LEFTOVERS A-Rod’s scorebook filling up

Many will argue that Alex Rodriguez -- October aside -- is the best player in baseball. He also appears to be an accomplished player away from baseball.

The New York Yankees third baseman plays the field too much, according to his wife, Cynthia Rodriguez, who filed for divorce Monday.

A-Rod's personal business was exposed last year, when he was spotted in Tampa, Miami, Dallas and Toronto with Joslyn Noel Morse, an exotic dancer at Scores Las Vegas.

A-Rod, 32, is now linked to 49-year-old pop star Madonna in a story tailor-made for the New York media, tabloids and celebrity Web sites.

Cynthia Rodriguez alleges "extramarital affairs" by A-Rod. Madonna, married with three kids, said she is "not romantically involved in any way" with the Yankees slugger.

According to celebrity-gossip.net, A-Rod was text messaging the Material Girl six months ago and confessed "he was in love with her." The story quoted an A-Rod friend: "He said, 'She's my (expletive) soulmate, dude.'"

None of this comes as a surprise to Jose Canseco, a former Madonna paramour. Canseco once accused A-Rod of hitting on his wife, Jessica, who appeared on the September 2005 cover of Playboy.

The A-Rod-Madonna scandal is the top celebrity news story of the week, surpassing the Verne Troyer sex tape.

• WHITE LIGHTNING -- Dana White, the arrogant president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, verbally rips everyone who challenges him. It's often said his ego is out of control.

In a Yahoo! Sports column by Dan Wetzel, White criticized competitors Affliction, EliteXC, the International Fight League and Mark Cuban, whose HDNet television channel promotes mixed martial arts cards.

White is unimpressed by EliteXC's top fighter, Kimbo Slice, saying, "The last guy he fought (James Thompson), they got him from the (expletive) morgue. And he was beating Kimbo's ass before his ear exploded."

White also called Review-Journal columnist Ed Graney a "moron," among other insults, on a local radio show in May after Graney described the UFC president as "the white Don King."

It might have been an unfair comparison. Unfair in a way to King, who at least owns a suit and speaks without profanities in public appearances.

White's idea of dressing up is wearing a plain white T-shirt, and he fires off about 10 F-bombs per interview.

White, by the way, was called a "complete monster" by former UFC fighter Tito Ortiz.

• CUB (FAN) REPORTER -- The Chicago Cubs own the National League's best record, a fact that means little to The Denver Post's Jim Armstrong, who wrote:

"Having been raised at Wrigley Field, they tell me I'm supposed to be excited about this 2008 season. They tell me next year has arrived. Trouble is, I know too much. I know where the skeletons of lost decades are buried. I know, given time, this isn't anything the Cubs can't screw up."

COMPILED BY MATT YOUMANS REVIEW-JOURNAL