One writer who sort of thinks like a fan.

William Rhoden says something obvious, but something that isn't said often enough:

"What kind of husband he was, what kind of father he is, whether he sends his mother great gifts on Mother’s Day — all those questions faded to black on a warm Friday evening when he homered off the first pitch of his first at-bat. The storybook home run lifted a slumping team to a desperately needed victory.

In baseball terms, that’s real.

For one night in Baltimore, his high-priced team reeling, in desperate need of a lift, A-Rod made his season debut in Hollywood fashion. The entire dugout lit up. Yankees fans were ignited. C. C. Sabathia was inspired and pitched a shutout. This was a breakout game for him as well. Even Orioles fans, peeved once again by the presence of waves of New Yorkers in their midst, marveled — grudgingly — at Rodriguez’s perfectly timed home run."


Meanwhile, Joel Sherman ponders what would have happened if ARod had signed with the Mets.

Why is Joel Sherman asking this question in May 2009? I have no idea whatsoever. It's as if he has nothing baseball-related to write about since two professional baseball teams in New York are currently playing baseball.

Instead of concluding that the Mets may have won a World Series or two, Sherman states that Alex Rodriguez's "insincerity, insecurity and ego have been a counterweight to his talent, sucking the life out of an entire organization?"

So, there you go.

The life has been sucked out of the Yankee organization, and it is Alex Rodriguez who did it.

Which probably explains why the team has played so well without him this season.