At the suggestion of our pal Mike from Montclair, we made a Tuesday night trip out to Little Falls, NJ for a minor league baseball double-dipper between the New Jersey Jackals and the Nashua Pride.  The two teams are members of the independent eight-team Can-Am League, which is probably considered near the bottom of the minor league baseball chain of importance.

We took the 3:19 PM NJ Transit train out of NY Penn and enjoyed the ride along what’s called the Montclair-Boonton line for a one-way fare of $5.75.  It stops in Secaucus and Newark, before making a series of tightly-spaced stops in several communities that get progressively nicer as you move further away from the city.

We stepped off at the Montclair State stop – and made the five minute walk past the university’s softball stadium and track/field facility – up a steep incline to get to Yogi Berra Stadium.  We were about 40 minutes early for the 5:05 PM first pitch of the first game of the doubleheader.

Yogi Berra Stadium opened in 1998 and serves as the home of the Jackals and Montclair State University’s baseball team.  It was built with the dough of former K-Mart boss Floyd Hall. Capacity is 3748.

Attendance wasn’t announced Tuesday night, but we’re guessing there were no more than a thousand people on hand.  Yogi Berra is a Montclair resident and his highly-touted museum adjoins the stadium and is filled with artifacts said to be worth checking out.

Both teams’ rosters are dominated by players who were drafted by major league teams, but find their professional careers stuck in neutral or in a development stage a long distance from the bigs.  Take for example the two players pictured above. Marcus Sanders (pulling on his helmet in the black Jackals uniform) was drafted in the 17th round of the 2003 draft by the San Francisco Giants.  Sanders has never gone higher than single-A of the South Atlantic League.  He’s fast on the base paths (57 stolen bases in ’05) but his bat hasn’t been dominant and a bad shoulder slowed his progress.  Once considered a top prospect, Sanders is only 22 and you’d think still has a shot if he sticks it out.  The other guy in the photo is 24-year-old Pride first baseman Bryan Duplissie, an academic All-American at Franklin Pierce College.  Duplissie ripped his thirteenth homer of the season in the first game but later had a bad error on a routine grounder.  The guy is a three-hundred hitter with power, but looked a little shaky in the field.

The Pride has a few familiar faces.  Their manager is former gold glove Red Sox outfielder Rick Miller (who doubled as the third base coach), a member of the ’75 team that lost to the Big Red Machine in the World Series.  Brian Daubach (pictured above) is the hitting coach and believe it or not, 37-year-old Rich “El Guapo”  Garces comes out of the bullpen for the Pride and pitched the seventh inning of the second game.

Former Pirates catcher Ed Ott (pictured above) worked the third base coach box for the Jackals.  Before the game he signed autographs.

Average attendance in the Can-Am League is a little over 2000.  The Jackals this season have averaged 2346 per contest.

From a fan’s standpoint, one of the great draws of minor league baseball is the cost.  It was two-for-one ticket night, and so we got two ten-dollar front-row box seats behind the Jackals’ on-deck circle for ten bucks.  The concession stand sold two-dollar twelve-ounce bottles of Corona poured into a cup.  The cheeseburgers were thick and juicy - and if we remember right, they were $3.75.

The 10:20 PM train out of the Montclair State stop made the drop back to the big city by 11 for a connection to the E train.  It was an easy trip – a fun trip – and didn’t hit the wallet like a major league game would.  Good times, for sure.  There’s not the obvious pull in terms of a big pennant race, and watching the best of the best, but minor league baseball is a guaranteed good time.

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Starved for added revenue to offset the huge increase in fuel costs, airlines in this country have started charging customers extra for checking luggage, sitting on the aisle or requesting a snack.  But JetBlue Airways may be taking things beyond the reasonable – or feasible - with an announcement Monday it will charge customers seeking pillows and blankets.  For seven bucks, the airline says it will hand the customer a 10-by-12 inch pillow, a fleece blanket and a $5 coupon for Bed, Bath and Beyond (those same coupons flood just about every mailbox in America).

We think few people will spend seven bucks for an airline pillow and blanket.  From a PR perspective, JetBlue is probably better off just eliminating them.  Several other carriers have already done that and realize additional overhead bin and cabin space as a result.

The newspaper and TV news coverage of JetBlue’s announcement seemed to universally mock the airline for asking customers to pay for a pillow.  The basic theme was:  What’s next?

As we’ve said before, the airline experience as it’s been developed over the last fifty years cannot be broken down into components – with some discarded – others as options – still others as separate line item expenses.  You sell a ticket to the consumer and they get all of the components of an airplane ride for the no-strings attached total cost.  No nickel and diming - no surprise fees, no BS.  If the airlines want to raise revenue, raise the ticket prices.  Don’t diminish or strip down the air travel experience into a hodge-podge of pay-per-components to the point that it becomes the drag it has for so many.

-Scam alert. A rotating cast of fakers has been working LaGuardia Airport’s busy central terminal in recent months asking travelers if they can “borrow their cell phone” to make a quick call.  Soon after returning the phone to its honest and helpful owner, minutes have been sucked dry from the account of the unsuspecting rightful owner of the phone.  We’re not sure exactly how the scam is executed by making a single call, but we’ve talked to a victim of the racket who was forced to change his number as a result.

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The NFL has reportedly come down hard on punter Todd Sauerbrun for his boozed-up drama in the back of a Denver taxi late last year.  According to an item written by Bill Williamson on ESPN.com, the league has suspended the Punt King four games for violating the league’s personal conduct policy.  A Denver cabby claimed an intoxicated Sauerbrun went after him both verbally and physically after picking him up from a restaurant last December.  Police charged Sauerbrun with simple assault and guided him to a detox facility to dry out.  A couple of months went by and just before the case was to go to trial, Sauerbrun pled guilty to a reduced charge of disturbing the peace.  Sauerbrun is appealing this latest league suspension according to the Denver Post.  ESPN.com first reported the suspension late Friday night citing “two sources close to the situation.”  As of early Monday morning, the NFL’s web site contained no news release or listed transaction confirming the suspension.  The Denver Post says Sauerbrun had drawn interest from two teams this summer, but it didn’t specify which ones.  He remains unsigned.  The Broncos cut the Punt King loose because of the taxi-cab incident, having been burned twice by his antics.  Sauerbrun served a four-game suspension in ’06 for violating the league’s banned substances policy while with Denver.  Sauerbrun’s rap sheet got its first major blemish in 2004 when he got popped for DUI while a member of the Carolina Panthers.  This latest suspension – if it sticks – will make Sauerbrun’s re-entry into the league more difficult.  His talent level should guarantee him a spot as a NFL punter for another decade – but his infractions are piling up to the point that some teams will flat out stay away.  Yeah, talent often trumps trouble – but when it comes to a punter, many teams may say: why bother?

-We listened to the KABC radio feed of Sunday’s Dodgers/Snakes game and got a kick out of Charley Steiner’s call of Manny’s fifth inning homer.  Said Steiner:  “Man – oh – Man – oh – Manny Ramirez !!!”

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When tickets for the three late July Bruce Springsteen shows at Giants Stadium went on sale several months ago, we went online at the prescribed time for the public sale and punched in a request for two – best available.  When it promptly kicked back a pair in section 112 – in decent proximity to the stage – we decided to pay the three-figure cost.

We went to the Thursday show and it was well worth it.

After getting dinner with the Heckler at Island Burgers on Ninth Ave., we arrived at the Port Authority bus terminal a little after six pm and waited in a long line for New Jersey Transit bus tickets.  Another line awaited us to board the bus, and man, was it a line.  It started on 41st St. midway between Eighth and Ninth Avenues – wound its way the length of Eighth between 41st and 42nd - and extended nearly the entire length of 42nd between Eighth and Ninth with the end of it snaking back toward Eighth on 42nd.  Feeling deflated by the line’s length, we noticed several gypsy vans lined up on 42nd.  Ten bucks to get to the Meadowlands – no waiting.

We had already purchased our NJ Transit bus tickets for ten bucks round-trip, but couldn’t resist the gypsy van.  We jumped in, each gave the driver a ten-spot, and nestled into a pair of seats in the back.  The vehicle was a beat-up rig that looked like a converted hotel courtesy van.  The shocks were shot, the AC barely worked and the driver was aggressive and fearless.  We darted through rush-hour traffic and got to the Meadowlands in about 35 minutes.  Had we waited in line for the NJ Transit bus, we’d have been at the Port Authority for another hour probably.

Turns out, it didn’t really matter.

In deference to a big traffic snarl caused by an overturned propane tanker truck on the Jersey turnpike, Bruce and the E Streeters waited until 9:30 PM to hit the stage.  On the way in, those seeking tickets outnumbered those who were selling by a big margin.  You wonder if those two off nights on Tuesday and Wednesday between the Monday and Thursday shows couldn’t have been sell-outs as well.

The sound was what you’d expect in a big football stadium.  Stevie’s guitar output was totally lost in the mix.  All of the vocals and the Big Man’s horn levels were clear and true, but on a tune like “Prove it All Night,” you really miss the shriek of the distinctive guitar line.

Two big video boards shaped like inverted T’s on each side of the stage showed a well-produced live feed using multiple camera shots.  It gave those who watched the show from a distance a feeling they were closer to the action than they actually were.

At 58, Springsteen is in no way milking the accomplishments of the past.  He remains nimble, quick and electric as a performer.  He often interacts with the fans crowded up against the stage, accepting smooches from female fans.  His last record is strong.  His band is great.  While we find Max Weinberg to be an annoying presence on TV, he really is an authoritative percussionist on the E Street stage.

On his official web site leading up to the Giants Stadium dates, Bruce encouraged fans to bring signs and banners containing song title requests.  In theory, it’s a way for the average fan to influence the three-hour plus set list.  A big bed sheet spray-painted with the words “I’m Goin’ Down” hung from the upper deck directly opposite the stage on the stadium’s east end. Bruce didn’t play it.  But he did play “Jersey Girl” for the first time on the Magic tour.  A fan (pictured above) attending the show with her daughter was among a lot of Bruce fans who have a soft spot for the Tom Waits tune which includes vivid regional imagery.  “Cause down the shore everything’s all right.  You and your baby on a Saturday night.  Nothing matters in this whole wide world.  When you’re in love with a Jersey girl.”

Of the 30 songs that made Thursday’s setlist, the tunes we’ve continued to hum continuously since are:  Long Walk Home, Mary’s Place, Cadillac Ranch, Spirit in the Night and Blinded by the Light.  “Go-cart Mozart was checkin’ out the weather chart to see if it was safe to go outside.”

The weather chart for Giants Stadium Thursday night was perfecto and definitely safe. A stiff breeze from the west made it pleasant.  The beer lines were manageable.  We got a little jump on the rest of the crowd on the way out and got on the regular bus back to the city without a hitch.

By the time the E train made the drop in Queens, it was almost time to go to work.  We splashed a little cold water on the face, double-brushed the teeth and slapped a cap on the mop-top.  Work was a struggle but with the Boss proving it all night, it was a hunger you couldn’t resist.

-Beijing correspondent Jim Yardley of the New York Times says his newspaper was “kept in the dark” about a “press conference” held by China’s president Hu Jintao on Friday.  Yardley says Hu had never held a news conference during his six-year reign as China’s top leader but likely agreed to this one with the Olympics set to begin.  Yardley says “about 25 foreign media organizations” attended the news conference and were required to submit questions in advance.  When the Times caught wind of Hu’s appearance and asked to attend, Yardley says a Foreign Ministry spokesman declined the Times request.  In a “news analysis” piece that ran as a sidebar to a main story about limited expansion of in-country migration, Yardley says accounts of the Hu news conference indicate he said nothing that the foreign press would consider newsworthy.  “Mr. Hu is arguably one of the half dozen most powerful people on earth, yet he remains an enigma, partly because the Chinese press is banned from writing anything remotely personal about him or investigating anything about him or his family.”

-If you spend any kind of time waiting for a flight at LaGuardia Airport’s central terminal building, there’s a pretty good chance you’ll hear a piercing and violently loud alarm sound for no good reason.  The airport’s fire alarm system in the main terminal is activated five times a day on average – and each time it is a false alarm.  Even those who are exposed to the abrupt daily doses of the high-volume buzzing are startled initially when it comes on.  Customers waiting for flights – some of whom are already on edge because of the nature of the airport experience these days – are especially jumpy when the false alarm rings.  It’s really loud and it comes on every few hours without cause.  The famously inefficient airport operator Port Authority of NY/NJ has acknowledged the false fire alarm problem going back at least six months but has done nothing to address it.  One Port official recently scoffed: “It’s an old building, whattaya gonna do?”

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Gotta go to work in about an hour, so for now we’ll just say that the show was great.  The Boss was very much at home with the Jersey crowd assembled on a perfect summer night at Giants Stadium.  The radio was nowhere, Bobby was Jean and the Spirit was in the Night.  Alright.

More specifics after we get through a ten-hour slog at the airstrip…

8-1-08 00305

The first batch of reporters assigned to cover the Olympics in Beijing has plugged in laptops at the fancy official media center and wouldn’t ‘ya know it, their net access is being restricted.  Scores of web sites are inaccessible.

Despite a plainly-worded pledge by International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge that reporters covering the games would not be subject to the same harsh internet censorship imposed on Chinese citizens and reporters, the early word from scribes in Beijing is that they’re being blocked from using certain sites as they research stories.

Who’s running these Olympics?  If internet blocking continues, it’s clearly not the I-O-C.

Get familiar with the name Kevan Gosper.  He seems to have become the I-O-C point man on the looming clash between reporters and the vast Chinese government effort to control a massive world media contingent.  Gosper told reporters Wednesday that the I-O-C has signed off on limited internet blocking by the Chinese.  “I now understand that I-O-C officials negotiated with the Chinese that some sensitive sites would be blocked on the basis they were not considered Games-related.”  Huh?

If Rogge and Gosper had any guts, they’d tell the Beijing Organizing Committee that it must adhere strictly to the promises made when China was awarded the games.  A statement from Amnesty International’s Mark Allison said China committed to “full media freedom” when it got the games and is now changing its tune.  “Censorship of the internet at the Games is compromising fundamental human rights and betraying the Olympic values.”

We obtained that Amnesty statement by clicking on to their web site.  If you’re using the basic internet hookup from the media center in Beijing, the Amnesty International website is among those that are blocked.   In the eyes of Beijing Organizing Committee spokesman Sun Weide, the blocked sites won’t limit coverage of the games.  But what is – or isn’t blocked – and whether it’s an important resource for reporters – isn’t for Weide - or anybody else to decide.

You can tell all of this is going in a bad direction.  Beijing is gonna blow these games.  Rather than swing the doors open and let the world see all that is good and bad, they’re opting for the clamp.  If they opted for the open approach, the flurry of breathtaking athletic accomplishments would naturally dominate the headlines.  Instead, the paranoia and control (no matter whether it’s effective) will cause a backlash.  It puts a bad taste in the mouths of reporters with world views and guarantees a doubling-down of analysis about the Chinese government’s conduct.

-We’re bound for Giants Stadium tonight to see The Boss. It’s the final night of three shows on this tour at the big outdoor venue.  The previous two gigs went three hours plus.  The forecast is rain-free.  August ’85 at Soldier Field was our last Springsteen show.  More than two decades later, we’ll get to see him one last time.  Everybody will be yelling to hear their favorite song.  At some point, we’ll probably shout for Bobby Jean.

7-31-08  0005

The three to four hour delays at LaGuardia Airport on Sunday were understandable given the intensity of storm systems that struck the region back to back in the late morning and mid-afternoon.  But what happened Monday afternoon is “completely unnecessary” according to a veteran FAA employee we spoke to.  The Air Traffic Control System Command Center (which is a branch of the FAA) imposed 90-minute delays on all flights into LaGuardia on a perfectly clear Monday afternoon citing “volume.”  There was no significant weather within hundreds of miles and at no point during the delay period did the line for departures exceed more than ten airplanes.

The FAA inspector we spoke to said the delays imposed Monday were driven purely by air traffic controllers intent on making a statement.  Controllers have been vocal in their unhappiness about working conditions including staffing levels.

Unfortunately, the specific reasons for lengthy and costly ATC imposed delays often fail to reach the public.  While air carriers are heavily scrutinized and criticized for the rash of delays at the big three New York airports, formal accountability seems not to extend to those who truly hold the key to timely movement of air traffic.

With the number of flights expected to drop sharply this fall because of airline cutbacks in capacity, the “volume” problem should work itself out.  If air traffic controllers are indeed upset with the terms of their employment, or lack the numbers necessary to operate the air traffic system at full tilt, the FAA needs to understand that the last thing the commercial aviation industry and its customers need right now are bogus delays.

-The names of Manny Ramirez and Brett Favre have been much discussed in these parts – with the Mets and Jets respectively named as possible landing spots. Forget Manny to the Mets.  Despite Met GM Omar Minaya’s longtime crush on Manny - and the team’s need for another corner outfielder – the Mets are likely unwilling to part with the package of players needed to obtain him.  As for Favre, he would make sense if number 4 chooses the Jets.  The Jets are fairly well built to win now and there’s little risk in disrupting the current QB picture.  If Favre ends up in green, the Jets would simply release Chad and let Clemens and Ainge get understudy enrichment for however long Favre is the starter (likely no more than this season and maybe next).  Pennington would get scooped up immediately by Minnesota.  With camps in full swing, there ought to be time pressure on the Pack to get a deal done.  Said Pennington: “I think the sooner the better for all of us involved: Brett, myself, our organization, our team.”

-US District judge Bill Martini sentenced former Newark Mayor Sharpe James to 27 months in prison Tuesday.  Accounts of the hearing written by reporters for the Times and AP indicate Martini lashed out at prosecutors for seeking a much longer prison stint for the 72-year-old James.  It was a series of shady city land sales to a former mistress (and subsequent flips that got her rich) that enabled federal prosecutors to snare James and ultimate obtain felony convictions on five counts of fraud and conspiracy.  Other charges of corrupt plundering of Newark taxpayer money by James during his mayoral tenure were dropped after the first series of convictions were obtained.  What we don’t understand from our reading of the coverage in this case is why Judge Martini seemed so bent on minimizing the conduct of James by throwing darts at the law enforcers who finally nailed the crooked mayor of a struggling city desperate for honest leadership.

-We had the NESN feed of Angels/Red Sox for the Lackey near no-no. NESN elected not to break between the top and bottom of the ninth and showed Lackey warm up. He looked extremely nervous.  Lots of rubbing the baseball.  Pedroia (and later Yuke) saved Manny big embarrassment by breaking it up with one out bottom nine.  Manny failed to run out a deep grounder to third base in the seventh.  He may have beaten out the throw from Figgins had he made an effort.

7-29-08 2255

The Prairie Spies concluded their nine-day, nine-city tour in Brooklyn Saturday night with a raucous and spirited set.  With evidence of fatigue on their faces after a grueling stretch of dates that included Minneapolis, Washington and Troy, NY, the Spies made this tour-ender a celebratory expression of accomplishment.  Drummer Ryan Collins was all over his kit on the tunes Blackout and Kidz Know Best (which closed out the set). The band played hard and seemed to enjoy the crowd energy it was creating.

The enthusiastic gathering of about 50 in Trash Bar’s performance space for the Spies set seemed to know the words to all the songs and went bonkers when the band played Blackout.

The set list varied from the Philly show and notably included a rousing version of Iowa.  Because there were actively interested Spies fans at the Trash Bar, the band clearly demonstrated more showmanship.

All of the band’s members except for Collins were bare-footed on stage.

The band planned to spend a full day in New York to decompress before taking the long van ride back to Chicago.

The Trash Bar is a funny place.  Between sets, people danced in the bar area and a large group of folks congregate outside the front door of the venue.  Drinks are priced well below New York music venue market value and the bartender sells microwave-heated hot dogs for three bucks.

It was after midnight when the Spies’ labelmates The Fake Fictions hit the stage for a slot that immediately followed the Spies.  Perhaps because it was so late, the air had gone out of the room by that point and most fans elected to stand in either the bar or out front.  As a show of support, Spies singer Max Brooks and bandmate Collins cheered on the Fakes.

We wandered out of Trash Bar as the hour approached one AM and caught the G train at Metropolitan Avenue.  The New York City Transit web site had advised that the G would run local all the way to Forest Hills after 11 PM and indeed it did.  We were back home in no time without the usual transfer at 23rd and Ely.  Those who perpetuate the myth that the G train is unreliable are out of step with the reality of the G train.  The G adheres to a timetable and almost all of the service alterations we’ve ever faced on the G were announced ahead of time on the NYCT web site.  There may have been a time that the G was bad news.  That time is not now.

-We had no idea two-sport Notre Dame star Jeff Samardzija was on the fast track to the bigs, so his Cubbie debut Friday caught us by complete surprise.  We saw his ninth inning stint on TBS Sunday and were impressed with his stuff.  Plenty enough heat to set up a wicked sinker and change-up.  To think Lou is using the 23-year-old Samardzija in a save situation in just his second major league appearance (and with just one full season in the minors) shows you what the Cubs think of him.  On Saturday, ND football coach Charlie Weis went on WGN-AM radio during the game broadcast as part of his seventh-inning stretch signing assignment.  Weis said Samardzija would have been a first-round NFL pick had he opted to go that route, but Weis believes Samardzija chose baseball because the money is guaranteed.

-More than 48 hours after FCC approval made the Sirius-XM merger a done deal, neither company’s web site is providing updated information for its subscribers on the combined product.  There are many questions to be answered about how the new company will transition subscribers from two companies to a product with more channels.  As an XM subscriber, I am eager for the opportunity to add NFL and NBA game broadcasts to the existing menu of MLB, NHL and college sports broadcasts.  Thus far, the only document shedding light on the particulars of the new company is an outdated Q and A page on the XM web site.

7-28-08 0159

Back from the land of cheesecake - pardon-me - cheesesteak.  After checking out of the hotel at the mandated 11 AM deadline Thursday, we caught the Philly subway at 5th and Walnut to make the 11:59 AM SEPTA trip out of 30th St. station to catch the connecting NJ Transit train in Trenton which got us to New York Penn for a final subway ride on the E.  We love the long train rides with a stack of newspapers, but man, how ‘bout all the folks yammering on the cell phones?  It puts a bad wrinkle on the proceedings.  Especially the folks who insist on the beeping walkie-talkie mode at full volume.

A few additional notes on Wednesday night’s road trip to the Brotherly Love to see The Prairie Spies:

-Officially, just 1.49 inches of rain fell during that crazy star-finger touching-me, touching-you storm that made Old City, Philly look like a flood zone.  If that measurement is correct, nearly all of it fell during a thirty-minute period at about 8 PM.

-The outfit that preceded the Spies on the three-band bill was Orbit to Leslie.  The Philly-based band was fronted by Christopher Wood who played a metal folding chair with never-before-seen effectiveness.  Later, Wood joined the small crowd on hand for the Spies’ performance and offered enthusiastic support.  That sense of camaraderie between bands when a venue is otherwise near-empty would seem important.  When Orbit did their set, some members of the Spies who were earlier killing time doing puzzles at a table near the bar’s streetside window came into the performance space to check it out.  There was also an equipment loan that Orbit’s Wood thanked the Spies for.

-Spies front-man Max Brooks (above right) said concerns about keeping the band’s equipment and vehicle safe on the overnight in Philly would necessitate nightwatchman duty.  Brooks said he planned on sleeping in the van.

-After playing the two-part tune Song for Bobby, Brooks could be heard saying off-mike to his bandmates that the sound mix they heard through the stage monitors was the best it had been during the current stretch of dates.  Before the band stepped on stage, a young fella standing behind an elevated and ramshackle-looking sound-board platform at The Khyber spent five minutes or so adjusting levels.  There was no sound check before the evening’s music started.

-Late in the set, Spies guitarist Ben Fong (above left) introduced the song “Who’s Been Getting High?”  After telling the audience the song’s title, he answered the rhetorical question by saying with a straight face: “Not us.”  It is Fong’s guitar line in that song that really makes the tune hum.

-No matter how successful this nine-day, nine-city tour for the Prairie Spies turns out to be when the band catalogs all of the memories, there is uncertainty about the band’s future.  Fong is moving to New York City in short order leaving behind a band that uses Chicago as its home base.  Fong’s level of contribution to the band’s sound is such that his absence is sure to create a gaping hole as the Spies consider their next move.  Having had a chance to speak to the band members before the show Wednesday night, we marvel at how sharp, personable and friendly each of them are.  That’s aside from the fact they’ve created a musical unit that plays a live show that very few bands will ever match on the intensity scale.  You can’t help but really root for them.

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Before a small crowd in Philly Wednesday night, The Prairie Spies lit it up with a great set that ended a little after midnight.  The band is on a nine day, nine city tour that stopped at The Khyber on Second in Philly.  Vicious thunderstorms that left tree branch debris and flooded streets in Philly’s Old City neighborhood before the show may have limited the crowd size, but the Spies still rocked their set.  “It’s Not Fair” off the new LP Surplus Enjoyment blistered those who were on hand.  The band did a great version of a Pavement cover that we couldn’t place exactly and they nailed Costello’s “Peace, Love and Understanding.” Drummer Ryan Collins attacked the kit on Bobby’s Song - a Spies tune that earlier in the day he had told TSR Radio was a personal favorite.  We totally agree.

If anybody is around town in NYC Saturday, you’ve got to get over to Trash Bar in Williamsburg to see the Spies play late - like eleven or so.  They’ll be joined on that card by their Chicago friends The Fake Fictions.

Before the Wednesday night gig, we had a cheesesteak at Old City Pizza.  We asked for it “no onions, with whiz,” and the waitress seemed aggravated.  “We don’t have cheese whiz,” she said.  We plugged in provolone and watched the rain fall out the window.

The Khyber is cool.  Three dollar Bud bottles.  They had the Met/Phils game on the tube and Wags came in and got the job done.

If you don’t already know TSR’s position on The Prairie Spies, we’ll say it again:  They rock really hard.  They’re amazing.  They’re the best band going right now.  They may not be around forever.  So check ’em out while you get the chance.

Back on the train in a few hours to NYC so we can catch a breath, work a couple shifts and find a way to get out to that Spies gig in Billyburg late Saturday night.

Rock and roll like we saw Wednesday night puts some juice in the battery that makes you go.  Luckily, there are bands like the Spies around to make you really get jumpy and full of git-go to advance the otherwise sluggish being to the next stage.

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Brutal loss for the Mets Tuesday night.  We sat in section three of the mezz on a steamy night.  A near full-house at Shea with two teams tied for first.  We don’t know for sure what Manuel was thinking because as we sat there we didn’t know specifics on Wagner’s sore shoulder, but we have to question the bullpen pecking order right now.  Shouldn’t Heilman be ahead of Joe Smith?  And shouldn’t Schoeneweis come before Feliciano?  Shouldn’t the $140 million dollar man get the ball to at least start the ninth?  And if indeed Wags is hurt, shouldn’t he go on the DL so there’s another pitcher available?  Why is Endy sitting so shallow when So Taguchi clubs a ball to deep right with bases jammed?  All we know is that it turned out to be perhaps the most devastating loss of the year.  Heckler Bob threw his scorecard below his seat in that dreadful ninth and wouldn’t talk to me.  I chose to laugh instead.

We had burgers at Donovan’s in Woodside before the game.  We don’t buy the widely held notion that their burgers are the best in town, but Tuesday night they were juicy and rich.

The news flash at Shea is that concourse vendors have started selling 24-ounce cans for $9.50.  It’s almost like they heard about our rave on the big boy from St. Louis and started supplying them on cue.  How ‘bout that?

