Yankees 3B Alex Rodriguez on Thursday night passed HOFer Willie Mays on the all-time home runs leaderboard, and the franchise "swallowed hard and acknowledged the historic moment, if only for a few fleeting seconds," according to David Lennon of NEWSDAY. Lennon: "Blink, and you would have missed the factoid" on the Yankee Stadium scoreboard. Maybe the Yankees "finally have realized how ridiculous they looked in pretending to ignore A-Rod's tainted climb up the all-time list." Or they are "growing more confident he won't have a legitimate claim to his triggered home-run payments, which in the Yankees' view aren't 'marketable' and therefore void." It seems the "frosty relationship has thawed to a manageable temperature" (NEWSDAY, 5/8). In N.Y., Ken Davidoff writes, "Amidst all of the declarations and speculation, the Yankees did the right thing and confirmed, briefly, on their scoreboard that yes, A-Rod now owned sole occupancy of fourth place" on the home run list (N.Y. POST, 5/8). Also in N.Y., Zach Shonbrun notes the message on the scoreboard had "disappeared before Rodriguez reached the dugout" (N.Y. TIMES, 5/8).
