A few years from now people will look back on an 8-6 game at Fenway and if the details of the action become fuzzy, they will ask, ?What?s the fuss about?? Those who remember will say, ?On July 14th, 2005, the first game after the All-Star break, Hall of Famer and career home run king, Alex Rodriguez officially became a true New York Yankee.? ?How did he do that?? their son will ask. ?He was on the team in 2004. In fact didn?t he knock the ball out of the dreadlocked pitcher?s glove during the playoffs?? ?He did. And he was called out for it, but he responded. He responded with a gigantic home run against the man who called him out for it. This man is a Hall of Famer too.? Rewind back to the off-season following the 2003 playoffs. Grady Little leaves Pedro Martinez in too long during Game 7. Jason Giambi of all people single handedly gets the Yankees back in the game. They tie it. It goes to extra innings. Aaron ?Air? Boone hit a knuckler to Connecticut. Blah, blah, blah. Even though a very talented Red Sox team was just a few outs away, Theo Epstein, who is just beginning to settle into his GM role, makes some of the boldest moves this side of selling Babe Ruth. He pursues a trade with the Texas Rangers for Alex Rodriguez. Rodriguez accepts a paycut and then the MLBPA disallows it. Epstein places Manny on waivers. Nobody bites. ARod is traded to the Yankees for Alfonso Soriano. Instead of acquiring Rodriguez, the Red Sox improved their starting rotation by bringing in Curt Schilling. No complaints from the Red Sox Nation with the rare results. Plenty of complaints from Yankees fans, as the ARod era club allowed the Sox to comeback from a 0-3 deficit on their way to their first title since 1918. Coming into Thursday?s game, nobody was complaining about ARod?s production. He is the most productive hitter in the game, but he still wasn?t a Yankee. After falling behind 0-4 in the first inning when Mike Mussina couldn?t get an out, the Yankees struck back with two homers in the 2nd in a game where they were resilient and the Red Sox experiment of Curt Schilling in the bullpen got off to a horrible start as Gary Sheffield hit a hard double and then Rodriguez strolled to the plate. He strolled to the plate without an ounce of visible angst against a pitcher who questioned his integrity as a player. He strolled to the plate as nothing more than a professional and classy hitter and with a home run to pull the Yankees with 1.5 games of the Sox. Christopher Reina is the managing editor of RealGM.com and may be reached at [email protected].