This morning, we get on a train to Philly and will arrive in time to prepare for a special one-hour edition of TSR Radio.  It’ll start at 5 PM in the east and will include interviews with members of the great Chicago band The Prairie Spies.  The Spies will play Philly tonight.  The band’s nine-day, nine-city tour ends Saturday with a show at Brooklyn’s Trash Bar.  Towards the end of the one-hour TSR Radio program, we also expect to hear from a member of the Campo family which has been making Philadelphia cheesesteaks from its location in the Old City neighborhood since 1947.

Try to join us live – or later to play the archived version.  Talk to you from Philly…

7-23-08 0050

It is expected that NBC will tip-toe softly around the more difficult and sensitive issues that are sure to arise when the Summer Olympics get underway in Beijing in a few weeks.  As pointed out in an excellent piece in the Times on Monday, NBC’s parent company GE is heavily invested in China.  The piece written by reporter Brian Stelter makes no conclusion about whether NBC will “kowtow” to the host country’s wishes.  But he raises the issue.  Stelter obtained minutes of a recent meeting called to discuss media limitations in Beijing during the games.  The meeting included representatives of the International Olympic Committee, television networks covering the games and Chinese government officials.

Stelter quotes an unnamed IOC commissioner as saying the restrictions on television coverage as laid out by the Chinese government are “severe.”  The commissioner likened the Chinese guidelines to “a tourniquet.”  The commissioner also tells Stelter that had the IOC known that China would impose both the media and entry-to-country limits as they currently exist, the IOC would probably not have been awarded the games to China.

We recently spoke to an individual familiar with the inclinations of network TV decision-makers and he believed NBC will maintain a compliant stance throughout its coverage.  The source predicted NBC will avoid coverage of controversy regardless of any perceived pressure or responsibility to shine full light on China’s human rights, environmental and freedom of information misdeeds.

Supposing NBC does indeed steer clear of any coverage that may anger the Chinese government, it’s almost a guarantee that the New York Times – and the New York Daily News for that matter – will be fearless in their coverage.  The Times has long found a way to report on China despite the government’s insatiable desire to put a clamp on the flow of what’s disseminated.  In 2004, Times researcher Zhao Yan was locked up by the Chinese government for three years after being accused of reporting a government news item that was spot-on true.

A long list of more recent media repression incidents in China can be found documented on the Reporters Without Borders website.

So, while NBC may choose to keep it as much about the games as possible, there are gonna be a lot of reporters from North America and Europe working for companies that lack corporate conflicts that squelch clear assessments of what’s happening in Beijing and beyond.  Let’s say Free Tibet protestors infiltrate the men’s diving competition and unleash a demonstration that includes belly-flops by men wearing red robes.  That obviously is something the Chinese government will not want carried on the airwaves.  But since NBC will have equipment and people on site covering the event, it’s unlikely they will ignore something like that. Same goes for demonstrations by athletes on medal stands.  You can’t ignore that.

Where the real self-censorship – or acquiescence may occur is when NBC would be expected to do the scene-setter or Today show postcard report.  Will there be on-the-scene discussions of imprisoned anti-government voices, repression in Tibet, worker exploitation and other current issues that measure China’s progress since being awarded the games?

You have an un-named IOC official basically telling the Times that China isn’t worthy of hosting.  There are gonna be flare-ups during the games once the flame is lit.  There will be people walking around smoggy Beijing in surgical masks.  Some gold-medal winner is gonna say something about Tibet.

It is that sub-plot surrounding these games that will make it very interesting from a media consumption standpoint.  Who reports without fear?  What will the consequences be?

-Continental Airlines president Jeff Smisek shed some light on the entry-to-China issue with comments during the company’s quarterly earnings conference call last week.  Smisek said bookings on Continental’s Newark-Beijing route during the Olympics travel period have been below expectations in part because China is “making it more difficult to obtain both tourist and business visas.”

-The Monday departure of Giants tight end Jeremy Shockey to New Orleans marks an end to what you’d have to say is a disappointing failure of potential for the bruising and skilled pass-catcher in New York.  Yeah, his numbers over six seasons are solid, and he had periods of dominance and toughness that made him very popular with the fans.  But, ultimately it was his inability to dedicate himself to the team concept that got him dealt for a second and fifth rounder.  Perhaps he’s landed in a spot where it’ll be more about him, which is what it seems like he wants.  We felt bad for Shockey when the broken leg late in last year’s Giants regular season kept him out of the magical post-season run that ended in Glendale.  It had to torment him.  We’re also not convinced that the Giants will be better off with Kevin Boss as the starting tight end.  But Shockey is the one who punched this ticket out of town.  He finds himself in a place now where the drinks are tall and with a head coach more conducive to shrugging off his outbursts.  We’ll miss him.  Giants fans will miss him.  Eli and Tom probably won’t.

7-22-08 0200

Continental Airlines released its financials for the three-month quarter ending June 30 on Thursday and most of the business media reported it the way the airline wrote the press release.  But if you really examine the numbers, you see how ugly the math is even for what’s considered to be one of the stronger air carriers in this country.

The revenue side of the equation wasn’t bad, with boosts in ticket prices helping to generate an extra $334 million from the same quarter a year ago.  Problem is, all of it and then some was swallowed up through increased jet fuel spending.  The company spent $1.363 billion in the second quarter on airplane gas vs. $821 million over the same three-month period a year ago.

To put that $542 million increase and $1.363 billion total jet fuel spending for the quarter in perspective, the company spent a total of $704 million on payroll.  In other words, for every buck it spent paying a worker to operate the airline, it cost about two more to buy the gas.

Continental’s math applied various dollar-generating maneuvers outside the day-to-day operation during the reporting period to announce that the quarter was a near-wash.  But the relevant numbers are plus-334 mil on the revenue side, minus-668 mil on the expense side quarter vs. quarter.

The other important number announced by Continental is that its cash stack sits at $3.4 billion.  The company says that money pile will likely be a half-billion lighter come October 1.

Cash on hand is a crucial measure for US airlines with oil price uncertainty and sluggishness across the economy.  Airline cash levels are a measure of survivability.  If Continental can outlast let’s say United and/or US Air should one or both of the latter two run out of cash, the carriers left standing may gain greater leverage to ratchet up the revenue side of the equation.

Really unclear is how the recent short-term drop in oil prices (more than $15 in the last week) will impact decision-making at the airlines.  Accurate projections and planning on the cost side is very difficult with fuel prices so wildly volatile.  Add to that what we’ll call the camel’s back conundrum.  At what pricing level will the average air traveler bail out and not fly?

We’ve heard some non-Wall Street airline analysts with decades in the industry suggest that the future will revert to what air travel looked like in the 60’s and 70’s.  “The tank top and flip-flop crowd is gonna get shut out,” said one trusted observer we spoke to.  Fewer flights, expensive tickets, better service, fewer delays and a business model that is in line with the reality of jet fuel costs.

-We caught the Hold Steady’s performance on Letterman early Thursday.  The band did “Sequestered in Memphis,” a weak tune off their new record Stay Positive.  Neil Young preceded the Hold Steady, and discussed his new documentary film which captures audience reaction to his anti-war record released a few years back.  Letterman asked Young (who vividly captured Vietnam War dissent in his songwriting) whether he was surprised by the lack of anti-war sentiment in this country.  Said Young:  “I’m not surprised.  Everybody talks about how this generation isn’t involved.  But they’re not threatened.  There’s no draft.  This administration was smart enough to figure out in this case that if they had a draft, they’d probably be voted out.  They sent the same people into combat over and over again rather than do that.”

-Music critic Jon Pareles pointed out in the Times that Wednesday’s Shea Stadium appearance by the Piano Man makes Billy Joel the only musician ever to headline the area’s three big stadiums:  Shea, Yankee and Giants.

-We’re working Saturday, so we won’t be able to get down to the big Siren Music Festival on Coney Island.  But big high-fives to C-Dub, Dave and Russ (working collectively under the trade name Deadheat) for landing the high-exposure DJ slot at the event’s

We made a special effort to get back in town to see the great Tim Lincecum Tuesday.  The Mets returned home on a muggy, windy night at Shea and sailed behind Mike Pelfery to a 7-nil whitewash that put the Amazins an amazin’ game and a half back in the division.

Lincecum struggled through a bad first inning.  He was out of the zone high and hittable.  Pelfrey was great, giving up just three hits in seven innings.

After sipping cheap beers for a week in St. Lou, it was harsh reality to return to the home park and pay eight bucks a pop for sixteen-ounce aluminum bottles.

We went to the game with our pal Mike, who doesn’t have a team he really roots for.  He’s a big baseball fan but for whatever reason, Mike doesn’t love either New York baseball team.  His baseball game attendance is often driven by the important game – a dramatic stage – or an exciting pitcher.  So, with cover boy Lincecum making the Tuesday start for Frisco, Mike was out for the occasion.

We actually had Lincecum circled on the calendar for Wednesday night and a matchup with Johan.  But at some point Sunday or Monday, Giants manager Bruce Bochy switched things up and announced Lincecum would start Tuesday – bypassing the number five slot in the rotation.  Lincecum stayed on four days rest and will get an extra start in before the All-Star break.  It makes sense from a competitive standpoint, but you wonder whether it makes more sense to give the fireballer an extra day and treat him soft given the state of the Giants.

Russo on the FAN is a big Giants fan and claimed that NL All-Star manager Clint Hurdle has already leaked his decision to start Brandon Webb next Tuesday at Yankee Stadium.  Lincecum deserves that honor, of course.  But Russo believes that Bochy got wind of Hurdle’s decision and changed his planning for Lincecum based on the snub.

We haven’t read anything suggesting Hurdle made on-the-record statements about Webb.  But a story by San Jose Mercury News writer Ann Killion mirrors Russo’s theory.

Giants fan Chris Berman strolled the field before the game (pictured above with the Gents’ skip).

Attendance at the game was a pretty honest 48.887.  The mezz and loge were mostly full and the upper deck had only open pockets in the corners.

Barry Zito (pictured above) pitches Thursday afternoon at Shea for the Giants.  The Mets nearly signed the lefty ace a few years back but ultimately backed off because of what they said was a team vow not to sign pitchers to a contract that exceeded five years in length.  The Mets of course would later break that organizational pledge when they gave Johan the extended bank-buster before this season.

Johan pitches tonight.  The Mets are back in business and the buzz is back in Queens.

There are plenty of problems with the Mets right now.  But in a dysfunctional division, maybe Jerry and the crew can get on a roll.  They’re two over break even with a four game win streak and in a pretty good spot right now.  Five games before the break and nobody but Wags has to burn energy going to the mid-summer classic.  Who knows.  Maybe the Mets are back?

7-9-08 0030

Out here in Huntley, IL - the times they are a changing.  Bulldozers and earth-diggers have begun converting a cornfield into a new Super Wal-Mart.  The huge big box store is popping up on the fringes of the sprawling Del Webb development that has now sold most of the 57-hundred new houses built for folks entering their retirement years.  When we first started visiting the folks when they moved in here a few years ago, there was a rural accent on the immediate surroundings.  It was more farm feel than busy suburb.  But because of the influx of population - and continuing addition of housing development, the landscape is changing here in Huntley.

Due east of here in the communities of Lake in the Hills and Algonquin, you can get a preview of how this is likely gonna turn out in Huntley.  On a stretch of four-lane Randall Road that goes on for a least a couple of miles, there’s nothing but box stores like Super Target, Circuit City, (regular) Wal-Mart and Costco.

Chain restaurants and other popular retail stores fill the nooks and crannies between the retail powerhouses.  Big vehicles file off Randall Road into big parking lots.  Big people walk into the big stores to buy the biggest bottles of A-1 Steak Sauce we’ve ever seen.  They can get big rolls of paper towels and big bags of chips.

It’s big-time.

But it all seems like a bad thing in the long run. People buy big stuff at a good price.  But proceeds from the sale fail to go in the pocket of a local entrepreneur.  It goes to somebody big in another big place.

It all seems to lack soul. It seems depressing to get in a line of traffic to file into a big parking lot of buy the stuff that sustains you.  A cruise down Randall Road shows nothing but retail powerhouses elbowing each other for room.  We’re not knocking Costco.  They were giving out a bunch of free hot snack samples Monday afternoon and some of their stuff is of high quality.  But city planners are mistaken if they believe the creation of retail assembly lines dominated by mega-outlets can sustain long-term positive interaction with the community.  Eventually, you’d think people start to realize that the relationship between consumer and retailer is about more than getting stuff cheap.  It’s about a mutually-beneficial relationship that is rooted in the idea that’s what is good for the business is good for the community.  When it comes to the big box store, it’s hard to make that case.

-Those who use the Chicago Transit Authority’s “Blue Line” train to get in and out of O’Hare Airport this month are in for a hassle.  Beginning tomorrow, the train won’t stop at the airport.  There will be no train service at all between the airport and Rosemont until July 28th. Rosemont is the first stop after one leaves O’Hare for downtown.  The shutdown will allow the CTA to rehab the rails.  A shuttle bus will carry passengers between O’Hare and Rosemont, which is gonna be a guaranteed hassle - especially for those carrying luggage.

-Great story and picture in the Sun-Times Monday about a 54-year-old grocery store worker who gets to work via bus - and unicycle.  Joseph Bilder of Chicago Ridge takes a Pace bus to Orland Square.  He stows his unicycle underneath the bus seat and then jumps on it for the final leg of his journey to work.  A picture accompanying the Sun-Times story shows Bilder on his unicycle.  He’s wearing black shorts, a white shirt, a black tie and black socks with black shoes.  To see him in that outfit riding a unicycle is funny.  But the way Bilder tells it, the unicycle isn’t a gag.  “I’m really comfortable on it,” he told reporter Carly Mullady.

7-7-08 1800

The home base for the family visit shifted from Park Ridge, IL to Huntley, IL Sunday evening.  But not before a couple of side trips earlier in the day.  I rode the Chicago Transit Authority’s #68 bus down Northwest Highway to the Jefferson Park station at about 930 AM Sunday to visit an old friend who can make an egg over easy with the best of them.

The #68 picks up just a block from my brother’s house and passes at somewhat regular intervals. It doesn’t run 24 hours, however.

I paid the two dollar fare with cash through a slot on the fare box that accepts paper currency.  I stepped on near the starting point of the route.  It was just me and the driver for the first half of the journey.  In all, just three people other than me entered the bus during the entire route which runs from Park Ridge through the neighborhoods of Edison, Norwood and Gladstone Parks before terminating at the Jeff Park transit hub.

When I took the 68 back to Park Ridge about mid-day, I was again one of just a few people riding the route.  When I exited the back door just a half-mile short of Touhy, I left the driver all by himself and said: “Thank you.”

The sparseness of the crowd on the #68 in both directions reinforces a theory that I have floated before and after I left this city ten years ago.  People who complain that the CTA sucks should focus some of their negativity towards the fact that nobody rides it.  Lack of ridership begets lack of service.  People complain all day about inefficiencies in the CTA’s administration and day-to-day operations.  But if nobody is putting money into the fare box, what else is the CTA to do other than trim service?

The bus I rode on was clean, cool and had a bike rack on the front of it.  The bus had advanced technology that reads a rider’s fare card with nothing more than a quick flash of the card.  On top of all that, the CTA has rolled out what it is calling “Bus Tracker” which allows riders to pinpoint the precise location of the bus they’re waiting for via a mobile web device.

It seems to me that the CTA offers a modern product that suffers because people don’t ride it.  People would rather sit in bumper to bumper traffic on the Kennedy Expressway, I guess.

-We got to see the last hour or so of the Federer/Nadal classic. Since we couldn’t really hear the sound on the NBC telecast, we’re not sure if Robinson/McEnroe addressed the contingency plan for darkness.  Clearly, if Nadal didn’t break Roger in the fifteenth game of the fifth set, the match would have dragged into Monday.  The race against the clock added to the drama of it all.  One thing that amazed me is the apparent lack of player fatigue late in the match.  Both Nadal and Federer executed at high levels.  There was some amazing shotmaking as the match hit the four-hour plus mark.

-After the tennis match, we left with the P’s (now liberated from four-days of babysitting) to visit my Grandpa in Northlake, IL.  He lives in a “Catholic retirement community” and has a nice two-bedroom apartment on an upper floor of the well-kept facility.  My Grandpa turns 100 years old in February and still very much has his wits about him.  His legs are weak and he lost his wife of 72 years in 2005, but he gets up every day and carries on with great spirit and determination.  It’s very much not the bleak and depressing picture that one would often associate with people who get real old.  That’s not to say there haven’t been difficult physical and practical issues faced by my Grandpa - and corresponding concerns by the many people who love him - but the twilight of his long existence is far more than just hanging around. His strong will to continue is inspirational.  Today, we sat outside his residence with him as he presided over three rounds of his favorite game “Rummy Tile.”  He scanned the table and arranged the numbered game pieces to defeat us as soundly as he often did thirty years ago.  At one point, we thought his mind drifted away momentarily as he misplaced a game piece.  Turns out it was a deliberate ruse - and a reminder he still isn’t ready to pull up the stakes and quit trying to survive just yet.  It can’t be easy losing strength and independence, but here’s a guy that is fighting hard to stick around.  He won’t tell you much about how hard it is. But you can tell it isn’t easy.

7-6-08 2120

Greetings from Park Ridge, Illinois where we’ve joined the folks as they look after their grandson on this holiday weekend.  Sam the Man’s Mom and Dad are out of town so the Grandparents have baby-sitting duty - which they love.

We checked out of our downtown St. Louis lodging spot at 8 AM Friday and panicked briefly when the doorman said a morning Independence Day parade had made the normal taxi-cab pickup spot in front of the hotel inaccessible to vehicular traffic.  We walked south a half-block and found a cab that penetrated the parade perimeter and were delivered to Lambert-St. Louis International without the excitement and excessive speed that punctuated our cab ride into town.  The fare was $31.70.

Since the airline we work for had trimmed its schedule for the holiday, the only good way to get to Chicago on planes with space was routing that will make you laugh.  To get from St. Louis to Chicago we had to fly 700 miles due south to Houston and then catch a connecting flight back up north to Chicago.  The return was another 950 miles or so.

What would normally be a quick one-hour trip was for us four hours plus of flying time - and a total of eight hours spent if you throw in the waiting, screening and running around to and from time.

None of it was a hassle, though.  There was a mellow, holiday vibe throughout the process and on the flight from Houston to Chicago, we got to sit in a chair near the front that was wider than most and was covered in slippery leather.

One thing we noticed about spending the fourth in a suburban community that has stand alone houses with yards:  there are lots of individual fireworks programs that include loud booms and screaming aerial explosions.  It’s not enough I guess to attend one of the many fireworks shows put on by the municipalities.  Owning a yard is license to blow stuff up and make a lot of racket.  In some cases, people in the neighborhood we're staying in detonated what sounded like small, window-rattling bombs.  

Having traveled all day, our fourth was low key otherwise.  The folks got salads and sandwiches for dinner from a chain outfit called the Panera Bread Company and we spent some of the evening watching Cubbies/Cards.

The weather here is beautiful.  Tonight, we’ll throw a pork tenderloin on the grill and watch Sam the Man push around this special made-for-kids lawnmower that has little alligator heads on it that bob up and down as he pushes it.  Good times.

-We really enjoyed the one-hour debut of TSR Radio a few days ago and would like to thank those who called in.  Thanks to Perl, Pops, Gretchen and Beth for your contributions to the show.  As we listened back to the replay of the program, one glaring error stands out.  We cited incorrectly the dates of our time in Columbia, Mo.  It was from 1984 to 1988 - not ‘88 to ‘92 as we stated on the radio program.  Expect installment number two of TSR Radio to come your way on Wednesday, July 23rd as TSR travels to Philadelphia to see the great Chicago rock and roll band The Prairie Spies at a venue called The Khyber.  It is our hope that a member or two of the band will join the program for an interview.  We also hope to line up a local cheesesteak maker to discuss the sandwich and its importance as a culinary cornerstone of that great city.  For details on starting time, guests and linkage to the live and archived stream of the 7-23-08 show, click on the “TSR Radio” tab as the date draws near.

-One more reference note.  To view a slew of photos from our four-day stint in St. Looie, simply click on the “St. Lou Pix” tab at the top of the page.  We’ll leave ’em up there for a week or two.

Enjoy the holiday weekend.

7-5-08 1230

Our fourth and final Met game Thursday night in St. Louis produced a split in the series.  It was a 11-1 Met win that numbed the home fans.  Normally, a series split by the Mets on the road against a tough team would be satisfying - but this series felt different.  The Mets remain a game under break even with a week and a half before the all-star break and the bullpen stink-job and dramatic loss on Wednesday is what we’ll remember about this set.

Yeah, Pelfrey was solid again for the Mets on Thursday. He hummed a 95 mph fastball and had great movement on all of his pitches, shutting down the Redbird lineup.  But there was still a bitter taste about this series from the night before, when Carlos Muniz was allowed to decide a crucial contest that ended in crushing defeat.

Rookie Cards starter Mitchell Boggs had control problems and got rattled early Thursday, botching a couple of squibbers in the first. It was Mets 3-nil after one and nine-nil after three.

Boggs gave up eleven runs, walked six over six innings.  Normally, Boggs would have been yanked as he was battered in the third but when Tony LaRussa is the manager, you can’t expect the expected.

LaRussa let Boggs (pictured above) linger ineffectively much longer than most skippers because he wanted to preserve his bullpen for this weekend’s Cub series at Busch.

Albert Pujols stayed stuck on 299 home runs.  Pelfrey struck him out in the first and got him to fly out in the fourth (pictured above).

We went to the game with good friend and former college roommate Dan from St. Lou.  Dan scored great tickets behind the plate from his brother Steve who sat with his son a few sections away.  As we entered Busch Stadium about an hour before first pitch, the skies opened up with a drenching downpour.  We sat it out under cover, sipped on 24-ounce Buds sold by a stadium concessionaire and monitored the weather radar via Dan’s I-phone (pictured above).

Before the game, we went for dinner at Bartolino’s near the intersection of Hampton and I-44 (inside the Drury Inn).  Back in the mid-80’s, Dan and I would often go for pizza and cold Bud bottles at the original Bartolino’s - which at that time was located a few blocks down Hampton - and a stone’s throw from the old Checkerdome (where the Blues once played their home games).  Bartolino’s is one of three St. Louis dining spots run by members of the Saracino family.  Dan is a pal of Chris Saracino - who got his chops working all phases of the family’s restaurant biz before opening his own place.  Chris’ Pancakes and Dining opened in 1989 a few miles south of where Bartolino’s is located.  It is said to be an excellent breakfast spot.

We really enjoyed our four-game road trip to St. Louis and cherish the visits we had with great friends each night.  Friday morning we get on a bird for a trip to Chicago, where we’ll spend a few days with the P’s who are engaged in holiday weekend babysitting duties for nephew Sam the Man.

A few other notes:

-We can’t remember ever going to a ballpark that sells beers to fans on the outside of the stadium.  But that’s what they do at Busch.  Vendors sell beer to fans on the ballpark’s perimeter and there’s no prohibition on fans carrying cups of beer before and during the game.

-Before each of the four games we saw, both God Bless America and the Star Spangled Banner were performed back to back.

-Met reliever Aaron Heilman passed time before Wednesday’s game using his cleats to create an artistic impression on the warning track in the left field corner.  When he was finished, a large smiley face appeared in the fine gravel/pebbles which brought a smiley to my face.

-Over the course of this four-game series, there must have been at least 25 shattered bats.  Clearly, something is wrong with the lumber these days.  Expect changes soon.

-We saw a guy Wednesday walking around with a t-shirt mocking the Cubs.  It said:

C ompletely
U seless
B y
S eptember

7-4-08 0030

It’s much too late - and too much cold Bud was consumed to provide much of an account of Wednesday night’s game - but it should be said that game three of the Met/Cards series here in St. Louis was the rare classic regular season affair.  It was a thriller. 

If we were the manager, there’s no way we would have pitched Aaron Heilman for the third consecutive night in a row, not to mention he was allowed to start a second inning.  And there’s no way we let Carlos Muniz pitch the ninth for the Mets.  There’s no way Muniz belonged in the game in the first place - but when he gave up the deep fly ball out to Ankiel, the jig was up on his ability to close out the inning.

Where in the heck is Billy Wagner in this spot.  The Mets are in big time games right now trying to get back to break even.  And Jerry Manuel is allowing Muniz to decide the season?

You probably know what happened.  Glaus gets the walk off homer to end a thrilling back and forth game that ended 8-7 Redbirds.

Lightning flashed throughout the contest and there was a 47 minute rain delay that broke things up in the third.  Pedro was hit hard and often to begin the game and eventually settled into a groove, which makes you believe he’ll continue to reach back for some old magic despite the fact that he’s no longer a legit top of the rotation guy.

I don’t know.  It was a tough game to lose.  Jerry pushed all the wrong buttons.  But it was a thrilling baseball game.  A typical St. Louis night with humidity and fans dressed in red dancing in the aisles when it ended.

I’ll save the rest of the story for tomorrow.  Time to get some shut-eye.

7-2-08 0245

The Mets got the bats going here in St. Louis in the second game of a four-game set Tuesday night.  The eight Met position players in the starting lineup had fourteen hits and carried spot starter Tony Armas to a 7-4 win on a beautiful night near the Mississippi River.  The Mets now sit one game under break even and are very much alive in a weak division.

New Met manager Jerry Manuel is said to preside over a much looser clubhouse these days, which makes sense since the skipper’s job security (or lack thereof) is no longer a discussion point.  Manuel (pictured above) is pretty much guaranteed to finish the season no matter how it goes down.

We sat in a twenty-dollar left field bleachers seat with Jackie and Leo and continued to enjoy the concept of a twenty-four ounce cup of beer for $8.75.

Before the game, we went to Al Hrabowsky’s place just a block south of the ballpark for a few rounds of three-dollar drafts and some chicken wings.  When we first got there, a guy in a Rolen shirt approached and said: “You’re in the wrong bar.”  Wearing Heilman’s number 48 on our back, we weren’t sure what to say, so we simply smiled.  Had big Leo been there at that point, the punk in the Rolen shirt probably wouldn’t have had the courage to intimidate.

Overall, Cardinals fans have been hospitable and primarily interested in talking baseball.

Hrabowky’s is an ok joint.  The men’s bathroom attendant promotes a one-way mirror looking in on the women’s bathroom entrance, which seems like a lawsuit waiting to happen.  You kind of get a hick vibe on the place.

A sign in the bar says “Denkinger and InBev - Bad Calls.”  The sign attempts to link the former MLB umpire who blew a call at first base in the ‘85 series with the Belgian brewer trying to take over the Anheuser Busch Brewery based in St. Louis.

We entered Busch Stadium two hours before first pitch to watch BP.  Delgado was crushing long balls and Reyes seemed in good spirits despite an avalanche of critical media reports back in New York questioning his in-game baseball smarts.

A father and son (pictured above) seemed to be genuinely thrilled at the balls that were being launched deep as Met hitters worked out of the cage.

Tonight, Pedro (pictured above) starts for the Mets.  It’s a big moment in his Met career.  He has been mostly mediocre in his limited duty this year - and his last start was bad.  On Tuesday, he spent much of the pre-game playing catch with Heilman and appeared to engage Heilman in in-depth discussion on mechanics and arm angles.  They both demonstrated various throwing motions and seemed to be coaching each other.

Pedro’s fastball garners little more than 85 mph on the gun these days, so his curve is his bread and butter.  It has not been a pretty sight at times seeing such a legendary and crafty starting pitcher be reduced to such a limited bag of tricks.

The USA Today was sitting on the carpet outside our hotel room door as we exited for breakfast in the morning.  The lead story in the sports section suggested that former Cardinals great and home run king Mark McGwire will soon return to baseball - most likely as a hitting coach or instructor.

