TAMPA — If Alex Rodriguez had his wish, he would have celebrated his 38th birthday Saturday in The Bronx in front of thousands of Yankees fans playing against the American League East-leading Rays.
Instead, he was on the back fields of the Yankees' minor league complex, taking baby steps in yet another attempted comeback.
If his left quadriceps muscle is OK — as he made it seem in his actions this week, including tweeting he was ready to return Friday at Yankee Stadium and sending his MRI exam to Hackensack University Medical Center orthopedist Michael Gross, who touted A-Rod's good health — his first step back onto a field since Quad-Gate began was odd.
Rodriguez did very little in the way of baseball activity for approximately 40 minutes. Hopefully for A-Rod, who has yet to play for the Yankees this season after offseason hip surgery, the rest of his birthday was more eventful.
The embattled slugger, in danger of being suspended by Major League Baseball due to his alleged involvement in the Biogenesis performance-enhancing drug scandal, fielded 17 ground balls on the infield grass in a stationary position, lightly jogged in the outfield — though he rarely ran hard in minor league games during his 20-day rehabilitation assignment — played catch briefly and hit off a tee in an indoor batting cage. He spent as much time applying pine tar to a bat as he did swinging it as the rookie-level Gulf Coast League Yankees faced the Braves on the main field.
He went back inside the facility after girlfriend Torrie Wilson showed up in his black Maybach with three dogs that combined couldn't have weighed more than 10 pounds. At 12:40 p.m, he hopped into the fancy sports car, 3 hours and 10 minutes after he arrived, and Wilson, wearing neon-green shorts, sped off with Rodriguez, who did not stop to address reporters or sign autographs for the six fans who came to watch him.
One of them, 61-year-old Joe Sagginario of Wilmauma, Fla., brought a white "Happy Birthday, Alex" sign along with balloons. Rodriguez did wave to Sagginario on his way into the facility and out of it, and thanked the retired data processing executive, originally from Valley Stream, N.Y., for the gesture. Sagginario and his 26-year-old son, also named Joe, are firmly in Rodriguez's corner.
"I came out for support," said the elder Sagginario, who arrived at the complex at 9 a.m. with his son and sat in the oppressive heat for more than four hours. "It's his birthday, the guy's going through heck. And I came out here to support him. I'd stand out here for six hours if I had to. ... I'm a die-hard Yankee fan. I love the Yankees. I've been a Yankee fan since 1959. You cut my veins, I bleed blue. But they're wrong here, the way they're treating the guy. So he's involved in Biogenesis, it's not like he killed somebody or something.
"If [Raul] Ibanez can hit 24 home runs at 41, he's got something left in the tank. I just hope [Rodriguez] has the opportunity to show everybody. He gets a raw deal, he's vilified."
The Yankees surely could use the A-Rod of old after dropping their second straight to the Rays and falling eight games behind the AL East leaders in the loss column. They have received paltry production from seven different third basemen this year, numbers even a diminished Rodriguez should easily surpass.
The plan is for Rodriguez to play in either a simulated or minor league game on Thursday, after a full week of rehabbing in Tampa, he and general manager Brian Cashman have said in recent days.
The process began in earnest yesterday — albeit extremely slowly.
zbraziller@nypost.com
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