Alex Rodriguez undoubtedly loves playing for the Yankees, but his childhood dream was to play for the boys from Queens. Rodriguez grew up in Miami cheering for the New York Mets.
This will rub a few diehard Bronx Bombers fans the wrong way, but as a kid in the 80's, A-Rod says his choices to catch baseball were on superstations for the Cubs (WGN), Braves (TBS) and Mets (WOR).
Rodriguez wanted to play for the Mets so much that he would have taken less than his then-record $252 million deal fro the Rangers to have played in Flushing, according to Andrew Marchand of ESPN New York.
A-Rod recalled being "super nervous" when he had the chance at age 13 to meet his idol, Keith Hernandez, who was rehabbing a hamstring injury at Florida International University. "You are my favorite player," Rodriguez told the mustachioed first baseman. "I hope to be drafted one day."
"Everything about Hernandez, I loved," Rodriguez said. "I love the game so much. I'm such a gym rat. Hernandez was kind of the epitome of all of it. He was like a manager out on the field. He was always in the pitcher's ear. He was kind of like Davey Johnson, Part 2. And he was such a clutch hitter."
Although it's hard to believe some 24 years later, Hernandez, now a Mets TV broadcaster, claims to remember this random A-Rod meeting from 1988.
"He was very intent to listen," Hernandez told ESPN New York. "He asked questions."
-- Follow Ben Maller on Twitter @BenMaller.
