MLB

WIZARD OF ROD

ALEX Rodriguez’s incredible success this season has been witnessed by millions. Only one person, though, has been there every day behind the scenes with A-Rod, going back to November when the seeds of this super season were planted – hitting coach Kevin Long.

“From the first day we started together, we clicked,” Rodriguez tells me in a quiet corner of the clubhouse. “He’s got a true gift of articulating a message in a small amount of words and in very plain language.”

When Long’s gift comes together with A-Rod‘s Gift of the Game, this is what you get: 54 home runs, 156 RBIs, 143 runs and a .645 slugging percentage, all tops in the majors.

Long and Rodriguez are both quick to point out that bench coach Don Mattingly has been essential to A-Rod‘s success. Mattingly thinks so much of Long that he has had him work with his own son.

“What I’ve done this year,” Long says, “I can thank Donnie for laying the groundwork.”

“I’m spoiled, I’ve had some great batting coaches in Lou Piniella [in Seattle], Rudy Jaramillo [in Texas] and Donnie, but Kevin is special,” Rodriguez explains. “He’s very passionate. It’s like he has a PhD in hitting from Harvard, yet he is able to articulate it in a very elementary way and condense it in a way where you can do it in a 45-minute session or between at-bats or right before an at-bat.”

To see that passion, all you have to do is watch Long at work. On this beautiful night, he is working overtime with every hitter who steps into the box, pumping them up and making the right adjustment. This isn’t the Yankees, it’s a hitting clinic for a youth group in Montgomery Township, N.J., and as one 12-year-old tells Long: “You’re magic, now I know why A-Rod is so good.”

Notes Ben Fonseca, a Brewers scout and an instructor at the Jack Cust Baseball Academy, which organized the clinic: “You can just see the passion Kevin has to teach hitting. It’s so pure.”

Says Long of the Yankee hitters: “I care about them a lot more than I care about myself. My wife says that all the time. It’s just the way I was raised. My parents taught me the right way to do things.”

The goal was to get Rodriguez compact to the ball and have his core and hands work in unison. Long calls it “being connected.”

“You lose that connection with too much forward movement,” says Long, 40, who played eight years in the Royals’ organization and has been a hitting coach since 2000. This is his first year as Yankees’ hitting coach after three seasons with Triple-A Columbus.

The key for Rodriguez and all hitters is to work “behind the baseball.” Long does many of the same drills with A-Rod that he did with Carlos Pena last year at Columbus when Pena was in the Yankee organization. Pena, who credits Long for his turnaround, this season had 46 home runs and 121 RBIs for the Devil Rays. The 2007 Yankees finished first in the majors in runs (968), hits (1,656), total bases (2,649) and RBIs (929) and second in home runs (201).

“It’s a matter of bringing the talent that these guys have and making it show up every day,” Long says of his role.

Rodriguez used to be bothered by a hip slide, which put him too far out in front of the ball.

“We talked about being balanced and having that back foot being in place and driving the back knee down and through the baseball,” Long says of the key adjustment.

Rodriguez can complete his routine in about 10 minutes. It begins with tee work with a short bat, a 30-inch bat. First Rodriguez takes swings with the bottom hand, then the top hand, then both hands together on the bat. There are flip drills and soft toss. Regular batting practice follows.

“Drills,” Long surmises, “are the vitamins of the day.”

Says Rodriguez: “Kevin’s really helped me to power out my swing, shortening it up, really getting my legs back into my swing in unison. I’m 6-3, so it’s very challenging for me to be always on it. People don’t realize that. I have real long limbs. It’s harder. So he really works on it, getting the dynamics of the swing all together in unison.

“He is committed,” adds A-Rod. “He’ll come over to me and say, ‘I just watched an hour and a half of your tape.’ If you tell me that, I’m going to listen. You deserve the time. ‘Tell me what you saw.’ He’s such a rare find, like a left-handed pitcher or a switch-hitting catcher.

“It’s all about getting the connection. Kevin gives you a blanket of security.”

From security comes incredible success.

kevin.kernan@nypost.com