An easy first day for A-Rod this time

TAMPA, Fla. - This time there was no manager, no general manager, no teammates, no national media crush, no crumpled-up piece of paper and no steroid talk.

Alex Rodriguez was back in "the tent" at George M. Steinbrenner Field, but unlike his appearance there on Feb. 17, 2009, this media session was without controversy.

Seeming relaxed and content, Rodriguez talked mostly baseball for about 20 minutes after the Yankees' workout Thursday afternoon.

"This is definitely a much different day, that's very clear," Rodriguez said. "Last year obviously was a very embarrassing day and something that I wouldn't want to go back and do. But looking back, I certainly thought it was a very important day."

It was a day, he said, that helped launch him to a regular season that Joe Girardi called "astonishing."

After missing the first 28 games of the season while recovering from hip surgery, Rodriguez hit a three-run homer with his first swing of the season. He went on to hit .286 - far below his previous career average of .306 - with a .402 on-base percentage, an improvement on his previous career OBP of .389.

He dramatically recorded his 12th straight season with at least 30 homers and at least 100 RBIs by hitting two home runs and driving in seven runs in the Yankees' 10-run sixth inning against Tampa Bay in their final regular-season game.

Said Girardi, "If someone would have told me, coming back when he did, he was still going to drive in 100 runs, I would have said, 'Wow, that'd be a heck of a season.' "

Before that game May 8 in Baltimore, Rodriguez addressed the media and said he would avoid all outside distractions and just focus on baseball, not an insignificant obstacle throughout his career.

"For the most part, I think I've done that,'' he said, "and now it's my responsibility to continue that."

The real icing came in the postseason as Rodriguez buried, at least for one year, his reputation for postseason failure. He hit .365 with six home runs and 18 RBIs in 15 games, a .500 on-base percentage and an .808 slugging percentage in the Yankees' march to their 27th championship and his first title.

"It was a humongous gorilla that came off my back," Rodriguez said.

He said later: "I've never had more fun in my life playing baseball than I did last year."

Rodriguez, never the most popular player in the clubhouse his first five seasons in New York, said he found his "niche" there last year. He said he "blended in" with his teammates - as much as a $275-million player with a penchant for having a very public private life can blend in - and he traced it back to that news conference last February when he was at "rock bottom."

"Overall, I just feel like I'm in a good place, I feel like I have tremendous support, but my support starts from my teammates and my coaches and my manager, and that's the most important thing, and then it goes from there," he said. "Again, those guys being here last year set the tone for me. Those guys are my family."

It's a one-year turnaround Rodriguez still can't quite believe.

"It was a year I'll probably understand 20, 30 years from now, all the things that transpired in one year," he said. "That's from as low as any person or athlete can probably be to where we ended in early November is something that, again, I'm in awe of. I couldn't believe it was us, it was me, it was happening to."

As for 2010, Rodriguez expects a drama-free year. "I'm going to be fine," he said. "If I do what I do and I stay healthy and I stay in the same frame of mind I had last year, we're going to have fun this year."