Just days before the Yankees headed north from Florida to begin the 2010 season, third baseman Alex Rodriguez sat down for an interview with investigators for Major League Baseball near the team’s spring training complex in Tampa.

The investigators, according to several people briefed on the interview, wanted to question Rodriguez about his ties to a Canadian doctor who said he had treated Rodriguez and who was under investigation by federal authorities in the United States on suspicion of distributing performance-enhancing drugs to professional athletes.

In the interview, which lasted several hours, Rodriguez was emphatic: the doctor had treated him but had never given him performance-enhancing drugs.

Fourteen months later, the investigators for baseball still have not accepted those answers as fact and are trying to determine what the doctor, Anthony Galea, might have given Rodriguez, according to several people briefed on the federal investigation.

In recent weeks, the investigators have sought to obtain the medical records Galea kept about his treatment of Rodriguez. To date, they have been unsuccessful despite the fact that Rodriguez has cleared the way for the records to be released, according to two people with knowledge of the request.

Galea, who was indicted in October by a federal grand jury in Buffalo on five charges that alleged he distributed performance-enhancing drugs — including human growth hormone — to professional athletes in the United States, has been in plea negotiations with federal prosecutors in Buffalo for several months, according to several people briefed on the case. The people would not be identified because the dealings between the government and Galea and his lawyers are confidential.

A guilty plea in the case, one that would probably involve Galea’s laying out exactly what he did and did not do for the athletes, could provide baseball with its answers and would probably make clear whether Rodriguez faces any criminal exposure. Rodriguez, according to the people briefed on the case, testified in 2010 before a federal grand jury hearing evidence in the case. It is not clear what his testimony was.

Mark J. Mahoney, Galea’s lawyer in Buffalo, said he knew nothing about baseball’s efforts to gain records of Galea’s treatment of Rodriguez. Galea’s lawyer in Canada, Brian H. Greenspan, did not respond to two e-mails and a voicemail message left at his office on Sunday.

Rodriguez’s lawyers, James E. Sharp and Jay K. Reisinger, issued a statement to The New York Times on Sunday.

“Alex fully cooperated with Major League Baseball and federal authorities in Buffalo regarding his treatment with Dr. Galea, including granting a release of his medical records,” the statement said. “Regarding matters before the grand jury, strict secrecy rules do not permit us to comment.”

Reisinger as a result would not say whether Rodriguez had told the grand jury if he was treated with H.G.H., or even whether Rodriguez had appeared before the grand jury.

I wonder why “the investigators for baseball still have not accepted” A-Rod’s answers on this? Do they think he was lying? The answer has to be yes – or else why would they want more on this? And, if they find out that A-Rod did get HGH from Galea, what would they do? Would they suspend him for 50 games? What would that mean for Alex’s Hall of Fame chances? How would the Yankees react to all this?

It’s amazing that we’re still talking about this – all these months later, huh?

Alex Rodriguez told investigators and lawyers for Major League Baseball on Thursday that he was treated by a Canadian-based doctor now under investigation by federal authorities but that he did not receive performance-enhancing drugs from him, according to two people in baseball with knowledge of the meeting.

In meeting with the Yankees’ Rodriguez for a three-hour interview Thursday night in Florida, baseball officials ended up beating the federal authorities to the punch. The authorities have sought to interview Rodriguez for weeks but have not yet done so. Baseball officials and the federal authorities want to know what interactions Rodriguez had with the doctor, Anthony Galea, who has stated that he treated him in 2009 with anti-inflammatories after Rodriguez’s hip surgery.

Rodriguez was accompanied to the meeting by several personal lawyers — including James Sharp and Jay Reisinger — as well as a lawyer from the players union, the people said.

Investigators from Major League Baseball’s department of investigations and at least one lawyer from the commissioner’s office questioned Rodriguez, the people said. Major League Baseball’s top drug-testing official, Rob Manfred, was not at the meeting.

Major League Baseball officials wanted to meet with Rodriguez before the season and have urged him to meet with federal authorities as soon as possible, said the people with knowledge of the Rodriguez interview. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they did not want to be identified discussing the details of a confidential meeting.

Rodriguez had planned to meet with federal authorities March 26 in Buffalo, where the local United States attorney’s office is leading the investigation into Galea. The inquiry is looking into the possibility that Galea distributed performance enhancers, including human growth hormone, to various athletes. But that meeting was put off after Rodriguez’s lawyers expressed concern that there would be a media spectacle.

