So Sports Illustrated has selected its Sportsman of the Year, and it's Derek Jeter. He's a logical choice, I suppose; the Yankees won the World Series, he's the Yankee captain, he had a fine year, he's been a classy player for a lot of years.

If, however, you want to see the athlete who most exemplifies what sports today are all about - the Sports Man of the Year, let's call him - I say look elsewhere. Look at Jeter, but then turn slightly to the left.

Has anyone ever had a luckier year than Alex Rodriguez?

He entered 2009 as an enigma. The New York tabloids loved to embarrass him, whether he was sunning himself in Central Park or finding female companionship on the road. His teammates didn't seem to know what to make of him. Joe Torre buried him deep in his postseason lineup, then burned him in a memoir about his years as Yankee manager. Yankee fans hated him, considered him a choke artist. He had played in the postseason seven times, four since coming to New York, and had never reached the World Series. With the Yankees, he had a .245 playoff average with four homers and nine RBIs in twenty-four games.

In February, he admitted having used steroids while with Texas. A book by the reporter who broke the story, Selena Roberts, also included accusations that he tipped pitches to opposing infielders in blowout games in the hope that they'd do the same for him. A close study of the statistics by Dan Rosenheck for The New York Times did not support the pitch-tipping accusation, but the steroids admission shook those who saw A-Rod as the clean successor-to-be who would remove the taint from Barry Bonds's career home run record.

A-Rod's first lucky break was his decision to have hip surgery in March, sidelining him for two months. The Yankees started poorly, and were 13-15 when he returned on May 8. In his first at bat of the season, he homered on the first pitch he saw. Whatever the New York fan reaction to him might have been in April, by May they were desperate and received him as a returning hero. After sixteen games he was hitting .189, but seven of his ten hits were home runs and the Yankees were 12-4 in those games.

His second break was the shift in team chemistry. In assembling the 2009 club during the offseason, GM Brian Cashman added players who were unusually loose for men in pinstripes. C.C. Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, and Nick Swisher brought a new tone to the clubhouse, and for once Rodriguez seemed happy to just be one of the guys. He wasn't a different person, but he wasn't the focus of the club or the media.

More luck: A-Rod entered the season with twelve years of 30 home runs and 100 RBIs, the last eleven in a row. No player has had thirteen such seasons. With two games to go, he had 28 and 93. He sat out the next-to-last game to rest his hip for the postseason, but played in the finale at Tampa Bay. He was hitless in his first two at bats, and in the top of the sixth he knew Joe Girardi would probably take him out for the bottom of the inning. He hit a three-run homer to give the Yankees a 3-2 lead, and speculated on the bench about his chance of getting a shot at the grand slam he needed to reach the 30/100 mark. Sure enough, the Yankees batted around, the Rays intentionally walked Mark Teixeira with runners on second and third, and Rodriguez delivered the grand slam he needed to set the record.

Then, at last, he had a monster postseason, hitting two critical game-tying homers off closers in save situations, compiling a 1.162 OPS, and driving in more runs in fifteen games than he had in his previous playoff career (39 games). His past postseason struggles were probably more random fluctuation than character flaw, but he certainly picked a fortunate time for a positive shift.

While Jeter's actress-girlfriend, Minka Kelly, was mostly a behind-the-scenes presence, A-Rod's actress-girlfriend, Kate Hudson, was very visible throughout the Yankee's championship run. (It is odd to think that A-Rod could someday have Goldie Hawn as his mother-in-law.) His liaisons with Madonna were far behind him.

And then, the stroke of good fortune: In November we learned about the indiscretions of Tiger Woods, which knocked the foibles of all other athletes out of the public memory. Who remembers what scandals came before the Mother of All Tabloid Stories?

So: Alex Rodriguez began the year in disgrace, admitted his past use of performance-enhancing drugs, was cheered upon his return, was the subject of a warts-and-warts book, demonstrated that winning is a great deodorant, conducted a high-profile private life in public, set an obscure statistical milestone while being extremely conscious of it at the time, and delivered on the ultimate stage the way someone of his ability and career performance was likely to do sooner or later. For all these reasons, touching every hot button this side of concussions, A-Rod is my Sports Man of the Year.