A-ROD A-POLOGY

An uncomfortable dance suddenly went cheek-to-cheek on Tuesday.

Alex Rodriguez, the New York Yankees’ disgraced slugger, initiated a meeting with club management at which A-Rod apologized for, well, an awful lot. He was suspended for the entire 2014 season for his role in the Biogenesis of America scandal of 2013 that once again dipped baseball into the poisonous well of performance enhancing drugs.

In his fight against those allegations, A-Rod sued Major League Baseball, the MLB players union and a Yankees’ team physician. The last of those actions was dropped last June.

The Yankees and Rodriguez issued a joint statement on Tuesday.

“Alex initiated the meeting and apologized to the organization for his actions over the past several years,” the statement said, “There was an honest and frank discussion on all of the issues. As far as the Yankees are concerned, the next step is to play baseball in spring training.”

Rodriguez, 40 come July, is still a polarizing figure. The Yankees owe him $61 million over the next three seasons. Whether or not he can still play effectively – if at all after two serious hip injuries – is an open question. He was limited to 44 games in 2013, when he hit just .244, with seven home runs and 19 runs batted in.

The three-time American League Most Valuable Player still wants to play third base, though the Yankees seem to be thinking of him mostly as a designated hitter. That will have to be hashed out in spring training.

Rodriguez is fifth on the all-time list for career home runs with 654, six behind Willie Mays. The Yankees have lost shortstop and golden boy Derek Jeter to retirement.

Baseball renews and repairs itself each spring. This should be a fascinating experiment in Rodriguez doing the same.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman .