The Journal News’ Peter Abraham on Princess A-Rod’s latest assignment. (link taken from Repoz and Baseball Think Factory)

That Alex Rodriguez is something. Not only is A-Rod the reigning Most Valuable Player of the American League, he’s also willing to give you a wake-up call.

Nike.com has lined up Rodriguez and seven other prominent athletes to make calls to sleepy consumers. All you have to do is send in your phone number and what time you want a call. Given that I sleep late whenever possible, this seemed ideal.

My first thought was to have Maria Sharapova make the call. What could be better than a little pillow talk with a leggy tennis star?

But given my duties as Yankees beat writer, it had to be Rodriguez. Perhaps he would tell me whether he had changed his mind again and would play for the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic. Maybe he would apologize for his poor playoff performance. At least there might be some poker tips or a subtle jab at Derek Jeter.

Alas, it was a recorded message.

“Pete! This is Alex Rodriguez,” he shouted. “Mornings are the most valuable time of the day, and I should know. You snooze, you lose. So get up, get out and do something with your morning.”

While Nike are entitled to employ whatever tactics they wish in pursuit of 100% of the globe’s athletic footwear market, you’d think they’d stop to consider for just one second, how this will hurt Tom Candiotti.