In this file photo, fans cheer as Alex Rodriguez blasts his 600th career home run. How fans react to his Bronx return tonight, however, is anyone’s guess. (AP)
In this increasingly dreadful Yankees season, at least you get to open a gift tonight in The Bronx.
We all doubted whether Alex Rodriguez would ever again step up to home plate at Yankee Stadium. Some journalists out there declared A-Rod’s retirement to be a done deal — a conspiracy, even. Nevertheless, here we are, the Yankees (57-56) a major long shot to even qualify for the playoffs, and the active Rodriguez represents one of their breathing, playing hopes of an August-September miracle.
If you’re old enough, you remember when The Post’s Dick Young suggested fans “Stand Up and Boo” Dwight Gooden in 1987, when the Mets’ prodigal right-hander first returned from drug rehabilitation. For A-Rod tonight, I have a simpler suggestion:
Stand up and enjoy. Or don’t stand up, if that’s your decision. Either way, definitely enjoy the distraction A-Rod has provided.
“I am just super excited to get home and put on the pinstripes in front of the greatest fans in baseball,” Rodriguez said late Wednesday night at U.S. Cellular Field, after the Yankees suffered arguably their worst loss of the season, 6-5 in 12 innings to the White Sox. “I am looking forward to getting back home. I have waited a long time.”
Think about how much has changed: The last time A-Rod played in a Yankees home game, last year’s American League Championship Series Game 2, the Yankees couldn’t hit to save their lives, Derek Jeter was out with an injury and the fan base was morose.
Oh, wait. Maybe much hasn’t changed at all.
These Yankees, talent-deprived and
injury-muddled, are trending downward. It’s a tribute to Joe Girardi and the relief pitchers that they’re outperforming their negative run differential (428-448). However, more often than not, such realities catch up to you, as we’ve certainly seen with these Yankees.
And into this morass has parachuted A-Rod, who is fighting a 211-game suspension from Bud Selig, who probably wouldn’t list his employers as “People I’d want with me in a foxhole (hat tip, Michael Kay)” and who is trying to prove his on-the-field worthiness with a pair of surgically repaired hips.
You don’t get this sort of juice (pun intended) from other mediocre teams.
In his first three games, all against the White Sox, A-Rod looked better, for sure, than he did at the end of last year. He has a .429 on-base percentage thanks to a pair of walks and a hit by pitch to go with his three hits, and while all of those hits are singles, he has hit into some long outs. He seems more mechanically sound, and strong, at the plate.
In the field? He does fine with the balls hit right to him, but really, Girardi should have lifted him for defense in the ninth inning Wednesday. Maybe Jayson Nix wouldn’t have stopped Adam Dunn’s game-tying single off Mariano Rivera, either — Rivera said he thought off the bat it would be an out — yet A-Rod had no shot at getting to it.
The Yankees field a lineup now that actually looks decent on paper, with A-Rod, Curtis Granderson and Alfonso Soriano representing upgrades over the cast of thousands Girardi has been forced to utilize. The results aren’t there, though, because this trio hasn’t found its groove. And the suddenly substandard starting rotation hasn’t protected the lousy lineup as it did earlier in the season.
While you don’t want to completely write off the Yankees, the numbers don’t lie. The Rangers, currently the American League’s second wild card, are on pace to finish 92-70. The Yankees would have to finish the season on a 32-14 run to match that. Has this group shown any inclination to pull that off?
Which brings us back to A-Rod. If the team can’t stay relevant, then for sure A-Rod will. With 647 career homers, can he creep closer to Willie Mays (660) and work the finger-wagging moralists into another tizzy? Will he take more veiled shots at the Yankees and Major League Baseball? Will the Yankees ever win a game with him on their roster?
So stand up and boo tonight, if you think he has damaged the game’s integrity. Stand up and cheer if you think he’s the victim of an overreach by a grudge-holding Bud Selig. Follow the suggestion of my friend (and Post alumnus) Bob Klapisch of The Bergen Record, who wrote yesterday the best way to hurt the attention-loving A-Rod would be to ignore him.
Just make sure you have fun with it. There isn’t much fun remaining to this Yankees campaign.
kdavidoff@nypost.com