Leading Off: The Great A-Rod Debate You have to hand it to the Yankees. Their current free-fall is so riveting that they have managed to keep a chokehold on the news on a day when their American League Championship Series game against Detroit was rained out. Or sort of rained out. It was more like a "golly, the radar says it's supposed to rain" rained out. It definitely fell into the category of mysteries of the baseball universe, right up there with why everything that goes wrong with the Yankees ends up circling back to Alex Rodriguez. In fact, the postponement only cleared more room in people's minds for the continuing freak show that is Rodriguez's postseason. It wedged open a time slot to discuss the oh-so-shaky reports that a Yankees executive might have once had an offhand conversation about trading Rodriguez to the Miami Marlins. Of course, you had to leave time to discuss the more believable but still shaky reports that he was trying to hit on women in the stands during Game 2 in Yankee Stadium, while also contemplating whether his backside should still be superglued to the bench in this series and whether he has a future at all with the Yankees. The Cardinals and the Giants actually played Game 3 of the National League Championship Series, and they could not compete with all that. Not unless the A-Rod trade rumors included them, which they did not, so they were reduced to oh by the way, the Cards won the rain-interrupted game, 3-1, and lead the series, two games to one. After a word from our sponsor, we will return to the next episode of All Alex, All the Time. Not that being in the center of this kind of storm is new for Rodriguez, writes Tim Brown on Yahoo.com, but this one does seem a bit more ominous because of how deep it comes in the playoffs and because this tailspin might catapult him right out of the Yankees' universe. Joel Sherman of The New York Post, for one, is predicting a very expensive divorce in the off-season, which everyone assumes will begin right after weather allows a Game 4. Others are less than swayed by the far-fetched rumors of the Marlins flirtation, like Joe Lemire of SI.com, and believe he'll be back giving Joe Girardi heartburn for seasons to come. Jeff Caple of ESPN.com argues for a more immediate reconciliation, and that would be to put Rodriguez back in the lineup, Girardi's heartburn be damned. John Harper of The Daily News points out that Yankees management has a much bigger rebuild on its hands beyond A-Rod, but that messes up the whole it's-all-about-Alex meme. Despite everyone fast-forwarding to the final defeat, there is a game to be played, presumably Thursday, unless someone guesses it might rain again, creating another confounding evening like Wednesday, John Niyo writes in The Detroit News. The Tigers got the better of the weather interlude, Jon Paul Morosi argues on Foxsports.com, and are definitely enjoying the better end of the three-team 2009 trade that delivered Curtis Granderson to the Yankees and Phil Coke and Austin Jackson and Max Scherzer to the Tigers, Drew Sharp writes in The Detroit Free Press. But hey, the Yankees still had A-Rod, and their universe keeps circling back to him. The Cardinals and the Giants have been largely freak show free this postseason, with the Cardinals providing their entertainment by letting things become really dire before they turn it around by doing something special, writes Bernie Miklasz in The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. This makes for a thrill ride of a postseason - again - writes Jayson Stark on ESPN.com. And it explains how Matt Carpenter got to play the role of hero Wednesday night, Albert Chen writes on SI.com. Ken Rosenthal writes on Foxsports.com that he was wrong to doubt that Mike Matheny was the right guy to replace Tony La Russa as the Cardinals' manager because he is wielding the pixie dust expertly this postseason. The Giants are now left to wonder which iteration of Tim Lincecum will take the mound for Game 4, the formerly dominant pitcher or the shadow-of-himself 2012 version, Jeff Passan writes on Yahoo.com. Whichever it is, Ann Killion writes in The San Francisco Chronicle, it sure makes this game the turning point. That's largely because Hunter Pence came up so small in big spots in Game 3, Tim Kawakami writes in The San Jose Mercury-News. But both of those teams could take consolation in the fact that hey, at least A-Rod isn't burning a spot on their bench. What does A-Rod have for consolation? Well, at least he's not Lance Armstrong.