This circus act has turned A-Rod's career from remarkable to utterly ridiculous

We sat in the stands down the third base line at PNC Field in Moosic, Pa., on Sunday, and I told Alex Rodriguez something directly — not through intermediaries or sources or third parties — I have wanted to for a long time:

"The shame is we will never know what your career would have been had you stayed clean. Would you have been a 500 [homer]-500 [steal] guy? More? Less? I would have loved to see what someone with your talent would have been without ever touching steroids."

Rodriguez did not reply. I didn't expect one. This was just something I think about regularly with all the players, such as Barry Bonds and A-Rod, I perceive would have been great without performance-enhancing drug use. For greed, ego, insecurity or some cocktail of that and more, they didn't completely invest in their natural talents.

Charles Wenzelberg/New York Post

CLOWN PRINCE: Alex Rodriguez has spent more time fielding questions from reporters this season than on the field for the Yankees.

So this is where we are with A-Rod, admitted steroids user from 2001-04 and — if MLB investigators are to be believed — much longer and more recently than that. The MLB pursuit of Rodriguez has him putting on a public defense that is farcical and bizarre, loopy and loony, and so heavy with innuendo and paranoia it reads more like a script of "The X-Files" than a coherent explanation of his actions.

Mostly it is sad. It was not that long ago the same people who now haunt Rodriguez, MLB officials, were building advertising campaigns around his skills. It was not that long ago a team he now claims is trying to short circuit his career was signing him to a record contract because — long gulp here — he was going to be the Clean Home Run Champ.

Right, sounds crazy with today's knowledge. But the Yankees were willing to invest $275 million and another $30 million in milestone homer bonuses because they envisioned a financial windfall from televising Rodriguez passing Mays and Ruth and Aaron and, finally, ousting that rotten scoundrel Bonds from the throne of what once was the most-cherished record in sports. That was in the 2007-08 offseason, not exactly ancient history.

Now look at where we are: Rodriguez's reputation has veered into the left lane of infamy, passing Bonds and Lance Armstrong and Tiger Woods as if they were misunderstood choirboys. Rodriguez has become a WWE villain tinged with a Kardashian blessed by Anthony Weiner.

Even if you buy MLB is conducting a witch hunt and the Yankees are nefariously maneuvering to get out of paying that largest contract ever, A-Rod's public defense has made him look worse, not better — a strategy more self-destructive Costanza than self-defense Cochrane.