More history Friday night at the Stadium as Alex Rodriguez smashed a grand slam, continuing his pursuit of the all-time dinger leaders. On the Yankees Entertainment & Sports Network, this grand feat was not put in its proper perspective. YES popped up a “Home Runs, Most of All Time” chart. Michael Kay commented on it.

But he never mentioned that unlike A-Rod, those ahead of him on the list had not hit homers with the aid of performance-enhancing substances.

– Bob Raissman, N.Y. Daily News.

Ahead of A-Rod on the list: Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa. Also, for what it’s worth, Hank Aaron and Willie Mays.

I’m generally not one to defend Michael Kay, but maybe he had the sense to avoid a topic basically everyone in the world besides newspaper columnists has grown tired of discussing.

As far as I can tell, every single one of A-Rod’s 588 regular-season home runs went over the fence, and every single one counted toward helping his team win.

Unless Major League Baseball someday identifies precisely which home runs were aided by PEDs (and figures out what to do about the ones that came off similarly enhanced pitchers) and strikes them from the record, A-Rod deserves to be listed among the all-time leaders.

And it shouldn’t be Kay’s responsibility to qualify every home run he hits for the rest of his Yankee career. We know what happened. No one’s thrilled about the so-called steroid era, but I’m guessing no one wants to be reminded of it every time a “tainted” but still historically great slugger homers, either.

And throughout the ’80s and ’90s, Walters was a frequent guest in Steinbrenner’s private box at Yankee Stadium and in the Yankee Club.

Steinbrenner and Walters always insisted they were nothing more than good friends. But some members of Steinbrenner’s inner circle of confidants back in the ’80s suspected they might be something more. Joan Steinbrenner may have had her suspicions, too.

– Bill Madden, Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball

Oh, Bill Madden, what’d you do?

Look: I don’t begrudge the rich and famous their right to have torrid affairs, even if I’m somehow certain both Barbara Walters and George Steinbrenner could do better.

And I recognize that if and when George Steinbrenner and Barbara Walters endeavored said affair, it was back when they were younger and more attractive people. Plus, I should make it perfectly clear that I’m fine with old people enjoying, you know, Biblical relations. That I get.

But the mental images I carry of Steinbrenner and Walters are somewhat recent ones, and so now thanks to Bill Madden, I cannot shake the thought of old-man Steinbrenner carnally engaged with old-lady Barbara Walters in a smoky old luxury box overlooking a Yankees game. It’s damn near horrifying to consider.

My apologies.

Also, apparently it’s Bill Madden day on TedQuarters. Who knew?

The whole thing started when Rodriguez went from first to third on a foul ball by Robinson Cano. On his way back to first, Rodriguez ran across the pitcher’s mound, which Braden saw as a sign of disrespect.

“I don’t care if I’m Cy Young or the 25th man on the roster, if I’ve got the ball in my hand and I’m on that mound, that’s my mound,” Braden said. “… He ran across the pitcher’s mound foot on my rubber. No, not happening. We’re not the door mat anymore.”

Rodriguez said he had never heard the unwritten rule that a player shouldn’t run across the mound. When Braden started yelling at him, Rodriguez didn’t know what it was about. “I thought it was pretty funny, actually,” Rodriguez said.

– Chad Jennings, LoHud Yankees Blog.

Probably worth checking out the video of the incident. Dallas Braden really loses it. Dude freaks out.

For the most part, I think the unwritten rules of baseball are dumb. If it absolutely needs to be a rule, write it down, and don’t get all bent out of shape if a guy bunts to break up a no-hitter or whatever. As far as I’m concerned — and I know Leo Durocher is with me on this one — a baseball player should do everything he can to win, letting sportsmanship and respect and all the vague and illusory ethics of the game fall to the wayside. Sure, it wasn’t particularly nice of A-Rod to yell, “Ha!” in Toronto, but it worked, and so good for him.

In this particular instance, though, I kind of understand where Braden is coming from. Granted, he probably overreacted a bit, but Rodriguez running over the mound and stepping on the rubber offered the Yankees no actual advantage in the game, and likely felt to Braden like a violation of his personal space. That’s how all his quotes made it sound, for sure.

