VAIL — Forget Waldo.
Where in the wide, white world of the Vail Valley is Alex Rodriguez?
V-Rod.
Ail-Rod.
A(rrowhead)-Rod.
On Friday and Saturday I searched for the baseball player here, there and everywhere. In Vail. In vain.
I was a combination Sherlock Holmes-Inspector Clouseau. “I thought you zed your dewg did not bite.” . . . “Zat iz is not my dewg.”
And I learned a lot of useful information. The weekend has been beautiful and the snow Veuve Clicquot ’96 powder.
Rodriguez, the three-time MVP, recently has traveled the Highway to Hullabaloo — admitting to steroid use, then submitting to hip surgery. He is in Colorado’s mountains re- habilitating. The questions are: “How’s your hip feeling after the operation Monday?” “How’s the sabbatical going after your steroid revelation that rocked the national pastime?” “What are your thoughts about the New York Yankees playing without you for months?” “What’s your reaction to the Dominican Republic, the team you were intending to play for in the World Baseball Classic, being eliminated?” “What do you think of Vail?”
I texted A-Rod’s (in)famous agent, Scott Boras, twice — and received no reply. A close friend of A-Rod’s said he would offer no help about the player’s condition or whereabouts. Thanks.
So I drove to Vail on Friday and began investigating.
The Steadman Hawkins Clinic, where Rodriguez underwent surgery on his damaged hip, is on the top floor of the Vail Valley Medical Center, which also includes the Howard Head Sports Medicine (rehabilitation) Center, and just a few blocks from downtown Vail.
The walls of the extended hallway on the fourth floor features the “Aetna (insurance company) Champions Hall of Fame,” photos and jerseys of the professional athletes the world-renowned medical facility has mended. Among them: Alex Tanguay, former Avalanche player; Priest Holmes, ex-Kansas City running back; outfielder Moises Alou; singer Rod Stewart, who once played soccer (“You gave me a new leg,” he wrote); cyclists; rugby players; a Lakers player of note; and skiers, of course. There is no jersey on display — yet — from A-Rod.
A young man on crutches, who ripped his knee snowboarding, emerges from the office. He says he did not see A-Rod.
The receptionist says that Dr. Marc Philippon, who performed “the successful surgery” on A-Rod, nor anyone else, is available to talk. She gives me Dr. Philippon’s card. I call. She answers.
The physician’s friend/neighbor says he is from Canada, is a hockey fanatic, likes to ski and is considered one of the best hip specialists in the country.
Dr. Philippon lives in Arrowhead, a ritzy community several miles west of Vail. A local real estate authority tells me Rodriguez has rented one of Arrowhead’s “celebrity homes” which has “a master bedroom on the main floor, and Mr. Rodriguez doesn’t have to walk up and down steps.”
A-Rod was not rehabilitating at the hospital, and an employee (who doesn’t want to be fired for providing patient info) said: “There are a couple of personal trainers on staff who go to his house. Everybody’s trying to get him healthy and back on the field as soon as possible.”
Just down West Meadow Drive on the corner is La Pottega, a restaurant/bar Rodriguez has visited. “I successfully avoided A-Rod,” says a bartender. Behind him the TV is broadcasting a Yankees-Red Sox exhibition. “I’m not a New York fan.” Another bartender says: “If we got A-Rod in, we’d attract a bigger crowd than this.” But A-Rod is a no-show Friday.
It shouldn’t be difficult to find the guy on crutches, because I have talked with him in the clubhouses in New York and Denver and sat at the next table in a Little Italy restaurant. Locating his cousin might be harder.
“I haven’t seen A-Rod,” said a tavern singer doing John Denver. “But Joan Baez was in last night.”
Madonna was not in Fantasia Furs or the souvenir shop. A-Rod was not eating at The Left Bank or sitting on the bench next to the life- sized sculpture of Mark Twain.
The fellow in the Yankees cap turned out to be a tourist from Italy. I looked in restaurants, bars, jewelry stores up the street, down the block. I didn’t look on the ski slopes or in the sandwich shops. I held up my reporter’s notebook: “Got A-Rod?”
A bartender at crowded Vendetta’s said there had been reports all week of A-Rod sightings, but “he’s not been in here. Try the high-power places — Kelly Liken’s, the Avondale Club and Cordillera.”
No luck at the first two. And I don’t believe another controversial high-profile athlete who has been treated at Steadman Hawkins would go to the Cordillera Resort.
I haven’t surrendered.
Alex, if you’re reading this, join me and Waldo for the free breakfast buffet at my motel or apres ski at Taco Bell. Let’s talk some baseball.
Woody Paige: 303-954-1095 or wpaige@denverpost.com
