There will be A-Bombs from A-Rod after all, if John Sterling has anything to say about it

The Daily News has ripped Alex Rodriguez relentlessly for the last two years. It's been the harshest A-Rod critic, at one point with a team of reporters chasing dirt.

But DN columnist Bob Raissman - who scored a nice interview with John Sterling after a fire last month devastated The Master's Jersey apartment - today actually writes something positive about Number 13. He did another story with The Master.

“We talked right after the fire. Alex felt terrible about it,” Sterling told me over the telephone. “He offered me his place in Manhattan to stay in when this happened. I guess he was in Florida.”

That offer of some very posh shelter came last month when a fire tore through the apartment complex Sterling lived in, Avalon at Edgewater, in New Jersey on Jan. 21. He lost everything, including all his clothes, mementos, memorabilia and many, many telephone numbers.

The blaze couldn’t burn away the memories, including those created by Rodriguez which Sterling chronicled with his theatrical, over-the-top, “it’s an A-Bomb” home run call.

“I’m rooting for Alex,” Sterling said emphatically. “He’s a friend.”

Amazing, eh? A write-up in the Daily News that isn't trashing A-Rod out of the blocks.

We may be about to see some of A-Rod's critics hedging their hatreds with the outside chance that the guy will come back and hit for the Yankees... and that if so, the fans might even forgive.

Listen: It probably won't happen. There is just too much animosity out there, Alex is too old, and the hatred will be constantly stoked. (Plus, let's face it: A-Rod is his own worst enemy.)

But he'll have a friend in the booth. And really... that was a nice gesture.

Would you want John Sterling reading his celebrity autobiographies in your bed, underneath your portrait as a centaur?