It’s hard to tell whether McGwire is still loved in St. Louis.  You see the occasional McGwire jersey or t-shirt, but he doesn’t appear to have the impact of a legend. In our view, the only condition he must meet to get active duty privileges restored is a public acknowledgement of his artificial aid in gaining the big power stroke.  For redemption, McGwire needs to look no further than the script written by Jason Giambi.

We’re back at Busch tonight and have a seat with St. Louis Tim in an area that provides an open beer tap and unlimited munchies.  It’s not a skybox or a suite. It’s a section that acts like one - but is open to the public.

Back tomorrow with a recap.  Don’t forget to check out TSR Radio at 3PM today.

Go Mets.

7-2-08 0030

Mets got smoked in the first of four games here in St. Louis.  7-1 was your final.  24-ounce beers are $8.75 a pop, which is great.  And the new Busch Stadium is nice.  We joined Jackie and Leo and sat in what were sold as “field boxes” when they first went on sale months ago.  The seats in section 160 were sixty bucks a pop and kinda stunk considering the price level.  We were in the dead middle of a row with about 35 seats across and sat in an elevated position above left field line.

We bailed on the assigned seats once it was clear the Mets hadn’t come ready and took a lap to explore the stadium.  We were most blown away when we arrived in the upper level down the right field foul pole and got incredible views of both the field (pictured above) and the Arch.

We had a foot-long brat and three of those big beers and simply just soaked in the beautiful night despite the tank job by our favorite team.

After the game, we walked toward the casino and got a full-on view of the Arch that knocked our socks off (pictured above).

Jackie hit a big number at the casino playing the slots and bought drinks at a place St. Louis Timmy steered us to down by the rushing, flooded Miss - uh - sipp.

Before the game, Pedro signed a bunch of autographs down the left field line.  On each signature, he spends a solid twenty-five seconds on the final product.  It’s not unusual for him to smile or discuss something as he accepts what’s handed to him (pictured above).

The Cardinals are a pretty amazing team, overachieving with a roster that lacks the kind of high-paid talent assembled by the Mets.  The Cards prove that there’s more to buying a fancy, no-chemistry team.

At twelve games over five-hundred, the Cardinal schedule had been road intensive the last two months prior to Monday‘s win.  St. Louis played 18 of the last 24 games away from home and 32 of the last 51 on the road.

LaRussa continues to bat his pitcher in the eight spot and the lineup continues to find ways to score runs.

We’ll have more to say on the ballpark as we delve deeper into its nooks and crannies.

To get from our hotel near the airport to new digs downtown on Monday, we took a taxi in blue and white colors about mid-day.  It was perhaps the most harrowing taxi ride we’ve ever taken.  No exaggeration, the driver went 85 mph the entire way down the interstate. All the while, he spent half of the time looking down at a small computer screen that fed him information about his next fare.  We hung on for dear life and actually decided it was time to say a silent prayer.  Large rings of sweat under our armpits appeared as we exited the taxi.

Once we settled at the new hotel, we bickered with the front desk about getting a room that lacked the promised high-speed internet connection.  It took a solid three hours to resolve that dispute.  But hey, it’s all good because we’re on vacation.  It sure beats working.

Hopefully, the Mets (at two under break even) can come back Tuesday night and get things going.  How can you not be confident?  We’ve got Tony Armas up from triple-A to start the game.  If things go bad, at least there’s a 24-ounce can of Bud available at St. Louis prices to ease the pain.

7-1-08 0145

With thunderstorms causing near-daily disruptions in air travel in New York, I left a day earlier than planned to make sure I hit St. Lou for game one of the Mets/Cards series Monday night.  I jumped on a 10 AM Sunday departure out of LaGuardia to Cleveland.  From there, I was hoping for an empty seat on a 12:30 PM departure from Cleveland to St. Louis.  Since my job is with an airline, all it takes is an empty seat and I’m good to go.  But with summertime travel in full swing, finding an empty seat can be tricky.

When I arrived at the gate being used for the Cleveland-St. Louis flight, there were 53 paying customers vying for 50 seats.  Airlines sometimes overbook flights playing a mathematical hunch that not everyone will show.  In this instance, the agents working the flight were offering $200 airline gift certificates and a confirmed seat on a flight later in the day to entice three people to give up their seats.

As departure time approached, a young couple with an infant became the first two volunteers.  That left 51 paying customers trying to fit on a plane with 50 seats.  Since nobody else accepted the low-ball compensation offer to give up their seat, a man was held off - involuntarily.  A woman traveling with the guy who got yanked elected to stay with the man.

It created an unexpected last-minute open seat.  But in all the excitement, the aircraft door was closed, and the airplane rolled back before I could step on.  It’s not clear if the agent allowed the flight to leave with an empty seat simply because she didn’t realize there were employees hoping to ride, or whether she felt it couldn’t be justified since paying customers were paid to stay off.

Either way, that horse was out of the barn - so to speak - and I had to go to plan B.  When you work for an airline, you learn to construct back-up plans in advance.  Since the remaining two flights to St. Louis on the airline I work for were sold out and came much later in the day, I visited the “staff travel office” to execute plan B.

The woman working the desk in the staff travel office had a contact at Southwest Airlines and inquired about the space available on a 2:20 PM Cleveland/St. Louis flight on Southwest.  The contact sounded optimistic, so I purchased a reduced fare “pass” to ride on the Southwest flight.  Most airlines have reciprocal agreements that allow airline employees to fly on each other’s carriers for a nominal fee if there is space available.

After making a long hike to the Southwest gate area in Cleveland’s terminal B, I was immediately handed a boarding card for the general admission seating style flight to St. Lou.  Southwest has a very unique approach to boarding. People are assembled in increments of five and put in boarding lines grouped in units of sixty.  The earlier one checks in, the better the boarding assignment one receives.  For fifteen bucks, any customer can buy a better spot in line.

My boarding card said “Group B, Number 57.”  Aside from a few people in Group C, I was among the last to board the nearly full flight.  Because of people’s obsession with sitting in the front of the airplane, I went straight to the back and found an empty seat in the last row on a window.  It was great.  Southwest is great.  Their employees seem to be positive and confident in their unique boarding system.  Since there’s no seat assignments, there is no boarding card to perforate or return to the customer.  People are seated quickly.

While Southwest doesn't adhere to the hub and spoke network concept, there are plenty of folks flying Southwest making connections.  On the St. Louis flight, an agent reviewed connection times and communicated irregular or disrupted connection plans to passengers who were impacted.

On the airplane, the casually-dressed Southwest flight attendants seem at peace and comfortable in their environment.  They get a little too shticky on the PA system for my liking, but a lot of people laugh at their jokes and irreverent approach to the legally-mandated safety speech before take-off.

I rarely fly Southwest largely because they have no presence at the three big metropolitan New York airports.  But I really respect their philosophy of quickly moving customers on and off airplanes so they can keep planes in the air where they belong.  Southwest has outsmarted the rest of the industry year after year by hedging jet fuel.  And the company must be doing something right with the collective bargaining agreements it has with a workforce that projects confidence and positive vibes.

The final approach into Lambert-St. Louis International Airport came from the south.  There was a fantastic view of downtown St. Louis from the left side of the airplane.  The mighty Mississippi was swollen and appeared mightier than we ever remember seeing it.  The Gateway Arch is stunning in its uniqueness.  I’m not sure whether people who look at it regularly realize what an unusual sight it is for people used to looking at dozens and dozens of skyscrapers.

Southwest does business out of the Lambert’s East terminal.  Since my checked luggage flew on the flight I failed to ride on, I had to take a complimentary shuttle van from the East terminal to Lambert’s main terminal.  From there, I sat down and did an Orbitz search looking for a reasonably priced place to stay the night.  I settled on the Comfort Inn, which I would give no more than two stars out of four.  It’s seen better days.  Monday, I move to classier digs downtown near the ballpark.

I didn’t really feel like exploring Natural Bridge Road outside the hotel, so I ordered an Imo’s pizza and a side salad and had it delivered to the room.  Imo’s hasn’t changed a bit since I last had it about twenty years ago.  It’s super thin with its own unique blend of what’s said to be provolone, cheddar and swiss cheeses.

The high temp hit just 76 degrees Sunday at Lambert.  Normally, the high is a sticky 88.

Monday, I take the act downtown and prepare for the first of four between the Mets and Cards.  It will be my first time at the new Busch Stadium.  Heck, it’s the first time I’ve been in St. Louis in probably ten or fifteen years.  I can hardly wait to see the ballpark.  Reports and pictures are sure to appear here all week.  And don’t forget TSR Radio on Wednesday afternoon.

6-29-08 1959

For the first time in the history of any New York pro sports franchise, the Giants say they will charge its season ticket holders a significant fee to retain their seats when they move into the new Giants Stadium in 2010.

The Jets will share residency of the new Giants Stadium and will likely announce a similar plan.

Known as the personal seat license or PSL – the Giants say season ticket holders will be asked to pay between one-thousand and 20-thousand dollars for each seat they choose to retain.  The one-time fee will be assessed on a sliding scale depending how good the seat is.  Since the new Giants Stadium has a different seating arrangement than the current facility, the Giants say seating assignments in the new building will be decided through a “fair and thorough process” using “account tenure and existing location” as key criteria.

The Giants say 90-percent of all the PSLs for seats in the upper bowl of the new stadium will carry a $1000 price tag.  The Giants also say fewer than five-thousand seats will have PSLs that cost the maximum 20-grand.

We thought the Giants would aim for higher dollars with this program.  Considering how valued a Giants season ticket is – and has been for a long time – we thought the PSLs would start at a minimum of 10-thousand.  Owners Mara and Tisch likely imposed restraint out of respect to the many families who have bought Giants season tickets and have passed them through three and four generations.

The PSLs offered by the Giants will allow those who purchase them to designate any successor of their choosing.  Currently, successors are limited to family members.

Yeah, in the sports fandom we operate in, PSLs are greed gone bad.  But if you really look at what the Giants are doing here with the leverage they have - and the prior sale of PSLs by other NFL teams in big markets that built new stadiums – it seems like the Giants aren’t going overboard.

The cost bar was set lower than we expected.  And that may be good for Jets fans who know their ownership cannot in good faith eclipse the scale set by the Giants.

6-26-08 1845

Readers of this online newsletter should be informed that The Sauerbrun Report will initiate a supplementary media offering next week.  TSR Radio is set to premiere Wednesday July 2nd.  TSR Radio will hit the air live at 3 PM East/ 2 PM Central on Wednesday and can be heard by clicking on the TSR Radio home page at www.blogtalkradio.com/T-S-R

The debut of TSR Radio will be a sixty-minute program from St. Louis.  Tune in live via the TSR Radio home page or listen later to the archived show via the same site.

TSR hopes to do a radio show with some regularity, especially when we hit the road or when we can get a newsworthy guest to join us.  A special tab at the top of this page will keep readers informed about the particulars of TSR Radio – dates, times, how to listen, etc…

With WBAI’s Bob Fass as an inspiration, one prominent feature of TSR Radio will be the unscreened acceptance of all listener phone calls during the program.

-The great four-year-old turf filly West of Gibraltar is slated to return to the races this afternoon, seeking her second straight victory.  Westie will run in the fifth at Belmont and should romp to victory at a short price.  Her last race was amazing.  She was forced to slam on the breaks repeatedly, yet still found enough late drive to win a thriller in a seven-furlong allowance race the Friday before Memorial Day at Belmont.  West of Gibraltar is a special horse.  She has bundles of stored-up late run and seems to be destined for greatness.  If you get a chance, her race will be run a few minutes after three PM today and can be seen on the usual horse TV channels.

6-26-08 0005

Yeah, the Mets had another bad loss Tuesday night, getting whitewashed by the Mariners.  But there was an incident in the fourth inning that made the Met fan feel good.  Carlos Beltran didn’t like a strike two call as he led off the fourth.  He pouted and moaned a little to home plate ump Brian Runge.

Rather than ignore Beltran, Runge escalated the incident by whipping out his whisk-broom to clean off a home plate that was already clean.  Runge was showboating to show who the boss was.  So, out of the dugout came new Mets manager Jerry Manuel who sensed his player was being baited.  Manuel expressed displeasure to Runge.  At this point, Runge made his second serious mistake of the sequence and initiated physical contact with Manuel.  That sent Manuel into a rage.  He got the thumb.  Manuel got his money’s worth and gave Runge an earful.  Soon after, Beltran jawed at Runge and got tossed too. After the game, Beltran said he had “never been more angry in his career.”

The crowd at Shea chanted “Jer-ry! Jer-ry! Jer-ry!” as Manuel entered the clubhouse tunnel to exit the game.  Manuel got the reaction because he was a manager protecting his player.  Inspired by his skipper, Beltran became a player protecting his manager.  Both of them stood up to an umpire on a power trip.  During Willie Randolph’s reign, there was no such reaction from the manager and corresponding response by his players.  To see Manuel challenge Runge Tuesday was refreshing and inspirational.  While Manuel’s presence hasn’t righted the ship since he took over a week ago, his display of passion and candor show Met fans something they haven’t seen since Bobby V. managed the team.

6-25-08 0138

While admitting that he and his radio partner Mike Francesa were ticked at each other for a solid six weeks starting in late March, Chris “Mad Dog” Russo has shot down a Newsday report that said Mike and the Mad Dog were splitting up.

On the air Monday, Russo said he believed the Mike and the Mad Dog show would carry on.  He said he was “caught totally by surprise” by the Newsday story written by Neil Best.  “Neil Best thinks he has something.  He’s a good reporter and I like Neil.  But unless WFAN is gonna pull the plug on yours truly, I don’t see how in the world this show is up by July 11th.”

July 11th is the date that Best indicated would likely mark the official end of the program.  Russo said Best’s story correctly observed the deep tension that existed between himself and Francesa, but Russo said a meeting called by their boss in mid-May resulted in a truce.

It’s unclear when Francesa and Russo’s separate contracts expire, but Russo indicated his runs through at least next year’s Final Four.

Among the trivial things the two became upset with each about this spring was a long-running on-air argument about who was more valuable:  David Ortiz or Manny Ramirez.  “We were fighting like cats and dogs,” said Russo.  “Our tolerance level was low,” he said.

-Mets radio play-by-play man Howie Rose opened the Monday night game broadcast on WFAN with a tirade against the New York Post.  Rose blasted the Post’s front page headline and accompanying story on page seven which twisted the words of new Mets manager Jerry Manuel.  Headlined: “S#!T HITS THE FANS,” Monday’s Post used portions of a statement Manuel made the day before in Denver describing his feelings on the notoriously critical fans at Shea.  The Post used a small excerpt of the Manuel comments to suggest the new Met manager was making a correlation between fertilizer/manure and Met fans.  But as Howie noted in his diatribe on the game broadcast, Manuel actually delivered a “rather eloquent explanation” about how booing of the home team can strengthen both player and team.  Having read the full text of Manuel’s remarks and the media questions that led to them on Met beat writer Adam Rubin’s blog, we’d agree with Rose who said the Post’s treatment of the story is “scandalously irresponsible.”

-As bad as the Post botched the Manuel story Monday, they had an excellent piece on the controversial new IKEA store in Red Hook, Brooklyn.  Reporter Rich Calder found that the big-box home products retailer may be breaking its pledge to employ mostly neighborhood residents.  Since IKEA refused to tell Calder how many of the store’s 560 jobs went to Red Hook residents, Calder said he randomly polled 75 IKEA workers on the day the store opened.  Of the 75, Calder says just 21 were from Red Hook.

6-24-08 0155

Citing “industry sources,” Newsday’s Neil Best dropped a big news bomb in Sunday’s paper saying the Francesa/Russo radio tandem is about to split.  Best says the relationship between the two has become strained.  “Several WFAN staffers have observed them feuding off the air in recent months,” said Best.  Mike (Francesa) and the Mad Dog (Chris Russo) have been together on the air for nearly two decades.  Best’s story suggested a split is imminent and may occur officially before the two are scheduled to return to the air together on July 11.  Normally, during the summer months, Francesa and Russo take alternating vacations and carry the afternoon program solo.  Best’s story earned a “no comment” from Francesa and a “that’s news to me” from Russo.  Interestingly, callers to WFAN’s other radio programs have been allowed to voice inquiries on the matter.  On Monday morning’s Marc Malusis graveyard shift show, callers peppered Malusis with questions about the Best story.  Malusis produced the Mike and the Mad Dog program for six years earlier this decade.  His repeated response to the Best story:  “No comment.”

As an avid listener to Francesa/Russo since 1998, we haven’t detected an increase in hostility between the two in recent months.  Francesa can sometimes appear indifferent to Russo’s presence – but the show requires them to interact and they do so in a consistent manner with each taking different positions on occasion.  Both have large annual salaries and their show has consistently good ratings.  If Best is right on this, there has to be something more to it than a personality clash.

One of the two will be on the air this afternoon and you’d expect the matter to be discussed.

-A passing thunderstorm north and west of LaGuardia shut down air traffic for the better part of an hour Sunday afternoon.  What happened soon after cannot be picked up on weather radar.  Starting at about 4:30 PM, pilots on board planes arriving on LaGuardia’s runway 22 informed the airport’s tower that somebody was flying a kite that had ascended into the lower fringes of arrival airspace.  Numerous pilot reports placed the kite at an altitude of 400 feet about a mile and a half from the end of runway 22.  Air traffic flow was not impacted.  What was significant was that such a plainly obvious breach of the airport’s safety net was allowed to continue for as long as it did.  An hour after the kite’s first sighting, air traffic controllers working in LaGuardia’s control tower were still warning inbound traffic of its presence.  With numerous airplanes and the tower controllers communicating within narrow spaces of time, the repeated alerts on the kite bogged down communication.  And what does it say about the airport’s ability to coordinate with law enforcement that such activity would be allowed to persist for so long?

-We watched Cubs/White Sox on Extra Innings Friday afternoon.  The feed came via Comcast SportsNet Chicago which does Cub games.  In the bottom of the fifth, there was a bang-bang play at first in which John Danks caught a toss from Nick Swisher to get a sliding Ronnie Cedeno by a hair, ending the inning.  First base ump Mike Dimuro called Cedeno out and the Cubs argued.  Before going to a commercial break, Comcast SportsNet rolled a replay from what it calls a “high-speed shutter cam” confirming that Dimuro’s call was correct.  We can’t remember ever seeing a more precise and visually clear video replay.  The technology is solid.

6-23-08 0220

As you’d expect in a gas price crisis, ridership is way up on Amtrak trains.  But a front page Saturday story in the Times details how little difference the national passenger rail carrier will make as people seek alternative forms of transportation.  Amtrak’s capacity to carry people is small in the grand scheme of things.  A lot of people quit taking the long train trip in the last thirty years - opting for a car or plane, instead.  Reporter Matthew Wald’s story used the “passenger mile” as his measuring stick and said that when Amtrak was conceived in 1970, the airlines collectively were 17 times larger.  Now, using the passenger mile as a measurement, airlines are one-hundred times larger than Amtrak.  Passenger travel via the open road is 900 times larger than rail travel.  People left the train in droves as cheap gas made the car and plane the travel modes of choice.  Amtrak’s importance faded quickly and it has struggled to remain relevant.  The US government still throws a billion dollars plus of taxpayer money into the Amtrak budget annually, but Wald’s story says the sudden interest in rejuvenating and expanding Amtrak is unlikely to produce quick results.  Wald cites a lack of train makers and Amtrak’s annual inability to be self-sufficient as obstacles to immediate growth in train infrastructure in this country.

Here in the Northeast, Amtrak has loyal backing from customers using the Acela service connecting Boston with New York and Washington.  It’s a quick and comfortable ride between the big cities.  Unfortunately, it’s the only portion of Amtrak’s national grid that comes even remotely close to the frequent high-speed service that exists across large parts of Europe.  With an estimated $30 billion in federal aid since it started, Amtrak should be in better shape than it is now.  Part of the problem is that Americans don’t really think train when they plan travel.  Now that they are, hopefully transportation planners can join the federal government in pushing for additional train infrastructure.  The huge reported spikes in both Amtrak ridership and on urban public transit need to be viewed as great opportunities to implement accelerated route and equipment upgrades.  If you give new riders a seat and a schedule, they’ll likely stick with it.

-The cushioned landing provided to our state senator John Sabini is one few non-politicians will be handed in life.  After a drunk driving arrest up in Albany last September, Sabini ended up pleading guilty to a reduced charge late last year.  The Queens democratic party machine recently moved to back Sabini’s popular Hispanic rival in the upcoming state senate primary, and you thought Sabini’s political career was cooked.  Not so fast.  He’s been handed a six-year term to chair the state racing and wagering board with an annual salary of $120,800.  Sabini’s withdrawal from the state senate race with Hiram Monserrate now likely means Monserrate will run unopposed.

-Willie Randolph wrote an essay-style account of his firing for the News.  It appeared in the paper Friday.  Among the new and interesting revelations was the fact that Randolph said GM Omar Minaya handed him an envelope after formally terminating him in Omar’s sixteenth-floor suite at the Westin in Costa Mesa last Tuesday morning.  “A parting gift,” said Randolph.  “It was a copy of my Met contract that basically says I better not say anything detrimental about the team, or I might jeopardize the rest of the money I have coming to me.”  Randolph clearly has deep misgivings about the controversial comments he made to reporter Ian O’Connor the Sunday of the Mets/Yankees series about a month ago.  “The bottom line is that by suggesting that the color of my skin had something to do with how I was judged, I did nothing but sow the seeds of my demise.  I kick myself about that every day.  It makes me angry – and really sad.”  Randolph says he went to Shea Thursday with his son to remove personal effects from his office.  He said his nameplate had already been removed from the office door.

6-22-08 0115

We hit two rock shows the last two nights.  One was a big arena gig featuring the still skilled and entertaining Tom Petty and his band the Heartbreakers.  The other was a much more intimate gathering in Brooklyn to see the Chicago band The Mannequin Men.

Our interest in Petty was rekindled with last year’s release of the Peter Bogdanovich documentary detailing the history of the band.  We also faithfully listen to Petty’s radio show on XM.  The fact that Heartbreaker guitarist Mike Campbell can still lay down the licks prompted us to waive our usual ban on attending high profile arena shows.

We sat on the floor at Newark’s Prudential Center just to the right of the sound board.  At about seventy-five rows from the stage, it was not the greatest vantage point to see the band’s facial expressions and the like.  A creatively aligned and deployed video system displayed live images of the band from devices above the stage.  The venue was packed except for sections behind the band.

We arrived in Newark via the PATH train and walked over to Scully’s Publick House hoping to enjoy a burger and a few cold ones before entering the arena.  Scully’s is one of just a few joints in the immediate vicinity of the venue and word of its presence has apparently become widespread.  At about 7:15 PM, Scully’s was jam-packed.  We didn’t feel like fighting the crowd, so we went into the show and had dinner inside the Prudential Center.  The Portuguese food concession on the upper level was closed, so we ended up getting the pulled pork sandwich from JT’s BBQ.

Steve Winwood was the opening act.  He did the Traffic tune Dear Mr. Fantasy and it made us “all happy.”  Petty went on about 9:30 PM and played a little less than two hours.  When the beer taps shut down about 10:30 PM, all you had to do if you wanted a drink was duck into one of the many lounges on the main level.  Black curtains are all that separates these lounges from the public.  You can’t carry your drinks out the regular entrance/exit back to your seats, but if you slip through the black curtain, you’re good to go.

The usher/concession/security staff at the arena in Newark is dominated by community residents and there is a real friendly vibe.  We prefer it as a music venue over Madison Square Garden because of the looser feel and better sound.  It was an enthusiastic and fun Jersey crowd that was dominated by couples in their 50’s.

Petty wheeled out the Wilbury tune End of the Line about half-way through the set.  You Don’t Know How it Feels was especially great.  Petty’s three song encore went:  Running Down a Dream/Gloria/American Girl.  The one tune we were really hoping for – Honey Bee- was absent from the set list.

Petty is 57 years old.  His face shows the years but his on-stage mannerisms remain unchanged going as far back to when we saw him play Alpine Valley in June of 1986.  He’ll hold his guitar up high, smile a lot and spend the entire set making connections with the audience.  It helps to have a songbook loaded with radio hits and an extremely competent backing band.

The night before Petty, we ventured down to Brooklyn’s Southpaw for The Mannequin Men.  Led by the talented singer/guitar player Kevin Richard (pictured above), the Men played before a gathering of about 35 people.  They went on about 1030 PM.  Richard berated the crowd for being subdued and launched into 22nd Century, a tune off its recent release Fresh Rot.  Twice, Richard climbed onto the drum set for a theatrical display.  The second time, he slipped and fell to the stage.  Outside Southpaw, the Men’s beat-up white van with Illinois license plates sat ready to take the band to DC for a show the next night.  The Mannequin Men tour returns to New York Saturday for a show at Cake Shop.  We voiced a request for our favorite Mannequin song Dead Kids but the band’s forty-minute set failed to include it.

After the show, we had a nightcap with birthday boy C-Dub and the boys at Freddy’s, a Prospect Heights tavern that serves as the hub of the anti-Ratner forces.  For the record, C-Dub is 38 years young.  Freddy’s is a bar threatened by eminent domain proceedings that would allow for the creation of the massive Bruce Ratner development that includes a new arena for the Nets.  TSR is a supporter of the new arena for selfish reasons.  We don’t publicly voice our support for the arena while sipping at Freddy’s.

Before the Mannequin Men show, we had dinner at a great Mexican restaurant called Maria’s on 4th Avenue and Union.  The guac is created on a table in the dining room and it’s excellent.  We had the salmon ceviche and a couple of steak tacos.  The pace of the meal was dawdling but the food and drink was top notch.  One of our Brooklyn pals said Fourth Avenue may someday look like bustling and busy Fifth Avenue.  As it stands now, Fourth is still somewhat desolate.  Its width makes high-speed traffic a potential obstacle to full development.

-We watched a large portion of the house sub-committee hearing on the state of thoroughbred horse racing broadcast on C-Span 3 today.  Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky of Illinois chairs the House commerce subcommittee that conducted the hearing and her opening remarks included a rebuke of Derby-winning trainer Richard Dutrow who said he would attend the hearing but announced at the last minute that he was skipping it.  Dutrow said he wasn’t feeling well and didn’t want to make the trip to Washington.  A card shaped as a tent was placed on the witness table.  It said “Mr. Dutrow” and it reminded viewers of his absence.  Said Schakowsky:  “Unfortunately, Mr. Dutrow never informed this committee of his illness and despite numerous attempts to reach Mr. Dutrow, he never notified anyone on committee staff that he would not be attending this morning’s hearing.  I’m disappointed by his absence.  I’m disappointed that he did not feel the need to notify the subcommittee directly of his decision,” said Schakowsky.  With no single entity or authority in control of horse racing in this country, the sport has become a fragmented mess.  The panel of speakers heard Thursday included ESPN’s Randy Moss and longtime breeder and horse owner Arthur Hancock.  The use of performance-enhancing drugs and the overall lack of clarity on what’s allowed was the theme of the discussion.  All of the panelists seemed in agreement that it may be time for federal government intervention in the form of a national racing commission that can administer oversight and enforcement of consistent regulations on drugs, breeding and issues that make the well-being of the animal front and center.  Dutrow likely sensed he would be a target of tough questions about admitted use of steroids in his barn.  We’re inclined not to believe Dutrow’s cited excuse for not attending the hearing.

6-19-08 1455

It had been pretty clear for at least a couple weeks that Mets manager Willie Randolph wouldn’t survive as skipper of a team that had been off track for a full calendar year.

The public debate in the last week or so had started to shift away from whether Willie deserved to stick around to the miserable way Omar and Wilpons were dragging out the termination announcement.

