Alex Rodríguez is hot, but no longer in the Hot Corner…

LOOK, we’re too modest here at Latinobaseball to take credit for anything that doesn’t rightly belong to us, OK? So, for the record, it’s best to point out that the recent Yankee renaissance that has restored the city’s baseball swagger can probably be credited to five things, in no particular order:

1. Bobby Abreu’s emergence fromSilvio Dante-like coma.

2. The Pittsburgh Pirates junior varsity pitching staff, and the White Sox’ JV batting order.

3. Joe Torre’s ever-calm, ever-steadying guidance through the turbulence of a long season.

4. The Yankees scoring an average of seven runs a game over the last 11 games (which, over the
full 162, would translate to 1,134 runs).

5. A-Rod once again making the sport seem more simple than an old Atari video game.

Of course, those last two issues do beg the following statistic, which may or may not have been furnished by the Elias Sports Bureau and may or may not have been the rallying cry for the 25 men who’ve dragged the Yankee season back from the abyss these past few weeks.
We're not saying you should divide the season into the pre-Stray-Rod and post-Stray-Rod eras. We’re just saying you could, if you wanted to.

Really, though, this is why the city still belongs to the Yankees: You can take the temperature of the town by the standings in the AL East. A few weeks ago, there seemed to be a lethargic pall hovering overhead, a restless gray that wouldn’t dissipate. Maybe that was the weather. More likely, it was the Yankees.

Now, the days seem brighter, the nights louder, the conversation livelier. There is a definite bounce in the city’s step. The old, familiar swagger seems to be back, and in full force. Maybe that’s the weather, too. More likely, it’s the Yankees.