When Mark Teixeira squeezed the final out of the Yankees’ last championship, in 2009, he bolted across the diamond from first base. Teixeira would say later he had no plan for the celebration; he just took off, a spontaneous expression of joy. He was not trying to run toward Alex Rodriguez.

Somehow, though, it made perfect sense that he did. From the moment he was welcomed into professional baseball, 20 years ago this week as the first overall pick in the amateur draft, Rodriguez has exerted a magnetic pull like no other player. As Rodriguez has said, in so many words, it always comes back to him.

Rodriguez is a ghostly presence around these Yankees, spending spring training and almost all of the regular season away from the team, recovering from another hip operation. His teammates had to answer for him Wednesday anyway, because Rodriguez was big news again.

Rodriguez has been linked to a shuttered Florida anti-aging clinic whose owner, Anthony Bosch, has agreed to cooperate with Major League Baseball’s investigators. The league could pursue suspensions for Bosch’s clients, and while other stars, like Ryan Braun of the Milwaukee Brewers, may also be vulnerable, no one shines like Rodriguez.