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"&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;ARLINGTON, TEXAS\u2014Alex Rodriguez keeps a pad and pen near him at night.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CI\u2019m old school,\u201D he said. \u201CI need paper.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;He will rise from bed, maybe after watching a West Coast game, or maybe when he\u2019s not yet tired enough to sleep, to capture all the thoughts swimming around his head.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CI\u2019ll start out thinking, \u2018Just for a few minutes,\u2019\u201D he said. \u201CAnd then I\u2019ll be writing for an hour or more. It just goes on.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rodriguez is writing one of the most incredible stories of the 2015 baseball season, one you might even call hard to believe. This has gone on too long and the home runs have traveled too far to still be about just a nice little comeback story. We are crossing the border into amazement.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rodriguez\u2014a man who turned 40 years old Monday, who is playing with two repaired hips, who had not seen a competitive pitch in 17 months, who was embarrassed by average fastballs the last season he did play\u2014is absolutely destroying major league pitching at a time when, except for last year, it\u2019s harder to score a run than in any full season since 1976.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Even Rodriguez\u2019s teammates have a hard time believing it.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CAfter I hit the home run in the third deck in Minnesota the other day,\u201D he said, \u201Call my teammates were saying in the dugout, \u2018Holy s---, what\u2019s going on?\u2019\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Even Rodriguez has a hard time believing it.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CI feel like I\u2019m in my 20s,\u201D he said at the batting cage at Globe Life Ballpark on Monday before celebrating his birthday with\u2014what else?\u2014another home run, this one an opposite-field blast he hit on a pitch down and away &lt;em&gt;while his top hand was coming off the bat&lt;/em&gt;. \u201CIt\u2019s incredible, it's hard to explain. Somebody told me only a few balls have been hit up there in the third deck [in Minnesota], and Giancarlo Stanton was one of them.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I reminded him that he hit a home run 477 feet at Tropicana Field against the Rays earlier this year.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CI know, but this one just felt &lt;em&gt;different&lt;/em&gt;,\u201D he said.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There was one more thing I had to remind him about: steroids. This is a guy who has been connected to banned substances in at least nine seasons, through his own admission, an MLB investigation, therapeutic use exemptions or his association with Anthony Galea, the Canadian doctor who pleaded guilty to bringing mislabeled drugs into the country to treat athletes. When he slumped in the 2012 playoffs against the Tigers, his response was not to take more batting practice or search for answers on video, but to call Anthony Bosch, his PED supplier in Miami, and tell him to get on a plane to Detroit with his drugs.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CYou must know there are people who look at you now, the way you\u2019re hitting the ball, and assume you\u2019re still using,\u201D I told him.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CI understand that 100%,\u201D he said.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CSo what do you tell the skeptics and the haters? Are you clean?\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CI am clean. The great part about this happening now is that the lesson for players, and I especially mean future players, is that if you\u2019re clean and you\u2019re healthy and your head\u2019s in the right place, and you surround yourself with the right people, you\u2019re going to get results.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CListen, I\u2019m healthy, happy and clean. When I came back from hip surgery [in 2013], I couldn\u2019t hit a good fastball. If you threw 92 [mph] in or up, I wasn\u2019t going to hit it. I had no chance. After that, and then after being out for year, I told [ESPN broadcaster] Rick Sutcliffe in spring training, \u2018I couldn\u2019t hit a fastball then, so I don\u2019t know what to expect now.\u2019 I really didn\u2019t know what to expect.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201COne thing I\u2019ve been this year is consistent. Even in my really good years, I\u2019d have some periods\u2014two, three weeks\u2014where I just looked terrible. It was always because of tension, trying too hard. Now I\u2019m just happy and relaxed. I\u2019ve been more consistent because of that. If I don\u2019t get a good pitch to hit, I\u2019m taking my walks and passing the baton. It\u2019s one thing to be able to swing at bad pitches when you\u2019re younger. But when you\u2019re older, it really catches up to you. The ones that last are the ones who hit strikes. Knowing the strike zone, what you can hit, becomes more important.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Such are the thoughts Rodriguez compiles at night. They are the thoughts from a survivor, a man who made it through a near-death experience as far as baseball careers go. The sights, smells and thrills of baseball are all new to him again, so he wants to preserve them on paper.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;He feared his career was over after he took a scorched-earth approach to fight MLB's investigation into his PED use in the Biogenesis scandal. He took his fight to the courts and the airways, sounding brave and persecuted. But when it came time for him to swear an oath to tell the truth, he suddenly lost all the bravado. The truth crushed him. He served the longest PED suspension in the history of baseball, not just for using drugs, but also for obstructing baseball\u2019s effort to get to the truth about him. The arbitrator in the case said Rodriguez\u2019s use and behavior were unprecedented.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Worse still, Rodriguez feared everything about the game he loves would be taken away from him, not just his playing career. He had no safe harbor with any of the teams for which he has played\u2014Seattle, Texas and the Yankees. If he were done playing baseball, he feared, baseball was done with him. He\u2019d be Jose Canseco or an unofficial Pete Rose: kicked out for good, with all the locks changed.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Yankees studied his contract with a microscope to see if any loopholes existed to be done with him and the $61 million they owed him. Finding none, they reluctantly stuck him seventh in the batting order on Opening Day. After 10 games, he was hitting .344. Manager Joe Girardi put him in the No. 3 spot. He has remained there ever since.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rodriguez is hitting .276 with 24 home runs and 59 RBIs. He is the Yankees\u2019 most valuable player, giving them a middle-of-the-order impact bat when nothing was expected.