There are three power players in the Met organization:  GM Omar Minaya, Owner Fred Wilpon and Fred’s son Jeff Wilpon (the nerdy and clumsy de facto controller of the team).  Each hid behind each other as it became clear the ax on Willie would fall. None of the three wanted to be seen as the one responsible for the decision.

So it is not surprising that this trio of cowards would pull the trigger on Willie’s termination in the middle of the night a couple hours after the team won in Anaheim.  Using Father’s Day as an excuse for not executing a decision that had already been made, Omar and the Wilpons sent Willie on the long coast-to-coast charter flight Sunday night.  After returning to the team’s hotel after the win early Tuesday morning, pink slips were handed to Randolph, pitching coach Rick Peterson and first base coach Tom Nieto.

What makes it clear that the decision had been made days before was a series of leaks confirming it would only be that trio to go.  It went down exactly as forecasted.  The only aspect of it that’s surprising is that Jeff Wilpon capped off weeks of awkward non-support for Willie with an embarrassing separation episode that was cold and heartless.  We believe he made the final decision.

In last Saturday’s paper, Harvey Araton of the Times wrote about the humiliation Randolph was subjected to after the Wilpons allowed Willie to be a dead man walking for weeks.  “Keeping a man guessing on the guillotine, day after day, week after week, is more than unkind.  It’s lacking in class.”

So, now the Mets turn to bench coach Jerry Manuel (pictured above) who had been chit-chatting for a week about getting the job.  He was seen speaking at length with Omar assistant Tony Bernazard Monday night before the game – in plain view of Willie.  Blame Bernazard for undermining Willie on many occasions with his open pre-game huddles with opposing managers and inappropriate Mets clubhouse presence.

Manuel is by all accounts a nice guy but probably not capable of exerting the kind of barking bulldog approach you’d think would best work with a team that looks to be in a lethargic no-energy funk.

The guy we’ll miss most is Peterson.  Yeah, the bullpen is a mess right now, but Peterson has been credited with successful career turnarounds for a bunch of guys.  Peterson is a very smart and thoughtful guy with an approach grounded in Eastern philosophy and universal law.  He’s viewed as an oddball by some, but we loved the way he analyzed pitching mechanics and his day-to-day take on the baseball grind.

Peterson spoke to the media this morning as he left the team’s hotel and was all class with his parting statement.  “I’m the hardwood floor that’s getting ripped out and they’re gonna bring in the Tuscany tile,” said Peterson as he incorporated Zen into his departure.  “In the Eastern language, they write in symbols.  The symbol for problem and crisis, they also use for opportunity.  I’ve been given a great opportunity here and as I walk out that door I see my next opportunity.  I walk out in peace and I wish everybody else here the best.”

This whole awkward chapter of Mets history beginning with the last three weeks of September 2007 has been bad.  Bad for Willie, especially.  We hope he’s not bitter about the experience.  It took him forever to land his first managerial job, and it ended badly.  We’ll remember him as a guy who obviously took pride in what he did.  He was proud of his heritage and he was proud that he was managing in his hometown.  Willie wasn’t given the courtesy you’d like to see given his accomplishments but he probably knows that being a manager often ends as his reign did.

6-17-08 1700

Mark Cannizzaro’s column in Monday morning’s Post was highly critical of the full-round playoff format used by the USGA to determine the US Open champion.  Calling the Monday playoff format “a complete buzz kill,” Cannizzaro said “in all likelihood, the tournament will be over long before the players reach the fabulous theatre of grandstands that surround the 18th green.”

How wrong Cannizzaro was.  Tiger and Rocco provided a full round of Monday intrigue and took their battle to 18 for four nerve-wracking pressure putts.  Each of the four putts could have ended the tournament depending on the outcome of each - and the enormity of the putt sequence made your palms sweat.

The extra round wasn’t enough, so they played nineteen.  The better player won.  But Rocco broke out of a late career phase marked with a bunch of missed cuts and showed the world his happy-go-lucky, happy to be here personality in addition to a golf game that nearly won a major.  He nearly aced three, and the birdie putt on fifteen was amazing.  He played great, but if you watched the daily highlights with clips of Rocco’s US Open rounds, he missed a lot of short to medium putts.

As for Cannizzaro’s point that the 18 hole playoff is “anticlimactic,” set aside the thrilling result of this year’s US Open that turned that theory on its head.  After a playing a grueling 72 hole major tournament to a tie, shouldn’t the remaining participants settle the thing with a solid full-round test the next day rather than playing quick made-for-tv single sudden-death holes on the same day?  It’s a major championship.

The USGA is right on by having the US Open be the lone major to retain the full-round next day playoff.

Monday’s Mediate/Woods battle validates the format and hopefully it will stay in place for years to come.

-We’ve finally hit the end of our work week and are ready to air it out a bit the next two nights with back to back rock shows.  Tonight, it’s the Mannequin Men in Brooklyn and then an arena gig on Wednesday to see Petty one last time.  Expect reports on these shows in the days to come.

6-17-08 0215

For about a four-hour stretch Saturday evening, a wave of thunderstorms loaded with lightning effectively shut down LaGuardia Airport.  When the storms hit the small airfield on the northern edge of Queens a little before five PM, dozens of planes were in the air en route to LaGuardia.  Dozens more were waiting to take off.  The nature of the storms made it impossible to do either.

Inbound planes circled for as long as feasible but ended up diverting to cities in the northeast from Norfolk to Philadelphia to Newark.  Those planes would add fuel and wait for the storms in New York to pass.  The cities that received those planes had little time to prepare for them, in some cases less than a half hour.

Planes at LaGuardia waiting to take off sat in a long line that stretched almost the entire length of the airport.  The circumstances in those packed passenger cabins can promote claustrophobia as the planes sit for hours at a time before even beginning their journeys.  There’s not much food and drink on board and the uncertainty of it all can spark restlessness and frustration.

Those who fly the planes have limited legal lengths to their on-duty time which come into play when they sit on taxi-ways for hours at a time.  Once pilots hit a certain point of their day, they turn into pumpkins and aren’t allowed to fly.  In those instances, it’s typical for those flights to abruptly cancel.

Adding to the chaos at LaGuardia Saturday evening was the fact that the airport operator (Port Authority of New York/New Jersey) closed runway 13/31 for what it said would be a 36-hour “construction” period beginning at midnight Friday night.  It forced both arriving and departing aircraft to share the use of runway 22 which takes the departures over the densely populated neighborhoods of East Elmhurst, Jackson Heights, and Woodside.

For the flight crews that grew tired of waiting to depart as the continuing storms rolled in from the west, returning to the gate would be a logical choice except for the fact that the heavy lightning activity made deployment of ground crews dangerous.  Fueling is extremely risky if lightning is present and the servicing of airplane lavatories is not wise with lightning bolts zapping across the sky.

So, the planes sat.  Many of them for four hours.  Some cancelled.  The planes that were unable get from the cities they diverted to obviously couldn’t take people back out.

The heavy storms finally stopped sometime after nine PM but there was no catching up at that point.  While walking out of work about 130 AM, we saw hundreds of stranded travelers with blankets issued to them by the airport operator.  For those folks, it was a less than comfortable overnight at the airport.  What few area hotels exist sell out in no time.

Unfortunately, LaGuardia is set up in such a way that there’s no real comfortable place to sleep.  The non-secure areas are noisy.  The chairs are specifically made so people cannot sleep in them.

During all this excitement Saturday night, we tried to catch glimpses of NBC’s prime time coverage of the US Open.  We saw Tiger play 17 and 18 and couldn’t believe what we saw.  His reactions to the eagles on thirteen and eighteen – and the birdie bounce off the stick on 17 were memorable.

On Sunday, we thought Tiger would be unable to complete the round after seeing him crumple in pain after the tee shot at two.  But after that, the winces seemed few and far between.  He had a slight hitch in his gait, and continued to spray tee shots but his short game remained brilliant.

As Woods prepared to take his third shot out of a deep rough outside the green on the par four fifteen tied with Rocco Mediate, NBC’s Johnny Miller reminded the audience that Woods was doing something very special.  “This is like running the last few laps of NASCAR with a flat tire.  He’s got a bad knee and he still has a shot of winning the United States Open.  All these shots we’re seeing him hit a little crooked, this is not the real Tiger Woods.  This is guttin’ it out big time,” said Miller.

The Tiger putt on 18 to send the championship to a playoff was breathtaking and one you’ll remember for a long time.  It barely went it in, and NBC nailed the multiple replays from a half-dozen angles including the reaction from Mediate standing outside the scoring room.

After the round, NBC’s Roger Maltbie asked Tiger about what appeared to less outward expression of pain as he went along.  Woods smiled and said:  “I took some things to kinda relieve that.”  Maltbie failed to ask what Tiger took, but it musta been some good stuff.

After Tiger clinched the 18-hole playoff with the dramatic putt, NBC failed to immediately promote or inform viewers on the details of Monday’s tee time and who would broadcast it.  After a commercial break, that information came. ESPN and NBC will split the coverage with free TV covering the back nine.

Hopefully, Mediate can make that back nine interesting.  He’s obviously easy to root for and there will be great interest in whether Tiger can provide ever more magic at a tournament that will go down as one of the greatest ever because of his performance and physical condition.  Saturday’s Tiger hole-closers on 13, 17 and 18 and his Sunday finisher on 18 will be talked about forever.

-We don’t pay much attention to the band Coldplay, but we heard the tune “Violet Hill” on the radio a few days ago and can’t shake it from our hum cycle.  The song is track number eight on Coldplay’s new record Viva La Vida.

6-16-08 0130

If you happened to flip on C-Span2 this week, you saw marathon US Senate sessions devoted to arguments about US government efforts to ease the gas price crisis.

The proposed legislative solutions seem to break down along party lines. Democrats want to roll back tax breaks for the big oil companies.  They want to impose mandates on energy corporations that force improvements in refining capability and require larger investments in alternative/renewable energy development.  Democrats also suggest that the steep upward trajectory of oil prices is out of line with a strict supply/demand equation.  Florida senator Bill Nelson said on the senate floor Wednesday that a deep government probe into oil price movement could blow the lid off irrational pricing.  “The American people are now at the point of hurting so badly that we better shake ourselves out of our lethargy.  We better do the congressional investigations that are necessary to pry open this secret box to determine what is causing oil to keep going up and up – so we can give our people some relief.”

Republicans, for the most part want to break the legal seal on all the oil that sits beneath US land and territorial boundaries.  They want an easier path to more nuke plants and they mock democrats for stifling domestic energy extraction.

The deep philosophical division between the two parties has the US Senate unable to advance any kind of real energy price relief legislation.  It’s not clear whether government intervention would do much good, anyway.

But the way things went this week, it’s unlikely anything will happen.  GOP members have filibustered a bill that eliminates $17 bil in tax breaks for big oil and imposes a stiff tax surcharge on companies that don’t meet certain alternative energy benchmarks going forward.

Needing 60 votes to break the filibuster, a tally of the body Tuesday produced just 51 senators willing to advance the bill.  Among those who were not present for the vote: John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. McCain and Obama have valid excuses for missing key senate votes now and in the months ahead.  But it’s probably time for Hillary to get over her primary election defeat, and go back to her day job.

Neither national political party talks much about energy consumption reduction or funding mechanisms for improved public transit and bicycle right-of-way infrastructure.  That seems to be left to the states and localities to deal with.

-The Mets blew a late four-nothing lead Thursday afternoon and lost to the Diamondbacks.  Wags blew his third straight save chance and the look on the faces of Met players on the bench was grim.  Coming out of the game’s radio broadcast on WFAN, Francesa and Russo called it the worst Met loss of the year.  Francesa (wearing shorts to work this week) believes the ghosts of the devastating ’07 Met collapse continue to lurk everywhere this team looks.  “This team continues to have all this bad karma into June now.  You wonder…if you’re Wilpon, if you’re Omar Minaya.  What do I do?  What do I do to get this out of our system?  How do I get rid of this?  This team is better than this,” said Francesa.  “It almost looks like in the ninth inning that the fans expect to lose.  It almost looks like it did last year in the last week of September.”

-The AP’s Mike Fitzpatrick noted in his Met game story Thursday that David Wright is the only major leaguer to play every inning of every game this season.

-Continental Airlines followed up its fleet reduction announcement of last week by specifying routes it will eliminate this fall.  Among the cities that Continental will withdraw from completely are: Cali (Columbia), Chattanooga, Cologne (Germany), Guayaquil (Ecuador), Oakland, Palm Springs, Reno and Sarasota.

6-12-08 1955

Carlos Beltran went deep in the thirteenth inning Wednesday to end a crazy game on a beautiful night at Shea.  Most of the crowd had left after Wags blew a three-nil lead in the ninth.  But Beltran’s dramatic blast in the 13th ended a five game Met losing streak and likely kept Willie’s precarious hold on the managerial job alive for now.

It was a thrilling, quick-paced contest that turned into temporary agony when Wagner came on in the ninth.  Up to that point, Mike Pelfrey had pitched a masterpiece.  He was dominant throughout but got the hook in the ninth up three-nil.  Pelfrey gave up a hit to start the inning and was at 112 pitches.  So Willie called for his closer, Enter Sandman blared on the loudspeakers and you thought the game would end.  Wags struck out Orlando Hudson, gave up a double to Conor Jackson, struck out Chad Tracy and then faced Mark Reynolds with men on second and third.  Reynolds crushed a full-count Wagner fastball an estimated 420 feet into the picnic seats and the game was tied.

Wagner has blown four of seventeen save chances this season, with all four seemingly in spots that were extra critical.

The story of the game was Pelfrey (pictured above).  The Mets’ fifth starter used a 94 mph fastball with movement to fool the Diamondbacks lineup all night.  Met fans cheered him wildly throughout, chanting “Pelfrey, Pelfrey, Pelfrey” in loud unison.  When he got pulled, he was showered with cheers like we haven’t seen much this year.

The ticket situation on this night was a little out of the ordinary.  We usually buy a cheap upper deck seat at the day-of-game window and slip down into the upper rows of the mezz.  Now that we’ve hit summertime, the Mets have boosted ticket prices across the board under its color-coded pricing scheme.  Wednesday’s game was a “silver” game which made upper deck seats twenty bucks.  When we got to the window before the game, the ticket agent we usually buy from said that the Mets were selling mezz boxes for twenty bucks.  These seats under the “silver” designation would normally go for $64.  So, to be offered a mezz box on this night for just twenty dollars was a steal.  We ended up in a great aisle seat in section nine in the mezz box.  For those who bought their tickets in advance or through the internet under the regular “silver” pricing scheme, you got screwed.  All we can guess is that the Mets are not selling tickets at numbers they’d hope for and are going into day-of-game clearance mode to fill seats that would probably make for embarrassment if they were vacant.

We got to the ballpark for BP and saw new minor-league call-up Chris Aguila take a few swings and work his arm in left field.  We noticed that Post baseball columnist Joel Sherman spent several minutes speaking with Mets boss Jeff Wilpon near the Mets dugout (pictured above).  At no point during the conversation did Sherman put a pen on his notebook which would suggest the conversation was off-the-record.  But you’d guess that Sherman likely asked Wilpon how much clock is left on Willie’s job.

Wilpon’s presence on the field has to be a distraction for Willie.  Especially when Wilpon is seen talking to writers and opposing managers (Wilpon briefly embraced D-Backs skipper Bob Melvin).

Obviously, Wilpon couldn’t have expected a sub-500 team on June 12th after pouring big money into a team getting ready to move into a new ballpark next year.  But on Wednesday night, Pelfrey’s gem and Beltran’s blast made the team look like it had a little fight in ‘em.

6-12-08 0101

Nobody has come up with a clear-cut reason why Big Brown ran a dud in the Belmont Stakes last weekend, but the horse’s trainer is now saying it was the rider’s fault.  In an interview with Dave Grening of the Daily Racing Form, Dick Dutrow absolved himself and his training staff for any preparatory missteps leading up to the race.  Dutrow has convinced himself that blame for Big Brown’s Belmont bust lies with jockey Kent Desormeaux.  “I know he (Big Brown) went into this race unbelievable, so the rest Kent’s got to answer,” said Dutrow.

Desormeaux decided to stop the horse on the final turn when it was clear that Big Brown wasn’t keen on running.

Desormeaux and Big Brown seemed to fight each other exiting the starting gate.  There was resistance from the horse as the jockey tried to find track position from which he could settle in for the long mile and a half ride.

In the comments to Grening, Dutrow was especially critical of Desormeaux’s game plan out of the gate.  “I’m sure he (Big Brown) didn’t have any idea what the hell was going on in the first turn the way (Desormeaux) was switching him all over the damn track.  I don’t know what he (Desormeaux) was doing.”

Dutrow also made a mean-spirited claim that Desormeaux ducked him after the race.  “A lot of people came back to the barn – a lot of people – Desormeaux wasn’t one of them,” said Dutrow.

Grening’s story included immediate, respectful rebuttals from Desormeaux on all of the Dutrow low-blows.  Desormeaux has proven to be thoughtful and forthright throughout this triple crown, and needs to say little more about anything Dutrow spews after getting thrown underneath the bus.  Everybody who follows horse racing knows which of the two has credibility and which of the two is a fool.

What happened from Desormeaux’s standpoint is simple.  He asked Big Brown for acceleration at the appropriate time and the horse was empty.

There’s nothing about the ride you can second guess.  Had Desormeaux let the horse ride him rather than the opposite in the first turn, he would have been second-guessed for letting his mount expend too much early gas.  Desormeaux used the knowledge gained from the Derby and Preakness and applied it to the Belmont.  How was he to know that the animal beneath him would act and perform differently than what had transpired in his previous efforts?

Desormeaux is all class.  Dutrow is an ass.  If Big Brown runs in the Haskell, the Travers, or Breeder’s Cup Classic, Desormeaux may not be asked to ride.  Even if he is, he ought to tell Dutrow that he doesn’t want to ride for a trainer that stabs his jockey in the back.

-When thunderstorms rolled in during the seventh inning of Mets/D-Backs at Shea Tuesday night, the groundskeepers got a hand from two Mets players. Lefty relievers Billy Wagner and Scott Schoenweis sprinted from the bullpen onto the field, grabbed hand-straps on the tarp and helped the grounds crew pull the covering over the diamond as a swirling wind made the job difficult.

6-10-08 2235

Big Brown’s last place finish in the Belmont Stakes Saturday makes you wonder if we’ll ever see another triple crown winner.  After a thirty-year wait, Big Brown looked like a sure thing against a weak field.

Shockingly, Big Brown’s jockey Kent Desormeaux pulled the plug on Brownie’s Belmont run on the final turn of the mile and a half race.  Sensing something amiss, Desormeaux eased the horse to protect its future and watched previously unaccomplished Da’ Tara (the longest shot in the field) pull away and end another crown bid.  Our pal Marc said fans at Belmont booed the outcome with the same veracity that a New York baseball crowd would react to a bad call by an umpire.  Desormeaux said after the race he wasn’t sure why the previously undefeated Big Brown failed to fire but speculated that his horse was “probably just tired.”  Desormeaux said he personally felt “numb, lost, no emotion whatsoever, blank.”  He said he now could not fathom how any horse other than a “freak” could ever win the triple crown.

Was the 95-plus degrees heat a factor?  Aboard a riding pony in the post parade, ABC’s Caton Bredar said Big Brown seemed to be “the coolest of all the horses” prior to the race.

Was it what appeared to be Big Brown’s first-turn contact with Da’ Tara?

Was it discomfort from a hairline crack discovered two weeks ago on Big Brown’s left front hoof?

Was it the racing gods sending a message to Brownie’s cocky trainer Dick Dutrow that a little humility is in order if you want to win the crown?

Was the mile and a half distance too daunting for a horse with limited endurance?

Was Big Brown’s break from the often troublesome number one gate position a rhythm-breaking mind bender?  The horse seemed to make a few sharp horizontal movements after leaving the one hole.

Was it because Big Brown skipped his monthly Winstrol injection?  The normally non-controversial ESPN analyst and former jockey Jerry Bailey suggested that a change in Big Brown’s chemistry protocol might have been a factor.  A few days before the race, Big Brown’s connections said the horse would race steroid-free after a regimen of Winstrol shots leading up to the Derby.

Who knows what the heck happened?

We believe Big Brown was feeling pain from somewhere.  His flurry of rapid head motions to the right as he was eased seemed to signal physical discomfort of some sort.

Deliberate or not, sixth place finisher Tale of Ekati’s jockey Eibar Coa seemed to do a good job of bothering Brownie on the backstretch.  Coa and Ekati repeatedly floated into Big Brown’s airspace and may have shaken Brownie’s focus.  Ekati’s drift forced Brownie to run at least half the race on a portion of the track much further from the rail than the rest of the field.

Dutrow had no immediate comment for the media – including ESPN’s Steve Cyphers who chased Dutrow back to Bobby Frankel’s barn after the race and reported live for ABC from behind a chain-link fence.  By the time ABC went off the air a few minutes after seven, Dutrow had still not made himself available to Cyphers.  While it’s understandable that Dutrow was hard hit by the outcome and needed to tend to his horse, his bravado in the days before the race made it imperative for him to offer a preliminary explanation to what had to be a large, stunned live television audience.  To Dutrow’s credit, he stood before the full media contingent after a brief taped spot for Cyphers at about 730 PM and answered fifteen or twenty questions.  Dutrow appeared genuinely perplexed, unable to pinpoint a reason why Brownie tanked.  “He doesn’t seem to be off in any kind of way,” he said.   Sweat soaked Dutrow’s blue dress shirt.  By that time, Dutrow had removed the “Trump Taj Mahal” hat he had worn much of the afternoon.

As a contrarian who routinely scoffs at short-priced favorites to win horse races, we admit we felt different about Big Brown.  We didn’t want him to win the triple crown because of the associated baggage his connections brought to the table.  But we felt Big Brown was unstoppable in this situation.

The lesson in all of this is what Desormeaux alluded to as he tried to put Big Brown’s loss in perspective.  The triple crown is a very, very difficult accomplishment.  When it happens, it will be very, very special.  The horse that does it, as Desormeaux says, will be a “freak.”

-Before ABC’s Belmont telecast kicked in, Rece Davis was the primary anchor on ESPN’s Belmont Day coverage and did a great job.  He was joined in succession by trainers Bob Baffert, Todd Pletcher and Nick Zito. During the running of the Acorn Stakes, jockey John Velasquez dropped his whip yet still won the race aboard Zaftig.  Davis asked Zito for analysis and Zito surprisingly said he didn’t believe whips were necessary.  “I don’t think they (the jockeys) really need it.  I don’t like it (the whip).”

6-8-08 0145

The guys with ties that run airlines in this country see a math equation that is all out of whack. The skyrocketing price of jet fuel – nearly double from a year ago – makes the cost side of operating a flight greater than the revenue the trip generates in many instances. The losses are such that the airlines have seen their cash-on-hand stashes diminish to levels that put most of the big carriers on pace to go bust late next year. The cash crisis is real. A huge amount of money is being lost as airlines adhere to scheduling and routing that is a guaranteed piss in the wind. So, with the new reality linked to oil barrels at $125, the airlines have made a flurry of announcements in the last week that indicate the traditionally slow fall travel period will be the starting point for sizable shrinkage in their businesses. Airplanes are already full, and fares are higher, but the new commercial aviation business model will mean far fewer seats and much higher fares to balance the fuel side of the equation.

Fewer flights mean fewer airline jobs. My employer – Continental Airlines – announced Thursday that 3000 workers will be cut from the books this fall as the airline begins to mothball 67 older 737’s. Continental’s number of departures in the fourth quarter this year will be reduced 8.3-percent, with most of the reduction coming from the domestic route network. Specifics on which cities will be impacted will be announced next week. Continental says it hopes that most of the 3000 workers who lose their jobs will do so voluntarily through a program that essentially buys them out. What’s the buyout? Fifteen years of free flights and 12 months of health coverage. That’s it.

Continental’s workforce currently measures about 45-thousand, so the announced head cut amounts to about 6.6-percent. Job losses are expected to occur in locations where flights are pared and will take seniority into account. Here at LaGuardia, impact is expected to be minimal although one can’t be sure until the specifics of the plan get rolled out next week.

In “recognition of the crisis and its effect on their co-workers,” Continental’s top two executives say they’ll work for free the rest of the calendar year. It sounds nice, but if you saw what these guys have pulled down on top of their salaries during a post-9/11 stretch of pay cuts for the rank and file, you might snicker at this latest gesture from on high.

-We won’t be at Belmont tomorrow as Big Brown tries to win horse racing’s first triple crown in 30 years. We’re still trying to erase the debt piled up on the Kentucky Derby trip and find ourself in the middle of an eleven-day, 130-hour work grind. Expect attendance at Belmont to easily surpass 100-thousand and don’t be surprised if Big Brown wins the race by a wide margin. Like many longtime racing fans, we find it hard to wrap our arms around the Big Brown crown effort given the conduct of those who own and train the horse. Trainer Dick Dutrow has belittled his horse’s competition and recently criticized the trainer of a past Derby winner. Dutrow’s lack of humility combined with railbird suspicion he uses chemistry to gain performance boosts makes him a less than ideal guy to be the human face of a sport thirsting for respectability. Then there’s Big Brown’s most prominent owner Michael Iavarone who comes off as a shyster. Iavarone has lied about/inflated his professional resume and landed in the middle of repeated financial pickles of his own making. When Iavarone/Dutrow do back-to-back interviews in the winner’s circle, you cringe at the shadiness of it all before getting relief from Big Brown’s likable and refreshing jockey Kent Desormeaux. We’d rather wait another year or two or more for the crown drought to be broken by more humble horsemen. But if you look at how this Belmont Stakes shapes up, Big Brown looks unstoppable. Since betting on it won’t return much, we’ll watch it on TV and be a dispassionate observer. If it’s a pick you want, look for Dancing Forever to win the turf feature just before they run the big race. The Shug McGaughey-trained son of Rahy will come with a rush and return somewhere in the neighborhood of $4.50 on the dollar.

6-6-08 0055

An interesting behind-the-scenes Wall Street Journal story on Hillary Clinton’s failed presidential campaign says Hillary’s loss in the Iowa caucuses caused her to scale back efforts to contest other caucus states. The piece written by reporter Jackie Calmes was a front-pager on Wednesday and included quotes from several key Clinton campaign staffers. Calmes reports that the Iowa defeat “hardened both Clintons against caucuses” and produced a strategy shift that would prove to be a huge factor in Obama’s ability to offset Clinton victories in some of the big states. The most shocking element of the Calmes story is the picture of utter confusion that is painted in connection with the Clinton campaign’s failure to understand delegate math prior to the start of the primary schedule. Calmes describes a meeting last June at the home of Clinton’s top strategist at the time, Mark Penn. Her story says Penn mistakenly believed California was a winner-take-all state, when in fact pledged democratic delegates in all the states were awarded proportionately based on votes won (with each state setting its own unique methodology). Calmes says Clinton friend and adviser Harold Ickes “mocked” Penn at the meeting but was rebuffed in his effort to get the Clinton campaign to seriously contest the caucus states.

When the history books tell the story of Obama’s historic victory, it will be his campaign’s dedication to success in the caucus states that should be front and center. Partial credit should go to his supporters and their enthusiastic participation in the caucus format. Fair or not, the caucus favors a candidate that has backers willing to expend extra effort beyond simply punching a ballot.

-The Lakers are minus-200 (or slightly less than 2-1) favorites to win a great NBA finals matchup with the Celtics. The series opens tonight in Beantown for what you’d think is a crucial must-win for the Celts, given the 2-3-2 format. We’re rooting for K-G and the Shamrocks and hoping for a series that gets back to Boston for some game seven drama. If you have NBA TV or ESPN News, check out Phil Jackson’s post-game news conferences. He’s been very entertaining throughout the post-season with his sharp wit and insight. He’s clearly enjoying the ride he’s on despite all the rings he’s already won.

