Fight Night at Yankee Stadium

New York Yankee stars Derek Jeterand Alex “A-Rod” Rodriguez have stoppedbeating themselves up for their team’s worst season in over adecade—and started beating on each other. On June 20, after athrowing error from Jeter to Rodriguez handed theYankees a 5-4 loss to the last-place Tampa Bay Devil Rays, a TV producer saysthe sluggers came to blows in the clubhouse.

“I was doing aninterview in the locker room and saw them go at it,” says the source.“A-Rod walked past Jeter’s locker and mumbled something about histhrow, then Jeter told him to go fuck himself and all hell broke lose. Theirteammates were pulling them away from each other.”

Tensions between the twohave been brewing since Rodriguez dissed Jeter in a 2001 Esquire interview. As a result, we hear, Jeter, the Gold Glove-winning team captain, neverwanted his ex-pal on the team in the first place--but Yankees bossGeorge Steinbrenner didn't listen.

“Now youhave guys like Bernie Williams who remember winning the WorldSeries taking Jeter’s side, and then you have the trades, likeTony Womack, taking A-Rod’s side,” says a ballclub insider. “What you have is a team that’s split, and you can’twin baseball games like that.” Yankees spokesman RickCerrone called the fight an “absolute fantasy,” and deniedany rift between the players, claiming “there are no lines drawn in theclubhouse.” Not since Darryl Strawberry anyway.