New York is the great stage and the Yankees are the most dramatic sports team on that stage. On that stage  there is always one, and only one, player who is the big star, the media magnet, the conflicted soul who demands attention and is tortured by the public scrutiny and vilification that inevitably comes with it.

Alex Rodriquez - A-Rod – is the guaranteed modern-day Yankee Adonis of controversy, even when he is recovering from surgery and not on the field (although A-Rod is always present in some form, always  playing some angle).

A-Rod is a huge PR issue for baseball and the Yankees, and constant fodder for the mercenary New York press. The new book by the A-Rod obsessed Sports Illustrated reporter Selena Roberts has amped up the A-Rod gag-o-meter to a new level. Roberts portrays A-Rod as a crass, womanizing, steroid-using, ego-maniacal douche-bag who is a bad tipper at Hooters, a liar and a cheat. None of this is particularly shocking or entirely unexpected but it has left Yankee manager Joe Girardi walking a tightrope.

The A-Rod show would be a lot more entertaining if the Yankees were having a terrific season. Instead, they are once again running hot and cold, failing to coalesce all that monied talent into a winning team. Now, of course, the perfect scenario is set for A-Rod to return and carry the team to the playoffs. This is precisely the sort of pressured situation he usually fails at.  All of it leaves some fans to wonder – is all this A-Rod agita worth it? Can his talent overcome all the bad PR baggage that comes with it?

Time for Yankees to Say Goodbye to A-Rod, Huffington Post |  Alex Rodriguez: Wiping His Butt With the Fabric of America - great post from Bleacher Report | Rubenstein PR Fingerprints On A-Rod’s Ass - PRBlogNews

CONNECTING

Mandy Stadtmiller (right), that ultra funny NY Post columnist, stand up comedian (although she often sits), and general gal about town and country is desperate for fans, like she wants to everybody in NYC to be her fan. So fan Mandy on Facebook here http://tinyurl.com/cto7lq and Twitter her here http://twitter.com/mandystadt so you can become a peep of Mandy’s and get the inside skinny when she needs a source for a story or asses on seats for a gig.

 blog: edit30, insight for business communicators – Richard Miles takes this stuff seriously| blog: Silicon Valley Watcher: Every company is a media company – I couldn’t have said it better|  Twitter: @serena - she has a clue, she’s fun and she streams useful biz/PR connections | Reading | MediaWeek Is Twitter the next Second Life? A mere 40 percent of new visitors return to site … A new study by Nielson Online found that 60 percent of people who sign-up for Twitter do not return after one month. That means only 40 percent of new visitors return, which is up from 30 percent, Nielson reported. MediaWeek suggested these numbers make Twitter similar to the over-hyped virtual world Second Life, which enjoyed much press attention a couple years ago. |  chaimhaasRT @JohnAByrnePRWeek media survey data: 58% of media pros are now on Facebook, 51% LinkedIn, 28% MySpace, & 22% on Twitter. Only 22%? | White House new Flickr photo stream:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse/ | Matthew Bishop, The Economist, enjoys his Twitter: @MattBish |  Reasons to reconsider the social media release; tips for getting there