Insurance is wound within the Alex Rodriguez-Yankees saga and Ilove every minute of it.

Conspiracy theories abound. Some say the New York Yankees arelooking to keep “A-Rod” off the field in order to collect on aninsurance policy they have to protect themselves against theremainder of a now-ludicrous-looking 10-year, $275 millioncontract.

Outstanding—from the points of a view of a rabid baseball fanand an insurance journalist…not to mention a Mets fan and a loverof all things disruptive to the Bronx Bombers.

It is also funny to read how a sports writer pens some graphs onactual insurance, rather than their typical use of theword—used, for example, in referring to a team's acquisitionof a left-hander as “bullpen insurance.”

Rodriguez, who has been slowly working his way back froma serious hip injury, is due about $114 million on hiscontract—$28 million in 2013. If the third baseman, who the Yankeessay now has a quad strain, doesn't take the field again thisyear, the Yankees are reportedly due a percentage of what they owethe 38-year-old player this year.

If A-Rod never takes the field again due to the injury, the teamis also covered by insurance—reportedly provided by broker, TeamScotti.

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The amount the Yankees are entitled to from insurance depends onwhat report you read, but in many of the reports, insurance isagain and again tied to conspiracy theories on the Yankees'reasoning for keeping A-Rod off the field.

After all, A-Rod says he's ready to go and isn't injured, andeven went so far as to hire his own doctor to say so. But theYankees' doctor says A-Rod needs to sit and heal some more. Itisn't safe for him to play, the team doctor has diagnosed.

How does this affect insurance coverage? Would a policy meant toprotect a team from the risk of a high-priced player's injury kickin if the high-priced player says he is able to take the field?

This scenario gets a lot more complicated by adding in the factA-Rod has something on the line too. He is rumored to be underinvestigation by Major League Baseball for the use ofperformance-enhancing drugs. A-Rod seems perpetually on the vergeof either a long-time suspension or ban from baseball for PEDviolations.

I will not go into the specifics of the PEDs-in-baseball-scandalthat goes well beyond A-Rod, but he isn't getting theremainder of his contract paid if MLB suspends or bans him frombaseball before he can retire for “injury” reasons.

But that doesn't appear to be a motivation of Rodriguez, sincehe's practically begging the Yankees to play.

Howard Mills, director and chief advisor of Deloitte's insuranceindustry group and a former New York State insurance commissioner,says the insuring professional sports contracts is a niche severalinsurers play in and each policy is different.

“There is no standard policy form—it all depends on the team andplayer involved,” says Mills, adding that the policy could bevoided if a player uses illegally-banned substances. “There aredifferent policies and coverage and exclusions.”

No matter the outcome of this, I'll be watching. This baseballsoap opera (which basically boils down to one thing: theYankees are miffed MLB didn't act to suspend or ban A-Rod beforethe team needed to act on whether to allow him to return frominjury) is entertaining enough.

Add in an insurance angle and I'm really hooked.