Not for much longer.

The Yankees pulled away from the Phillies in game four of the World Series, led by Johnny Damon’s crucial at-bat that turned into a double steal to A-Rod capping off a furious rally to drop three runs on the Phillies in short order, putting the Yankees up for good 7-4.  Mariano Rivera then did what he does best: close the game.

In a post season consisting of A-Rod beating his demons as well as A-Rod leading the Yankees through the first two rounds against the Twins and Angels, the Phillies did an excellent job of keeping him quiet, even if it required the pitchers to hit him three times with pitches, one in the first inning of game four.  That last hit may have been what awoke the sleeping giant and sparked the end of the Phillies’ reign as World Series Champions

But they were willing to give the man a chance to perform after Joe Torre departed for Los Angeles.

That chance was not wasted.

The Yankees are now one game away from reaching the World Series again, and this time they are rushing in with a full head of steam.  Their team is firing on all cylinders and doesn’t seem to be on the verge of collapse.  They have won all but one game so far in the post season, sweeping the Minnesota Twins and now are one win away from eliminating the Los Angeles Angels.  The Yankees dominated game 4 of the ALCS.

Riding on the back of the dominating Alex Rodriguez and the solid pitching of CC Sabathia,  the Yankees blew out a game in a series where extra-innings were so common, they were going out of style.  The 10-1 victory may have been the straw to break the camels back and put to rest any thoughts that the Yankees were going to collapse and fail to reach the World Series once again; that dream seems all but extinguished.  CC Sabathia’s, who is undefeated in the post season this year, is next expected to pitch Game 1 of the World Series in the new Yankee Stadium.

The biggest story, however, is the performance of A-Rod.  Suddenly, the most talented and rich player in baseball who was best known for his post-season collapses is coming through in a big way.

Now with the first round done for the Yankees, the days off and in between have been very hard for reporters to find A-Rod to get him to create more gossip fodder as he has done every year in the past with questionable comments.  A-Rod seems to be in control of not only his game, but his mouth, but has his game ever been a problem?

Other players have had their bad games, but no one has been more crucified than Alex Rodriguez, and especially this year.  It started with a steroid scandal, then hip surgery, and the building anticipation of his return.  It seems that he came back with the right message in his first at bat, knocking a home run out of the park that set the tone for the rest of the season.

A-Rod is beating his demons, with a baseball bat, and leading the Yankees to their most promising post-season in recent years.

Back then, huge multi-million dollar contract offers were thrown out in hopes of luring players to cities with sport teams that didn’t have salary caps.  

The Yankee’s have had a history of throwing out big salaries and making the largest payroll in baseball even fatter, yet, this year, the Bronx Bombers restrained their over-the-top spending habits.

With the recession depression that has hit the world economy, it has been proven that no industry is safe, not even sport.  The NFL has dropped employees, as has the NBA.  It would only make sense that MLB would feel the same retraction, especially because the total cost of operation is substantially higher with the larger payrolls and significantly more games are played.  The only people this concept doesn’t seem to make sense to are the players and their wily agents who negotiate their contracts of epic proportions.

These agents claim that the owners of teams colluded to drive prices down in the free agency market, which was detrimental to the earning capacity of those players.  Yet they don’t consider that the business side of the team involves more than just how much they can throw at a player.  

Each team must balance a budget, and while some teams like the Yankee’s don’t care if they end up in the red on their balance sheet, most teams have to run as a business just to sustain operation.  

Without this being the most important element of a franchise, there would be no profitability within baseball, and many teams that don’t have the luxury of the Steinbrenner clan would be forced to close up shop. Then there would be even fewer people to potentially bid on these overplayed players like Manny Ramirez.

What to do, what to do…now that one of the highest paid and most popular players in MLB won’t be playing for at least half of the baseball season. (According to ESPN.com, Ramirez will be returning to the game on July 3.)

Even if you haven’t been paying attention to the latest in sports news, or news in general, really, with the magnitude this story has brought, I’m sure you can guess why the Dodgers’ dreadlocked outfielder got such a slugging sit out.

Yes, that’s right, it’s because of those pesky little performance enhancing drugs we all so affectionately know as steroids.

Surprised? I think not.

It’s also interesting that just one day after Ramirez was jerked out of the game, Alex Rodriguez returned to the Yankees after his hip surgery. Let’s not forget that back in February A-Rod admitted to using steroids from 2001 to 2003 while he played for the Texas Rangers.

Ever since the late ‘90s, which featured the famous homerun hitting embattlement of Mark McGwire vs. Sammy Sosa, baseball just hasn’t been that fun. One minute it was Sosa overtaking McGwire with a record 48 homers in a season, and later that day, literally, McGwire regained the lead by hitting numbers 48 and 49.

Although stringent controversy surrounded both McGwire and Sosa as to whether or not steroids were used during their homerun hitting career surges, with McGwire especially under fire, nothing was ever officially confirmed.

My point is, every year athletes in all areas of sport are pressured to push the envelope. As with McGwire and Sosa, fans want to see ball after ball slugged out of the park. Is that really possible without the use of performance enhancing drugs? How far can the human body, even one as strong as that of a top athlete, be pushed before it just can’t give any more?