A-Rod's tale of redemption is the best story in baseball

A game-winning, pinch-hit home run to tie Willie Mays. Against the Boston Red Sox. At Fenway Park. This stuff is straight out of Hollywood.

Alex Rodriguez continued scripting this most unlikely chapter of his career Friday with a milestone solo shot inside his hated rival's ballpark. Given the bizarre and fascinating nature of A-Rod's 21-year career, nothing should come as a surprise at this point.

A-Rod's wild ride took an incredible turn last month when the soon-to-be 40-year-old designated hitter with a pair of surgically repaired hips showed he's still capable of playing baseball at an elite, if unsustainable, level. That he's doing so after a one-year suspension makes it all the more remarkable.

The embattled New York Yankees star entered Friday's game in a 5-for-47 slump and one home run shy of tying Mays for fourth on the all-time leaderboard. That it came at Fenway - the same place pre-suspension, post-scandal A-Rod smacked a redemption homer off Ryan Dempster after he threw at him - makes it all the more fitting.

Forget A-Rod's exceptional April for a minute - the one that saw him hit five homers and slug .507 in 20 games - what are your most recent memories of Alex Rodriguez? Flirting with fans during a playoff game? Getting benched because he can't hit good right-handers? Flailing at breaking pitches with a bum hip while he appeals a drug suspension?

The last three years have not been kind to Rodriguez. He's been on a trainer's table more than in a clubhouse, a lawyer's office more than a diamond, the tabloids more than the highlights. We've heard more about the $6-million milestone bonus the Yankees don't want to pay than the milestone itself that would trigger it.

To be sure, no one's more to fault about that than A-Rod. He took a blockbuster action flick about one of the greatest and richest players in baseball history and turned it into something out of a Quentin Tarantino movie.

A-Rod's 660th home run itself isn't a shocker - he entered the season needing just six homers to equal Mays' mark. It's the fact he did it so quickly, so emphatically, so dramatically that makes it so captivating.

Rodriguez - the fake, arrogant, cheater, choker, slumlord, and back-stabbing liar he's been called over the years - hasn't just overcome a pair of damaged hips and father time in his quest to make history. He's reversed the narrative from washed up to a player with something to prove, and he's doing it by doing what he's done his entire career: just playing baseball.

He's offering to play new positions, helping coaches with drills, and endearing himself well to fans. It helps that he can get around on a mid-90s fastball on the inner half of the plate and his exit velocity rivals that of Giancarlo Stanton. He wasn't supposed to be this good anymore. He wasn't supposed to rewrite his story this late in the game.

A-Rod's next homer will give him sole possession of fourth on the all-time list, but you already knew that. What makes this ride so unbelievable is the unknown of what happens next.

Will his body make it through the season? Will he ever play in the playoffs again? Can he hit 700? Is he still on the juice?

Not everyone will celebrate A-Rod's latest milestone or his next. The boos will likely outweigh the cheers and the fans he's hurt over the years won't come running back just because he's got an OPS near .900.

But the headlines sure will, as fast and furious as ever.

The best movies are rarely reduced to a single genre. That's what makes the Alex Rodriguez story so compelling.

From his childhood to superstardom, drug use to allegations of bribery, A-Rod's story has it all. And while it's always had the makings of a big-budget motion picture, it was never supposed to be a story about redemption. 

Well, it is now, and it's the best drama on television. And no one, not even his biggest critics, are complaining.