Cheer factor

This is Alex Rodriguez's baseball "Cheers." That is the sound he hears when he comes to the plate, where everyone knows his name. They don't scream "Norm!" when he enters, but the norm is an open-arm policy. On Friday night, Rodriguez played his first baseball game in Miami since high school, since starring at Westminster Christian and becoming the first pick of the 1993 draft. Rodriguez needed to leave about 150 passes at Dolphin Stadium, a total Yankees trainer Gene Monahan joked was "a world record."

Playing against the Marlins, Rodriguez appeared a fish in water: a jubilant juggernaut. He hit a laser double and a homer somehow ever harder. He walked in the seventh, was removed to yet another hometown-boy-makes-good ovation and entered the Yankees dugout with these spring numbers: a .452 average, .521 on-base percentage and .857 slugging average. He arguably has been the AL MVP of spring. Continue