A-Rod No Stranger To Reading

Although his days in the minors never brought him to the Eastern League, Alex Rodriguez was here before.

The New York Yankees third baseman has fond memories of trips to Reading during his childhood.

“It’s a familiar place for me,” Rodriguez said. “I used to come here as a kid to visit family most summers. I never thought I’d come back. I’m excited. It’s been a long time.”

Rodriguez returned Monday as a famous and controversial member of the Trenton Thunder, who defeated the Reading Fightin Phils 6-5 at FirstEnergy Stadium.

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Reading Fightin Phils Set To Make Home Debut

The Reading Fightin Phils are off and running – maybe not quite as fast as last season, when they matched the best start in club history by winning their first five games and seven of their first eight, but they’ve gotten off to a positive start.

The Phillies won four times on a season-opening seven-game road trip to New Hampshire and Portland.  Not bad, considering how young the club is and how badly things started, with a 9-0 loss Opening Night.

Reading manager Dusty Wathan, whose roster includes 10 players making their Double-A debuts and 12 who are 23 or younger, said he likes what he’s seen the first week of the season.

“I think we’ve done a great job of being aggressive on the bases, of putting pressure on the defense,” said Wathan. “We, as an organization, want to emphasize that aggressiveness (this year).  We’ve been taking extra bases, our steal attempts are up.  I like the way we’ve been aggressive on the base paths.”

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