But despite Rodriguez's claims that he and Boras are not speaking, the superagent has been implying in conversations with associates that he was as involved with negotiating this contract as he had been with Rodriguez's 2001 deal. If so, it certainly paid off: Instead of a deal valued at $25.2 million a year through 2010, Rodriguez now had one worth $27.5 million through 2017, at which point he'll be 42 and likely at the end of his career. Even though Rodriguez was unlikely to have gotten a better offer from any other team (one baseball executive told me there was no "real market" for a contract of that size), his role in making the deal happen was seen as emblematic of the fact that returning to the Yankees — and winning the championship that has eluded him — was now more important than getting top dollar.

On Jan. 27, Rodriguez stood in front of 1,200 people at the annual dinner for the New York chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America, one of those hoary traditions so common in a sport in love with its own history. He was there to accept his MVP award for the 2007 season, but the event also gave him an opportunity to romance the city he's tried so hard to impress. When he reached the podium, he was greeted with an exuberant ovation, and Yogi Berra put into words what everyone sensed was occurring: A-Rod was being accepted. "Alex," Berra said, "welcome to the club, buddy. You're pretty good." The once and future Yankee legends shared a laugh. "Yogi, I am pretty proud and impressed with your three MVP awards," Rodriguez said, referring to the fact that he and Berra are two of just nine men to be named MVP three or more times. "The 10 championships, I'm very jealous of."

There are, of course, many possible potholes on this new road. Last December, an oddly vituperative New York Times column titled "A-Rod's Properties and Charity Suggest Some Stinginess" showed the extent to which some members of the press continue to gun for Rodriguez. This year could follow the good season/bad season pattern A-Rod has established since coming to New York. For the first time he'll be playing for a manager who's a peer: Joe Girardi, the Yankees' new skipper, is more than two decades younger than Torre. And despite being widely seen as the ultimate exemplar of a player who can dominate the natural way in what is already known as the Steroid Era, Rodriguez understands that the closer he comes to overtaking Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, and Barry Bonds as the all-time leader in everything from RBIs to home runs, the more scrutiny he'll endure. His name, as he recently told an Associated Press reporter, "has come up and will probably come up again in the future."

Whatever happens, Rodriguez insists that he'll now face the world as his own man. "When you start out in sports, there are so many different mentors and different people pulling you in all directions," he wrote. "You finally get to a point where you say, 'Thank you, but I can make my own decisions.' My voice is finally being heard. And that is liberating."

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