Rehab stints are not uncommon in the Eastern League. Over the years, the Trenton Thunder has welcomed Bernie Williams, Andy Pettitte (three times), Derek Jeter (twice), Roger Clemens, Kevin Youkilis, Mark Teixeira, Eduardo Nunez, Michael Pineda, some of those just this year. A few of those well-known Yankees played in the enemy territory of Reading.

So, the Reading Phillies are accustomed to making certain no funny business goes on when stars of this magnitude arrive. If ever there was a time that might happen, it would be when the not universally loved Alex Rodriguez arrived from Tampa and began a 3-game AA rehabilitation with the Trenton Thunder at the Reading Phillies' FirstEnergy Stadium.

On Monday night, the club invited a 5-man security detail to follow A-Rod around just in case some wise guy got brave. Among them was Wyomissing High principal Corey Jones, a ripped-up former Shippensburg University baseball player; and Gene Snitsky, a former University of Missouri football player and a notorious WWE bad-guy wrestler (2004-08).

You may recall Carbon County native Snitsky. He is known for one of the most outrageous stunts in WWE history -- punting what was supposed to be a baby (really a doll) into the crowd in mocking diva Lita who had supposedly suffered a miscarriage.



DAVID JONES: djones@pennlive.com.