Love him or hate him, Alex Rodriguez came to play. As a notoriously poor playoff performer, A-Rod’s expectations going into the 2009 playoffs were low, and not only has he managed to raise the bar, he’s setting the standard for those around him as well. But will a hot October bat be enough for the much-maligned Rodriguez to finally shed himself of some of his negative steroid publicity?

The allegedly clean Rodriguez now has at least one RBI for each of his seven postseason games this year and five home runs, officially doubling his career postseason totals in both categories. It seems like the underperforming Mr. Not-October is gone, and A-Rod might finally be re-proving himself as one of the best players in baseball. If he can lead his pinstriped teammates back to the World Series, he’ll definitely be up for some MVP consideration.

This guy is not like by very many people outside of New York. From his on-field unsportsmanlike play to his off-field scandalous lifestyle, there’s not much reason to like him. But don’t deny the fact that Rodriguez can play baseball. He came up as a shortstop - one of the toughest defensive positions to play - and only moved to third base because there was no chance that Derek Jeter was going to be moved instead.

When it comes to the New York Yankees, it seems as if any one of them can be the hero on any given night. Consistently impressive play seems unimpressive overall, but A-Rod certainly looks to be breaking that cycle. If and when the Yankees advance to the World Series, you can be sure that Rodriguez’s face splattered across every sports magazine in the country. For the sake of “moving forward”, let’s just hope that the articles inside are written with the same intentions.