MLB

NOT TOO LATE TO BECOME A HERO

ALEX RODRIGUEZ can make himself a hero.

That’s right. He can turn the worst crisis of his five-alarm life into an opportunity to, if not cleanse his image, at least redefine himself.

PANICKED A-ROD IN CRISIS MODE

FANS: TAKE A WALK

COMPLETE YANKEES COVERAGE

Obviously, he starts in a tremendous hole. There are people who hate him and/or hate the stain of performance-enhancing drugs so much that Rodriguez can never win them over. But, in general, we live in a forgiving nation.

Here is a two-pronged plan on how a man who craves positive feedback can finally get some:

Well, first, let’s start with this premise, that the Sports Illustrated story released Saturday stating Rodriguez tested positive for two anabolic steroids in 2003 is correct. Because if it isn’t accurate, then I have just one piece of advice for Rodriguez: Fight. Fight like heck. Reach into your vast fortune and do anything to exonerate yourself, not with technicalities, but with the truth.

However, if the story is accurate, Rodriguez’s initial step must be to publicly admit it. But more than that, A-Rod must become the first player to really explain the steroid era. We are not talking about naming names of others. We are talking about honestly talking about the culture in baseball at the time that motivated even the most talented player in the Milky Way to feel compelled to cheat.

I believe most people will understand. I think Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens blew their chance on this, and so have so many others. This is what I think was going on: Performance enhancers were rife in the game. Marginal players felt they had to get with the program or face selling tires for the rest of their lives, and clean stars determined their stature and pay would decrease substantially if they did not keep up with users.

Now here is the second and key part for Rodriguez: He must show why using was such a bad decision for someone as talented as him. He should do that by saying that he will let the World Anti-Doping Agency select the best testing lab in the world and oversee a program for which he will pay but have no control. The lab will test A-Rod’s blood and urine weekly and announce the results publicly. The lab also will freeze part of the samples for future independent testing to verify Rodriguez simply is not on a currently undetectable performance enhancer.

And then Rodriguez, usually tense under pressure, must go out and succeed under pressure that will make every previous October feel like batting practice. He must go out and play like an MVP in 2009. It would ensure that he is among the great players ever – naturally. Yes, he already is going to play in the WBC with Olympic-level testing and fall under the current MLB drug program with random testing.

But that is not enough for what Rodriguez needs.

This is what an executive who knows A-Rod well said about him: “This guy is obsessed with greatness. No matter what he does now there is going to be an asterisk next to his name. That is going to be hard for Alex Rodriguez to swallow.”

It is indeed. Rodriguez is a self-destructive brew of insecurity and ego that makes him seek overflow approval and attention. So to restore as much credibility as possible he must ignore his instinct to spin the story or his agent Scott Boras’ pit-bull tendencies to fight every technicality.

Reveal your story and your bodily fluids to the world, A-Rod, and go win another MVP award. This way you will put another asterisk next to the one certain to bedevil you.

joel.sherman@nypost.com