1. I wrote in today’s Post a column about how Alex Rodriguez wants us to look at just the three years he was a Ranger, from 2001-03, as the tainted part of his career. He said he fell victim to trying to justify the contract he signed, a then-record 10-year, $252 million deal.

I bet he did feel pressure to prove his worth. But that just demonstrated that he did not know himself then or now, or is so greedy it didn’t matter how much pressure he put on himself by seeking the last dollar.

A-Rod and his agent, Scott Boras, spent years pointing toward that free agency, recognizing the riches they could chase by having the acknowledged best player in baseball on the market at the incredible age of 25. They went on an elaborate tour and went in search of a contract that not only separated him dramatically from anyone else in baseball, but doubled the then North American sports high of $126 million by Kevin Garnett.

The perception of Rodriguez around the sport changed significantly at that moment. He had put himself on an island and by taking the cash of a baseball backwater like Texas he had shown he was all about the money. A-Rod had satisfied his ego needs and financial greed, but failed to recognize – or did not care to recognize – that a person with such great insecurities would pay a price for that record price.

In subsequent years, A-Rod always proudly defended the contract. But we know now – if his story to Peter Gammons of ESPN is true – that he should not have been proud of that contract. That contract, according to his words now, motivated him to try to perform to even more outlandish levels and that led him to illegal performance enhancing drugs. That contract, if A-Rod is now to be believed, was the root of his evil.

2. So A-Rod said that he felt enormous pressure to justify the contract in Texas. Do you really believe that he felt more pressure in Texas then he has being a Yankee? Really?

He comes to the biggest team with the biggest stress to win, and with the biggest media throng and biggest fan base watching his every move and his story is he has been clean here, but was dirty in Texas because that is where he felt the real pressure. He succumbed as a Ranger, but not in any of these empty Octobers or any of these moments when the Red Sox were tormenting him.

He cheated in Texas to get an edge because he was worried about justifying his cash and reputation, but in New York he has played it clean despite making the same or more money and facing far greater scrutiny and criticism. That is his story.

3. Which leads us to this: As recently as a year ago we could agree that A-Rod still knew nothing about himself or he knew everything about himself: Which is to say that his needs and greed must be fed above all else.

Here was a guy after all who decided to opt out of his contract during the clinching game of the World Series to go chase another record contract. Think about the ego and money hunger that would provoke such actions. He then decided to take the record contract back with the Yankees, which put the bull’s-eye right back on him.

So let us wrap up, shall we: Rodriguez says that signing the big contract and having to justify it in Texas pushed him to cheat with steroids. And what has he done since then: Gone to a bigger city, invited greater scrutiny of his performance and pursued an even larger contract. Yet, he told ESPN during this phase of his life he has been absolutely clean.

OK, that is his story.