When David Ortiz and Alex Rodriguez talk, people listen. When they talk to each other, it's news.
Ortiz and Rodriguez, who have been at odds since January 2014, spoke to one another for the first time in more than two years before the Yankee's 6-3 exhibition victory Tuesday night in Fort Myers, Fla., Rodriguez confirmed (via ESPN.com).
"I spoke to him today," Rodriguez said when asked — given Ortiz's planned retirement after this season — if he felt an urge to reach out to Ortiz. "I'm happy for him. He's in a good place."
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According to ESPN.com, the two bumped into each other by an indoor batting cage at JetBlue Park, embraced and chatted briefly.
The sluggers had been friends since coming up together in the Mariners organization in the mid-1990s, but A-Rod's attorney, Joseph Tacopina, put a chill on the relationship while on ESPN Radio in January 2014 discussing steroids in baseball. "I'm not going to start naming all the other players," Tacopina said at the time, "but some of them are God-like in Boston right now."
The comment added fuel to a perception that Ortiz had used PEDs, a sensitive topic for him because he was one of four players exposed in 2009 for failing what was supposed to be a confidential drug-testing survey in 2003, before MLB instituted its current drug-testing program. Rodriguez was suspended for all of 2014 for steroid use.
In a Spanish-language interview Tuesday before he bumped into Rodriguez, Ortiz told ESPN Deportes that he was "at peace" with his relationship with Rodriguez and unconcerned with mending fences before he retires.
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"I have always gotten along with everyone," Ortiz said. "I've never harmed anybody, not even those who have tried to do me harm. It's not my problem. I will always love and respect Alex, because that is who I am, that's in my nature. I'm a big bear. I give affection to everyone."
On Tuesday night, it appears the affection went both ways.
"I love Big Papi," Rodriguez said. "I have a lot of respect for him. I think he's been an incredible ambassador for the game. I'm looking forward to him leaving the game at a height -- and for him to leave the game. He's crushed us over the years."
