ARod at peace but questions still swirl

At the end of his YES Network interview with Alex Rodriguez, Michael Kay told ARod that he seemed happy. "I am happy," a grinning ARod said.

"I'm in a much better place right now," Rodriguez said, comparing this spring training to a far more chaotic one last season when his steroids use came to light and he had to contend with a serious hip injury.

Part of that peace comes from his monster playoff run in 2009 when he finally erased all the doubts about him coming through for the team when it counts. As ARod said, he may never get another postseason hit, but no one can take away the contribution he made to the New York Yankees 27th World Series title.

"I had a blast last October and November and it was nice to finally come through for my teammates when they needed me most," he said.

Rodriguez acknowledged that his career wouldn't be complete if the Yankees hadn't won the World Series. More interesting was his comment that he tried to convince himself before the victory that his career would be complete without a ring. I think it speaks volumes about ARod that he tries to convince himself of too many different things and it doesn't seem to work out for him. He needs to stop trying to convince himself of things that aren't true. It would make his life a lot easier.

But the Galea situation still hangs over his head. Rodriguez said it hasn't been a distraction for him and that he is looking forward to cooperating and getting past it and back to baseball. But Mike Lupica makes a good point when he wonders why it's taking so long for ARod to meet with federal investigators when Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran of the cross-town rival Mets quickly got their meetings over and done with. By not meeting with the feds, ARod is dragging this out longer than necessary.

Thanks to Keith Allison via Wikipedia for the photo.