I wasn’t watching the game and I haven’t seen a whole lot of Braden, but pitching in a Major League Baseball game requires a whole lot of focus and, for most guys, a great deal of intensity. Think of Johan Santana and his whole “I’m a man” thing. Smart money says Braden was in that type of zone (albeit a less effective one), A-Rod interrupted it, and he flipped.

Understandable, and not really a story in the grand scheme of things. Just another reason for opposing players to dislike A-Rod, beyond the whole “awesome hitter who punishes us at every opportunity” thing.

Usually, Balfour will design the best ring it can imagine before discussing the budget with team ownership. Management then brings in the veteran players to take a look, and to offer designing input. After the 1999 title, Roger Clemens was so impatient to show off his long-awaited champion’s status that he designed his own hefty ring, with the help of a designer friend, to complement the team’s official ring.

Jeter hasn’t looked at his rings in a while, but says his favorite is still the one custom-made by Clemens.

“When we get rings, a lot of people get them,” Jeter said. “The idea of having a ring that only the players got – the players, coaches and The Boss – that was pretty cool.”

– Filip Bondy, N.Y. Daily News.

Bondy put together an excellent collection of information about World Series rings here, and I urge you to check it out. For one thing, I learned that Chili Davis requested one of his World Series rings be inscribed with “Chili Dawg” instead of his proper name, but his wishes were vetoed by the fascist killjoys who run the Yankees.

As for the excerpted bit, what a typically annoying and presumptuous thing for Roger Clemens to do. Imagine you’re a jewelry designer. You’ve spent years training and honing your craft, and you know that your big contract — the World Series ring — is one of your best shots to publicize the fruits of your labor.

It’s not the easiest gig of your year, as you want to create something unique, but that incorporates tradition, and something appropriate for front-office types to wear to their suburban barbecues but flashy enough to suit the fancies of the players. Plus once it’s all done you’ve got to subject your design to the approval of a bunch of guys who haven’t spent nearly as many hours thinking about ring design as you have.

But you weather it all because it’s a great contract, and because you know when it’s all done your work will be broadcast on the evening news and proudly displayed on the fingers of 25 living, breathing, posturing billboards.

Then, as you’re tinkering away, crafting your annual showpiece, you get the news: Roger Clemens, perhaps on edge from all the Icy Hot on indecent parts of his body, wants his World Series ring NOW RIGHT NOW, like a petulant child. And so Roger Clemens, because he’s got unlimited resources and couldn’t care less about your artistic process, just went out and made his own damn World Series ring.

Obviously.

And then to top it off, Jeter — Derek Jeter, the Captain, the guy who has yet to say something wrong in his entire career — goes out of his way to praise the ring Clemens and his (presumably) tacky Texan designer guy created.

Why? Exclusivity. Derek Jeter just thinks it’s so special that there’s a ring out there whose value isn’t watered down by all the unimportant people who managed to get their grubby little hands on one.

The one thing everyone keeps asking me about is what I am going to do to respond to the Roll Call tradition from the Bleacher Creatures….

From what I hear, a lot of players do fun things like flex their muscles when they’re called. I still haven’t decided what I am going to do for it and I’m open for suggestions from Big League Stew readers. What should I do? Leave your good ideas for my response in the comment section below.

– Curtis Granderson, Big League Stew.

OK, first off: Just about everything about this is awesome. Players going straight to fans for advice on how to participate in a tradition at their new home stadium? Another win for the Internet.

Also, the first commenter suggests giving them the finger. The ninth suggests Granderson greet fans by learning how to hit lefties.

As for an actual suggestion, it’s a tough one. My initial thought is, “Dance the robot,” but that’s just because my initial thought is to dance the robot whenever anyone puts pressure on me to do anything. Man, I really wish I could dance the robot.

In truth, in that setting it would probably seem like trying too hard, as would any salute that took more than a half-second or so. That’s really limiting, and all my best ideas are ill-suited for a family environment. That should make them perfect for Yankee Stadium, of course, but I doubt Granderson’s looking to make any waves in his first home opener.

Except the one, I guess.

Anyway, go help Curtis Granderson. He seems like a nice guy, and if he’s not going to hit lefties, he might as well have something cool to do when the animals in the Yankee Stadium bleachers start chanting his name.