According to Piniella, who happened to be at the Stadium Tuesday night to do promotional work as a guest in one of the suites, the meeting with A-Rod was entirely coincidental - although it quickly evolved into an intense hour-and-a-half mind-clearing session on hitting and self-confidence back at Rodriguez's Park Ave. condo.

"I was leaving the park myself when Cynthia came up to me and said Alex would really like to see me," Piniella said yesterday. "I've felt terrible for him, seeing what he's been going through. You have to remember, he was our 'baby' in Seattle. I watched him grow up in the big leagues. I've always felt very close to him and I'm very proud of all he's accomplished and if there was anything I could do to help him, I would."
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"Basically, I just told him to trust himself. We talked about mechanics, staying confident, being positive. This was nothing new. He needed a friend to talk about hitting and I was glad to be there. That's all. I wouldn't want Donnie (Mattingly) to think I was interfering or anything."

At the mention of Mattingly, I had to remind Piniella that whenever "Donnie Baseball" would get into a slump he, too, would reach out to his first hitting mentor with the Yankees. "Yeah, I guess he did," Piniella said with laugh, "but I'm still employed by the Devil Rays and I don't want to get into any trouble here. I just care a lot about Alex and he wanted to talk."
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'It's funny," said Piniella, "my wife and I went to a Broadway show (yesterday afternoon) and as we got out of the theater, I said to her: 'I wonder how Alex did today?' We got back to our hotel just as Giambi was drawing the walk in the 12th inning. I can't remember ever feeling better for anyone than I did when I saw Alex hit that ball out."