Homers Won't Erase A-Rod's 'Roid Stain

On Jeremy Guthrie's first pitch, Rodriguez unleashed the swing that never needed a banned substance to strike awe and fear, launching the baseball on a glorious arc and depositing it into the left-center field stands at Camden Yards. At once, the sudden silence of Orioles fans was replaced by the jubiliation of Yankees fans, who were here by the thousands, raucously celebrating the return of A-Rod and not caring a bit that he's now known as a 'roider for life. The three-run shot staked the long-struggling CC Sabathia to an early lead and helped the Yankees to a 4-0 victory, which meant, for one evening anyway, all was well in the pinstriped universe.

---

---

"To be honest, I was a little nervous,'' he said afterward. "But then I got relaxed and had a good time out there. It's great to play the game I love and help the team win.''

And the homer? "It was awesome," said Rodriguez, who was mobbed by his teammates in the dugout. "It was just nice to get to the ballpark, give the guys a hug and do what I do best. I feel I'm back with my family.''

In a sinful sense, at least some of the pressure is off Rodriguez, if only because he's no longer alone in steroids purgatory. He has been joined in the 2009 steroids clink by Ramirez, and they now can suffer the American wrath together. A jaded public believes that all baseball players are guilty anyway, so, like a pack of politicians we know are filthy, the 'roiders move on with their careers as we move on with our lives. It almost seems fruitless for Rodriguez to try to reclaim his good name, though he was asked in a media crush if redemption is even possible for him.

"I don't know, I really don't know,'' said the King of Bad Karma, taking long pauses to ponder the years ahead. "Look, I've made a lot of mistakes in my career. They've been well-documented. I think I've paid my price, and I'm really excited about the present and the future. Those are the only things I can control from here on out ... I think it's important for me to play baseball, and do what I do. I can't control (public perception). I have nine more years to make a difference.''

He then took aim at himself, not a bad image strategy.

"You look in the mirror and realize that it's time to grow up,'' he said, in quite an admission. "It's time to play baseball. I love the way I did things in '07, but in '08, I kind of went away from my own plan and I have no one to blame but myself. In '09, I have an opportunity to make things right."

Manny or no Manny, life is still going to be hell for Rodriguez. As long as he's the pop-culture creature known as A-Rod -- the nation's most polarizing athlete and a New York-based, tragicomical magnet for controversy in the Internet age -- he'll have to deal with matters that few others will endure in the history of sports. He realizes as much this weekend, where he returned to the lineup of the typically overpriced, underperforming Yankees after his March 9 hip surgery and immediately was blitzed by small-market Orioles fans who view him as a symbol of steroids deceit, big-city arrogance and $270-million greed.

As he learned to do long ago, Rodriguez locked himself in his personal cocoon and played ball. After his home run, he struck out twice and grounded out, a reminder that it will take time before he thoroughly regains his three-time-MVP form. Few doubt that he'll eventually thrive again and re-embark on his now-tainted chase of Henry Aaron's home-run record, a quest whose final number ultimately would require an asterisk just as Bonds' 762 requires one now. What everyone forgets is that he still has eight seasons left, after this year, in his Yankees contract. Unlike Ramirez, who is 36 and ruined a potentially wonderful ending to a now-aborted Hall of Fame career, A-Rod does have a chance to redeem some of what he has lost -- if he stays clean from here on out, which may be impossible to ever know.

"I have nine more years to make my daughters proud,'' he said.

To do so, he'll have to be more forthright about his past. At first Friday, he refused to answer questions about allegations in the Selena Roberts book -- ``ARod: The Many Lives of Alex Rodriguez'' -- that he used steroids as far back as high school. ``Anything that has to do with that book, you guys can ask me all year in five or six different ways, my answer is going to be the same. I'm not answering anything that has to do with that book,'' he said. When asked pointedly about whether he used steroids in high school and during his Yankees career, he finally said, ``The answer is no. I'm not talking about anything more. I've already answered that question." Believe him? How can we when he allowed several years to pass without revealing his dirty secret and didn't go public until Roberts broke the story of his steroids use in Sports Illustrated?

"I'm worried about my book,'' A-Rod said. "I think I still have an opportunity with nine years remaining to have a happy ending.''

Bittersweet, maybe. But first things first: He must stay healthy with a hip condition that could dog him for the long term. Like Boston's Mike Lowell and Philadelphia's Chase Utley, who struggled last year after similar operations before returning to prominence this season, Rodriguez may not completely recover until next year. "I talked to both of those guys prior to making the decision of doing this intermediate surgery," he said, saying he's optimistic he won't need a second surgery. "I've been following them closely and it seems like both are doing well. I'm encouraged. It was a little different and they've had a little more time, so I'm interested to see how I react."

Now more than ever, the uniform will be his escape, even with pinstripes adding to the tremendous burden. But if Rodriguez's presence will help the Yankees, he alone can't save a team that is 14-15 and in danger of being baseball's bloated laughingstock once again. In the offseason, management spent $423.5 million on three players. Sabathia, at $161 million, improved to 2-3 with a 3.94 ERA after allowing four singles and st riking out eight in a much-needed, complete-game shutout. Pitcher A.J. Burnett, at $82.5 million, sports a 5.26 ERA. Slugger Mark Teixeira, at $180 million, has a sickly .192 batting average and is leaving tons of runners stranded. Thursday night, in the team's fifth straight loss, the once-untouchable Mariano Rivera was rocked for back-to-back home runs by Tampa Bay for the first time in 862 games. The pitching staff in general, not helped by shoddy middle relief is allowing more than six runs a game. The new Yankee Stadium is cursed, with obscenely priced tickets keeping premium seats empty between the dugouts while an underresearched jet stream has led to a Colorado-like 47 homers hit there in the first 13 games, 32 to right field.

Enter A-Rod.

"None of us is asking him to be the savior. We're just asking Alex to be Alex," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. ``I'm not expecting Alex to hit a home run every time and get a hit every time he comes up and every time there's a runner on he drives them in, but I know it changes the way a team approaches our lineup. It makes our lineup deeper. He's a threat every time he walks up to the plate, there's just so many things he can do.''

Said Rodriguez: "I hope it helps everybody. When you have a full deck, a full lineup, I know that having guys like Johnny (Damon) and (Derek Jeter) and Tex in front of me helps me ... I think it's go nna be very helpful for all of us. If we don't win and I do great, it doesn't matter. If I stink and win, that's the only thing that matters. We have to win.

"When you try to do less, it's more.'' Somehow, his personal and professional troubles haven't diluted his love of the game -- or his ability to perform, although his career October slumber will hover until he begins to produce in the postseason. "What a hitter. What a player," Guthrie said. "To come off the DL like that, I throw that fastball on the black inside, and he just takes it for a home run. It's a real special at-bat for him. He stepped up in the big moment right there, center stage, and does what he does best."

"It was hard to watch because I love to play so much," Rodriguez said. "It's really weird sitting on the sidelines and just watching my teammates play, and thinking that I could be helping. But I took that time off and it was nice. I was able to rethink a lot of things, refocus on baseball, and I think I'm very excited about the potential of the team."

Never again will it be only about baseball, of course. Regardless of how many home runs he hits, all trust is lost. Alex Rodriguez is just another gifted ballplayer who used steroids when his talent didn't require it, just another asterisk in baseball's toxic wasteland.