NEW YORK - Hot, baby. Maybe not enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk, but plenty hot. Literally - on-court temperature Tuesday afternoon during the U.S. Open was something like 110 degrees - symbolically, as the headlines indicate.

This is always the best time of the year in, to modify that Snapple commercial a bit, the best sporting place on earth. There's sweat. And panic, the two staples of a New York sporting summer. There's variety.

It's always something. It's always someone.

Andy Roddick and covergirl wife, Brooklyn Decker, pictured walking in Queens; Roger Clemens pictured walking out of a Washington courthouse; Mets pitcher Pat Misch pictured walking off the mound after giving up five runs in three innings against the Atlanta Braves.

"MISCH MASHED'' was how the New York Post phrased it. That says it all. Says it all about the game and about New York.

As the Daily News columnist Bill Madden, the new entrant to the Baseball Hall of Fame writer's wing, so aptly put it long ago, in New York they don't have games, they have 162 incidents.

It makes for great copy. It makes for great fans.

Venus Williams filled Arthur Ashe Stadium on Monday night at the U.S. Open, her return after two months away because of that left knee injury. Which is not to be confused with the cut foot of sister Serena.

"Playing the opening night is a big deal,'' said Venus. Playing in New York is a big deal. Even after you've left New York.

If you can make it here, we're advised by the familiar lyrics of "New York, New York,'' you can make it anywhere. Clemens made it. He's still making it, if a bit less elegantly.

The Daily News had him on the back cover Tuesday, holding a driver, a golf club not a chauffer, after he'd just swung from the tee, with the wonderful double entendre of a headline "BAD LIE.''

"Clemens pleads not guilty to perjury charges,'' was the accompanying message, "then rushes to hit links.'' Fore! Foregone!

Roger was everywhere in the news and the News, back - that golfing photo - to front, where his mug shot was all but surrounded by the headline "FROM CLINK TO LINKS.''

Sympathy is hard to come by in this tough burg.

Roger's old New York connection, the Yankees, are doing well enough. If you ignore the suggestions Joe Girardi might leave as manager and move to the Chicago Cubs and don't pay attention to the Tampa Bay Rays moving into a tie for first with the Yanks.

The Yankees seemingly have no pitching, and then rookie Ivan Nova - "SUPER NOVA' according to the News - shuts out the White Sox.

Football is out there. "AWFUL JINTS ON 2-WEEKS NOTICE,'' the Post warned about the New York Giants' poor preseason play. But New York is baseball country. Mickey, Willie and the Duke. And before that the Babe and Iron Horse and John McGraw.

An anomaly in America, perhaps, where the ratings and the gambling are in firm possession of the NFL, but surely for those still enamored by home runs and back-door sliders, an encouraging one.

The Yankees are the No. 1 team in the nation's No. 1 city, and here A-Rod's absence is, well, every bid as significant as K-Rod's presence.

Loved that Joel Sherman column in the Post on the difficulty of the Mets planned disposal of reliever Francisco Rodriguez, suspended for allegedly punching the grandfather of his children in the team's family room. "Ball & Chain,'' was the clever headline, with the readout, "Turning K-Rod into K-Rid won't be easy.''

It's the belief the best sports towns are the towns with tabloids, papers with a Clemens or Rex Ryan or Tiger Woods peering from the back page into the faces of millions. Sure, the New York Times is outstanding, offering "All the News That's Fit to Print.'' But it's the Post, Daily News and Newsday which stir the sporting pot.

They taunt. They tease. They beckon.

How can you not be curious about a headline that says, "JAILHOUSE ROD," an Elvis reference to Rodriguez or about "SLEAZY RYDER," a piece on Tiger Woods' chances of being selected for the Ryder Cup team?

"KNOT AGAIN!'' was the Post's complaint about the Yankees' inability to untie themselves from Tampa in the pennant race. Yes, again. The stuff of anticipation. The stuff of excitement. The stuff that piques the imagination.

"This is the event you come to,'' Venus Williams said about the U.S. Open. "You know, New York ... Everyone's watching. They're looking for those big shots, those big plays.''

In New York this time of the year, they find plenty of both.