TO QUOTE DAVY JONES,

I'm a believer. I know it's still April and I make no prediction about the post-season, where AROD has never proved himself, but at least as far as the regular season goes, I think he is back to the Texas-Seattle AROD. Yes he hit another walk-off today and at a certain point the sheer quatity of his heroics has to force a re-examination of the quality of his baseball character, but what struck me today was that in the top of the ninth he made an error that cost the Yankees a run and seemed to put the game out of reach. That he didn't add to his ignominy by making the final out in the bottom half indicates that whatever else he might be, this is not the same AROD from last year. moreover, with every big hit he creates a bigger margin for future failure and the bigger the margin of failure the less likely he will need it--precisely because he is not an inveterate clutch performer.

For right now, anyway, he's George Kostanza on Seinfeld, doing the opposite and gaining momentum thereby. Since my life as a Yankee fan has been-- saving the 5 game sweep in fenway last season--one extended puke since he's been here, I think I'll enjoy the feast while I can. And if that requires a certain measure of deliberate self-delusion, I can live with that. If my colleagues at the U. of I. can actually convince themselves our department doesn't suck, I don't see why I can't do the same thing with AROD.