The Damned-Near Impossible Has Happened

Article on not really rooting for A-Rod, but appreciating that he's there:

Baseball doesn't always need a supervillain, but now that one's here, isn't it kind of awesome? If you can't root for Alex Rodriguez, the person -- and I'm not sure I can ask you to go that far -- root for how amazing and rare it is for him to exist in the first place. Think about the next time Rodriguez strikes out with the bases loaded. The roar will be twice as good as any other player, I'm thinking. The stakes are raised. Here is a villain so perfect, his own team can mess with him and no one cares. That's a villain, alright. Considering that we're talking about a game, though, he's a harmless one. He's Hans Gruber, not a genocidal warlord, and I've never stopped being glad that Hans Gruber existed.

There's another word to describe Rodriguez: underdog. You know how America loves those. You don't have to root for Alex Rodriguez, but it's almost impossible to root against the idea of him existing in the first place. Here's a player who can shine the spotlight back on fans and reveal something about how their brains and hearts work, too. Here's a Rorschach test of a player, and we don't know how much longer we'll have him. What a complicated person. What a complicated story. What a spice this adds to baseball in 2015.

It's a new season, but the sentiment stays the same. Thank goodness for Alex Rodriguez.