Federal authorities had previously tried to interview Rodriguez in Florida last month, but Rodriguez put off that session.

Rodriguez’s relationship with Galea has left Major League Baseball and the Yankees concerned, in part because Rodriguez’s representatives told the team in December that he had never had any interactions with Galea, which now turns out to be inaccurate.

It is also clear that the Yankees are not pleased that Rodriguez, as of Friday afternoon, had yet to meet with federal investigators because he is now poised to create a distraction for the team just as the season is beginning.

A three-hour interview? That seems to be pretty long for what should have been as simple as “What interactions did you have with Anthony Galea?”

I wonder what else was discussed…

Here is the question that Alex Rodriguez will eventually have to answer, for the feds, for the Yankees, for Major League Baseball. It doesn’t have to be the first question he is asked, but it is still one that requires not just an answer, but a straight one:

Why exactly did you need to go to a Canadian doctor one who can’t practice medicine in New York to get anti-inflammatory drugs for a hip that may or may not have been “inflamed” at the time?

I don’t mean to be a cynic or skeptic with the Yankee third baseman, but are we supposed to believe he couldn’t get anti-inflammatory pills at Columbia-Presbyterian, a few minutes from Yankee Stadium?

He couldn’t get anti-inflammatory pills from the Yankee team doctors or at New York Hospital?

But apparently we are supposed to believe that Dr. Galea, who is on record about how much he likes human growth hormone as a way of keeping himself young, is as much of an expert on anti-inflammatory pills that’s what he told the Associated Press he gave to Alex Rodriguez as he is blood-spinning. What a guy. He should have his own TV show, like Dr. Oz.

Or maybe Galea is a different kind of wizard.

Come on, there are more things fishy about all this than the old Fulton Fish Market. If the whole thing is so easily explained, if Rodriguez is “at ease” with the whole situation as he told the media in Florida the other day, how come he hasn’t cleared some of this up already, no matter how lawyered up he is.

For me, it’s pretty obvious. Rodriguez went north of the border to seek out some form of treatment that is not approved in the United States.

Blood-spinning and/or anti-inflammatory prescriptions could have easily been done somewhere in New York or any other major city here. Yet, Alex went to Galea because he felt that there was something he could do/provide that was not available (or legal?) here.

And, in time, the truth will come out on this one. Of course, what happens after that is anyone’s guess.

A Toronto-based doctor under investigation for possibly smuggling drugs into the United States told The Associated Press on Monday that he treated Alex Rodriguez for an inflamed hip last year.

If true, Rodriguez could be in violation of his contract with the Yankees because the team said in a statement last week that it never authorized Rodriguez to be treated by the doctor, Anthony Galea.

In an interview Monday with the New York Times, Dr. Marc Philippon, the team-authorized doctor who performed hip surgery on Rodriguez last March, said he never gave approval for Galea to treat the third baseman following the surgery.

Philippon said that if Galea gave Rodriguez oral anti-inflammatory medicine than he has no problem. If Galea gave Rodriguez any injections, however, Philippon said he would be upset because he believes he should be consulted for all such procedures.

“He doesn’t work at my clinic,” Philippon said of Galea. “Here is the way it works — I am the surgeon. I oversee the rehab.”

The revelations come one week after Rodriguez told reporters that he had been contacted by federal authorities, who wanted to talk to him about his connection to Galea, who has been charged by Canadian authorities with conspiring to smuggle human growth hormone and other drugs into the United States.

Rodriguez has yet to meet with federal investigators, although that meeting could come this week. He was informed of Galea’s statement on Monday afternoon as he was talking amiably with several reporters in the Yankees’ clubhouse in Bradenton, Fla., where the team was in the midst of playing the Pittsburgh Pirates in an exhibition game.

However, when one reporter brought up Galea’s statements to The Associated Press, Rodriguez said, “I can’t talk about that,” and walked away.

In the interview with The Associated Press, Galea said he prescribed anti-inflammatory drugs to Rodriguez last year, after the hip surgery, but did not give him H.G.H. The article did not indicate whether he administered the drugs in oral or injectable form. “He had a damaged hip. Inflamed. It was damaged,” he told The Associated Press. “He needed anti-inflammatories for his hip. I was basically helping in the rehab.”

