Alex Rodriguez

A-Roid.  A-Fraud.  These names were chanted down upon him at Fenway Park- and I love it.  Not because of the performance enhancing ties he has to biogenesis- reprehensible in the face of the game- but because of the thrilling excitement of the rivalry between the Red Sox and Yankees.  On his first pitch the other night, A-Rod was thrown behind, took two pitches inside, before being hit by a pitch.  Later in the game, he hit a monstrous home run to center field.  Fenway's spirit was alive, and it is good for the sport.

In this game, Ryan Dempster should have been ejected.  If he had hit Rodriguez on the first pitch, one could make an argument that an ejection would not be warranted.  However, on the 4th pitch he hit Rodriguez, and given the circumstances surrounding the prior few pitches, he should have been tossed.  Girardi was right to be upset.

Alex Rodriguez is going to be suspended for a long time.  Because he can play during his appeal, he has been the X-Factor for the Yankees.  Given the miserable production they had seen from their 3rd baseman, A-Rod puts the team right back in the thick of the playoff hunt.  I don't condone what A-Rod did- he should be suspended for a long time (I suggested 162 games earlier this month)- but Yankee fans are going to start cheering because he is leading to wins.  Like it or not, fans care more about winning than character many times.  They won't miss A-Rod next year if he is out, but they will cheer him on if he guides them to a playoff berth that seemed unfathomable a few weeks ago.  Like the Jail Blazers in Portland in the early 2000s, the fans hated the team.  But the team was winning, and the crowd cheered.

The rivalry being hot is good for baseball.  This is a basketball centered blog, and I never imagined I'd be writing about baseball right now.  It's a big story, and brings viewers to watch more of the game.  The MLB is hurting with their PED standards, but making lots of money in the process.