Feel bad for A-Rod

Feel bad for Alex Rodriguez.

I can understand why you wouldn't want to. He makes $25 million a year. He's a Yankee. Perhaps you just live in Boston.

After watching A-Rod blast his 11th and 12th homeruns of the season (and of April), I can't help but feel for the guy. He's perhaps the best player of this generation. He's got two walk-off dingers on the season. But you just watch what happens to this guy when we flip a few more pages on the calendar.

As April becomes May, June and July, and slowly as August and September settle in, New York Yankees fans won't care about his 12 homeruns or 30 RBI this month (and tonight's game versus the Red Sox isn't even over, so I may have to update these numbers). Fans will care if the Yankees are heading back to the World Series.

While I hate how A-Rod was never able to lead the Texas Rangers into the postseason, I don't blame him for that. His record contract locked up too much money for Tom Hicks to go out and get anyone to pitch (except of course for Chan Ho Park). I believe he gave all he had in Texas. Heck, he won the AL MVP in 2003, and the Rangers were last in a weak AL West. However since he got to New York, he's faced nothing but the harshest of scrutiny.

I hope for his sake the fans in the Bronx don't complete forget just how much A-Rod is doing for them now. Sure it's early in the season, and guys can fade with a 162-game schedule, but sadly if he fades so will any chance of Yankees fans embracing him.

If he can blast a homer in late September to help secure the AL's best record, or if he can drive in the winning run in the ALCS this fall, then fans in New York might finally let up on him.

Instead all Alex Rodriguez is doing is setting an impossible standard for himself to live up to. Eventually things will even out, and he'll go into a slump at some point this season. He's currently on pace to hit 129-130 HRs, which would almost double the single-season record. No, he won't do that, and it's still too early to even mention 73.

When he does cool off, and he will at some point, pay close attention to the noise made at Yankee Stadium when he steps into the batters box. Are they booing or are they cheering? Knowing the fans of the New York Yankees, I think there may be a collective short-term memory lapse in the Bronx. These fans will turn on him once again as soon as the run production slows down.

He can hit all the April homeruns he wants, but until he has a big postseason, he still won't compare to the man 30 feet to his left.