6-5-08 0155

On a night Barack Obama’s delegate count hit the magic number to make him the presumptive democratic nominee for president, Hillary deferred her much-awaited concession message. In a speech here in New York City, Hillary conceded nothing and hung her hat on the primary victories she achieved in Pennsylvania and Ohio. “We won the swing states necessary to get to 270 electoral votes,” she said. Her contention that she would be a more formidable candidate against John McCain has merit. But by blowing the caucus states and getting out-worked by her rival’s tightly-organized campaign, Clinton lost this nomination fair and square.

Before Hillary formally acknowledges she’s lost this nomination sometime in the next week, it’s expected she’ll meet with Obama. In return for being a happy face, Hillary is expected to seek more than a fruit basket. Various reports say Hillary not only would accept the veep slot, she may now covet it.

If that’s the case, Obama is in a tricky spot. He definitely wants Hillary with a happy face this fall, but probably doesn’t have much more than a parting gift and a primo convention slot to offer in return.

The reason the whole thing is tricky is that Hillary’s addition to the ticket would probably improve Obama’s chances of winning the presidency. Problem is the conduct of the Clinton campaign makes such a close association awkward.

Obama would be justified in fearing Clinton’s motives. He would likely wonder whether she would respect the boundaries of the largely ceremonial office. And he may be forced to glance over his shoulder as he works through the immense challenges that face him. Why bother with all that?

When Obama sits down with Hillary in the next few days, he should make all that clear to her and leave the burden of her future ambition and motives for her to deal with. It’s not his problem now. Her campaign’s lack of dignity at crucial moments – and former President Clinton’s lack of respect for the movement Obama has created – is enough to disqualify her from the second slot. The short list is still stocked with dynamic choices who can provide Obama a complementary sidekick going into the fall campaign.

-The forced removal of Father Michael Pfleger from his Chicago parish by his boss Cardinal Francis George seems like an overly harsh punishment given the pastor’s body of work. Yeah, Pfleger’s wigged-out sermon mocking Hillary was an embarrassing misstep, but he issued what sounded like a genuine apology. Pfleger’s long career as an activist while wearing the collar has aligned him closely to an under-represented constituency that holds him in high esteem. We need priests like Pfleger, and the parishioners of St. Sabina’s have reacted negatively to the Cardinal’s decision. George’s vaguely-worded statement that Pfleger’s forced ouster from St. Sabina’s may be temporary seems to allow for his reinstatement. With forgiveness being a key tenant of the church both George and Pfleger work for, let’s hope reconciliation is central to the outcome of Plfeger’s situation.

-We’ve said previously that Joba Chamberlain is most valuable to this current Yankee team as a lock-down eighth inning set-up guy. But now that his conversion to a starter is set in full motion, we can’t deem his debut as a Yankee starter Tuesday night as an indicator that he’ll be a bust in the new role. Everybody knew that under the best of scenarios his pitch limit wouldn’t allow him to get out of the fourth or fifth inning. He was facing a Blue Jay team that had Roy Halladay on the mound and Joba likely had jitters from all the pressure of what probably felt somewhat like a major league debut. It was the organization – the owner – who seemed to have made this unnatural mid-season push for a role reversal. Give the guy some time.

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The thrilling triple-OT game five of the Stanley Cup Finals finally ended at 1246 this morning. It seemed like it was gonna go on forever until Detroit’s Jiri Hudler and his errant stick caught the chin of Pittsburgh’s Rob Scuderi, opening a bloody cut on Scuderi halfway through the third extra session. It produced a man advantage for the Penguins and a quick score to end the crazy game otherwise dominated by dozens of Detroit scoring chances. Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 52 shots, many with a glove hand that stayed quick despite the game’s marathon length. We watched most of the game on NBC at work, took the bus home at midnight and got in front of the tube to see the third overtime. Leno and Conan fans probably wondered where their comedy was. What few hockey fans watching this series got was one of the most exciting post-season games in recent memory.

-The preliminary Nielsen viewership analysis of the mixed martial arts debut on network TV over the weekend may prompt CBS to stick with the violent and bloody sport. While the MMA event that aired Saturday night failed to match the ratings of the crime drama it replaced and another MMA event that aired on cable last September, it beat NBC’s broadcast of the NHL playoffs. Supporters of mixed martial arts claim the sport’s purest form incorporates a wide range of skills including the practice of jujitsu. Little of that was on display during the matches we watched. We saw the sport’s big star Kimbo Slice huff and puff his way to a brutal victory that ended when he landed several fist blows to his opponent’s swollen cauliflower ear. In Los Angeles, the TV rating hit 7.2 during a tape-delayed broadcast of the Slice match while the number assigned to a live showing of Wings/Penguins game four in that market averaged just 1.3. The composite national preliminary viewing number for the MMA event was 2.7 vs. a 2.6 for the hockey game. At least one CBS affiliate (Greensboro) refused to show the card of fights over concerns with the content. Don’t be surprised if additional affiliates bail out on MMA despite the ratings success. It’s likely that a wider audience will bring greater scrutiny of the sport’s barbarism and you wonder if CBS at some point re-thinks its association with the pummeling that plays out on its airwaves.

-The focus of Times music writer Nate Chinen’s review of the Stone Temple Pilots tour stop in New Jersey this weekend was not on the musical performance as much as an assessment of singer Scott Weiland’s health. Chinen questioned whether Weiland will be able to “hold it together” for the duration of the Pilots’ summer tour. “That may sound callous,” said Chinen, “but it has to be a genuine concern for the band.”

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In a raw and bitter fight over how to settle the issue of translating Michigan and Florida primary votes into convention delegates, the DNC rules and bylaws committee turned back efforts by the Clinton campaign Saturday to award her the heist she proposed.

And instead of the event ending with a feeling of unity among democrats as Barack Obama moves closer to a mathematical clinch of the nomination, a top Clinton supporter rejected party healing and incited a ruckus of jeers, cheers and shouting from the public gallery.

Clinton friend and rules committee member Harold Ickes alleged that the final committee decisions to water down the results of Florida and Michigan had in effect “highjacked” delegates from Clinton and made party unity difficult going forward. “I’m stunned that we have the gall and the chutzpah to substitute our judgment for 600-thousand voters (in Michigan).” Ickes was especially incensed that the DNC rules committee approved the Michigan state party suggestion to allocate delegates at a ratio that assumed that those who voted “uncommitted” should go to Obama.

Ickes protested the 69-59 pledged delegate split in favor of Clinton (with each delegate’s vote neutralized by half) finalized by the committee. Ickes feels it should have been 73-55 based on the math derived by the results of Michigan’s flawed primary even though Obama wasn’t even on that state’s ballot.

And so went the Clinton strategy, trying to bully and push for delegates they didn’t truly win because of the flawed nature of the two primaries. Not that the near-impossible Clinton nomination equation would have improved much anyway. But to see her advocates forwarding implausible arguments for dominant wins from tallies that were shams under the guise of empowering voters was disappointing.

Probably by design, Obama’s supporters on both the committee and among the Florida and Michigan officials who spoke came off as conciliatory and willing to compromise. It wasn’t until Ickes went hardball and former Michigan governor Jim Blanchard criticized Obama for removing his name from the Michigan ballot that an apparent Obama backer fired back. Former Al Gore campaign manager Donna Brazile reminded everybody that all of the candidates were operating under a DNC edict that made the Michigan and Florida elections uncontestable. She insinuated that the Clinton campaign wasn’t playing fair by seeking delegate allocation based on fatally flawed vote tabulations. “My Momma always told me to play by the rules. When you decide to change the rules, in the middle of the game, or the end of the game, it’s referred to as cheatin’,” said Brazile.

The meeting lasted all day and featured several outbursts and bitter exchanges. Among the most confrontational committee member was Clinton backer and longtime democratic activist Tina Flournoy.

It was fascinating television. Credit DNC chair Howard Dean for letting the public see high-level party bickering play out on national TV and credit Dean for conducting the meeting at a place that could accommodate a large public gallery. What transpired would probably have been better behind closed doors from the party leadership’s standpoint, but it is of great help to loyal rank and file democrats to see how party leaders process these types of disputes.

Even though Ickes says Clinton will drag the fight over Michigan’s delegates to the DNC’s credentials committee later this summer, you’d hope the math that evolves in the next week or two makes that unnecessary.

Those who pooh-pooh the notion that any and all party divisions can be healed no matter the severity should take note of the irrational expectations and demands of Ickes, Flournoy and Florida Senator Bill Nelson on behalf of Clinton on display Saturday. Their advocacy crossed a line of integrity and makes them impossible to trust as a broad coalition works to get Obama elected this fall.

-Post boxing writer George Willis said only 7000 tickets had been sold in advance of the much-hyped MMA (mixed martial arts) event at Newark’s Prudential Center Saturday night. Capacity at the Prudential Center for the fights is about 19-thousand. CBS broadcast the event live. It was the first time network television showed a live MMA card. In case you haven’t seen it, mixed martial arts is an excessively violent, borderline barbaric cage duel that should never be confused with boxing. Street brawler Kimbo Slice was the headliner for MMA’s debut on network television. He won his bout after splitting open his opponent’s cauliflower ear as fans howled for the fight to continue. Respected broadcaster Gus Johnson was the primary voice on the CBS broadcast.

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The Barack Obama campaign will continue to take the high road when democratic party leaders gather in DC at 930 AM Saturday to settle the issue of how to count the fatally flawed Michigan and Florida primary election results. Flip on C-Span and hope the party does the right thing as it determines how the two rogue states should have their meaningless vote tallies reflected in the form of convention delegates.

Hillary and her team have advanced a blatantly unfair proposal to seat the Michigan and Florida delegations based on the vote totals achieved through elections that shouldn’t have counted. Both states knowingly violated party rules by conducting their primary elections on dates that preceded what the party dictated. Before Iowans caucused and became the first state in the nation to have a say on the ’08 nominee, all of the democratic presidential candidates (including Hillary) pledged to steer clear of the Michigan and Florida primary elections to conform with party rules. Obama didn’t even have his name on the ballot (Hillary stayed on) in Michigan. When it was clear that Hillary would gain net delegate benefit (and a bolstered popular vote total) off the tainted results in the states that should have been ignored, she started talking about voter disenfranchisement should the results be disregarded.

Yeah, Hillary may have done well in Florida and Michigan had the two states been contested fair and square. But she agreed to the party’s terms in advance of the process and knew the two states were non-players when their election dates were set. Her efforts to retroactively gain delegates originally deemed to be null and void fits her pattern of desperate and disingenuous tactics to topple an opponent who will remain firmly on path to the nomination no matter how things go down Saturday.

Rather than adhering to a strict stay-at-home sanction for Florida and Michigan, a committee of top democrats is expected to reach some kind of compromise that lets the two states send delegates to the party convention in Denver. Lawyers for the DNC have recommended a slap-on-the-wrist proposal that would either halve the size of their delegations or allow full delegations to sit with each member getting just half a vote.

The only fair way to deal with this would have been to have re-do elections in both states. Neither state agreed to that, in part because they didn’t want to pay for it. Barring the do-over elections, the only fair way to include delegates from those states now is to send full delegations equally split between Obama and Clinton delegates. Make it a fifty-fifty split. That’s a compromise that provides inclusion – yet shows that the results of the flawed elections drew no conclusions on candidate preference.

Because Obama doesn’t want a knock-down fight on the matter, he’ll likely accept a plan that favors Clinton’s desire to let the flawed election results at least somewhat proportionally guide the split, whether they are halved or not. Obama’s comfortable lead in both delegates and in goodwill allows him to concede this.

Hopefully, those who view the positions each candidate takes on this internal party matter understand that it’s yet another defining moment for each of the two rivals. One stuck to a pledge, the other was a sneaky back-tracker who thinks she can pull a fast one on the public.

-There was typical woe-is-me defiance from Todd Sauerbrun in Denver this week as he pled guilty and ducked a trial on charges he made a ruckus and struck a cabbie after an evening of boozing last December. An assault charge was dropped and Sauerbrun pled guilty to disturbing the peace. Denver County court judge Andre Rudolph sentenced Sauerbrun to one year of unsupervised probation and 24 hours of community service. If Sauerbrun can stay out of trouble for a year, the peace charge gets wiped from his record. Rather than voice contrition, Sauerbrun said he did nothing wrong and ripped the team that cut him after the incident. “The Broncos didn’t give me a fair shot. I don’t think they did me right. I do feel ill about it. And their new motto about character guys? The guys I’ve seen them pick up, you’re not going to tell me those are good character people? I think not,” said Sauerbrun. The Punt King has some nerve ripping the Broncos. He was likely making a veiled reference to Michael Pittman who was added to Denver’s roster on the day Sauerbrun was in court. Sauerbrun also claims he would pursue a defamation lawsuit against the guy who drove the cab he flopped his way into, rather than cut his losses and move on. It should be noted that Sauerbrun was thankful to Broncos coach Mike Shanahan when he brought the Punt King back prior to the ’07 season after a positive test for ephedra in ’06 got him booted from the team the first time. Sauerbrun got a second chance from Shanahan and blew it with the taxi-cab fiasco that ended with the punter getting taken to a drunk tank. On talent alone, Sauerbrun should be punting deep and high for some team this fall, but you wonder if his deflection of blame this time around makes re-entry to the NFL a difficult proposition.

-Speaking from Japan, Bobby V did a phone interview with Joe Beningo on the FAN Thursday and shied away from a direct answer to an inquiry about whether he’d take the Mets managerial job should it be offered to him. “I have all the love and respect one could have for Willie…I think Willie is gonna turn that thing around,” said Bobby V. The ex-Met manager is in the early stages of his season as skipper of the Chiba Lotte Marines. Valentine said he wouldn’t speak publicly about MLB jobs in hypothetical terms. His phrasing was such that it sounds like Valentine has allowed the door to an MLB managerial job to remain ajar.

-Miller Park in Milwaukee had its retractable roof opened for the first time this season during Thursday afternoon’s Brewers/Braves game. It was the 23rd home game of the year for the Brewers.

-Mets/Dodgers at Shea starts at 805 PM Sunday thanks to ESPN. After the game, the Mets take a charter flight to San Francisco for a Monday nighter against the Giants. Many teams have complained about playing the ESPN Sunday nighter going into a road trip that starts the next day, but Mets radio pre-game host Ed Coleman said Thursday that he takes it as it comes. “I don’t know what time we’re gonna get in there, but it’s not gonna be pretty.” Coleman said that if the Sunday nighter goes late, he has a game plan for when the plane gets to Frisco. “This is what I’ll do: Go to Lefty O’Douls for a nightcap – and then go to breakfast.”

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On a beautiful night at Shea, the Mets showed some fight Wednesday and beat the Fish in 12 innings. Willie (pictured above) is still operating with a tenuous hold on his job but appeared loose before the game. He signed a lot of autographs, hugged supportive Met security personnel and went out of his way to visit with members of the US armed forces who were seated behind the plate.

The game was great. The Mets rallied from one-run deficits in both the ninth and twelfth to win a thriller, 7-6.

Relief pitcher Aaron Heilman threw two crucial scoreless late frames. It was Heilman’s second straight effective performance after a string of bad ones. Each of the two times Heilman walked to the dugout after completing his inning, Met fans cheered him loudly. A News report earlier in the week indicated the Mets were toying with the idea of sending Heilman to the minors to work through his woes. But perhaps he’s found a groove. He struck out four of the six batters he faced. The crowd Wednesday was great. It was the most positive and boisterous crowd of any game we’ve been to this season.

Endy Chavez had the big blow. His pinch-hit homer in the bottom of the ninth off Marlins closer Kevin Gregg sent the game into extra frames. The crowd chanted “En-dy Cha-vez – En-dy Cha-vez” in powerful unison for a few minutes after he laced the ball over the right field wall.

Journeyman Fernando Tatis played right field as Ryan Church deals with the scary effects of his second concussion of the year. Tatis hit a two-run double in the twelfth to win it and sent a jubilant crowd mostly intact out to the subway turnstiles.

As is our custom for these weekday games at Shea, we bought a cheap upper level ticket at the gate and snuck down to the mezz.

The crowd was announced at 47,769. The Mets have been announcing inflated attendance totals all year. They say the numbers reflect tickets sold. But some including Fil Bondy of the News and Chris Russo of the FAN have questioned whether it’s feasible that the spread between the actual turnstile clicks and the tickets sold could be so wide. On many nights, the Mets announce attendance near fifty-thousand and roughly half of that actually show up.

We went to Shea one last time with good friends Jackie and Leo who are packing up and leaving a lifetime in NYC to try and make a go down in Houston. This is a city that can test anybody living on a budget, especially a couple trying to raise a family. Jackie and Leo and the kids they’re raising are leaving a shoebox apartment in the Bronx to see what life is like in a real house. We did a bunch of games, a bunch of Met road trips together, and it’s tough to see them leave. Good luck Jackie and Leo. We’ll miss you both for sure.

Mets broadcaster Keith Hernandez (pictured above) was on the field prior to the game. Earlier in the week, Hernandez criticized former teammate Gary Carter for openly lobbying for Willie’s job. It would have been a valid critique if it weren’t for the fact that Hernandez himself told Mike Francesa he would accept the Met managerial job if offered to him.

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Back from a brutal 1-6 road trip, the Mets opened a homestand Monday night against division-leading Florida with an announcement from on high that skipper Willie Randolph wasn’t immediately getting the axe. Willie’s near-term fate had been foreshadowed the night before when Jon Heyman broke an item on SI.com that said Met owner Fred Wilpon would give Willie at least through the current homestand to somehow spark the high-payroll club. So with a tepid vote of confidence for Willie from GM Omar Minaya out of an “air-clearing” meeting, the Mets went out and played another clunker. Shortstop Jose Reyes had two solo homers, but he also had a bad error in the first inning that led to a couple of Marlin runs. The Mets lost 7-3. At three under break-even, the Mets have lost ten of 14 and have looked half-asleep during the stretch.

The much-hyped meeting with Willie, Omar and the Wilpons on Monday included a discussion of the so-called “race card” comments that Willie made at Yankee Stadium a week ago Sunday to reporter Ian O’Connor. Willie told O’Connor he believes black managers and coaches may be held to a more difficult standard than their white counterparts. He also criticized the team-owned cable network SNY for the way he’s depicted during games. Randolph later backtracked. He claimed the comments were off-the-record and ultimately apologized for them. The Wilpons were said to be upset about the statements and refused to answer Randolph’s telephone calls to discuss them.

We believe the Randolph comments to O’Connor are not problematic because he invoked race. It’s that Randolph blew his argument by using Isiah Thomas and Herm Edwards as examples to bolster an otherwise plausible theory.

His paranoid take on SNY was flat-out foolish, especially when you consider that the organization that employs him owns the network.

But this now infamous conversation with O’Connor “behind a pillar in the old and damp visitor’s clubhouse (at Yankee Stadium)” isn’t really what has Willie on the brink of getting canned. It’s because his team has played below expectations and can’t seem to shake the memory of the horrible ’07 collapse. It’s because his team has made scores of mental mistakes and fundamentally unsound decisions. And it’s because of the way the whole thing has looked to fans. The Mets have been lethargic and appear to be pressing rather than fighting with a purpose.

If you believe that there’s a manager out there for hire that can shake things up, it’s probably time for a change. We’re not sure there is such a guy. The lack of a logical replacement could be at least part of the reason why Willie survived the Monday meeting with the Wilpons.

Minaya was given several chances Monday after the meeting to say that Randolph would be given the entire 2008 season to turn it around. He didn’t. With the lifeless loss Monday night, Randolph moved closer to getting pushed out the door. We’ll predict that Willie is out before the Dodgers hit town Thursday night.  

-We were stuck in an office working the job all weekend, but we have access to a TV and watched a lot of sports. Aside from the Mets drama, three events stood out as memorable from the holiday weekend (all three occurred on Sunday):

(1). The Tennis Channel aired live coverage of Gustavo Kuerten’s farewell singles match at Roland Garros. The likeable Brazilian with long, curly hair won the French Open three times (’97. ’00, ’01) but has been sidelined with a hip injury for much of the last five years. His wildcard invitation to this year’s French was meant to give Kuerten a swan song, and it was a wonderful thing to see. Kuerten has no lateral movement but acquitted himself well in a three-set loss to Paul-Henri Mathieu. He smiled and cried when the French fans loudly cheered his nick-name “Guga.” After the match was over, Kuerten sat down next to the umpire’s chair, put a towel over his head and appeared to be sobbing. After composing himself, Kuerten was given a trophy that simulated the layering of material that goes into making a clay court. He was handed a microphone by the tourney organizer and went on to deliver a goodbye speech in French.

(2). Jim Nabors sang “Back Home Again in Indiana” prior to the Indy 500 as ABC panned the massive crowd on a sunny afternoon at the brickyard. Nabors has sung the tune prior to the race since ’72 but missed last year with a health concern. His minute-long return rendition was a sight to see, and ABC did a great job of providing beautiful images of the massive facility jammed with fans who appeared excited to hear Nabors perform. This was the first year since 1995 that dueling open-wheel US racing entities came together to bring the best drivers from both leagues to Indy to run in the 500. The unification of the sport is expected to return the Indy 500 to its full glory. It was evident looking at the broadcast that many fans returned to the race after years of staying home. The track does not release an official attendance number, but various newspaper accounts put this year’s attendance total at somewhere between 275 and 300-thousand.

(3). White Sox left-fielder Carlos Quentin hit two homers including a dramatic game-winner on Sunday night. Televised nationally on ESPN, the White Sox beat the Angels 3-2 in a quick and interesting contest. Quentin was drafted out of Stanford in 2003 by Arizona and has had major surgeries on both an elbow and a shoulder. He played portions of the ’06 and ’07 seasons for the D-Backs with moderate success before getting traded to Chicago this past off-season. His offensive breakout this year has been impressive. Quentin leads the AL with 14 homers. After Quentin hit the walk-off shot Sunday night, ESPN interviewed him outside the Sox dugout. As he answered questions, teammate Jermaine Dye applied a pie-pan full of shaving cream to Quentin’s face.

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It appears trainer Dick Dutrow might have been less than frank with Post horse racing writer Ed Fountaine when the scribe asked about Big Brown’s physical condition over the weekend. Fountaine interviewed Dutrow in the Belmont paddock on Saturday and inquired about a “West Coast-based rumor that Brown had popped a quarter-crack.” Fountaine says Dutrow laughed at the question and said: “Where does this stuff come from?” Fountaine’s two paragraph story about the Dutrow denial of Big Brown’s foot problem was buried on page 70 of Sunday’s Post. At some point Sunday, Dutrow told reporters that Big Brown had indeed sustained a crack in his left front hoof and that a hoof specialist was treating the injury. Dutrow said he discovered the foot problem on Friday, a day before he talked to Fountaine. Dutrow says the diagnosis of a quarter crack occurred sometime Saturday. Dutrow believes the crack will heal in time for Brownie to run in the Belmont Stakes a week from Saturday. He told reporters that Big Brown isn’t experiencing discomfort and isn’t aware that he has the cracked hoof. Dutrow had planned to get one workout out of Brownie before the big race, and still hopes to do so even if it means waiting until the Tuesday or Wednesday before the race. There will now be much concern about Big Brown’s foot in the days to come. A large segment of the horse racing fandom badly wants a triple crown winner. Before the disclosure of Big Brown’s hoof problem, he was believed to be an even-money proposition to break the thirty-year triple crown drought. Now, it’s possible he won’t even make the race. For the sake of the fans who care – or bet on the outcome – it’ll be important for Dutrow to give straight-up assessments of the situation and provide access to those who are treating the horse.

The key individual in all of this right now is Ian McKinlay. In his story on the Big Brown’s quarter-crack, Daily Racing Form reporter Dave Grening referred to McKinlay as a “noted equine hoof specialist.” McKinlay treated two previous and more serious problems with Big Brown’s feet. McKinlay’s formal occupational title is “farrier.”

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What in the world do the overseers of international track and field competition do with Oscar Pistorius, the double amputee from South Africa who is known as “The Blade Runner?”

Some say the young sprinter has a distinct and unfair competitive advantage by running on J-shaped prosthetic legs.

Having spent a decent amount of time over the last decade in facilities that build special prosthetic limbs for amputees who run competitively, the legal/ethical debate about Pistorius is not cut and dry.

Pistorius – a double amputee without legs below both knees - has been given the go-ahead by an international court to run his way into the Olympics this summer. Back in January, the governing body that oversees international track and field competition said the prosthetic devices that Pistorius competes with give him an unfair advantage over able-bodied runners. Pistorius and his US-based legal team fought the ruling and ultimately got it overturned a week ago Friday.

Pistorius is no cinch to get into the Olympics despite the legal green light that clears him to attempt qualification. He must knock nearly a second from his personal best time to hit the qualifying threshold of 45.55 seconds for the 400 meters. He will attempt to qualify at competitions in Europe in early July.

As he does, there will be much discussion about those curve-shaped fake legs he uses when he runs. Those who support his exclusion from the Olympics cite a report by German professor Peter Brueggemann (a biomechanics expert) who led a team of scientists that compared Pistorius to five able-bodied runners. The report was commissioned by the International Association of Athletics Federations and was the basis for the IAAF’s initial decision to keep Pistorius out of international competition.

The Brueggemann study concluded that Pistorius used less energy while running the same speed as athletes with real legs. It said the prosthetic devices enabled Pistorius to use less vertical motion and allowed him to exert less effort to lift his body. The report also expressed concern that the length of the curved artificial legs added overall height to his frame and may have widened the Pistorius stride.

The certified prosthetist we’ve been visiting for the last ten years told us recently that any advantage Pistorius may have by virtue of his prostheses’ shock absorption and energy transition qualities needs to be viewed in context. To say a double-amputee has an “advantage” running on the carbon fiber creations fails to incorporate the daily difficulties an amputee faces regardless of what kind of high-tech equipment is attached to his stumps.

Nothing beats the moving parts of a real leg as one traverses day to day.

On a dry race track with no humidity or heat, perhaps Pistorius can keep up with the best runners of the world once he makes up for a slow, upright launch from the starting blocks. But all he did in his life to get into those starting blocks probably mitigates the still shaky and preliminary science that says he has an edge.

All the struggles an amputee faces with skin breakdown, infections, discomfort and the ever-changing size of one’s stump makes it unlikely able-bodied Olympic athletes have to worry much about amputees treading on their turf.

What we’re saying is that Pistorius deserves a shot at the Olympics. Let him take a crack at it, and don’t restrict “assistive devices” until it seems clear that amputees running on fake legs are beginning to take over the sport.

Interestingly, Times columnist George Vescey has had a change of heart on the matter. In his column printed last Tuesday, Vescey said mean-spirited opposition to Pistorius in the blogosphere helped reverse his earlier position. Vescey now favors eligibility for the double-amputee. “While I still have doubts about the implications of these springy lower limbs - both in magnifying speed and affecting other runners - I find myself applauding the narrow one-case judgment of the court…It feels better to be on the side of hope and opportunity.”

-She quickly apologized for it, but Hillary Clinton cited the possibility of an assassination as a reason she won’t bow out of the contest for the democratic presidential nomination. Annoyed by what she considers premature efforts to “push” her out of the race, Clinton reminded a newspaper editorial board in South Dakota Friday that Bobby Kennedy was gunned down in June of 1968, with the emphasis on June. Kennedy was well positioned to win the democratic nomination in ’68 when he was murdered. The Clinton comments (which can be seen all over the place on streaming video) seem to suggest that it’s worth her while to stick around – until at least June - just in case. Said Daily News columnist Michael Goodwin in Saturday’s paper: “Giving voice to such a vile thought is all the more horrible because fears Obama would be killed have been an undercurrent to his astonishing rise…Many black Americans have talked of it, reflecting their assumption that racists would never tolerate a black President…Clinton has now fed that fear.”

