Alex Rodriguez To Play For The Dominican Republic at World Baseball Classic?

"He wants to play for the Dominican team," Ortiz, Boston's designated hitter, told Yahoo! on Thursday. "We'll talk about it now after he gets here, and he'll probably announce it here."

Ortiz said he has not spoken recently with Rodriguez about his intentions, but that as far back as the All-Star Game last July in New York, he said A-Rod had expressed a desire to play for the Dominican Republic.

Whatever the current motive of Rodriguez’s decision – to honor his family, to win the tournament or to rehabilitate an image tarnished like dull silver – it reeks of calculation, as do many of his actions. However brilliant Rodriguez looks on the field – and at his best, he is without peer – he continuously sports a dunce cap with his other antics. He gets caught by cameras with a stripper fling, disses Derek Jeter, apologizes and says he misses having sleepovers with the Yankees captain, opts out of his richest-ever contract during the World Series so he can get one even more lucrative, spends his money on apartment complexes that The New York Times exposes him running like a slumlord and, if that wasn’t enough, dumps his wife for the world’s biggest tabloid magnet and finds himself strewn in the pages of glossy magazines here and across the pond.

Rodriguez needs, like, a prayer. Because the confusion that consumes him isn’t all self-induced.

"I am 100 percent sure that I will play for the Dominican Republic team," he said. "This time, there will be no doubts and it is a dream of my mom's that I intend to fulfill."