Cheating to gain edge 'Alex being Alex' all along?

We might never know if the man we've been watching for a couple of decades now ever was "Alex being Alex."

It was nearly six years ago that boyhood friend and fellow major-leaguer Doug Mientkiewicz said of Alex Rodriguez, "Sometimes, I just want to shake him and say, 'Would you just be Alex?'

"If he would let people into his personal side, people would get him," said Mientkiewicz, who grew up in the same part of Miami as Rodriguez, played on the same high school team and spent 12 years in the major leagues. "Alex's biggest detriment is Alex, and he knows that. He expects non-stop perfection."

Now that focus on perfection has either overshadowed or perhaps even replaced the Rodriguez that Mientkiewicz knew. Was the true definition of "Alex being Alex" a phenomenal talent who could never be good enough, who still cheated to gain an edge all along?

On Monday, Rodriguez's major league career may resume, as he emerges in Chicago to rejoin the Yankees. Yet his return will be far from perfect, coming hours after Major League Baseball is expected to suspend Rodriguez at least through the 2014 season for his role in the Biogenesis clinic scandal, according to baseball officials who spoke to USA TODAY Sports, but requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

If the hammer comes down as planned, for Rodriguez to take the field at all, he'll have to first appeal the suspension, and then endure the thunderous boos sure to cascade down from White Sox fans on hand to deride the man who is fifth on the career home run list with 647, trailing leader Barry Bonds by 115.

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Fueling the soap opera

"Manny being Manny" became the shrug-it-off explanation for the unusual and eccentric portions of the career of slugger Manny Ramirez, another player who got busted for running afoul of MLB's drug policy.

But Rodriguez's life and career has become every bit the circus and more – and the disgraced Yankees third baseman can't help but seem to fuel the soap opera that swirls around him.

In the weeks leading up to his suspension, he managed to run afoul of his own general manager through both social and conventional media.

A tweet from Rodriguez that he was cleared to resume playing was met with an expletive-laden admonishment from Yankees GM Brian Cashman. Rodriguez found a doctor to do radio interviews, questioning the team's diagnosis of a quadriceps injury during his rehab from hip surgery. That move prompted Cashman to point out that A-Rod seeking a second opinion without notifying the team is a violation of the collective bargaining agreement.

Mere – and comparatively minor -- examples of a guy who manages to put his foot in his mouth maybe more often than he's put baseball's banned substances wherever (and however) he puts them.

Is that "Alex being Alex," or is the motivation behind them the real Rodriguez?

Few Rodriguez moments would top a photo layout in Details magazine that included him kissing his reflection in a mirror. Combine that with New York tabloid reports that Rodriguez would ask dates who they thought "is hotter," him or teammate and on-again, off-again friend Derek Jeter?

The quest for perfection may not be limited to baseball.

"For me, he always tried to do too much," said his former manager Joe Torre. "You try to make sure you say things right, handle things right."

He did try, or so it seemed. It was in 2007, when Rodriguez -- whose 10-year, $275 million contract through 2017 is the the game's largest ever – declared he'd take a new approach, limiting pre- and post-game interviews to the details of that day's game.

He did grant an interview to USA TODAY Sports that May.

"I'm more relaxed," he said, citing his family life. "I could walk away from the game today and be so content with life. Being a father has brought great perspective to my life. It gives you more of a balance, which I needed."

Yet he also seems to thrive on attention.

Barely a month later, he created a stir in Toronto when, while running the bases, he yelled at Blue Jays third baseman Howie Clark, causing Clark to drop the ball. Even teammates questioned the ethics of that one.

Did we say ethics? Did we say stir in Toronto? During the same series, he was photographed downtown with an exotic dancer.

He was divorced 15 months later, not contesting ex-wife Cynthia's contention their marriage was "irretrievably broken," but requesting her claims of him having extramarital affairs be stricken from the court record.

From there, Rodriguez was linked with a series of women -- Madonna to actress Kate Hudson to New York madam Kristin Davis to wrestling diva Torrie Wilson to actress Cameron Diaz, who fed Rodriguez popcorn in front of TV cameras in a suite at the 2011 Super Bowl.

There was a celebrated New York Post photo of Rodriguez sunbathing in Central Park. Later, he went on the Late Show with David Letterman and did a spoof of the incident.

How much of all that Rodriguez wanted to play out in public view is debatable.

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An empty denial

But his biggest missteps, of course, came in the comments he spewed out whenever he was linked to performance-enhancing drugs.

Drug-use denials have become part of the modern baseball fabric, but Rodriguez went for the high-profile sit-down with Katie Couric on 60 Minutes for his denial in 2007. Two years later, he was back on TV, owning up to it.

He identified cousin Yuri Sucart as the one who supplied steroids – then had Sucart drive him home from the first spring training game after the admission. Sucart was subsequently banned from all team facilities.

Rodriguez certainly can create enough of his own problems, but he also can't seem to avoid stepping in a little deeper even when he's not the one talking.

In 2005, Eddie Rodriguez (no relation), who ran the Boys Club where Alex hung out as a boy, was bragging about the club's history.

"I have a special love for the place where I work," Eddie said. "We've had 15 or 16 guys make it. Rafael Palmeiro came through here, Jose Canseco."

Not lost on those listening were these facts: Canseco wrote books about using PEDs, and Palmeiro was suspended for testing positive for one.

Remember, in her book, A-Rod: The Many Lives of Alex Rodriguez, Selena Roberts, who also broke the story that Rodriguez tested positive for steroids, included claims by people Roberts did not name who said he'd used steroids in high school.

In 2008, controversial pitcher John Rocker told an Atlanta radio station that MLB knew he was using banned substances as early as 2000. That was the year Rocker was suspended, but it was for racial and ethnic slurs.

Rocker said doctors from management and the players association, after a spring training talk in 2002 with the Texas Rangers about steroids and other topics, pulled himself, Rodriguez, Palmeiro and Ivan Rodriguez aside.

"Look guys, if you take one kind of steroid, you don't triple stack them and take them 10 months out of the year like Lyle Alzado did," Rocker said the doctors told them. "If you do it responsibly, it's not going to hurt you."

The period A-Rod has owned up to using PEDs were his years with the Rangers – 2001-03.

Maybe Cashman had the best advice a few weeks ago when he said Rodriguez "needs to shut the (bleep) up."

But, then again, it was A-Rod who said in 2007:

"You've got to be your own person. If you're not authentic, people will figure it out.

USA today