Garrett Jones’ eight-year major-league career, modest yet likely memorable for most Pirates fans, ended as a Yankees bench player, which in turn made him a conversation buddy with one of the game’s all-timers.
And really, would there have been a better time to get to know Alex Rodriguez, when he was rising from his lowest moment and trying to reprove himself with the 2015 Yankees?
“He was a great guy,” Jones said last week, in a telephone interview, of A-Rod. “The baseball knowledge.