Oh A-Rod, You Make It Too Easy

Q: What's even better than the above picture of A-Rod making out with himself in a mirror?

A: The opening of Details' cover story accompanying the photo.

"The night before his life changes forever, Alex Rodriguez calls from Miami with an urgent request. A-Rod is worried about something he said during our interview last night. I've been hearing mysterious warnings all afternoon: Alex needs to talk. Alex wants to clarify something. Can't say what. Alex will call you from his car.

"Listen," Rodriguez says. "I was thinking about one thing that I spoke about—it's something that's kind of trivial but will give me a hard time for no reason." He pauses. "The song."

Aha. Last night, he let slip his favorite Madonna song. The curious relationship between A-Rod and the pop icon makes for delicious gossip, of course. Is Rodriguez terrified that Madonna will resent the tongue-wagging? Or, better still, has he picked the wrong song as his favorite, and fears that an offended Madge might march her stilettos over his back? No: Rodriguez believes that revealing the song would lead to its being played every time he stepped to the plate during an away game. "The last thing I want to do is go to every stadium and have them play that song," he says. Fine—to be honest, it's not even a great Madonna song (if it had been something juicy like "Justify My Love," forget it).

Looking back, his preoccupation seems surreal. Just the day before, Selena Roberts, a reporter from Sports Illustrated, had confronted Rodriguez at a Miami gym, asking for his reaction to evidence that he'd tested positive for illegal steroids in 2003. And now here he was, sweating a Madonna song. It's like worrying about the in-flight movie as your plane is belly flopping on the Hudson River..."

If you're like me and can't wait for the issue to hit newsstands, click here for the full article.

Talk About A Money Shot!

While I cannot wrap my mind around what their combined net annual salaries are, I know it's more than even I could possibly squander on the four corners of 57th Street and 5th Avenue. (Van Cleef, Blvgari, Bergdorfs and Tiffany's! Oh My!). I'm just curious as to when the newest and surprisingly shorter American Super-Athlete's going to earn his due. MLS musings aside, congrats must be bestowed on Mr. 500-Rod, a shout out given to fellow pinstriper Matsui (100 Career Home Runs) and that other New York team for Glavine's 300th Win.

Even though Yanks fans have been keenly eyeing the standings all season, now's the time of year all fans begin casting a nervous and watchful gaze at each league's division leaders while trying to keep up on the mathematical Wild Card scenarios (and I start dropping serious hints to my sales reps about tickets).

My take on the perfect playoff scenario would be for it to come down to the Cubbies (currently one game back in the Central Division) versus the still comfortably in the lead Mets for the National League Championship. Loyalty to my town would have me rooting for the Mets, but in that scenario a Cubbie clinch would warm my cold black heart. As for the American League - you gotta' ask? What better way for the Bronx to enter the World Series than by scratching out a scrappy seventh game win over BoSox Nation.

Ah, but we still have the dog days of Summer to slug through and 30 long days in September of watching and waiting. Play ball, boys. Play ball.