Galea also said that when authorities stopped his assistant at the United States-Canadian border last year, she was carrying only a small amount of human growth hormone, exclusively for his personal use. Authorities found 20 vials and 76 ampules of drugs, including H.G.H., in a car driven by his assistant, Mary Anne Catalano, according to federal court documents.Last week, The New York Times reported that in December, the Yankees asked representatives of Rodriguez whether he had had any dealings with Galea, and were told he did not. Their suspicions had been raised, they said, because after Rodriguez’s hip surgery, he was monitored by a chiropractor, Mark Lindsay, who has worked closely with Galea in the past.

Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright;
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout;
But there’s no joy in Yankeeland — as A-Rod’s credibility is again in doubt.

And, last, but not least, this would incomplete;
If I forgot to add this one mo’ closing beat,
About how ol’ Selena Roberts in all her glory,
Is probably smuggling peanuts while reading this story.

Certain members of the Yankees high command are very, very angry with Alex Rodriguez.

No one likes being deceived, especially these suits. They are furious over A-Rod hanging them out to dry, not immediately informing them he had been contacted by the FBI to testify in a matter concerning Anthony Galea, the Canadian doctor linked to the importing of illegal drugs.

“They (Yankees brass) don’t like being blindsided,” said a TV industry source who deals with the Yankees and YES. “If Rodriguez isn’t protecting the organization paying him a fortune, why should the organization go out of its way to protect him?”

So, it’s highly unlikely Bombers brass was shedding a single tear over how its Yankees Entertainment & Sports Network covered A-Rod’s first first plate appearance of the spring.

The angry Yankee executives could not have scripted it any better.

That “humongous gorilla” that once weighed A-Rod down in October was gone. The hip was better, too. There was also the official “one of the guys” proclamation hanging somewhere in A-Rod’s mind.

“That all amounts to a huge sigh or relief for Alex Rodriguez, who now comes into camp healthy,” Michael Kay, YES’ play-by-play man, said as Rodriguez stepped in Wednesday to face Pirates pitcher Ross Ohlendorf.

As soon as those uplifting words left Kay’s mouth, Ken Singleton, his partner, down-shifted into the dark side. Singleton started talking about last spring, hip surgery and “uh, uh, steroids.”

Kay quickly said: “Now Alex was looking to have a very, very quiet spring this year with health and the world championship, but he was questioned by the media the other day because he’s going to be questioned by FBI officials about the Canadian-based doctor Anthony Galea . . .”

Singleton tried to characterize this as a routine matter, but the prominent mention of A-Rod’s latest controversy – highlighting it during his first spring at-bat – was not business as usual for YES.

Highlighting tales of syringes and shady characters is not good for the Yankees brand. This time around, though, although it’s “just” about him having to talk to the FBI, A-Rod was not provided cover. For YES, this was a radical departure. It indicates the depth of anger here. While there’s no evidence Kay and Singleton were ordered by the higher-ups to highlight this so early in the telecast, you can be sure, absolutely sure, none of the Yankee higher-ups called their counterparts at YES to complain.

“At first they (Yankees execs) thought the media was blowing this up (out of proportion),” an MLB source said. “Then they found out he (Rodriguez) is being called in (by the FBI) to testify and this was coming directly from the feds. Thanks to Alex, the Yankees were caught off guard.”

Now, there is concern over this FBI situation – and where it will lead. Whenever players are called to testify under oath, there’s always the risk they can get caught up in perjury charges, as was the case with Barry Bonds and Miguel Tejada. There’s also concern that A-Rod may be backsliding into his days of scandal and turmoil.

“They (Yankee officials) are concerned this stuff is going to start happening all over again,” the source said. “They are not happy. He’s been in camp, what, a week? First he gets in the papers for his Maybach thing (fender bender). Then comes this FBI thing. They’re wishing he would have stayed with Kate Hudson.”

Ah, yes, Kate Hudson…the lady in white.

I’m not sure that I agree with Raissman here. After all, how could the YES booth not mention the FBI thing and A-Rod during his first At Bat?

But, if it’s true that Rodriguez didn’t plug the Yankees brass into this thing, immediately, when he first found out – and they were “were caught off guard” by the news – then you have to question, yet again, where A-Rod’s brain is…and whether all the talk about his transformation last season is, in the end, just talk.

