The last thing Alex Rodriguez needs right now is the opt-out
clause in his contract. If he were smart, he would ask the
Yankees to amend the contract and delete the clause from it.
Yes, he could simply not exercise the clause at the end of the
season -- the seventh in a 10-year deal -- but the clause would
still be there, looming.  No, A-Rod has to get rid of the
clause; otherwise it will plague him for the entire season, and
he doesn't need that distraction. He has enough potential
problems that he can't do anything about.  His agent, Scott
Boras, of course, would not allow him to opt out of the opt-out.
That's Boras's baby. He used it this winter to get J. D. Drew
out of the three years he had remaining on his contract with the
Los Angeles Dodgers and to gain a contract with Boston for $70
million, more than twice the $33 million the Dodgers would have
owed him.  Baseball officials and executives of other clubs have
suspected that the Red Sox tampered with Drew, letting Boras
know that if Drew walked away