-The Times was the only New York daily newspaper to staff the thrilling final of the Champions League, a match won by Manchester United on penalty kicks. The European title game was played in Moscow and reporter Michael Schwirtz wrote an excellent recap that appeared in Thursday’s Times. After detailing the in-game action, Schwirtz gave high marks to the Kremlin for pulling off a logistically difficult event. “Keen to raise their country’s athletic profile, Russian officials greased an often unwieldy bureaucracy to squeeze some 40-thousand beer-loving English fans through a typically tight border, waiving visa requirements for ticket holders and providing a fleet of nearly one-thousand buses and shuttles to ferry fans between the stadium and Moscow’s three airports.” Schwirtz says Moscow’s success in hosting the Champions League final could dispel “lingering doubts” about the country’s ability to pull off the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

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Just back from a 40-hour trip to Shy-town to see the niece celebrate one year of existence. Most of the time, we were away from the news ticker, but we got a few glimpses of what was happening. The clip of Bob Byrd weeping as he gave a senate floor speech paying tribute to Teddy Kennedy was deep impact stuff. We made a point of watching the NBA draft lottery with our fingers crossed - hoping the Knicks would end up in one of the top two slots. Instead, it was the Bulls that pulled the highly unlikely draw that gets them the top pick. The Knicks will pick sixth. The immediate assumption was that Chicago will take Rose; but it’s gonna be tough passing on Beasley. Without factoring in team need/dynamic, we think Beasley is gonna be the higher achiever no matter where he ends up.

ESPN’s coverage of the draft lottery was hosted by Doris Burke. Oddly, it was marketing guru Steve Schanwald that represented the Bulls in Secaucus on their lucky night. He got a plug in for season ticket sales and displayed some amusing reactions standing next to D-Wade. The Heat tanked the season and ended up in the two slot. With the Bulls’ chance of scoring the top pick about one in sixty, it is an outrageous outcome probability-wise. But it was a perfect outcome if you believe in the idea that tanking is bad for the league. Burke asked Schanwald who the Bulls would take and he ducked it. She failed to ask a reaction question that incorporated the mathematic improbability of the outcome and seemed to be in a rush to pitch it to Celts/Pistons game one.

My sister-in-law is an American Idol devotee, so me and my brother joined her to watch the two Davids (Cook and Archuleta) battle it out on Tuesday night. The spiky-haired older David (Cook) is just plain cheese. The Collective Soul cover that ended in emotional release was atrocious. The younger David (Archuleta) countered with range and pizzazz. When the show’s most identifiable judge Simon Cowell told young David that he had landed a knockout punch after bringing the Lennon cover “Imagine,” my brother and I totally agreed. So, it came as a shock when the vote tally was announced Wednesday night and the spike-haired grunge-master Dave (Cook) romped to victory.

We use the grunge label because the winner’s style has been tagged as such by some in the mainstream media. The description doesn’t come anywhere close to making sense. Yeah, his hair is spiky and he plays guitar. But Cook isn’t grunge. Grunge acts don’t cry.

Perhaps it’s not fair to just walk into the tv show as it hits the climax and make judgments, but we don’t see how it’s possible that the public thinks Cook is a better musical talent than the young fella he defeated.

Our flights in and out of O’Hare were seamless. As we departed early Thursday morning, American Airlines had landed on the front page with its announcement it would soon start charging fifteen bucks to check a bag. We’ll see if the idea sticks, but our first reaction is that checking a single piece of luggage is probably best left as is. Charging customers to check a single piece of luggage will be a logistical hassle for both airline and customer. It will dial up the madcap rush during boarding to stake out carry-on space in the overhead bins. With the cost of airline tickets moving to a place we haven’t seen in a long time, the fifteen-dollar surcharge will come off as offensive to the traveler who digs deep to get on a plane. Attempts by the airlines to defray the skyrocketing cost of gas should happen within the confines of the ticket price.

Included in American’s announcement is a plan to retire airplanes and cut flights to the tune of 11 to 12 percent of its domestic operation starting in October. This will happen as O’Hare is making progress on a $15 billion dollar airport expansion project that includes new runways, terminals and a control tower. You get a really good look at the progress of the new runways on both the north and south sides of the field as you fly over it. Given what’s happening in the airline industry, you wonder if the city of Chicago ends up regretting the massive airport improvements. Can the city recoup building costs if American and United shrink to fit within new business plans that incorporate $200 oil barrels?

Since the trip was so short, we didn’t get around much. But my brother picked up a thin-crust pizza from the Barnaby’s in Niles one night and it was delicious.

-If you want to get a ridiculous return on investment in the span of less than a minute and a half, run to the betting window on Friday afternoon and lay down a win wager on WEST OF GIBRALTAR. The four-year-old filly will win the eighth race at Belmont on Friday afternoon (about 4:45 PM in the East) at odds of at least 4-1. We saw this daughter of Rock of Gibraltar run in Kentucky a few weeks ago and she gave every indication that she can fly on the grass if she is taught to focus on the road in front of her. We’d expect that her trainer Barc Tagg has ironed out the filly’s tendency to become distracted. Tagg has West of Gibraltar in the perfect spot. At a distance of seven furlongs on Belmont’s Weidner grass course, look for Westie to run away and mock this field of allowance horses.

5-22-08 1445

If you get a chance, make sure to check out the fantastic new documentary film that follows ex-Met manager Bobby Valentine’s 2007 season as skipper of the Chiba City franchise in Japan’s Pacific League. Not only does the movie put you in the stands with the rabid fans of the Chiba Lotte Marines, but “The Zen of Bobby V” does a great job of showing Valentine’s total immersion in the culture of Japan.

Bobby is the ultimate film subject thanks to the way he approaches his life and job in a foreign land.

In one of the best scenes, Bobby rides his bike to a park near his Chiba City apartment. The park includes a steaming pool, a tree garden and assorted playground equipment shaped as animals. Bobby is shown flapping his arms, frolicking through the steam. Wearing shorts, high-top gym shoes and a t-shirt, he mingles and shares high-fives with kids as if he’s a kid himself. At one point, he finds a little hideaway inside the mouth of one of many intricate and beautifully-painted concrete playground animals and starts laughing uncontrollably. Everybody at the park who is watching him laughs at him and you can’t help but laugh really hard yourself. There are at least a two dozen points in the movie in which Bobby says or does something that makes you laugh really, really hard.

His Japanese is pretty good and his contact with the rank-and-file local population is surprisingly frequent and open. Much of that is made easier because of his love of the bike as a vehicle for navigating the local streets. The bike goes with him on road trips and his schedule is filled with public speaking engagements that focus on growing the sport of baseball in Japan.

At one point, Bobby tells an audience in English that his love of the country and commitment to see baseball grow and flourish in Japan overcomes the fact that he’s a foreigner. “My Japanese is probably sixth-grade level. My vocabulary is two thousand words. Can I communicate? Not really. I think commitment and passion transcends language. A leader can take a group into battle without speaking a word if he’s with that group long enough.” It’s clear from the film that he’s genuine. The payback he gets is overwhelming admiration from the Japanese people. Bobby is not a vagabond who parachuted in to bide time as he waits for the call from a major league club. He’s a guy who has worked very hard to re-build a bad franchise in a foreign land by using his quirky, funny and unique personality with great success. It’s quite a story and it is laid out extremely well by the filmmakers.

Bobby V seems to resent the fact that MLB plucks the finest players from the ranks of the Japan clubs and you wonder if he’d even consider returning to New York should the Mets come calling again.

If he did return, it’s impossible that he’d see the kind of wild enthusiasm Japanese fans show in the stands. Or the love he feels in the streets. As a Bobby V colleague said in the movie, it’s also unlikely he’d want to be in a situation that doesn’t provide the immense challenges he faces in Japan.

For me, The Zen of Bobby V is the best sports movie I’ve ever seen. Better than Hoosiers. Or Breaking Away. I laughed, I welled up a little and I learned a lot about Japanese baseball. It made me want to get on a plane to see the country – and see a Japanese baseball game.

Filmmaker Andrew Jenks said in The Huffington Post that he and the two pals he made the film with used a tandem bicycle imported from Hawaii to keep up with Bobby as he pedaled through town. One filmmaker on the tandem bike would peddle in the front, and the other would sit on the back seat filming.

Jenks and his two filmmaker friends from NYU spent eight months in Japan trailing Bobby. The movie isn’t slick, but every artistic element was excellent. The pictures, the sounds, the music and the flow were all top-notch. Semi-private moments of Bobby in his hotel – or talking to a coach during BP are captured with crystal-clear audio. ESPN’s screening of the movie on the Deuce includes several commercial breaks, which were annoying. But if you DVR the film, you can just skip past the breaks. The movie made its ESPN2 premiere last Tuesday and appears again this afternoon on the Deuce at 3 PM. Beyond that, the ESPN web site isn’t indicating when or how often it will show the movie. Keep your eyes peeled, because it’s definitely worth checking out.

-The 4 AM run of the LaGuardia-bound Q33 bus blew past scores of daily riders waiting along Roosevelt Ave. and 83rd Street Friday. Why? The bus was packed to capacity. A large group of tourists with luggage got on the bus at the start of the route (74th and Roosevelt). The bus left the depot with no room to spare and sped by airport workers who rely on the bus to reach their job each day. When the bus reached 83rd and Northern Blvd., a group of five or six airport workers made hand motions directed at the bus driver, pleading to get on. He ignored them. The next bus would not pass by for another 30 minutes. While tourists should be embraced and welcomed as they use public transit, it’s unfair for their luggage to occupy space that denies room for daily riders who rely on the bus to get to work. Since the MTA isn’t inclined to add another bus on quick notice, the only sound solution would be to ban luggage that doesn’t fit under a seat.

-Sitting at work on a slow Saturday night, we caught Giants/White Sox on the superstation. Barry Zito started for the Giants. It was his third start since being removed from the rotation for a nine-day stint in the bullpen – a stretch in which he didn’t make a relief appearance. Against the White Sox, Zito’s fastball was topping out in the low to mid-eighties and his location was horrible. He works quickly and still has a nice hook, but his repertoire lacks variety. The curve either gets smacked or falls out of the strike zone. I’m not sure what the Giants can do with this guy. He’s only just begun collecting $126 million guaranteed. Accentuating his ineffectiveness is the fact that the Giants are a miserable offensive team.

-Kirsten Danis of the News cites “several (unnamed) sources” in reporting that the Queens democratic machine is gonna pull the supportive rug out from underneath incumbent state senator John Sabini in favor of rising political star Hiram Monserrate. Sabini and Monserrate are vying for the state senate seat that represents Jackson Heights and Corona. Danis says a Monday meeting of democratic big-wigs in Queens will produce formal backing of Monserrate. Danis says that influential Queens democrat (and the leading party boss in Queens) Joe Crowley (a US congressman) is worried that if he doesn’t join forces with Monserrate, the councilman will build his own political base outside the purview of party bosses and perhaps threaten Crowley’s hold on his own congressional seat. In other words, Crowley and the party finally sense that this community dominated by Hispanics would be well-served by a Hispanic leader.

-Happy first birthday wishes to Ella T. You’re the best, and we can hardly wait to see you blow out a candle and flash that toothy smile.

5-19-08 0155

The Mets enter the big weekend subway series with the Yanks in the same deep funk that plagued them in the final weeks of the 2007 season. The atmosphere at Shea has been at times hostile as the Mets hang around the .500 mark. The fans are very quick to boo, and do so with venom (although Ernie Anastos was happy eating a dog Wednesday night – pictured above). The post-game theme on sports talk radio has moved from gripes about individual players to the start of a debate on whether skipper Willie Randolph will survive the season.

You keep waiting for a roster with a payroll of $137.3 million to go on a run.

When the Mets visit the Bronx tonight for the first of three with the Yankees, they’ll have $137.5 million dollar Venezuelan ace Johan Santana on the hill. The Mets decided earlier in the week to give Santana an extra day’s rest so their expensive acquisition can face the cross-town rival. Santana’s most recent start last Saturday against the Reds lasted just six innings. Santana gave up ten hits and the speed gun showed that has fastball was just a shade above 90 mph. Five of Santana’s eight starts this season have had duration of less than seven innings. None have lasted longer than seven.

Santana should have started Thursday on normal rest. He’s paid a ton of money to work on a regular schedule. Yet, the Mets gave him an extra day to keep Mike Pelfrey on regular rest? You’re kidding right. Fil Bondy of the News suggests that the Mets brass forced the move on Randolph to “stick it” to the Yanks. “Randolph knows who butters his bread, who cuts those outrageous checks to Santana… (The Mets) want their flagship pitcher to plant his flag on the mound in the Bronx.”

If true, it wouldn’t be the first time Omar Minaya and the Mets let bucks cloud management’s thinking and constrain Willie’s options. It took nearly a week for Minaya to figure out a way to activate reliever Matt Wise from the DL, because the only pitcher with options was the red-hot effective reliever Joe Smith.

The logical move was to get rid of Jorge Sosa to make way for Wise. But Minaya gave Sosa two-mil guaranteed before the season and was reluctant to eat the money and concede a bad mistake. As public pressure grew to keep Smith up, Minaya eventually cut Sosa. But it took almost a week of Wise dangling in the clubhouse before Minaya could make the painfully obvious decision to part ways with Sosa.

And if you think $2 mil is tough to throw away, how ‘bout the guaranteed salary of $16 million this season for Carlos Delgado. He will continue to play first despite the fact that he can’t reach down for ground balls and can’t hit a fastball.

All this is the sub-text for a team that seems lethargic, especially at home.

Take for example the fly ball David Wright hit to right with two out in the third inning of Thursday’s game. Austin Kearns dropped what should have been a routine out. Both Luis Castillo (on first when the ball was hit) and Wright assumed that Kearns would make the play. Wright stood at home plate, pouted a little and watched the ball for a second or two before lumbering to first. Castillo jogged slowly when the ball was hit instead of running full tilt. Had they both been hustling, Castillo could possibly have scored and Wright should have been on second. As it was, they ended up on first and third and the inning ended without a run.

To Minaya’s credit, the Milledge deal has worked out great so far. Brian Schneider is a solid catcher and Ryan Church (pictured above) has been fantastic. Church is fearless and top-notch defensively and has been hitting the cover off the ball. Milledge has been so-so for the Nats and a source that follows that team closely has said he’s unpopular in the clubhouse because of a barely-acceptable adherence to the club’s day-to-day report-for-duty times.

We’ve put up a few photos from our Wednesday visit to Shea. Just click on the “Mets” tab at the top of the page.

It’s probably not fair, but if the Mets somehow get swept this weekend, we’ll predict that Willie is guided to the exit never to wear the Met warm-up jacket again.

With ESPN’s screening of “The Zen of Bobby V” fresh in the minds of Met fans, it is Valentine’s name that sits atop the wish list should a replacement for Randolph be needed.

-The other huge sporting event this weekend happens in Baltimore. Derby winner Big Brown will try to notch the second leg of horse racing’s elusive triple crown about fifteen minutes after six pm on Saturday. He’s much the best horse in the race, but there’s legitimate concern that the two-week spacing between the Derby and the Preakness isn’t enough time for Brownie to duplicate his dominance. Several entrants in the Preakness have pointed specifically for this spot and will have full gusto when the gates open. Since Big Brown will be bet on at a staggering level, the gambler may choose to exploit the opportunity and wager on one of the other competitors. The reward to those who bet against Big Brown and figure out which horse may upset him would be gigantic should Brownie fail to cross the line first. We will pin our hopes on the New York-bred Giant Moon (#11). Trained by Rick Schosberg, Giant Moon will hopefully enter the first turn in a path that doesn’t compromise his chances. We expect his locally-experienced rider Ramon Dominguez to choose a strategy that enables Giant Moon to grab the lead on the final turn should Big Brown get leg-weary. Tres Borrachos will be among a few pressuring the favorite early on, if Brownie’s not up to his best. There will be others mounting late runs including Behindatthebar but we envision Moonie scoring the upset at odds of 35-1 or so. The other obvious scenario here is a runaway glide for Big Brown. But there’s no great way to gamble on that prospect that makes much sense. No matter what happens, there’s great potential for excitement and intrigue. The possibility of a triple crown stirs up so much anticipation, especially in these parts where the final leg will be run in three weeks at Belmont. Enjoy it, horse racing fans. More than anything, may be the proceedings be safe and trouble-free for both the horses and their pilots.

-The Prairie Spies release their new record “Surplus Enjoyment” today and will celebrate the special occasion this evening with a gig at Chicago’s Empty Bottle. The Spies plan a tour in support of the disc that will include stops in Philly, DC and New York in late July. Four cuts from the new release are available at both the band’s MySpace site and on the official Spies website http://www.theprairiespies.com/ Included on the new record is the tune “Blackout” which the band wowed an audience in Brooklyn with when they wheeled it out the night before this year’s Super Bowl. In its current form, Blackout is a tune that has no shot of getting played on college radio stations given the lyrical content, but it is guaranteed to blare from party speakers and car stereos this summer and for years to come.

5-16-08 0005

For as long as we’ve been in New York, the pro athlete we’ve been the biggest fan of has been Met reliever Aaron Heilman. On Wednesday night, Heilman hit rock bottom and we were there for the disaster.

Willie called Heilman in to keep a one-one tie tight in the seventh inning of the third game of a four game set with the Nationals. Instead, Heilman got rocked. He allowed an inherited runner on base to score plus three more of his own making and was directly responsible for a bad Met loss to the Nats. He was booed on his entrance, and he was booed even harder when he left (pictured above). It was brutal.

What made it worse was when Met reliever Joe Smith came in to finish the seventh. He struck out Ryan Zimmerman to end the inning. He also retired the eighth in order which made all the second-guessers at Shea (and on talk radio) wonder why it wasn’t Smith that was asked to negotiate the tie game.

The Nats ended up winning 5-3. Heilman is likely gonna be banished to a diminished role and the Mets are in a bad spot right now. We’ll write more tomorrow and throw up some more pictures, but for now, we’ll say that we really feel bad for Heilman and hope he can bounce back and help the Mets win against the hated Yankees this weekend.

5-14-08 2355

One would think the insertion of a medical inspection tube into the mouth, down the throat and deep into the esophagus would be unpleasant. But thanks to the wildly effective and powerful drug Propofol, we had what amounted to a one-hour trip to the beach on a Tuesday visit to the doctor for an upper endoscopy. I share this for no other reason other than to rave about the power of Propofol.

An anesthesiologist established an I-V hookup on my right arm, the doc walked in, and we briefly talked Derby. As soon as the doc declared go-time, the anesthesiologist pumped in the Prop and it was a quick and hazy trip to lights out. A half-hour later, it was an easy transition back to earth with no recollection of the somewhat invasive medical procedure. Fifteen minutes after that, we were walking down 31st Avenue in Astoria with the remnants of a light buzz.

About twenty-five years ago, we had been subjected to a similar test with no help from painkillers. It was nightmarish. Because of that, we had feared more of the same. Instead, with the aid of Propofol, the procedure was painless and hassle-free. The strength and effectiveness of this drug is awesome. To those who created it, tested it and implemented its use: nice job.

-The Knicks introduced new head coach Mike D’Antoni at the Garden Tuesday, and there were three noteworthy developments. Two of them were revealed after the news conference when GM Donnie Walsh appeared on the Franscesa/Russo radio program. First and most importantly, Walsh fully repudiated a Mitch Lawrence item in the News that said D’Antoni was pushing to trade Stephon Marbury to Phoenix for Boris Diaw and Leandro Barbosa. We all know Marbury stinks, but with one year left on his mega-deal, his soon-to-expire contract makes him very valuable. While it may seem tempting to add Diaw and Barbosa in exchange for a bum, both those players have big-dollar contracts that both run another four years. Walsh has stated that he hopes to gain cap space within two or three years and the acquisition of Diaw and Barbosa would trash that effort. To hear Walsh nix the Lawrence report is encouraging. Secondly, Walsh reiterated with forcefulness that Garden boss Jim Dolan isn’t influencing his decision-making and had no say on the selection of D’Antoni. Cynics who felt Mark Jackson was the better guy for the job had floated the theory that Dolan forced Walsh to get D’Antoni. Not true says Walsh. “My heart would have chosen Mark to be quite honest, but I had to do what’s best for the franchise and so I chose D’Antoni…Let me tell you something. I talk to Mr. Dolan daily about the team – tell him my thoughts. He’s not involved in my decisions.” The final aspect of the D’Antoni announcement that was interesting was the presence of dysfunction and awkwardness that accompanies just about every Knicks event in the current era. Walsh still doesn’t know how to pronounce D’Antoni’s name (he at least twice called him “D’Antonio”) and there was Marbury’s crashing of the festivities and bizarre interview with MSG's Al Trautwig. Since Marbury is basically persona non grata at the Garden for these types of events, Trautwig voiced surprise that he was in attendance. Marbury was not among the players formally introduced at the start of the news conference, and Wiggie asked him directly whether he was invited. “Why can’t I come?” said Marbury defiantly. With a spaced-out grin on his face and an outfit only Clyde Frazier could pull off, Marbury looked like the shunned party guest who generates snickers. His interview with Trautwig was classic.

Wiggie: This is an important season for you, in terms of your career. It’s the last year of your contract. What is your approach to it?

Marbury: To just dominate.

Wiggie: What are you doing to prepare for that?

Marbury: I’m running in the mountains.

Wiggie: You’re running in the mountains? Where?

Marbury: I’m hiking. I’m doing something I’ve never did (sic) before.

Wiggie: Where are you hiking?

Marbury: In L-A.

Wiggie: Where in the mountains? In Northern California?

Marbury: In Runyon Canyon.

Wiggie: Are you just doing this by yourself?

Marbury: My little brother and I.

Wiggie: Really?

Marbury: Yeah.

5-13-08 2000

It was the Reds that made the rare big league mistake of batting out of order in the ninth inning Sunday, but somehow Mets skipper Willie Randolph got caught in the criticism crosshairs of the hometown announcer. Mets TV play-by-play man Gary Cohen was highly critical of Randolph’s response to Cinci’s failure to follow its lineup card. Catcher David Ross lined out to start the Reds ninth, when it fact it should have been Corey Patterson at bat to start the inning. Cohen didn’t catch the mistake until after Ross made the out but announced the snafu as Ross walked back to the dugout. As Patterson stepped to the plate, Willie came out of the dugout to lodge a complaint with the home plate umpire. Cohen implored Willie to stay quiet until after Patterson’s at-bat in the event Patterson got a hit. “You don’t want to call it to their attention now!” said Cohen. “The Mets gain nothing from that.” Cohen argued that Randolph should have waited to see the outcome of Patterson’s at-bat and then raise an objection if Patterson got on. In that case, Patterson would have been ruled out, said Cohen and there would be two out with no runners on.

As it was, it took twelve minutes of discussions between the umpiring crew and both managers to determine that Ross made the first out and should bat again – in his proper spot. As the debate dragged on about how to resolve the situation, Cohen criticized the umps, too. “I can’t imagine how this is so complicated,” said Cohen.

Turns out the umpire crew chief Dale Scott says that even if Willie had waited for Patterson to bat, only one batter would be called out as a penalty for the out-of-order mistake had Patterson got on. We read the provisions of the rule (6.07) a few times and it’s very confusing. So much so, that we’re not completely sure whether Cohen or Scott is right. We lean toward Cohen’s claim, because rule 6.07 appears to say that the first out by Ross would stand as proper once (and if) Patterson reached base and Ross would be called out a second time since Patterson had improperly taken his teammate’s spot in the order.

Cohen’s sidekick in the booth Keith Hernandez made the best assessment of the situation as it was unfolding. “This is a poor reflection on the Cincinnati Reds,” said Hernandez.

Reds manager Dusty Baker took full responsibility for the error after the game. Scott said he’d never seen a major league club bat out of order in his 23-year career.

-What a fantastic, hard-earned championship for Sergio Garcia at The Players on Sunday. In a highly-entertaining interview with Costas after winning a sudden death playoff, Sergio was humble and self-deprecating. “I’d like to thank Tiger for not being here,” said Sergio.

5-12-08 0115

We should probably trust new Knicks GM Donnie Walsh, but we don’t love the hiring of Mike D’Antoni. The Knicks flashed more green than the Bulls to get an offensive-minded head coach at a time when a strict teacher of defense is needed. The Knicks gave Larry Brown-like money to a run-and-gun coach who was basically pushed out of Phoenix and now inherits a roster that is at least two or three seasons from getting out of salary cap purgatory. It seems like it has the potential to be an unpleasant experience for D’Antoni. At least he’ll get some good coin. Mark Jackson was thought to be the top candidate for the Knicks job. He seemed to be a better fit. Although Jackson has no head coaching experience, there would have been a mutually beneficial level of patience between team and coach during the early stages of the Walsh rebuilding process. Knicks fans also likely would have appreciated the grooming of a beloved basketball mind into a teacher/coach. As it is, we’ll predict that D’Antoni isn’t around when the Knicks finally overcome all the bad personnel decisions made by Isiah.

-We were way late vs. the regular population in getting a cell phone, but we just hit the two-year mark carrying the mobile and we love it. As an incentive to keep the customer in tow, our service provider celebrated our two-year relationship by sharply reducing the cost of a new phone in exchange for a commitment to re-up for two more years. We had liked our first phone – a Razr – just fine but couldn’t resist trying a new gadget. As we considering the myriad of options, we had two issues of importance. Since the Razr’s battery seemed to drain quickly, we wanted a phone with some staying power. More importantly, we were looking for a phone that doubled as a reliable picture-taker. Some of the events we attend prohibit the carrying of a camera, so we looked for a phone that had the best camera available. Of the phones offered by Verizon, the Samsung “Flipshot” seemed to be the best option. The built-in camera is rated at 3.0 megapixels which is the highest of all the phone offerings. So, we got it. And we like it. The optional “extended-life” battery is really great and the camera is cool. The only problem we see potentially is that the phone looks more like a camera than a phone. Will security guards at concerts or certain sporting events have a beef when they look at it? Yeah, we can plead that its main function is as a telephone. But it really does look like a camera. I guess we’ll find out.

5-10-08 2245

We finally got around to watching NBC’s Kentucky Derby telecast. Before we left home a week ago Tuesday, we DVR’d the program which was blocked from 4 PM to 6:30 PM. To be safe, we added an hour at the end to capture any spillover.

The first hour of the broadcast was primarily a red carpet show hosted by entertainment reporter Billy Bush. Titled alternately during the hour as “Access at the Derby” and “The Red Carpet Show,” the fluff programming was not clearly delineated as separate from the main telecast. Not only was it lumped in as part of the regular telecast on the program listings used to DVR the show, NBC used all of its serious broadcast talent except Costas within the first hour.

Considering the prestige of the Kentucky Derby, the first sixty minutes of the telecast was brutally weak content. It contained low-end B-list celebs that included Greg Grunberg and Vince McMahon. Bush was live from a set just past the finish line. He would come out of commercial from the live set and then pitch to himself doing taped interviews on the red carpet. It’s amazing that such an egregious sequencing screw-up would be allowed to happen repeatedly by a network typically sharp with its sports production. You simply can’t have a broadcast talent throwing it to himself and then back again.

The main criticism we read of the telecast was NBC’s handling of the breakdown of Eight Belles. Richard Sandomir of the Times wrote two columns about the subject early this week.

There’s really not much we could criticize. The first hint that something was out of the ordinary was when cameras showed a victorious Big Brown circling back on the first turn to return to the winner’s circle. Big Brown threw rider Kent Desormeaux a few feet from where Eight Belles was sprawled out. Gary Stevens observed Desormeaux getting flung and attributed the fall to Brownie’s friskiness. “That’s the sign of a horse that’s still fresh.”

