create controversy when there wasn't one. Tex made A-Rod sound like a freaking saint in this article.
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"Everyone knows his work ethic," Teixeira said. "But he put me through a workout that I was tired for about a week, but what I loved is that he invited all the kids that worked out at Miami [the U], the minor league players, back to his house.
"He fed 'em, then we hit for two hours in his batting cage."
Teixeira got to see Rodriguez on his home turf and was impressed.
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"What he does for that community," the first baseman said. "You walk around the Miami facilities and everyone is, 'Hey Alex.' He gives everyone a hug.
"His name's on the stadium. It's inspiring because when I'm in the offseason, I like to get away. I like to be by myself a little bit, but he just said 'Hey, guys, c'mon in.'
"The whole time we were there, he was talking baseball," Teixeira added. "He was teaching kids how to work, how to prepare, how to hit certain pitchers, how to go into spring training."
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"He eats so healthy," Teixeira said. "That's how you stay young. You eat healthy and you work hard. What I've learned in my career, the more you talk baseball, the more you surround yourself with ballplayers and pick the brains of everyone, the better you are. I learned a lot from Chipper Jones, I learned a lot from Alex."
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"We went out to lunch together a couple days ago," Teixeira said. "We reflected on the season, what made us good, and, 'All right, how are we going to get better?'"
I'm certainly happy that there was nothing to those rumors. It's always good when teams are close and teammates actually like each other. Sure, teams that are filled with players that hate each other, like the '77-'78 Yankees, can win, but it's got to be easier to do when everyone is getting along. Teixeira seems to agree. In the article he said that "The family atmosphere" that the Yankees had was "so important" to them winning it all last year.
And besides being close, it's good to see two of the best hitters on the team, getting together before spring training to work on their hitting and trying to improve their games.
We know this about the core four, but one thing I've noticed from a lot of the guys who won their first rings last year is that they're not satisfied with just one ring. Based on the things guys like Tex, A-Rod, CC, Hughes, Joba, and others have said, they seem to be hungrier to win now that they've tasted it.
