Plot twists for Arroyo, A-Rod

A-Rod didn't notice Arroyo back then, but now the two are forever entwined, brought together twice in moments branded into the psyche of Red Sox Nation.

It's a little strange because Rodriguez is a megastar, the highest-paid player in the history of the game, while Arroyo is in his 11th season of pro ball and has only 19 major league wins. But salary and star status didn't matter in 2004 when Arroyo played Woodward/Bernstein to A-Rod's Richard Nixon. Two times Rodriguez was embarrassed in front of the baseball world and in each instance, a skinny 27-year-old righty, one year removed from the minor leagues, was pitching for the Sox.

Arroyo is the one who hit A-Rod in the elbow, triggering the infamous July 24 brawl. For A-Rod, the lowlight of the joust came when Jason Varitek stuffed his catcher's mitt into Rodriguez's handsome face, then lifted the quarter-billion-dollar man off the ground. Three months later, Arroyo was the one holding the baseball in his glove when A-Rod executed his girlie-man slap, a play that lives forever on screen-savers around the world (one version has Rodriguez hitting Arroyo with a purse while the other shows Alex with Hamburger Helper hands).

And to think it all began in high school when Arroyo gaped at the sight of senior superstar Rodriguez.

"They were the No. 1 team in the country and they were traveling around, making a circuit," said Arroyo. "They came to our place and I totally remember the game because I was a sophomore, he was a senior, I was a shortstop, he was a shortstop. He was so big and so dominant. He was out there stretching. He was in the middle and the whole team was in a circle around him and I thought he was the coach.