More likely, Big Brown was spooked by the sight of a horse on the ground in such close proximity. Both Stevens and Tom Hammond could see the horse on the ground and didn’t say anything about it. They likely were waiting to get a positive ID on the horse before announcing it. Said Hammond about 30 seconds after Desormeaux got tossed. “We’re told now that Eight Belles, the filly has been injured.”

A long shot of Eight Belles lying on her side – her rib cage pulsating up and down from rapid, deep breathing – was shown for about ten seconds.

Next in the sequence was Donna Brothers on a horse interviewing the winning jock. Brothers failed to bring up Eight Belles. It’s likely her earpiece gave her the audio of Hammond declaring the filly hurt before she got the pitch, but she didn’t ask Desormeaux about the filly.

All of this is happening at a pretty quick pace with little accumulation of facts other than the news that it was Eight Belles on the ground. We can’t fault Hammond, Stevens or Brothers for being in any way insensitive given the lack of information.

The only parties we can criticize on the sensitivity issue would be David Novak, CEO of Yum Brands (the primary race sponsor) and Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear. A full 23 minutes after Eight Belles went down, and a full 16 minutes after Kenny Rice told a national TV audience that she was dead, Novak and Beshear made jovial and celebratory proclamations at the winner’s trophy presentation that sounded badly out of place. The ceremonial comments from Novak and Beshear made no mention of Eight Belles. Costas hosted the presentation and has said he informed the two suits about the death prior to the start of the ceremony.

A few other notes about the telecast:

-Shortly after coming out of the final turn, Eight Belles abruptly turned her head to the right after nearly brushing Recapturetheglory. She appeared to want to veer right before settling for a final run down the rail. About six strides from the wire, she took a little downward lunge and there appears to be a little hitch in her gait just after the wire. We’re not gonna speculate on these irregularities but will say that the head-turning could be attributable to the thunderous crowd noise.

-The clear tilt of the broadcast was that Big Brown was gonna win and given the result, it was a smart approach by NBC. Reporter Bob Neumeier loved Big Brown and said so at every opportunity during the broadcast. “He’s the best horse in the race by miles. He is much the best. He has proven to be much the best,” said Noomie. There was a solid Costas interview with Big Brown’s trainer Dick Dutrow. The New York-based trainer has shown to be a quirky, intense and compelling subject for the media during this triple crown run.

-During that interview, Costas asked Dutrow if he was going to follow through with a pledge to bet a large sum of money on Big Brown. Dutrow said no and explained his decision by saying that he had not bet on Brownie in the previous two races and didn’t want a jinx by betting on him in this race. The other possible explanation here is that any wise gambler would probably be best to abstain from specific on-the-record declarations of their wagers.

-There were two excellent pre-produced pieces. The opening segment featuring Louie Roussel describing his emotional return to the Derby after a 20-year absence was stirring. It included clips of great Derby winners making their stretch run set to dramatic music. There was also a heart-tugging piece on Desormeaux and the health problems of his second son Jacob.

-Both Eoin Harty and Steve Asmussen refused to be interviewed on the walk-over from the barn to the paddock. Good for them. All trainers should choose to enjoy that moment fully without Mike Battaglia butting in on it. Hardy would later agree to talk to Battaglia in the paddock and dropped in a Gary Sherlock reference. It completely went over the head of Battaglia.

-Bennie Stutts also did an interview in the paddock. The trainer of Smooth Air had waited 40 years to make his first Derby and was clearly impacted. He seemed most touched by the fact that he received a good-luck call from trainer Allen Jerkens just minutes before saddling his Derby entry.

-Of the celebrities interviewed before-hand, Michael Jordan, Charlie Weis and Vince McMahon all picked Colonel John (who finished sixth). McMahon acted a little strange during his interview. At one point he said: “I feel a little out of place here, quite frankly. I don’t like rich people and I don’t particularly like the smell of horses.”

-The Hugh Hefner interview was kinda funny. Bush likened Hefner to a “stallion.” Hefner smirked and let out a sound a horse would make. Hef was surrounded by three playmates who said they had spent the previous night in a suite at The Galt House. After the interview was over, Bush warned Hefner to watch his step. “Don’t trip over the wire,” said Bush.

-There was a segment featuring Bobby Flay at the legendary trackside diner Wagner’s. Flay and one of the cooks at Wagner’s had a contest to see who could make the best omelet. Flay got a little fancy with his veggie-based creation and was forced to concede defeat to his rival who used an assortment of meat in her dish.

-The viewer was introduced to New York track announcer Tom Durkin who called the Derby for NBC. Durkin showed the binoculars he uses and said they have a special battery-operated stabilizer and have enough strength “to see a license plate on the backstretch.” Durkin also displayed a homemade coat hanger device with a clip that he puts around his deck to hold a document containing the race’s program numbers and corresponding horse names.

NBC will carry the Preakness a week from Saturday. The network has announced that it has added thirty minutes to the front end of its broadcast (now starting at 4:30 PM) to devote time for analysis and reflection about Eight Belles and issues related to her breakdown and death. It should be noted that NBC will televise game five of Stars/Wings starting at 1:30 PM that afternoon and will face a predicament if that contest goes into overtime. One would guess NBC will likely switch the game to one of its sister cable stations in all but Detroit and Dallas should the hockey game run long.

-One of Big Brown’s owners told CNBC earlier this week that the Derby winner has been insured to the tune of $50 million-plus in advance of the Preakness. In a live interview with CNBC’s Darren Rovell outside his workplace in Garden City, NY, Mike Iavarone said the ownership group has received offers to sell Big Brown for $60 million. Iavarone expects the number to exceed $100 million should the Big Brown “continue to win.” Based on the Iavarone comments, it sounds like the owners may choose to sell the horse’s breeding rights in advance of any outright sale.

5-8-08 1630

Ever since Chicago Blackhawks owner Bill Wirtz passed away last September, the new management regime led by his son Rocky has taken swift action to restore the credibility of the franchise. The team has lifted the television blackout on home games, switched its radio broadcasts to WGN-AM and mended broken relationships with Tony Esposito, Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita. One of the biggest signs of the franchise’s commitment to turn things around came Tuesday when news broke that legendary broadcast voice Pat Foley will be invited back to West Madison to call the games on TV. Foley was pushed out the door after the ’05-’06 season. His 25-year career calling Hawks games ended after the team decided to stop the use of a simultaneous play-by-play audio feed of Foley on both the radio and TV broadcasts. The team wanted Foley on radio only and reportedly gave him a financial offer that didn’t befit one of the greatest hockey announcers of all-time.

Foley ended up taking the play-by-play job at the cross-town Chicago Wolves franchise, a popular minor league hockey team. He continues to call games for the Wolves who are now in the AHL playoffs.

But both the Bright One and the Trib reported Tuesday that current Hawks TV voice Dan Kelly has been fired, paving the way for a Foley return to the Blackhawks.

Roman Modrowski of the Bright One broke the Foley story and the Trib followed with an item posted on the newspaper’s web site.

We think Foley’s descriptive ability, his cynicism and humor are best utilized on radio broadcasts. But hey, we’re not gonna complain. The bottom line is that Foley is going back where he belongs. In his mid-50’s, Foley still has plenty of zip. He will return to a Hawks team that will likely make the playoffs next year. The team’s level of play will give the most exciting broadcaster in hockey a product worthy of the hype that will likely surround his return from exile.

Modrowski’s story suggests that the Hawks will wait until the Wolves season ends before officially announcing the Foley re-hiring.

-The other big broadcast news out of Chicago is the return of “The Swirsk.” One of our boyhood broadcast idols – Chuck Swirsky – is coming back to Chicago to call Bulls games on radio. Swirsky left Chicago more than a decade ago for Detroit. He would later move to Toronto, where he has called Raptors games since the ’98-’99 season. Swirsky was very popular in Chicago during TSR’s youth, primarily as a sports reporter and sports talker on radio. In a series of moves involving the Bulls broadcast teams, Swirsky becomes the radio play-by-play man. He’ll sit alongside Bill Wennington. Current radio play-by-play man Neil Funk has been moved onto the TV side, displacing both Tom Dore and Wayne Larrivee.

-The assault trial of Todd Sauerbrun has been delayed until at least May 28th. According to the Denver County Court web site, Sauerbrun was granted a requested continuance last week. The talented punter has perhaps the NFL’s most powerful leg, but is without a NFL job at the moment. A boozed-up Sauerbrun is accused of hitting a Denver cabbie last December. He’s also charged with “disturbing the peace.” Sauerbrun’s listed attorney of record as he awaits trial is Harvey A. Steinberg. The Denver-based attorney’s roster of clients has included pro athletes Bill Romanowski, Pedro Astacio, Reuben Droughns and Travis Henry. In comments to the Denver Post late last year, Steinberg says athletes often get harsh treatment from the judiciary. “The reason they get treated more harshly is district attorneys are deathly afraid they are going to be accused of giving a professional athlete a break.”

5-6-08 2030

Before horse racing fans could fully re-hash and celebrate the bold and beautiful performance by Big Brown in the Kentucky Derby, there was sadness.

Soon after Big Brown (pictured above with jockey Kent Desormeaux on his back) electrified a big Derby crowd on one of the most pleasant Derby days we can remember, word had circulated that the filly Eight Belles was dead.

Most newspapers we saw Sunday covered the death with prominence that was near equal to the coverage of Big Brown’s victory. We got word of the filly’s breakdown via text message from a friend who was watching the telecast. We wouldn’t have immediately known about the incident otherwise. From our seating location, we had no view of the first turn area where the horse dropped to the ground.

A couple of my seatmates said they would rather have not known of the breakdown so soon after such a glorious performance by the winner. It was a buzz kill, said one pal.

But as sad as it was/is, we were glad to receive the accurate and immediate word on Eight Belles from the outside world if for no other reason it was a major breaking news story. Why deliberately suppress or resist a key informational dimension of the biggest horse race of the year however depressing it might be?

Word spread quickly throughout the crowd.

Why did Eight Belles (pictured above entering the paddock before the race) break both front ankles after finishing in second place? Did she run too hard? Too far?

The Eight Belles breakdown needs to be analyzed. So does every other incident involving the on-track injury of a horse. There needs to be a better understanding of what causes them beyond: “horses are fragile animals” or “they’re doing what they love.”

Because if we leave it at that, there will continue to be growing resentment about a sport which may be perceived as callous about the expendability of the animal’s life. We bet on them, we put ’em on airplanes to take them from track to track. We whip them and we run them in sticky goo or soggy grass.

Worse than anything, we have supporters of improved equine safety who have developed hoof-friendly synthetic surfaces proven to be safer for the horse, yet somehow there’s powerful old-guard horsemen like Nick Zito who whine about the new surface because it somehow undoes the tradition of the sport.

The other negative development in connection with Big Brown’s Derby victory is the spotlight it now puts on his trainer Dick Dutrow.

Many New York horse racing fans have long considered Dutrow to be a cheat. You don’t see it as much any more, but for a significant period earlier this decade it was not uncommon to see Dutrow claim a horse and immediately elevate its performance at rates well beyond normal. His barn has been caught a few times using prohibited medication but it’s the drastic form reversals he produces that raises eyebrows.

None of this is Big Brown’s fault, obviously. All Derby horses are screened for illegal drugs and it could very well be that this horse is a natural super-horse. But Dutrow’s somewhat shady background will now get a full vetting and you wonder if the blunt-speaking trainer can survive the scrutiny.

Big Brown will, we believe. We are usually as skeptical as anybody about any horse’s chance of winnng the crown but Big Brown seems like all he has to do is show up in Baltimore in two weeks to notch the second jewel.

Remember what Dutrow said a week before the Derby. “I know there's no one going into this race as good as he is right now. If he breaks clean, it's a mismatch to me on paper."

Big Brown matched the bold proclamation of superiority by his trainer. He overcome a bad post position, a wide position on the first turn and a running strategy that was a departure from his previous victory.

He blew the Derby field away. Even if he goes into the Preakness with some fatigue, he appears to still have enough talent and tactical speed to win.

Unfortunately, the fan and racing media’s focus may not be entirely on this triple crown effort. The spotlight may turn to a close examination of Dutrow - and of the two Derby weekend breakdowns (Chelokee was the other) and how to avoid them going forward.

Attendance on Derby Day was announced at 157,770. If you believe the number issued by the track, it is the second largest crowd in Derby history. Some had speculated that a poorly-handled and arguably unfair reallocation of Derby tickets by Churchill Downs would keep attendance down. If there was a backlash, we didn’t detect it.

When one entered the track Saturday, Obama supporters passed out stickers that thousands of fans put on their lapels.

Our pal Marc had a box in section 220. We joined him and the rest of the crew during the latter stages of the card. It was an excellent vantage point. Sixteen-ounce beers were seven bucks. We had post-Derby burritos at Qdoba on Bardstown Road. It has become an annual tradition to hit Q-Dobe and follow that with one in the bar at the Seelbach Hotel.

At about 11 PM, we still had some git-go and hit a fantastic bar a little south of downtown. Known as the “Mag Bar,” this happening joint on Magnolia and Second was the perfect place to cap Derby weekend.

The early wakeup call and taxi ride to the airport came a little too quick Sunday morning, that’s for sure. Federal screeners had the airport’s security checkpoint fully staffed and there was no line at the peak time of 0515. We failed to score an empty seat on the first flight to Newark, so we lingered in discomfort into the noon hour when we jumped on a bird that took us to Cleveland for a connecting trip to LaGuardia.

Our hotel - The Holiday Inn Express in New Albany - was solid. The rate was too high, but the overall lodging experience at this place was all you could ask for. They offered a free breakfast every morning.

Our Derby hotel roommate Perl brought a supply of adhesive strips meant for application to the bridge of one’s nose. They served to expand the breathing canal during sleep-time and they were a real revelation.

With a five-day string of gambling losses, and the otherwise high cost of this trip, we feel a little broken and beat down at the moment. But that is always a short-lived feeling. Soon, we’ll be trying to figure out our 2009 Derby hotel. We’ll also begin a long year-long process of replenishing our gambling purse so we can take another crack at winning a wager on the Derby.

With seventeen consecutive years of Derby attendance now under our belt, we still have never selected a winner.

4-4-08 2015

It rained for nearly five hours on Oaks Day. It turned the main track into soup and made the turf track “yielding.” Somehow, turf front-runners sustained their speed to win on the lead. It led to the unlikely victory of Tizdejavu wire to wire in the American Turf at 21-1.

Tizdejavu knocked us out of yet another pick four play and led to our fourth consecutive day of wagering defeat on track.

Proud Spell won the Oaks. She had late vigor and plenty of gas to put away our choice Bsharpsonata who again ran admirably. Bsharp was winning the race for about three-fourths of the affair, but expended too much energy early to stay on top.

As the Oaks field entered the track, a soaking wet and resilient crowd cheered. Jockey Calvin Borel (pictured above) saluted the fans as he sat atop longshot A to the Croft.

Our Oaks Day seats were under cover. A cool mist blew into our faces when the storms reached a peak, but we were much better off than the folks who had no roof to sit below.

Our pals Marc and Perl were big betting winners. We were a big loser and we should say that we’re tired of betting without cashing tickets. It’s no fun.

In the grade three Alysheba, the promising and talented four-year-old colt Chelokee took a bad step in the mud, threw his rider and appeared to badly break a leg. It was a horrific sight for the crowd to see and likely will mean the end to both the career and life of the son of Cherokee Run. Chelokee is trained by Michael Matz, the same trainer who conditioned Barbaro. It was Barbaro’s tragic 2006 Preakness breakdown that shattered the hearts of racing fans. You hope Matz can have the strength to withstand these bad experiences.

Matz scratched his entry in the final race, and you can only assume that he did so because of what happened to Chelokee.

Perhaps the most impressive racing performance of the day came from the five-year-old mare Ginger Punch. At least twice she panicked from the sight of large pools of water on the track. Each time she broke stride and tried to jump over puddles. She was at least four wide going into the first turn and still cruised to victory in the grade two Louisville stakes. Ginger Punch (pictured above wearing the #7 coming out of the gate) may very well be the best filly running right now.

We have decided to make Cowboy Cal (#17) our official Derby pick. For the last week, we had informally committed to making Pyro our choice. But too many people are betting Pyro, and his 5-1 price makes him less than appealing in a Derby that seems wide open. So, at 40-1 or so, we’ve decided to make Cowboy Cal our selection. He’ll be under the skilled guidance of Johnny Velasquez and has the powerful sire Giant’s Causeway to bolster his staying power as he tries to sustain a run coming for home.

Have a good Derby everybody.

5-2-08 2345

On a warm and very windy afternoon, we got knocked out of our main wager Thursday when the turf sprinter Smitty’s Sunshine failed to fire in the featured Mamzelle Stakes.

The strong, sustained gusts in excess of 30 mph kicked up an assortment of allergens and the fine, sandy dust from the dirt track.

At one point early in the card, officials at the starting gate ordered the field of horses to take another circular stroll to avoid exiting the gate as the winds howled.

Our pal Marc hit town on a non-stop flight from LaGuardia. After a fun walk through the aisles of a Louisville Liquor Barn outlet, we hit the track and spent most of the afternoon sitting in our traditional upper-level grandstand side perch. Marc was on fire with his betting slips right from the get-go. He placed a substantial win wager on First Regent in the fourth race and got 6.1 dollars on the dollar in return.

Once Smitty knocked us out of the pick four, we bolted the track and found a never-before-used access point to I-264. We had dinner for the third or fourth consecutive year at Bourbon’s Bistro. We’re no bourbon aficionado but our pals love a glass of the good, long-aged dark stuff with complex flavor. Bourbon lovers say the selection at this place is excellent.

We’re just about ready to leave for the Oaks and will play Bsharpsonata to win at about 6-1 or so.

Our Derby pick will appear here tomorrow morning.

5-2-08 1055

It was a picture-perfect day at Churchill Downs Wednesday. Sunny and 68. We didn’t cash a ticket.

We got knocked out of a big pick four play in the second leg by an implausible horse off a six-month layoff for the obscure trainer William Hamilton. Tequilas Dayjur spiked a big payoff with her win for those who somehow decided to include the horse in the pick four.

Thirsty for more action after losing the pick four play, we chased a winner in the final two races and played the triples hard to mount a comeback. It didn’t work. We’ve gotten kicked in the backside with some heavy velocity the last two days.

On Thursday, we’ll try to break out of it. We will center all of our pick four efforts around the great turf sprinter Smitty’s Sunshine and hope for outlandish outcomes in the races before and after Smitty romps to victory.

For those looking for a rare TSR tout going forward, mark down the name West of Gibraltar. The four-year-old daughter of Rock of Gibraltar finished second in the seventh at Churchill Wednesday. She went around half the track wasting energy with resistance to the reins held by jockey Garrett Gomez. She snorted and twisted her head and did everything to take herself out of the race. She nearly threw Gomez on the first turn. Had she run professionally, she would have won the race by ten. Trained by Barc Tagg, look for West of Gibraltar to romp back in New York the next time she runs.

Driving has been a hassle the first two days of this trip. We’ve never mentioned it here, but TSR has some kind of very intense driving phobia we suddenly picked up just before we turned the age of 30. On any road where the regular speed of travel exceeds about 40 mph, our hands sweat, our heartbeat accelerates and we have this grave fear of blacking out. Bridges also trigger panic. Since we’re staying across the river from Louisville, we can’t avoid the bridge. But at least there’s routing that can avoid interstate travel.

Getting to and from the track has been harrowing.

Luckily, we were joined tonight by our Boston-based pal Perl. He’s a very good driver.

Back at the hotel, all is good. There’s a little placard in the room that says that guests can request any toiletry item one failed to bring on their trip. In our case, we forgot our toothbrush. So, we went down to the lobby this morning to see if they had one. Sure enough, they handed us a toothbrush. That’s pretty cool.

We’ve noticed that a lot of Kentuckians still use the mock greeting “Whassup?” We thought that had faded away a couple years ago.

4-30-08 2205

We rolled right from our Monday night work shift onto an early Tuesday morning flight to Cleveland for a connecting flight to Louisville. We’re in town for our 17th consecutive Kentucky Derby and will be on track for five straight days.

Our favorite jockey Robby Albarado (pictured above) won three races Tuesday. We failed to take advantage from a wagering perspective in large part because of a string of expected and popular outcomes.

On Wednesday, Albarado rides Grasshopper in New York along with another horse on the opening day Belmont undercard before returning to Kentucky.

The fact that Albarado is flying all the way to New York from Louisville to ride Grasshopper tells you something about the horse’s shot of winning Wednesday.
We arrived at Churchill Downs on Tuesday as the gates opened. It was cloudy and chilly.

We’re staying at a hotel across the river from Louisville in New Albany, IN. When we checked in, the clerk said without knowing our political preference that Obama recently spoke in the community. The clerk said that Obama’s speech convinced him that he’d make a good president. Indiana voters go to the polls on Tuesday and could have a lot to say about how the race for the democratic nomination makes its next turn.

New Albany is a small, blue-collar town that appears to be struggling a bit to survive. Right now, it seems to be hanging in there. We had a solo dinner at Lancaster’s Cafeteria. It was an Indiana version of Luby’s. It was very much a down-home place and a popular spot in the community.

Our hotel doesn’t have Versus, so no Rangers game.

Churchill Downs hasn’t changed much from the post-renovation appearance it established the last year or two. Beers are $3.50 until Oaks Day when they spike upward for the big crowds.

The long grin that Calvin Borel has been wearing since he won the 2007 Derby aboard Street Sense is still plastered on his face. Borel responds verbally to every single paddock crowd comment and is among the most fan-friendly athletes we’ve witnessed As Borel entered the track for the second race at Churchill on Tuesday (pictured above) aboard Leedonna for trainer Bob Holthus, Borel conducted a running conversation with fans surrounding the walking ring. There was no ground-breaking dialogue, but Borel didn’t let a greeting or fan comment go by without responding.

Since we didn’t sleep Monday night, we’re gonna cut this short and report back tomorrow. It’s supposed to warm up a bit on Wednesday. Hopefully, our wagering does too…

4-29-08 2050

There were loud sighs of relief at my workplace Sunday evening as Continental Airlines announced it was walking away from a merger deal with United Airlines.  

 
Just a day earlier, a story in the Times portrayed the deal as imminent, with an official announcement said to be set for as early as Thursday.

In an e-mail sent to employees, Continental boss Larry Kellner said the company’s board of directors held a special meeting Sunday and decided to weather the gloomy economic times as a stand-alone air carrier. “We have significant cultural, operational and financial strengths compared to the rest of the industry, and we want to protect and enhance those strengths – which we believe would be placed at risk in a merger with another carrier in today’s environment,” said Kellner in a statement also signed by CFO Jeff Misner.

We may never know exactly what caused Continental to get cold feet on the deal. But we’ll guess that United’s ’08 first quarter earnings report released earlier in the week was an eye-opener. United says it lost $537 million the first three months of this year.

Continental likely feared that combining a mostly healthy business entity with a sick one could infect the sum of the two parts. Integration of two large workforces with different cultures and work rules was a guaranteed mess. And don’t underestimate Wall Street’s reaction to the Northwest/Delta merger announcement. Stock buyers weren’t impressed when that deal was announced. Nobody got rich quick simply from making the merger announcement.

Basically, you got a big yawn from the financial world when Delta and Northwest said they’d combine to form the biggest carrier in the world.

Since architects of mergers often benefit from a spike in stock price, there’s a chance that the dull reaction to Delta/Northwest scared off proponents of Continental/United or other combos.

-We’re a little surprised that Notre Dame’s Tom Zbikowski was selected as high as he was in this weekend’s NFL Draft. The hard-nosed safety was taken by Baltimore with the 23rd pick of the third round – the 86th selection overall. Baltimore must believe Zibby can cover pro receivers despite a lack of speed that was repeatedly evident as the Irish played a difficult ’07 schedule. Yeah, Zbikowski can dish out a hard tackle and can run back a punt but he did a lot of taillight chasing last fall. Perhaps he’ll turn out to be an important special teams player going both ways. With a third-round commitment, Baltimore obviously believes he’s an NFL player. If it doesn’t work out, Zbikowski is expected to pursue a pro boxing career.

-The only punter to be selected in the draft this year was Georgia Tech’s Durant Brooks who might have had the best college punting career since Todd Sauerbrun. The Redskins took Brooks with the second pick of the sixth round (168th overall). Brooks routinely lofts his punts 50 yards. He never gets blocked and is said to have pinpoint directional control. We look forward to seeing Brooks punt in the NFC East this fall.

4-28-08 0145

Discovery of a crooked New York City council slush fund seems to have prompted a closer look at both the council’s budget maneuvers and individual member’s financial records. One examination involves TSR’s very own councilwoman Helen Sears, who was taken to task in a broader piece about campaign spending in the Times late this past week.

The Times says Sears has paid out about $115-thousand from her campaign fund to two sons and a daughter-in-law as compensation for campaign-related “work.”

The money was paid out as Sears was romping over weak or non-existent election opponents. The only election result we could find in which Sears actually had a competitive race was when she first broke through as an elected official in the 2001 city council primary. In that five-way race, Sears had 2705 votes and her nearest competitor had 1930. All of her other races were blowouts or uncontested.

What is especially heinous about the Sears family enrichment scheme is that her campaign fund has accepted in excess of $200-thousand in publicly-funded assistance. Although the money used to pay her family was said to have been pulled from her private fund, it was enrichment from the public funding mechanism that enabled the payments to her family.

Sears defended the cash transfers to her kin. But her response printed in the Times was defensive and incomplete. She cited the fact that she hadn’t run afoul of the Campaign Finance Board. She refused to answer Times questions about the qualifications or backgrounds about her sons and she did not help shed light on what they did to earn their paychecks.

Thank goodness term limits will bring an end to Sears’ city council representation of Jackson Heights, Queens come 2009. She has been mentioned as having aspirations of higher public office at that point, but let’s hope she fades from public view and finds work at an employer who will turn off the cash spigot for her family.

As Sears suggested to the Times, campaign finance law doesn’t prohibit the practice of doling out privately-raised campaign money to family members. But Sears has an obligation to at least explain what her two sons did on behalf of the campaign to take down six figures for a candidate that had no serious election competition.

One side note on Sears: We had mentioned on 3-26-08 that we sent an e-mail to Sears at her official city council address to inquire about her position on congestion pricing. She never responded.

-The date book distributed by the Associated Press to inform its members of upcoming newsworthy events lists a Tuesday start for Todd Sauerbrun’s cabbie assault trial in Denver. Sauerbrun is accused of hitting 59-year-old taxicab driver Saul Cast after a night of boozing last December. To date, Sauerbrun has yet to latch on to a NFL team. He was cut loose by Denver shortly after the taxicab incident.

4-27-08 0129

As airlines begin to publicly make the case for consolidation of the aviation industry in this country, they will likely abstain from stating the obvious. They seek greater ability to control pricing through less competition. With the current major US air carriers bleeding huge negative cash flows from skyrocketing fuel costs, they’re looking for a way to keep head above water.

The fuel cost crisis is real. Just look at the airlines’ quarterly earnings reports issued the last few days. United said it lost $537 million in the first quarter. American lost $328 million. Delta $274 million. In total, the top ten airlines in the US lost a combined $1.738 billion in just the first three months of this year.

With shrinking cash reserves and the sell-off of assets, only a few more quarters like the one just completed will destroy these companies without some kind of serious change in business model.

So, for the first time since Northwest and Delta announced they want to combine their companies, the head honchos from those two outfits went before a congressional committee Thursday.

We watched an internet feed of the hearing through the C-Span web site.