With a name like that, A-Rod’s lucky she’s too young to date a retired and/or deceased ball player. Otherwise, I can think of one or two players she may have preferred over Alex…

The Canadian doctor who performed a controversial medical procedure on Tiger Woods is under criminal investigation for drug violations on both sides of the border, bringing scrutiny to his colleagues, including one who worked closely with BALCO athletes and Yankee superstar Alex Rodriguez.

Dr. Tony Galea was arrested in October and his Toronto clinic was raided by Canadian authorities after his assistant was detained at the U.S.-Canadian border and reportedly found to be in possession of illegal drugs, including human growth hormone (hGH) and Actovegin – a drug extracted from calf’s blood that has been banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

The Daily News has learned that the Buffalo office of the FBI is investigating Galea, along with Canadian authorities.

Galea and Mark Lindsay, a Canadian chiropractor who treated Woods and managed Rodriguez’s rehabilitation this summer from hip surgery, are principals at a Toronto clinic called Affinity Health.

Lindsay also treated ex-Yankee pitcher Chien-Ming Wang, who was recovering from a hip injury, this year. Lindsay’s clients have included former NFL star Bill Romanowski, and sprinters Tim Montgomery and Marion Jones, who all testified in front of the grand jury that investigated the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative’s dealings with steroids.

Lindsay worked with Montgomery during the time that BALCO founder Victor Conte formed a group called “Project World Record,” intended to make Montgomery the fastest man in the world. Montgomery was later implicated in the BALCO scandal, along with Romanowski and Jones, and is now serving time in prison for heroin distribution. Jones served six months in jail for lying to investigators about her use of performance-enhancing drugs.

“Dr. Mark Lindsay is a world-renowned chiropractor that I met through Bill Romanowski,” Conte told the Daily News last night. “Mark is one of the best at active release techniques, and I referred a few athletes to him, including Tim Montgomery and Marion Jones.”

An interesting connection here? Maybe? Then again, almost 30 years ago, I went to High School with a guy who once knew a girl who used to visit another guy in prison…so, we have to be careful about connecting dots and drawing lines.

Just over a month after winning his first World Series ring – when he buried both his postseason demons of the past and the tumultuous beginning of his 2009 season – Alex Rodriguez is still speechless when it comes to reflecting on life as a champion.

“It’s still hard to put into words what we accomplished as a team. We just believe in Joe’s (Girardi) message, which is team, team, team. I’m still enjoying it,” A-Rod told the Daily News Saturday night.

Dropping by to support his good friend David Ortiz at the Red Sox slugger’s charity golf weekend, Rodriguez made a brief but memorable appearance at the Cap Cana resort. It was the latest stop of Rodriguez’s unofficial World Series champion tour. Friday night he partied with hip-hop mogul Jay-Z and teammate Robinson Cano in the resort town of La Romana, celebrating Jay-Z’s birthday. Last week Rodriguez was in London with main squeeze Kate Hudson as she did press for the premiere of the movie “Nine.” Last month, he was courtside for a Lakers game.

Yes, it’s good to be the king, even if Rodriguez is still keeping his cards close to the vest and his comments brief. Asked if he plays over in his mind any particular World Series memories, Rodriguez replayed an answer that was common this season, when he avoided headlines and controversy following a rough spring training.

“Nothing personal. To me it’s just the great team spirit,” Rodriguez said. “Everyone basically checked their ego at the door and was concerned about one thing, that’s winning games. The World Series, the championship (series) and the division series was really how we played all year as a unit.”

Rodriguez certainly looked the picture of contentment Saturday night, arriving in a golf cart and taking dress-casual to a whole new level. A-Rod sported shorts, a baseball cap and a Cap Cana polo shirt while most of the other guests were dressed in semi-formal attire for the dinner that raised money for Ortiz’s charity that supports needy Dominican and American children with heart problems.

“A-Rod, since day one, he told me, ‘I’ll be there, Papi. I’ve got to support you. I love the cause. I’ll be there.’ He always wants to help the most he can,” Ortiz said. But no sooner had Rodriguez arrived, doled out embraces to current and past athletes and slipped Ortiz a check, he was slipping out the entrance into a white SUV.

David Ortiz? A-Rod? I wonder if Angel Presinal was serving drinks at this party?

The media has reared its hypocritical head again.

