Yankee Alex Rodriguez is just one of those guys made for the limelight.

But forget those 19 homers and 45 RBIs. What we want to know is what did Rodriguez really say to Toronto third baseman Howie Clark and WHO is that blonde he's with on the cover the New York Post.

Let's start with the game. The Blue Jays (who cushioned New York's free fall yesterday by losing to the Bombers, 10-5) are accusing A-Rod of unsportsmanlike play when he distracted Clark on an infield pop-up in the ninth inning. The Yanks led, 7-5 at the time, Rodriguez was on base, there were two out and Jorge Posada hit a pop-up that should have been the third out. But as A-Rod darts past Clark, he yells something. Clark backs off and the ball falls in. The Yanks score three more runs.

So, what did Alex say? Clark said, he yelled "Mine," which would be dirty pool, actually, because Clark thought it was shortstop John McDonald calling for the ball. A-Rod says he yelled, "Hah!" 

"Hah?"

The Yanks and Jays argued about all this and now there are hard feelings and everything. New York's Johnny Damon, whose Billy Budd-like, wide-eyed innocence never fails to amaze me, said: "I wasn't sure that was allowed. If it is, maybe we'll keep doing it."

Now for the blonde. The tabloid wrote a story implying that A-Rod has been seen hanging out with a blonde woman, who is NOT his wife, and their travels included strip clubs in Toronto and Dallas. It also said he was with a blonde in Las Vegas. While descriptions of the woman are vaguely consistent, it's not clear that it is the same woman. But if it isn't, that might be an even better story. A-Rod wasn't commenting on personal matters yesterday but this story -- as we say in the business -- has, ahem, legs.

Photo credit: Newsday / Paul J. Bereswill