TAMPA — Alex Rodriguez wants us to believe he can blend into the fabric of the Yankees for a second straight season.
He can say all the right things, give credit to his teammates and gush about nothing but winning matters.
And yet everybody knows that Rodriguez can never truly blend into anything. His talent will eventually carry him to the title of “Best Player Ever,” the money he makes separates him from everybody else and he isn’t shy about being seen all over town, which makes him a Page Six favorite.
“It’s been difficult [to blend in], but in ‘09 it wasn’t,” Rodriguez said yesterday. “I hope to continue that.”
Rodriguez spoke after yesterday’s workout in the same tent on the grounds of George M. Steinbrenner Field in which a little over a year ago he addressed his steroid use in the early 1990s as a Ranger.
So much has changed in a year for the 34-year-old third baseman and cleanup hitter who, with 583 homers, is three behind Frank Robinson for seventh on the all-time list.
The world discovered he used steroids when a positive drug test result was leaked. Shortly after he required hip surgery that cost him the first five weeks of the 2009 season. By the middle of June he was so run down — and hitting .212 — that his doctors prescribed a program in which he would receive one day a week of rest.
Fast forward the tape and we find Rodriguez finishing the season hitting .286 with 30 homers and 100 RBIs in 124 games. And, of course, he helped the Yankees win their 27th World Series title by hitting .365 (19-for-52) with six homers and 18 RBIs in the postseason.
Finally, after seven trips to the postseason and having to answer questions why he gagged, Rodriguez had his redemption.
Yesterday, Rodriguez said he was at “rock bottom” last spring, and didn’t “believe it was me it was happening to” about the Yankees’ World Series victory.
“It wasn’t a monkey, it was a humongous gorilla off my back,” Rodriguez said.
Now, with the gorilla vanished, can Rodriguez put back-to-back seasons together? What can he do with a full season and a hip that he says is fine?
“I feel good and I expect the same, to help the team win,” Rodriguez said. “I never had more fun playing baseball.”
Say what you want about him — and is there anything that hasn’t been said? — you can’t question the work ethic.
Before the first full-squad workout Wednesday, Rodriguez and Robinson Cano were on a back field for early work. And according to Andy Pettitte, he doesn’t know anybody who works to find an edge like Rodriguez.
“He is so smart,” Pettitte said. “He studies the game of baseball more than anybody I played the game with.”
When Rodriguez faces Josh Beckett on April 4 in Fenway Park for opening night, he said the focus will be on baseball.
Yet Rodriguez knows the focus is always on him. Whether he walks into Serafina’s in Manhattan or onto Page Six, people notice.
Blend in? It makes for a nice story. In reality, Rodriguez has as much chance of blending into the baseball landscape as Brooklyn Decker has at Mr. Dennehy’s bar at 3 in the morning.
george.king@nypost.com