New York ? Alex Rodriguez knows he’s the focus, and perhaps a bull’s-eye.

The $252 million contract, the good looks, the gaudy stats all combine to attract the spotlight. And then he went and joined the Yankees, where not just every hit and out is recorded, but also every breath and stare, smile and pout.

He spent much of 2004 struggling with a new team, a new position and a new lifestyle in a new town. A-Rod became one of those one-name-only New Yorkers, such as Donald, Martha and Rudy, liked and loathed in equal amounts.

But this year he’s back to being one of baseball’s best players, a Triple Crown threat who has helped keep the Yankees from sinking during their most dismal first half in a decade.

He jokes, he laughs, he smiles.

And he hits, too.

“Scrutiny follows me everywhere I go,” he said during an interview at Yankee Stadium. “If you were to just read about me, you would think I’m a committed felon sometimes. It’s just the way things are with me, especially after I left Seattle. Before that, I couldn’t do anything wrong, which is kind of funny.”

In June he became the first twentysomething to hit 400 homers – he doesn’t turn 30 until July 27. He’s a nine-time All-Star, a two-time Gold Glove winner and the 2003 American League MVP.

But in the Bronx, that counts for … nothing.

That’s because he has no World Series rings.

He’s in a clubhouse in which Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams, Mariano Rivera and Tino Martinez have four each, a quartet of Yankee heroes beloved by fans for their feats on October nights. He’s never ridden down Broadway in a parade, ticker tape fluttering down on his gold-tinged hair.

New York's Alex Rodriguez connects for a three-run home run against the Los Angeles Angels in this April 26 file photo in New York.

Reggie Jackson knows the feeling. He won the AL MVP award with Oakland in 1973 and helped the Swingin’ A’s to three World Series titles. But he became Mr. October only when he won championships with the Yankees in 1977 and 1978.

“It’s been harder for him than any other player that has come here since,” Jackson said. “He carried himself like the player he was, a great player, and that doesn’t sit well with a lot of people. He was a great player before he got here. Now you have to prove that all over again when you get here.”

Rodriguez said in May that he had been seeing a therapist at the behest of his wife, becoming one of the few athletes not to publicly shrink from the topic. His father, Victor, left his family when he was 9, which deeply hurt his young son.

“I’ve gotten more positive response for that than for anything else,” Rodriguez said, adding that perhaps fans find the disclosure of his therapy made him “more real, more touchable, like one of them, maybe.”

“I think they can relate with me because of that,” he said.

He’s also more popular with Yankees fans this year because he’s back up among the major-league leaders. He entered today with a .320 average, 23 homers and 72 RBIs, including 10 in one night against the Los Angeles Angels on April 26, when he hit three home runs.

The St. Louis Cardinals’ Albert Pujols and Rodriguez are consensus picks to have the best chance at becoming the first player to win a Triple Crown since Boston’s Carl Yastrzemski in 1967.

“The expectation level is so high,” Jeter said. “It’s impossible, probably, for him to reach our expectation level.”

Jason Giambi knows exactly what Rodriguez went through. He won the AL MVP award with the Athletics in 2000, then got a $120 million, seven-year deal from the Yankees and battled early in 2002, his first season in New York.

“There’s another level being here. There’s a lot of other responsibilities. You’re on the biggest stage in the world,” Giambi said.

“It’s a different type of pressure because you put it on yourself more than anybody else because you want to play well here. You come in here to win a world championship. As soon as you walk through this door, anything less than you having a great season and getting to the World Series is kind of a failure.”