2009 Yankees: The King of Drama Makes a Spectacular Return

Welcome back to the next chapter of 2009 Yankees: The Last Championship - a week-by-week remembrance of the year in which they gave us their most recent World Series title. Today, the Yankees looked like they were heading in the right direction after a big comeback win over the Angels on May 1.

Instead, they proceeded to lose their next five games including two more to the Red Sox which dropped them to 13-15 and 5.5 games behind AL East-leading Toronto. That was the cauldron in which the already flammable Alex Rodriguez - sidelined since early in spring training - made his return to the team as the Yankees began a series in Baltimore. Lets get to it.

BALTIMORE (May 8, 2009) - The start of the 2009 season really couldn’t have been much worse for the Yankees superstar third baseman.

Just as the excitement about the coming season, one which would include free agents Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Nick Swisher, started bubbling with spring training a week away, Sports Illustrated dropped a bombshell report on Feb. 7 revealing that Rodriguez was a steroid user.

This didn’t really surprise anyone because there had long been rumors about this, but nonetheless, this was a detailed, well-sourced account by what was then one of the bastions in sports journalism.

The details of the story are long and convoluted and I won’t get into all of it here, but the cliff notes version is that 1,200 players were tested back in 2003 to determine whether a mandatory drug testing program should be instituted, a procedure that was approved by the Players’ Association under the stipulation that no players’ names would be revealed.

However, in 2004 during the BALCO investigation, a list containing 104 players who had tested positive was seized by federal agents.

That led to a 20-month investigation into steroid use that resulted in the release in late 2007 of the 409-page Mitchell Report. A-Rod’s name was not included in that report, but the names of former Yankees Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, Jason Giambi, Gary Sheffield, Kevin Brown, David Justice, Chuck Knoblauch, and Mike Stanton were on the positive test list.

Again, there were long-standing rumors that A-Rod was a doper even though he had repeatedly denied it. When the Mitchell Report came out, Jose Canseco was on it and he publicly stated that he couldn’t believe A-Rod wasn’t on it.

Well, SI confirmed that A-Rod was lying and on Feb. 9, A-Rod agreed to be interviewed by ESPN’s Peter Gammons and he admitted that during his three seasons with the Rangers from 2001-03 he had indeed used steroids.

“When I arrived at Texas in 2001, I felt an enormous amount of pressure,” Rodriguez said. “I felt like I had all the weight of the world on top of me and I needed to perform, and perform at a high level every day. Back then it was a different culture. It was very loose. I was young. I was stupid. I was naïve. And I wanted to prove to everyone that I was worth being one of the greatest players of all time. I did take a banned substance, and for that I am very sorry and deeply regretful.”

When he reported to spring training on Feb. 17, as you might imagine, it was a circus. The Yankees scheduled a press conference which included Joe Girardi and Brian Cashman sitting with him at the head table, and many of his teammates there in a show of support, though they were almost certainly told by management to be there. As dozens of reporters shouted questions, the Yankees - including Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Mariano Rivera and Jorge Posada - sat there looking like it was the last place in the world they wanted to be.

“I’m here to take my medicine,” Rodriguez said, and so he did for more than a half hour. “One thing I will say after today I hope to focus on baseball. We have a very special team here.”

Less than a month later, just as the fog was beginning to clear and he was preparing to play for the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic, an MRI revealed a cyst on his hip which needed to be surgically removed. That meant he would miss not only the WBC but spring training and at least the first month of the regular season.

And then a week before he was set to return to the Yankees, Selena Roberts - one of the Sports Illustrated reporters who broke the steroid story and who was also writing a book about A-Rod - shared an excerpt from the manuscript that stirred another controversy.

Through her sources she learned that when Rodriguez was with the Rangers and games were a blowout one way or the other, he would occasionally signal to opponents what pitches were coming, with the understanding that they do the same for him.

“The pitch-tipping was often enough over three years to become a pattern noticeable by the ex-Rangers sources that I spoke to,” Roberts wrote. “Only a small number of Rangers knew about the quid pro quo that Alex was involved in and did not want it to spread around the clubhouse because it would have been devastating to the team. What it was was slump insurance. You could count on your buddy to help you break out of your slump, if you’re 0 for 3 or you’ve had a bad week. There was no intent to throw a game or change the outcome.”

When the allegations surfaced, Teixeira, who was A-Rod’s teammate on the Rangers in 2003, said he had never heard of such a thing. And Johnny Damon added, “I don’t believe it for one second. I’ve known Alex a long time and he’s never told me what was coming, so I don’t buy that he would do it for other teams.”