A large contingent of them has granted A-Rod a pardon while still portraying Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Roger Clemens and other steroid users as pariahs. Undoubtedly, their forgiving hearts have been opened as a result of Rodriquez’s tightly scripted apology, ongoing outward contrition, and subsequent emergence as a wholesome public figure and seemingly selfless teammate.

Ostensibly obsessed with his legacy, Rodriquez has methodically plotted a course he hopes will end with him being voted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame by the media when his playing days are done, moving ever so carefully since being outed.

Yet those unreceptive to A-Rod’s makeover objectively view him for what he is: a phenomenally gifted baseball player whose achievements have been forever tainted by his use of illegal performance enhancing drugs; including the amazing numbers he put up this past post-season in helping lead the Yankees to their 27th World Series title in which he batted .365 with 6 homers and 18 RBI.

Rodriguez’s transformation is immaterial to the fact that he should not be distinguished from any other transgressor simply because he has been on his best behavior since admitting using steroids. He no longer can be painted as the anti-Bonds, a role to which he was briefly elevated. Let’s not forget Rodriquez did not come forward voluntarily in an act of nobility. He got busted by a Sports Illustrated reporter.

You wouldn’t know this by reading and listening to revisionist historians who depict A-Rod’s return to glory as if were the story of Nelson Mandela. The subtext is the media’s collective ego will not allow them to move past their disdain for Bonds, McGwire and Clemens simply because these men dismiss the press and reject showing remorse.

So the media showers love on A-Rod as a gesture of reciprocal good will. However, even if Rodriquez maintains his current persona until the day of his retirement, the only way he should enter the Hall of Fame before Bonds, McGwire and Clemens, three players with unquestioned Hall credentials, is if he buys a ticket.

I don’t agree that Mark McGwire has “unquestioned Hall credentials.” But, Bonds and Clemens do…per most. And, they’ll probably get into Cooperstown before A-Rod. So, that’s sort of a moot point. But, it is interesting that many are quick to turn the page on Alex Rodriguez’ PED use – and not so quick to forgive Bonds and Clemens. I wonder why that is?

It very well could be that Bonds and Clemens are not working, all that much, with the media whereas A-Rod is a source for them now…

The commissioner’s office has decided not to discipline Alex Rodriguez in light of its investigation into whether he lied about his use of performance-enhancing drugs in a meeting with baseball officials in March, according to people in baseball with knowledge of the matter.

Jay K. Reisinger, a lawyer for Rodriguez, declined to comment. The people within baseball spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were discussing an internal investigation.

As part of the investigation, baseball investigators interviewed Angel Presinal, a Dominican trainer who has been barred from major league clubhouses since 2002 after being linked to an incident involving performance-enhancing drugs. The interview of Presinal, who has trained Rodriguez and dozens of major league players, yielded little information about Rodriguez’s possible use of banned substances.

The New York Times reported in May that members of baseball’s department of investigations had contacted Selena Roberts, the author of “A-Rod: The Many Lives of Alex Rodriguez,” and several of Rodriguez’s associates to determine whether Rodriguez had used performance-enhancing drugs for a longer period than he admitted.

The investigation began shortly after Rodriguez met with the investigators and baseball’s top labor lawyer, Rob Manfred, in March to question him after it was revealed that he had tested positive for steroids. He subsequently admitted publicly that he used a substance he referred to as “boli” from 2001 to 2003. In the meeting with the baseball officials, Rodriguez reiterated that he used boli from 2001 to 2003 and said that he had never received substances from Presinal.

Concerns about the truthfulness of Rodriguez’s statements grew in the commissioner’s office in April, after Roberts’s book was published. It contained assertions that Rodriguez used several different steroids under the supervision of Presinal and had human growth hormone in his possession in 2004.

The investigation proved difficult for the commissioner’s office, but it also showed that its investigations department was willing to try to develop evidence against one of the game’s premier stars, particularly in its effort to interview Presinal. Many of the accusations in the book were not damning and were based on anonymous sources. Other accusations were several years old, and Roberts declined to cooperate with the investigation. The baseball investigators have little power to compel witnesses who do not work for baseball to speak with them.

Although it was not announced, MLB also decided to not to discipline Roseanne Barr for butchering the National Anthem on July 25, 1990 or Deion Sanders for not running out a pop-up on May 22, 1990.