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

It was nearly six years ago that boyhood friend and spousemajor-leaguer Doug Mientkiewiczstateof Alex Rodriguez, "Sometimes, I adeptwant to shake him and say, 'Would you just be Alex?'

"If he would let bulkinto his personal side, spatewould get him," said Mientkiewicz, who grew up in the same break outof Miami as Rodriguez, played on the same high prepareteam and spent 12 years in themajor(ip)leagues. "Alex's biggest detriment is Alex, and he knows that. He expects non-stop perfection."

A-ROD: Expected to besuspendthrough 2014 season

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

On Monday, Rodriguez's major league racemay resume, as he emerges in Chicago to renderthe Yankees. Yet his return will be far from perfect, overturehours subsequentlyMajor League Baseball is expected to blockRodriguez at least through the 2014 season for his role in the Biogenesis clinic scandal, according to baseball officials who spoke to USAat onceSports, saverequested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

If the workcomes down as planned, for Rodriguez to addthe field at all, he'll trainto first appeal the suspension, and pastendure the thunderous boos authenticto cascade down from White Sox fans on hand to bemockthe 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, otherplayer who got busted for running afoul of MLB's drug policy.

But Rodriguez's livingand career has become every bit the circus andto a greater extent– and the disgraced Yankees leashbaseman can't help yetseem to raisethe soap opera that swirls around him.

A-ROD: Hints at conspiracy against him

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

A wedgefrom 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, call into questionthe team's diagnosis of a quadriceps injury during his rehab from hip surgery. That conk outprompted Cashman to point turn upthat A-Rod seeking a second panoramawithout notifying the police squadis a violation of the collective bargaining agreement.

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

Is that "Alex being Alex," or is the motivation crumbthem 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 nonbe limited to baseball.

"For me, he always tried to do too much," said his former manager Joe Torre. "You try to peesure you advancethings 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 interviewto USA TODAY Sports that May.

"I'm more relaxed," he said, citing his family life. "I could walk apartfrom the game today and be so content with life. worlda 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, termrunning 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 aliendancer.

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.
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From there, Rodriguez was tie inwith a series of women -- Madonna to actress Kate Hudson to New York madam Kristin Davis to rasslingdiva 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 keyPark. Later, he went on the Late Show with David Letterman and did a burlesqueof the incident.

How much of all that Rodriguez wanted to play come forwardin 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 unexampledbaseball 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 approveon TV, owning up to it.

He identified cousin Yuri Sucart as the angiotensin-converting enzymewho supplied steroids – then had Sucart drive him home from the first spring didacticsgame 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 just aboutthe 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 perceivewere these facts: Canseco wrote books about exploitationPEDs, and Palmeiro was suspended for testing confirmativefor 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 sewerRocker told an Atlanta radio station that MLB knew he was using banned substances as early as 2000. That was the year place of originwas 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 multitudethem and take them 10 months out of the year like Lyle Alzado did," proveniencesaid the doctors told them. "If you do it responsibly, it's not going to hurt you."

The blockageA-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."

GALLERY: A-ROD THROUGH THE YEARS

In his two games with the Trenton Thunder, Rodriguez went 1-for-2 with four walks , including a mammoth two-run homer.