Whether it was true or not, who knows, but it was yet another brush fire igniting around the player who, with Barry Bonds retired, was the game’s most controversial figure.

And now he was ready to play, though Jeter made sure to warn that while it would be nice to get A-Rod back into the lineup, the team was 13-15 and one player wasn’t going to cure all the ills.

“Even when he comes, we’ve gotta guard against saying everything’s fine and dandy because he’s back in the lineup,” Jeter said after the Yankees lost their fifth straight game, 8-6 to the Rays. “It’s not like our job changes whether one guy is here or not here. He’s gonna help. … but it’s not like he’s a savior.”

Well, for one night he was.

Jeter led off the top of the first inning against Orioles starter Jeremy Guthrie by grounding out, but then Damon and Teixeira walked, and here came A-Rod for his first at bat of the season. Orioles catcher Chad Moeller put down one finger, the fastball, and Guthrie delivered it at 98 miles per hour. A-Rod swung and hit it 374 feet and over the left-center wall at Camden Yards for a three-run homer. Welcome back.

“He’s the best player in the game, so you kind of expect it out of him,” said Sabathia who, clearly motivated by that, went on to pitch his best game to this point as a Yankee, a four-hit shutout with eight strikeouts against the team that had rocked him in the season opener in this same park. “He hadn’t seen a pitch all year and to come up, first pitch, Guthrie’s throwing hard and to go deep - it’s unbelievable, but it’s not surprising.”

“One swing and the rest was CC,” A-Rod said after the Yankees’ 4-0 victory was complete.

As he rounded the bases, the Yankee fans in attendance - and there were always plenty back in those days in Baltimore - gave him a standing ovation while the Orioles fans taunted him, some wearing t-shirts that had printed on the back “A-Roid.”

It was something to behold and even Rodriguez admitted, “It was great, it was a dream, it was awesome. It was just nice to get to the ballpark, give the guys a hug and do what I do best. I feel very focused, motivated, and hungry to play baseball. I’ve never been hungrier.”

He did come down to earth as he struck out twice and grounded out in his last three at bats, but all the damage that was needed was already done.

“I think you’re always hoping that every time he comes up he hits a home run. You know, that’s the impact he has,” Girardi said. “Your concern when a guy first comes back is his timing, but he was ready for it.”

Yeah, he was, and even Guthrie had to tip his cap.

“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.”

Here’s the video of the home run:

Here’s how the rest of Week 5 went for the Yankees:

• May 4: Boston made its first visit to new Yankee Stadium and swept a quick two-game series. In the opener, Phil Hughes gave up single runs in each of the first four innings, and even though Teixeira hit a pair of home runs, the Yankees fell 6-4.

• May 5: The Red Sox improved to 5-0 against New York as Joba Chamberlain gave a three-run homer to Jason Bay during a four-run first inning and Boston tacked on three late runs for a 7-3 victory. It was a shame for Joba as he struck out a career-high 12, the most by a Yankee since Mike Mussina whiffed 12 Mariners in 2003. The Yankees also announced that Posada would go on the 15-day disabled list with a hamstring injury, meaning Jose Molina and Francisco Cervelli would be doing the catching.

• May 6: Teixeira hit a three-run double in the eighth inning to tie the Rays 3-3, but he also failed to get the winning run home from third with one out in the ninth. Tampa Bay then won it 4-3 on Carlos Pena’s home run off Phil Coke in the 10th. “It gave us a lift for a little while,” Teixeira said of his home run. “We just found another way to lose.”

• May 7: The free fall continued as the Rays completed a two-game sweep and sent the Yankees to their fifth straight loss, this one 8-6. Johnny Damon had tied it with a two-run homer in the eighth, but Mariano Rivera’s early struggles continued as he gave up back-to-back homers in the ninth to Carl Crawford and Evan Longoria. It was the first time in 862 games Rivera gave up back-to-back homers. “Right now, this is not any fun,” Damon said.

• May 9: The excitement about A-Rod’s return wore off quickly the next day as the Orioles pounded the Yankees 12-5 as Hughes gave up eight runs in the second inning. This raised the Yankees’ team ERA to an MLB-worst 5.88. “He had a bad game,” Girardi said. “I don’t want to make too much out of one start. We believe in him.”

• May 10: The Yankees took the Baltimore series with a 5-3 victory in the rubber match. Chamberlain gave up three in the first, then pitched five scoreless innings and he was rewarded when his teammates scored four in the seventh on a solo homer by Robinson Cano and a go-ahead three-run shot by Damon.