A-Rod attacked by delinquent Fenway bird

A-Rod was attacked by Fenway Park’s resident red-tailed hawk yesterday.

No, not that A-Rod.

Alexa Rodriguez, an 8th grader whose coach calls her A-Rod, was taking a tour of Fenway with her class when the bird, who was nesting, dove for her head. The girl was taken to the hospital for a minor scratch on her scalp. And no one, it appears, can resist tying the incident to superstar Yankee Alex Rodriguez, who also tends to get a nasty reception at the Fens.

The feathered assailant is a long-time resident of Fenway Park:

The 3 1/2-pound hawk has been building nests at Fenway since 2002, but has always been chased out before opening day so she and her mate could find a new home, said Tom French, assistant director of MassWildlife.

However, it appears the bird is not quite the avian June Cleaver:

This spring the raptor used a brown-knit cap and twigs from trees on Yawkee Way to build a nest on a green overhang near the press booth above home plate. She laid a brown-speckled egg last week, but it rolled off the nest, wasn’t properly incubated, and was no longer viable, French said.

Resourceful, perhaps, and protective, certainly—but hardly a parenting role model.