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;(Just don\u2019t call him the comeback player of the year. Rodriguez\u2019s exile was due to self-inflicted, rogue behavior. He is coming back from running the baseball equivalent of a Ponzi scheme\u2014years of doping with banned drugs that required extensive calculation to administer and keep covert. Better to reward someone like Prince Fielder, who hit only three homers last year and played in only 42 games before undergoing surgery to fuse the C5-C6 discs in his neck, and has returned with a .336 average and the most hits in the league.)\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CYou tell me, what do you see?\u201D Rodriguez asked me.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I was there when Rodriguez played his first major league game at age 18, at Fenway Park in 1994. The kid was a good interview even then. I saw a teenager then and a man now who loves baseball as much as anybody I have covered\u2014and not just the show that is Major League Baseball. He loves the nuances, intricacies, roots and history of the game. He loves baseball the way a truly great actor loves the script and the role more than he loves Broadway or Hollywood. He wanted to do the game proud, but his insecurities always got in the way. Until now.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CI see a relaxed player,\u201D I told him. \u201CI don\u2019t see that guy who would bite his lower lip in the batter\u2019s box; that\u2019s what you did when you were tight. And it\u2019s like you told me two months ago with the way you hold the bat now. It\u2019s just resting on your shoulder until the pitcher is ready. There\u2019s no tension. You can see it. The word I would use is \u2018relaxed.\u2019\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I told him two things about him have surprised me: how hard he is hitting the baseball, and how quickly he has adapted to being a full-time designated hitter. Here\u2019s what you should know about how freakish this season has been for Rodriguez:\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u2022 He has hit three home runs that have traveled 450 feet or more. How crazy is that? With more than two months still to play, it\u2019s more 450-foot-plus homers than he hit in any season from ages 33 to 38:\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\tyear\r\n\t\t\tnumber of homers\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\t2009\r\n\t\t\t0\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\t2010\r\n\t\t\t2\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\t2011\r\n\t\t\t1\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\t2012\r\n\t\t\t1\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\t2013\r\n\t\t\t0\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\t2014\r\n\t\t\tDNP\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\t2015\r\n\t\t\t3\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u2022 He has hit nine home runs this month. Only one player in his age-39 season or older (age as of July 1) has hit 10 home runs in July: Cy Williams of the Philadelphia Phillies, way back in 1927.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u2022 His .543 slugging percentage is his best in seven years, and better than any qualified hitter 39 or older except for Barry Bonds in 2004 and Ted Williams in 1958.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u2022 He needs only six home runs to join Hank Aaron as the only righthanded hitters this old ever to hit 30 home runs. (Only five lefthanded hitters have done so: Bonds, Steve Finley, Darrell Evans, Willie Stargell and Cy Williams.)\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I told Rodriguez I did not expect him to hold up this well at this age. But then, playing only half the game has served his body well. Rodriguez never had DH\u2019d more than 38 times in a season before this year, so I did not anticipate that a former Gold Glove shortstop and seven-time All-Star third baseman would abandon defense and accept the specialty role of DH so easily.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CIt helps when you\u2019re honest with yourself,\u201D he said. \u201CI can\u2019t play 140 games at shortstop or third base any more. I know that. You have to be honest with yourself. I know the best chance for us to win games is with me being a DH, and that\u2019s all that matters.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CThere\u2019s no stress now. Playing defense is hard work. It taxes you. If I cost CC [Sabathia] an extra 25 pitches because I didn\u2019t make a play, I wouldn\u2019t sleep at night.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Some guys struggle in that role. George Brett hit .273 as a DH, mostly in his final three years after winning a batting title in 1990. Frank Thomas hit 62 points higher at first base than at DH. Gary Ward, when he DH\u2019d for the Yankees, used to fill the time in between at-bats riding a stationery bike, watching the game on TV and pretending he was in the outfield. When the ball was hit, he would pedal as if chasing after it.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CI went to the master: Edgar Martinez,\u201D Rodriguez said. \u201CYou go to the best if you want to learn. You went to Penn State; it\u2019s like going to the best professor at school to learn. That\u2019s Edgar. He helped me a lot. One of the things he taught me about being a DH is how to stay in the game mentally. Pay attention to the pitcher and the counts. What\u2019s he throwing? What\u2019s working? What\u2019s not? Look at the game just like you\u2019re playing shortstop or third base. Stay involved in every pitch. I do that both in the clubhouse, watching on TV and from the dugout.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Not playing defense has helped his offense. Rodriguez always has been an extremely smart hitter. He is renowned for knowing when a pitcher is tipping pitches and for sitting on them. Devoting all his attention to that craft has heightened his hitting intellect. And the physical grind of taking ground balls every day and being on his feet on defense no longer tax his 40-year-old legs. He is healthier both mentally and physically by being a full-time one-way player.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Maybe he keeps this up or maybe he doesn\u2019t. Rodriguez is on a pace to hit 40 home runs and drive in 98 runs. Time will tell. What\u2019s more important is that Rodriguez has found joy again. Reggie Jackson used to tell Rodriguez how his father used to tell him, \u201CSon, as long as you have a bat in your hands, you have a chance to change the story.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rodriguez\u2019s newfound joy doesn\u2019t change the past. It doesn\u2019t change the awful decisions he made. But it does change the story, pushing it in another direction, like pushing a truck out of a ditch. It is a story of renewal now. The length and frequency of his home runs are an astounding part of the story. They may be the most obvious part of the story, but they are not the most important. It\u2019s when Rodriguez takes up his pen and glides it across his pad, capturing something that seems ethereal, as if trying to make it last, like a child chasing fireflies with a net.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CI haven\u2019t felt like this,\u201D he said, \u201Cin a long time.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;GALLERY: &lt;em&gt;SI&lt;/em&gt;'s rare shots of Alex Rodriguez&lt;/strong&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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