MLB

A-Rod challenges Selig: ‘This is personal’

Baseball’s king of chaos has raised his game to a new level.

Alex Rodriguez nearly broke Twitter on Wednesday when he stormed out of his appeal hearing at Major League Baseball’s Park Avenue headquarters, released an incendiary statement in which he called the entire process “a farce,” then took on commissioner Bud Selig in an explosive interview with WFAN’s Mike Francesa.

The protest stemmed from independent arbitrator Fredric Horowitz’s decision to keep Selig off the witness stand as Rodriguez fights his 211-game suspension. Consequently, Rodriguez said he will not testify on his own behalf.

“He hates my guts,” Rodriguez said of Selig. “I don’t think he likes big salaries. One hundred percent, this is personal. I think this is about his legacy, and it’s about my legacy. He’s trying to destroy me.

“By the way, he’s retiring in [2015], and to put me on his big mantel on the way out, that’s a hell of a trophy.”

Rodriguez — who said on Francesa’s show he was innocent of MLB’s charges of illegal performance-enhancing drug usage (from 2010-12) and obstructing MLB’s investigation — added a personal challenge to Selig: “I know you don’t like New York. But come to New York and face the music.”

Rodriguez said he was going home to Miami to “see my daughters,” and his attorney Jim McCarroll said Team A-Rod is “evaluating our options.” Whether Rodriguez or his lawyers show up Thursday, this hearing will continue, as the Players Association stated its intention to keep trying the case, which remains on track to being resolved around Christmas.

But Wednesday’s theatrics further underline Team A-Rod ultimately sees this matter being settled in a courtroom, rather than an arbitration hearing. Rodriguez filed a lawsuit against MLB on Oct. 4.

Upon learning of Horowitz’s ruling about Selig, an angry Rodriguez slammed his hand on a table and, according to multiple sources, shouted at MLB COO Rob Manfred: “This [process] is f— bull—-.” Rodriguez then departed with McCarroll. Two other attorneys, David Cornwell and Jordan Siev, stayed in the room to lodge their complaints, and about two hours after Rodriguez created a stir, the proceedings were done for the day.

“I am disgusted with this abusive process, designed to ensure that the player fails,” Rodriguez said in a statement. “I have sat through 10 days of testimony by felons and liars, sitting quietly through every minute, trying to respect the league and the process.

“This morning, after Bud Selig refused to come in and testify about his rationale for the unprecedented and totally baseless punishment he hit me with, the arbitrator selected by MLB and the Players Association refused to order Selig to come in and face me.

“The absurdity and injustice just became too much. I walked out and will not participate any further in this farce.”

The Players Association backed Rodriguez in a statement that read, in part, “The MLBPA believes that every player has the right under our arbitration process to directly confront his accuser. We argued strenuously to the Arbitrator in Alex’s case that the Commissioner should be required to appear and testify.”

MLB responded with a statement of its own: “In the entire history of the Joint Drug Agreement, the Commissioner has not testified in a single case. Major League Baseball has the burden of proof in this matter. MLB selected Rob Manfred as its witness to explain the penalty imposed in this case. Mr. Rodriguez and the Players Association have no right to dictate how Baseball’s case is to proceed any more than Baseball has the right to dictate how their case proceeds.

“Today’s antics are an obvious attempt to justify Mr. Rodriguez’s continuing refusal to testify under oath.”

Rodriguez is not required to attend his appeal hearing, although his absence obviously would make testifying on his own behalf impossible. A-Rod complained to Francesa such testimony would open himself up to more discipline from MLB; that would come in a subsequent process. Rodriguez’s attorney Joseph Tacopina told ESPN Radio’s Michael Kay that Rodriguez had been scheduled to testify Friday.

Rodriguez told Francesa he had a “Ph.D.” in baseball, and he expressed his dismay over having his accomplishments steamrolled by Selig.

“For this guy — the embarrassment that he’s put me and my family through — and he doesn’t have the courage to come see me and tell me, this is why I’m going to destroy your career?” Rodriguez said. “And I have to explain this to my daughters every day?”

He also said Manfred told him, “This wasn’t my decision. This was Bud Selig’s decision.”

“I had no conversation with Alex Rodriguez to that effect,” Manfred told The Post. “It’s a complete and utter fabrication.”

McCarroll told Francesa MLB’s attorneys presented “no evidence” of A-Rod’s guilt during its eight-day presentation. Wednesday marked the third day of Team A-Rod’s presentation. The defense has called a doctor who challenged the idea Rodriguez could take Bosch’s purported protocol and not fail a drug test, an IT expert who asserted Bosch altered the text messages he and A-Rod allegedly shared, Yankees president Randy Levine and Dan Mullin, the senior vice president of MLB’s department of investigations.

A-Rod told Francesa that Mullin, in his testimony, confessed to having an affair with a female Biogenesis employee; both Mullin and MLB had previously denied these allegations. MLB declined comment on the matter, referencing the confidentiality provisions surrounding the hearing.

Regarding Biogenesis, Rodriguez said he utilized Bosch as an expert on nutrition and weight loss; of course, when the Miami New Times first broke the Biogenesis story, A-Rod denied having any relationship with Bosch.

Rodriguez was in a chatty mood with Francesa. He even denied The Post’s October 2012 story he hit on two attractive women during the ALCS by sending them an autographed baseball.

Despite the circus surrounding him, Rodriguez said, he envisions himself as the Yankees’ third baseman on Opening Day. But that’s 140 days — and at least that many A-Rod crises — away.