Alex Rodriguez Uses Strange 'Punching a Little Person' Analogy on Live ESPN Broadcast

Derek Jeter took some heat from baseball fans after saying this.

By Brian Jones

Alex Rodriguez recently made a comment that had some raising their eyebrows. During ESPN's Kay-Rod Cast on Sunday, Rodriguez made a strange analogy when he was trying to describe a technique for hitting a baseball. 

"Posture up and [swing] right down, you cannot get in trouble, it's like you're punching a little person. With your right hand, it's going boom, right there. With that knee down, and now you're on top of the baseball," Rodriguez said, per the New York Post. Fans quickly went after Rodriguez for his "punching a little person remark."

"Yet another awful ARod blunder trying to be so creative and descriptive," one fan on Twitter wrote. "He makes everyone so uncomfortable. Always with the overdone, pre-scripted lines thinking he's so articulate and cool."

Another fan added: "It's just a weird analogy to use. I'm the first to admit that I'm not super knowledgeable when it comes to baseball, but couldn't he have just used hitting at one of those rubber tee-ball baseball tees as an example? No?" The Kay-Rod Cast is ESPN's alternative broadcast for Sunday Night Baseball. Rodriguez hosts the show with New York Yankees broadcaster Michael Kay, and the broadcast is similar to the ManningCast for ESPN's Monday Night Football. 

This has not been the best month for Rodriguez. Earlier this month, baseball legend Cal Ripken Jr. revealed that Rodiguez "pissed him off" during the 2001 MLB All-Star game when Rodriguez asked Ripken to switch back to shortstop. "Now that you brought it back up, I was kind of pissed at you," Ripken Jr. said, per the New York Post. "I was like looking at it, I hadn't [played shortstop] in a while. I got this big 'ol glove on my hand that they called humongous, I go, 'how am I going to go back over there, turn a double play?'"

The KayRod Cast debuted in 2022 and averaged 11 percent of the total audience of Sunday Night Baseball across its eight telecasts. One of the telecasts included Yankees legend Derek Jeter, and that episode averaged 15.5 percent of the total audience, according to the Sports Business Journal. "It was unusual for the fans," Rodriguez said of having himself alongside Jeter. "They haven't seen us together in a while. … It was good for the show. Derek doesn't make a lot of appearances. So I was really happy with it. I think he was, too."

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