Ever since Alex Rodriguez decamped for Vail and hip surgery, all has been calm around Yankee camp. For a team with a big payroll and bigger expectations, that's a relatively novel state of affairs. The two exhibition openers at the new Stadium were gigantic lovefests and generated a lot of good feelings for the season's start.
They still would have been positive if A-Rod had been around, but there would have been a split focus. The question of how the fans would respond to him would have overshadowed the new building a bit, and the general attention suck that he creates would have been part of an otherwise happy story.
That's the positive of Rodriguez's absence. Without him around the Yankees are allowed to concentrate on wins and losses a bit more than they could if he was there to draw all kinds of questions about steroids, Madonna or whatever stupid photo shoot he participates in next. A mid-May return, assuming the Yankees got off to a good start, sounded like a pretty good thing because it gave everyone else a chance to get settled and ready for the onslaught that will accompany his return.
On Monday, however, reports surfaced that Rodriguez would be heading to Tampa in a week with designs on returning to the lineup before April was out. While that's good for the lineup, it could upset what's been a very smooth sail for the Yankees over the last few weeks. Like it or not, just playing baseball isn't going to be an option for A-Rod this season and the Yankees need to just play baseball for the first month of the season and figure everything else out in due time.
Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City and is a contributor to FanHouse.com and ProFootballTalk.com in addition to his duties for NBCNewYork.com.
