| Paul Falewicz. 27th May, 2005 - 4:15 pm
 He’s back.
Alex Rodriguez has returned to the form that baseball fans have been used to over the years. He is hitting the ball again and is providing worthy of the $252 million contract that he signed.
Rodriguez leads the major leagues in home runs, RBIs and runs scored. He is the same productive A-Rod that left Seattle in 2000 for the money. It is a big change from the nervous and overmatched Rodriguez we saw in his first year in pinstripes.
Rodriguez struggled the entire season to get comfortable in the limelight of being a Yankee. He was under constant media scrutiny that he never felt in his years in Seattle and Texas. He was the subject of many negative stories in each of the New York papers.
In fairness to him, he was also learning a new position. He spent the first ten years of his career at shortstop but with the trade to the Yankees, he had agreed to move to third base and let Derek Jeter keep his position. A lot of people were saying that Jeter was the second best shortstop on the Yankees.
Rodriguez had agreed to move positions in order to play for a winner. He had played on many sub .500 teams and was finally playing for a team that was a World Series contender.
Rodriguez struggled all year long but managed to bat .286 with 36 dingers and 106 runs batted in. Not bad numbers for any player except for ones that play in New York and are playing in the shadows of legends Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio.
The season of frustration came to a head in Game 6 of the ALCS. Rodriguez hit a weak grounder towards first base. Red Sox pitcher Bronson Arroyo grabbed the ball and attempted to tag Rodriguez on his way to first base. Rodriguez swiped at Arroyo’s glove and the ball rolled up the first base line. Jeter scored and Rodriguez found himself on second base with the tying run coming to bat.
After the umpires conferred, Rodriguez was ruled out and the Yankees lost the series to the Red Sox the next night. Rodriguez was toasted in both Boston and New York for the swipe that continued into the off-season. Curt Schilling called it a gutless move.
But Rodriguez has found his stroke again and is now the focal point of the Yankee offense. In last weekend’s series against the Mets, he was 5-9 with five walks in leading the Yankees to take two out of three.
Rodriguez is also closing in on becoming the 40th member of the 400 home run club. After a two-homer night Tuesday night, he is just three homers away and will become one of the youngest ever to join the club.
Rodriguez will turn 30 on July 27th and is already one of the most feared hitters in the game. With all of the Barry Bonds’ issues this year, he is now the odds-on favorite to break Hank Aaron’s home run record of 755.
But that record is many years down the road and more pressing issues are at hand. The New York fans are happy that Rodriguez is finally comfortable in the Big Apple and producing like he did in the past.
He still needs to accomplish one thing for the Yankee fans to truly accept him: Win a World Series Ring. |
