TAMPA — Alex Rodriguez returns to a danger zone today. He faces the feds in Buffalo, and they are interested in what he knows about Dr. Anthony Galea.
Rodriguez associates say there is nothing to worry about. This is about Galea, who is dealing with drug charges in his native Canada and an FBI investigation in the States involving illegal performance enhancers.
Rodriguez is expected to tell investigators he was directed to Galea by chiropractor Mark Lindsay, who was authorized to work with Rodriguez by Dr. Marc Philippon, who performed hip surgery on A-Rod on March 9, 2009.
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Rodriguez, The Post has learned, will claim he received five sessions of platelet replacement therapy, which he feels greatly accelerated his healing process and enabled him to get back to the majors by early May.
Rodriguez is planning to insist he had no prior relationship with Galea and never received any illegal drugs such as HGH. Instead, just like Carlos Beltran, Jose Reyes, Tiger Woods and many other top athletes in a myriad of sports, he went to Galea because of the doctor’s reputation for the platelet replacement treatment, which is legal.
If this is all true and verifiable, then this will be a minor inconvenience in the most serene, satisfying spring of Rodriguez’s Yankee life. The problem, obviously, is if Rodriguez is proved to be lying.
Rodriguez, as he has all spring, refused to directly discuss Galea yesterday morning in our 20-minute chat. But he did talk broadly about how issues like this impact his ultimate baseball legacy.
Look, many people have made up their minds permanently on Rodriguez; he admitted steroid use, and that labels him as a cheat and a disgrace forever.
However, many others will be open-minded. They will not forget the front nine of his career, filled not only with steroids, but staggering levels of self-absorption, ego and insecurity. That all bedeviled not just him, but made him a troubling teammate, and a hard athlete to admire or even like.
He does have this back nine, though. Players such as Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro and Sammy Sosa were either washed up or done by the time they were branded dirty and, thus, did not have the best of their talents to help improve their images. Barry Bonds had some talent left, but refused to modify his ornery behavior.
Rodriguez, though, began the back nine last year by turning the low moment into an epiphany. He was outed as a steroid cheat and needed the hip surgery, and somehow emerged a changed man. At first, it was easy to believe it was just another act. But this has gone on for a year now where Rodriguez has emphasized team and winning over himself.
If this is a con, then he is even fooling previously hard-to-please precincts of the clubhouse and organization. If this is a con, then he has learned to portray a previously missing lightness and joy that would make Pacino envious.
“In the past I said things, didn’t live up to them and disappointed people,” Rodriguez said. “What I notice this time is that when I removed the emphasis from my legacy, from the results, and made it just about winning and enjoying the game, the energy all around me changed for the positive, especially in the clubhouse. And because of that I have never had more fun playing.”
Rodriguez tried to follow the same plan this past offseason when the glow of finally being a World Series hero made him attractive again. For example, he turned down multiple overtures to host Saturday Night Live.
“I finally figured out to make the game the priority,” Rodriguez said. “Ultimately I am a baseball player. This is what I do best and what I should be concentrating on: Enjoy the moment, enjoy the game. Once I got that, I made it good for me, my team and my teammates.”
Will this hold? Rodriguez’s history screams to be cautious. He could say something dumb to the feds. Or a bunch of Galeas could pop up over time to make accusations against Rodriguez in a way similar to how the outing of one “other woman” for Tiger Woods emboldened a frenzy of paramours to step forward. Or there could be more revelations about illegal drugs.
But there also could be more championship heroics and homer records on his career back nine. Just as vital — maybe more so — the impression that he is a good teammate and elder statesman can continue to flourish. It will never completely erase the front nine. But it is a real opportunity to burnish that legacy he is trying so hard not to think about.
joel.sherman@nypost.com