Both Northwest boss Doug Steenland and Delta’s top man Richard Anderson told the House anti-trust task force that the merger will not lessen competition and give the new company a billion dollars in annual economic benefit.

Committee chair John Conyers seemed to calmly buy in to the billion dollar synergy gain, accepting without insightful probing on exactly how that would happen.

Steenland and Anderson admit to some overlapping corporate functions but otherwise claim the two airlines will mesh without much routing overlap.

Conyers seemed to share the looming concern that airlines are basically playing a high-stakes game of chicken with the implied threat that mergers are the only way the industry can avert the fuel cost crisis. Said Conyers to Steenland: “If you don’t get this merger, does that mean you’re both teetering on bankruptcy again? Will you go out of business completely?”

Steenland didn’t answer the question directly but said: “We and the rest of the US airline industry are really in uncharted waters.” Steenland said the federal government’s rejection of the merger would first and foremost eliminate the billion-dollar cost savings seen in the plan. What nobody asked Steenland or Anderson was the price-tag on taking two big companies and turning them into one. Complicated integration of workforces, workplaces and work policies would seem to eat away a lot of dough for many years.

Employees at impacted carriers have been mostly left out of the loop. With the exception of some discussions that included Delta pilots, workers at both airlines didn’t have a seat at the table that served as a platform for the merger talks.

Machinists union president Tom Buffenbarger told the committee that blind trust in Steenland and Anderson as they push the merger through is dangerous for workers. He also said it was deceptive for both airline bosses to suggest that competition would remain unchanged. “The wholesale reshaping of the industry will destroy competition and harm consumers on routes throughout the United States. It would be difficult to find anyone outside of a small group of airline executives who expects to benefit from additional airline consolidation,” said Buffenbarger. “It is both insulting and a testament to these airlines’ arrogance that they think anyone believes they can combine these two companies without eliminating service and purging employees.”

4-24-08 2100

Dan Bejar saved the “single” from his latest Destroyer record Trouble in Dreams for the encore at Bowery Ballroom Wednesday night. The tune “Foam Hands” prompted a couple of young Destroyer fans near the stage to lift custom-made foam fingers into the air to celebrate the tune. We made a point after the show to congratulate the couple for their ingenuity.

In town for the second of two shows in New York City, Destroyer’s Wednesday set veered away from the previous night’s song list about 45 minutes in. Bejar and the band passed around a bottle of Jameson’s and loosened their hold on both their instruments and their focus to perhaps join the vibe of the lower east side environment they were playing in.

The sold-out crowd was fully attentive and appreciative every step of the way.

We again were treated to the excellent tune “Trembling Peacock.” But we felt the show wasn’t as good overall as the previous night’s effort.

We had a few warm-up brews at Welcome to the Johnsons bar with C-Dub and Laura and then enjoyed dinner at Alias. We were joined at dinner by the Russ-Dog and his friend Lady Di. The Johnsons bar is an excellent place to sip cheap beer. Alias was good, but they let the Lucinda disk “Car Wheels” loop through a second time while we were there.

Tickets for the Destroyer show at both Bowery on Wednesday and Music Hall on Tuesday were fifteen bucks. We’re told by C-Dub that Bejar insists on the fifteen dollar charge as he and his representative make tour stop arrangements. You’ve gotta believe that Bejar is at a point where he could probably extract a larger denomination from the live-music fan. The fact that he sets a ceiling at fifteen bucks is very cool on his part.

We climbed down into the F-train at Delancey after the show and discovered that the F was bypassing. So, we took the rare cab ride which flew at super-sonic direct speed to get us home in no time. With tipsky, it was a worthwhile flat twenty bucks.

We go back to reality now for one full work-week rotation before our much anticipated Derby trip next week. The excitement and drinking of the last two nights were excellent preparation for the adventure to Louisville that awaits.

4-24-08 0225

We worked all weekend, so we didn’t get near any of the Pope’s events the last three days. But our friend Jackie from the Bronx lives just a few blocks from Yankee Stadium, and she has provided the above images from her neighborhood in the moments prior to Benedict’s arrival at the Stadium.

Jackie was just eight years old when she stood on 162nd Street with her mother to witness the arrival of John Paul Two when he came to Yankee Stadium in October 1979. On Sunday, she was back outside Yankee Stadium to relive the experience. No pope sighting this time. It turns out Benedict’s motorcade arrival was more discreet than John Paul’s very public entrance.

Jackie has lived in the shadows of Yankee Stadium nearly all her life. As a Met fan, she has mainly avoided the house that Ruth built.

Ignore the isolated negative review you may have read out of Boston. Dan Bejar and his band Destroyer brought A-game execution for the first of two New York City stops Tuesday night. The sold-out show at the Music Hall of Williamsburg was as good as it gets.

Rarely do we lose it at a rock show these days, but when Bejar played “Trembling Peacock” it was hard to hold it together. He also played “Crystal Country” which sounded great.

The crowd was game. The backing band was great. And the newly revamped venue formerly known as North Six was a fine place to see a show.

Bejar’s voice was strong. He had little direct verbal interaction with the crowd. Destoyer went on a little after eleven pm and played nearly ninety minutes.

We had pre-show beers at a Williamsburg bar called The Charleston. They served free pizza.

After the show, we took the B61 bus to Queens Plaza for a connection to the E train.

When we got home, we flipped on the TV to see that Hillary scored a Pennsylvania victory believed to be sufficiently large enough to keep her campaign from drowning even though it remains annoyingly divisive and damaging to the party we support.

Tonight, we go to Destoyer’s set at Bowery Ballroom with hopes Bejar can thrill us just like he did Tuesday night.

4-24-08 0311

Just like his Dad used to do, Hank Steinbrenner is sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong. The senior VP of the Yanks told the Times Monday that he wants Joba Chamberlain in the starting rotation. “There is no question about it, you don’t have a guy with a 100-mile-per-hour fastball and keep him as a setup guy. You just don’t do that. You have to be an idiot to do that.”

Hank is one of two Steinbrenner sons (Hal is the other) who inherited active day-to-day ownership reins of the Yankee franchise when it became clear in the last year or two that George Steinbrenner doesn’t have the marbles to be the team’s boss any longer. It was decided that Hank would be the primary overseer of the baseball operation and Hal would be responsible for the financials and the new stadium.

There was a time when it appeared Hank wouldn’t be the front-and-center Yankee owner. Steve Swindal, the husband of George Steinbrenner’s daughter Jennifer was being groomed to become the new “boss.” But then Swindal got pushed out of both the family and the baseball business when his marriage to Jennifer went kaput. Swindal seemed to ice his fate with a DUI arrest. Enter Hank.

Hank not only looks like his father, he acts like him. He blurts out opinions without regard for who he offends. His assertion to the Times that Joba shouldn’t have been placed in the bullpen last season and doesn’t belong there now is an affront to GM Brian Cashman and a team of Tampa-based baseball minds assembled by his father. Joba started his major-league career in the bullpen last season in part to better regulate wear and tear on his young arm.

Joba is incredibly valuable as the eighth-inning guy now, because with Mariano, the Yanks are essentially playing seven-inning games. If they can take a lead to the eighth, Joba and Mariano are sure to lock it down.

But with young guns Ian Kennedy and Phil Hughes looking shaky thus far in starting roles, Hank is panicking. Yeah, the debate on whether Joba should enter the rotation has valid arguments both for and against. It’s a debate that plays out among Yankee fans on sports talk radio every day. But Hank’s publicly issued edict undermines Cashman, Girardi and the organization’s effort to work through a delicate issue outside of the public glare. Yeah, it’s Hank’s team now. But he should have learned by watching his dad that a baseball team’s owner will get the best results if the extent of his involvement is signing the checks, leaving personnel decisions to the general manager and skipper.

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She estimates that about four-thousand people without tickets to Benedict’s mass on Sunday gathered on the security perimeter outside the Stadium to protest, hawk souvenirs or simply witness the commotion. The sale of unlicensed merchandise was brisk, says Jackie.

Benedict’s appearance at Yankee Stadium Sunday was the third by a pope in the venue’s long history. Paul VI was the first pope to ever say mass in this country – and he did it at the Stadium in October 1965. And as previously noted, John Paul Two celebrated his Stadium liturgy in October ’79.

We watched the mass on TV. The crowd waved white towels and cheered wildly at several points during the celebration. It was a cool, cloudy day in New York, but as the pope walked from the altar to his waiting popemobile for a lap around the field, the sun came out as if on cue.

Noted conservative columnist Peggy Noonan (who wrote a bio on John Paul Two) covered Benedict’s mass at St. Pat’s on Saturday and said the Pope’s visit was a triumph. Writing in the Sunday Post, Noonan said: “He broke through as his own man, put forward his own meaning, put his stamp on this moment in time. Americans know him now.” That may be a bit of a stretch, but yeah, his first visit as Pope to the US seemed to be a smash with mainstream Catholics. He projected energy. He smiled frequently and seemed to make an impression on those who were able to attend events on his itinerary.

Noonan’s column also made reference to the tight security surrounding the Pope. It was evident as you watched on TV that Benedict had a level of protection reserved for only a Pope and perhaps a US President. Noonan said it was excessive. “Security keeps people away. It leaves the pope unable to walk on a street. There is more muscle in all this then there seems effectiveness, shrewdness or humanity. People who waited hours for the pope couldn’t see him for all the security around him.”

“In some way that can’t be quantified, this is demoralizing for our society…Life involves risk. Presidents and popes are no Caesar,” said Noonan.

It’s easy for Noonan to suggest a loosening of security. She’s not on the hook if something bad goes down. Public access was satisfied to some extent with the slow-moving motorcade up Fifth Ave. on Saturday. In addition, local television coverage of the pope’s movements was wall-to-wall on every channel throughout the weekend.

4-21-08 0215

Chanting “Let Go Rangers,” noisy fans of the original six franchise celebrated their team’s playoff series victory in Newark Friday night. Rangers fans occupied an estimated 35-percent of the seats in the new home arena of the Devils to watch the 5-3 win by New York. It appears probable the Rangers will face the Penguins in the second round.

We feel bad for the Devils. They out-hustled and out-hit the Rangers all series long, yet got eliminated in five games. In thirteen games against the Rangers this season (including the playoffs), the Devils defeated their cross-river nemesis only once.

Despite the admirable and relentless effort by New Jersey, the Devils failed to win this playoff series because the Rangers are loaded with talented playmakers in Jagr, Gomez, Drury, Shanahan and Dubinsky.

Rangers defenseman Marc Staal has suddenly emerged as a major force and is destined to be a superstar. He’s just 21 years old.

And you know the story on Sean Avery. He used his stick obstruct the vision of Devils goaltender Marty Brodeur in game three, and in the process, he totally got into Marty’s head.

Brodeur reportedly refused to shake Avery’s hand when the teams lined up for traditional post-series handshakes. We didn’t see it from our upper level location, but numerous accounts say that Brodeur turned away from Avery.

Avery’s action in game three was unsportsmanlike, and the league reacted swiftly to make sure Avery or anybody else wouldn’t use their stick as a screening device again. But as he has exhibited ever since the Rangers acquired him, Avery is one of the most talented antagonists in the recent history of the NHL. Like the bad tenant you can’t evict, Avery camps out in front of the opposing goaltender and harasses with his presence. He is a very important component on a team stocked with talented but soft offensive players. Without Avery, the Rangers get pushed around and shrink in tough spots. With him, they can weather attempts by their opponent to bully the Ranger playmakers.

Brodeur wasn’t great in this series but he’s not the reason the Devils are headed for the golf course. Nobody is to blame really. The Devils simply didn’t have the talent to match up with the Rangers, a team that may ride the momentum of this series win all the way through the Cup finals.

We sat in the last row of section 104 at the Prudential Center. It was a fantastic seat. Section 104 is in the upper level behind the net which the Devils shoot at in the first and third period. Being in the last row eliminated the hassle of walking up and down stairs and gets you quick access to the bathrooms and the beer stand. And even though it’s an upper level seat, it’s nestled at an altitude lower than the seats that comprise the sections on each long side of the arena.

After the first period, we bought the bifana and the picadinho from the stand selling Portuguese food. Both were excellent. The bifana is your basic pork sandwich, and the picadinho was an excellent stew of cubed potatoes and pork in a flavorful sauce.

From a drama standpoint, you couldn’t have asked for a better game. Down a goal in the third period, the officials awarded the Devils’ John Madden a penalty shot after he was hauled down on a breakaway with seven minutes left in regulation. The standing crowd screamed as Madden took the puck at center ice and moved in (pictured above) on Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist. Madden tried to deke King Henry before a backhand flip inside the right post. It didn’t work. Henry read it all the way and stopped it with his big left leg pad. The die-hard Devil fan sitting to our left said he would have rather had the two-minute power play, although statistically, it’s better to get the penalty shot. With the advent of the shootout, hockey fans see the one-on-one shooter-goalie confrontation every week it seems. But there was a time that you very rarely got a chance to see a penalty shot. It was extremely rare to see it in the post-season.

To see a penalty shot in the third period of a playoff game with the contest on the line was quite a thrill.

To get to the arena, we took the Path train from the World Trade Center stop. The Port Authority recently blocked access to the PATH station as you step off the E train at World Trade to make way for Ground Zero construction, so you have to exit a narrow stairwell at the subway station and walk a block down Vesey Street to get on the PATH.

The PATH fare is only $1.75 and the total length of the trip from Queens to downtown Newark is about an hour and 45 minutes. As we exited the PATH train late Friday night after the game to make the connection back to the subway, you could see thick dust filling the air as you looked at the bright lights shining toward the big, busy hole.

As is usually the case, a solid portion of Rangers fans that made the trip to Newark were loud and bold, bordering on obnoxious. They tried to squelch out the introductory Devils video before the game with chants of “Let’s Go Rangers.” They yelled the same during the national anthem and they berated and mocked Devils fans on the way out of the arena. As we got on the train leaving Newark Penn Station for the trip to Manhattan, one fan wearing a Rangers jersey said: “Back to civilization.”

-All three major New York City dailies reported on the Central Park drug possession arrest of CNN’s Richard Quest in their Saturday editions. But it was the only the Post that decided to include embarrassing details of items in Quest’s possession, which seemed to add a sexual dimension to the story. Citing “law enforcement sources,” the Post said Quest had “a rope around his neck that was tied to his genitals and a sex toy in his boot.” Quest got busted on the drug charge when cops stopped him for being in the park well past its 1 AM closing time. A routine search turned up what police said was meth, something police say Quest immediately copped to. It was interesting to see each newspaper’s coverage of the story. The News and Times approached it strictly as the drug bust of a television reporter. The Post (owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. which runs the Fox News Channel) seemed to revel in the fact that CNN’s Quest was caught with the rope and sex toy. The headline over its story said: “Kinky News Network.”

-The best caller on local sports talk radio is back on the air. Bill from Brentwood resurfaced this past week after a hit and run accident nearly killed him about six weeks ago. He called the Steve Somers program early in the week and among his subjects was his attendance at a Janis Joplin concert at the Garden in 1969 and the passing of former major leaguer Tommy Holmes. As is Bill’s trademark, he wove precise dates into his story-telling. He seemed reluctant to speak in detail about his accident, but said he is rehabbing a bum shoulder. Bill sounded very much like his old self in the calls we heard during the week.

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It was a much closer series than it might appear from a distance. But the Rangers have advanced after five hard fought games with the Devils. We sat way up high at the Rock in Newark Friday night and will write more when we get a chance later Saturday.

4-18-08 0030

The New York portion of Pope Benedict’s US visit begins today. His two days in Washington on Wednesday and Thursday were marked by multiple references to the Catholic church’s decades-old sexual abuse crisis in this country. At mass in DC Thursday, he issued an acknowledgement: “No words of mine could reflect the pain and harm of such abuse.” He also met privately with victims of abuse.

The Pope has asked his dwindling flock of leaders to heal the deep wounds within the church. “Do what you can to foster healing and reconciliation,” he said.

Over the last fifteen years or so, it has not been unusual to pick up a newspaper in whatever city you live in and see stories about victims telling stories about how their parish priest abused or assaulted them. On a picnic. During a rafting trip. At a church social function where other adults were not present. The church acknowledges that more than four thousand priests in this country have been accused of sexual abuse. Parishioners throw their hard-earned money into the collection baskets each week (or month) only to see that same money get paid out to victims of sexual abuse. Billions of dollars have been paid out.

At the stage when the first batch of young people claiming abuse took off, there was a systematic response by the church to protect the accused and ignore the accusers. In some cases, it led to more abuse via the safe haven provided to the wrong-doers.

We watched CNN’s coverage of the papal mass in DC. The network’s senior Vatican analyst John Allen characterized the Pope’s statements on sexual abuse by priests during the trip thus far as “remarkably strong language.” He credited the Pope for meeting the issue head-on. “Clearly, the Pope is not burying his head in the sand about the depth and gravity of the crisis that has visited the American church in recent years.”

The pastor of Chicago’s Holy Family Catholic Church Jeremiah Boland was at Thursday’s mass and told Chicago Tribune religion writer Manya Brachear that he was impressed by Benedict’s public comments about the church’s sexual abuse crisis. “For a lot of people wondering ‘Does he get it? Does he understand?’ It would be pretty hard to say he doesn’t.”

I don’t know. We find it hard to reconcile the Pope’s public edicts on moral values with the actions of the thousands of priests who damaged so many young lives. Forgiveness, reconciliation and healing all sound like concepts worth pushing for. But for those Catholics hurt and alienated either directly or indirectly by the church’s long failure to confront its sexual abuse problem, the Pope needs to do a lot more than issue a forceful acknowledgement of the scandals.

We’d start with an end to mandatory celibacy for priests. Initiate inclusion of women in the priesthood and give a green light to priests who want to get married. Remove the unnatural rules on sex and let priests be like the rest of us. Priests would still be considered important holy authorities in leadership posts without a rule on celibacy.

The Pope should also remove all church leaders who made decisions that shielded priests found to have committed acts of sexual abuse. As long as Bernard Law, Edward Egan, Francis George and Roger Mahoney continue to sit in the highest chairs of the church’s hierarchy, it’s hard to take reform or reconciliation seriously.

Obviously, none of this change will happen with Pope Benedict at the helm. We don’t want to hear about how bold Benedict’s acknowledgement of the sexual abuse crisis is if he doesn’t back it up with constructive proposals to undo the jaded Catholic’s belief that things will never change. Enough with the reconciliation. Prayers and acknowledgement aren’t enough for those who see a church that seemed like such a beautiful community and spiritual experience – only to have it ruined by a refusal to evolve and learn from its mistakes.

That all said, the Pope wore a beautiful gold-colored hat featuring a crucifix surrounded by a mesmerizing vine-like design at his mass in DC. His use of the English language was admirable. His Spanish was even better. He smiled often. When he walked through a crowd of mass attendees cheering loudly in DC, he looked spry. His pace was strong. He stopped when he spotted a baby, and went out of his way to kiss the kid on the head. He seems to enjoy the public’s affection. And despite his age (81), he seems to have full awareness and pretty good physical endurance. We appreciate his ability to inspire those who take a more focused approach to their faith.

-It turns out that our pick to win the Kentucky Derby won’t meet the earnings criteria necessary to make the big race, and instead will point towards the Preakness. The good-looking New York-bred Giant Moon finished fourth in the Wood Memorial a few weeks ago and won’t be among the top twenty three-year-olds who make the starting gate. Twenty Derby entrants are accepted based purely on the amount of dough they won in graded stakes races to date. “Moonie” is so far down the list, he has no shot of getting in. That’s ok. With a full head of steam, he can break up the triple crown in Baltimore on May 17th.

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Nursing a sore throat we picked up in Atlanta last week, we probably should have stayed home, but we couldn’t resist the pull of the ballpark Tuesday night. It was our first visit to Shea of 2008. We went to see Milledge and LoDuca make their New York return in Nats uniforms. On a chilly night by Flushing Bay, we saw the Mets win six-nil behind Pelfrey’s solid outing. We got there early for BP and saw the Mets offer open arms to their old mates.

D-Wright projected warmth to both LoDoca and Milledge as soon as his two ex-teammates popped out of the dugout. He hugged Paulie down the third base line (pictured above). Even though Wright had made public comments critical of LoDuca in the wake of the the Mitchell Report findings, they must be bygones based on current appearances.

Both Reyes and Wright joined several Mets in extending greetings to Milledge too. Milledge (pictured above) was dealt to Washington in the off-season for Church and Schneider. Milledge cracked a double in his first at-bat back at Shea and immediately made what had to be a free-lance attempt to steal third. He was called out by third base ump Paul Schrieber, although replays showed he should have been ruled safe.

Attendance was announced at 46.567. The guy at the ticket window told us 42-thousand tickets were sold in advance. We bought a five-dollar upper deck ducat and sat in the mezz above the bag at first. The gametime temp was announced at 56, but it became a lot colder as the evening wore on.

What’s different about Shea this year, the final season before moving into the new ballpark? Sixteen-ounce beers are fifty-cents more. They charge you a flat eight bucks. The turkey sandwiches from Mama’s of Corona are now $9.75 and there’s a new sign on the wall in left-center that counts down the remaining games at Shea. We noticed a new BBQ concession on the mezz level but didn’t try it. The subway ramp off the seven train is gone now as the new Robinson Rotunda at CitiField has pushed its way into the area where fans exit the subway platform. They have built a new, temporary stairwell to enter/exit the train. Since it wasn’t a capacity crowd Tuesday night, we’re not sure whether the new stairwell will handle big numbers of fans, but it looks like it will not.

Both teams wore Jackie Robinson’s number 42 on the back of their jerseys to commemorate the 61st anniversary of Robinson breaking baseball’s racist period of exclusion. Jackie’s wife Rachael delivered a speech before the game and the video board played tributes to the late great Dodger throughout the contest.

New York’s new governor David Paterson threw out the first pitch which was pretty cool. He smiled as wide as can be after throwing it strongly. He garnered cheers from a crowd that rarely cheers politicians.

New Mets catcher Brian Schneider made a fantastic play in the third inning. With Nats pitcher Odalis Perez attempting to bunt over a fast-running Ronnie Belliard, Schneider fielded the bunt and gunned to second to foil Belliard’s advancement. It is a play few catchers could make.

Our favorite Met Aaron Heilman (pictured above) pitched a scoreless eighth. He was booed as he entered the game, and he was booed throughout his appearance. Met fans apparently remember only the bad, and fail to realize the set-up man’s full body of work. It’s unfortunate and you hope Heilman isn’t too bummed by the unfair reaction he gets these days.

With the win Tuesday night, the Mets are .500 on the season. But extreme negativity on the part of the Shea faithful has carried over from the ’07 collapse. Skipper Willie Randolph (pictured above) has his hands full coping with a sometimes hostile home crowd that has a bitter taste from the awful end to last season. Randolph is likely facing an unfavorable job performance review if his expensive club doesn’t win the pennant this year. Any perception (real or otherwise) that there isn’t maximum urgency throughout the entire 162-game slate on the part of his roster results in harsh public assessments. It may not be fair to Willie, but he’s definitely the focal point when losses are coupled with the appearance of complacency.

On Tuesday night, Reyes returned from a weekend off to nurse a sore hammy. He went four for five and looked electric. His energy seems to rub off on the entire lineup. Wright also had a big night, driving in five. Pelfrey was in the low 90’s on his fastball, but he seems to have learned how to trick hitters by doing a lot of variation on his location. Taxi-cab casualty Duaner Sanchez also returned from a nearly two-year hiatus to close out the game. For one night at least, it was the Mets as they’re supposed to be.

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The biggest shot of Sunday’s Masters was Trevor Immelman’s clutch dig out of the bunker on 17. Up three on Tiger (who was already in the clubhouse at minus five), Immelman appeared to be losing his cool.

A few minutes earlier, Immelman did the unthinkable on 16 with a five stroke lead (at that time, six ahead of Tiger). Immelman’s tee shot on the beautiful par three curled left and ended up in the water. CBS camera coverage of the hole failed to capture the ball plopping into the drink. Even Verne Lundquist somehow botched the call: “Let’s see what kind of lie he’s gonna have in that bunker…Did it go in the water? I thought it was in the bunker. It is wet. I thought he plunged in the bunker. It is wet.”

All Sunday, you kept waiting for Immelman to get into some kind of trouble. Yeah, he seemed like a cool customer as he sat atop the leaderboard each day. But a 28-year-old with one tour victory who missed the cut in Houston last weekend? He had to fold. But he never seemed to get too high or too low. When Immelman’s ball nearly dropped into Rae’s Creek on his approach to 15 on Saturday, some magical force appeared to hold it on the steep decline separating the green and the water. When the ball came to rest, the crowd gasped and then cheered. It was at least a two-shot miracle, but Immelman didn’t react and kept an even-keel.

Immelman’s countryman Gary Player had said on ESPN Friday that Immelman was the best pure ball-striker he had seen since Ben Hogan.

So, when Immelman blasted out of the trap on 17 Sunday to land within par range of the cup after the disaster a hole earlier, he sealed the green jacket. Had he messed up that difficult sand shot, it could have led to an all out panic attack. You never know what would have happened on 18. That narrow chute off the tee box on 18 has to be intimidating if your lead is slipping. But Immelman had steadied himself and he went straight down central on the final tee shot.

As the crowd cheered on the walk toward the 18th green, Immelman motioned for his playing partner Brandt Snedeker to join him for the hero’s welcome. It was a classy move by Immelman who now gets a lifetime pass to return to Augusta every Masters week until he dies. Nantz went silent during the victory march to let the great audio and pictures take over. As horrible as the gaffe was on 16, CBS again did a tremendous job overall with the telecast.

Had Tiger made a bird or two out of the several chances he had on Sunday and earlier in the tournament, who knows what would have happened. The pressure Immelman felt on 16 when his lead fell from five strokes to three would have been much more intense if Tiger’s growl was a little louder. Interestingly, Tiger remains winless in majors when he’s behind going into Sunday.

-Look for Continental and United to announce a combination of their businesses soon after Delta and Northwest make details of their merger public. Both announcements could happen this week.

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What an amazing place. The beauty of Augusta National is beyond our ability to describe fully and properly. The management of the golf course and club’s meticulous handling of the fan experience makes it far and away the number one sporting venue we’ve ever been to. Hands down.

We didn’t want to exit the premises late Wednesday afternoon after walking the entire course. We sat for a few minutes near the azalea patch down the left side of the sixteenth hole and wondered what it would be like to be here on a Masters Sunday.

A few hours earlier, a trio of all-time greats stepped onto the tee box at the second hole of the par three course. Jack Nicklaus asked his playing partners a question in a voice loud enough to be heard by fans nearby. “What are the odds of one of us getting a hole in one?” said Jack. Gary Player and Arnold Palmer smiled, and appeared to shrug off what Jack had asked. The Golden Bear then asked Arnie if he had ever aced the hole they were standing on. “Just once,” said Palmer. “Three times,” said Player. “I’d say our odds are pretty good.,” said Jack.

Arnie went first and left his shot well short. Player’s shot was too deep. But Jack would get a good roll and ended up within seven inches of the hole. He nearly delivered on his assertion that one of the three old legends would do the improbable! As the Nicklaus ball rolled toward the flag, Jack excitedly motioned for the ball to go in (pictured above). The crowd groaned and then roared when it nearly reached the cup. When Nicklaus approached the green, he pumped both fists in the air and it gave you chills.

Whoever decides to put Jack, Arnie and Player together for the par three contest is smart. The Nicklaus/Palmer rivalry (documented in what is supposed to be a great new book by Ian O’Connor) was unlike anything we have today. Their greatness is something to celebrate and their joint appearance at this event is very powerful. This isn’t your typical old-timer reunion stunt. These are two great Masters champs basking in adulation and hitting balls on hallowed grounds. While eligible to play in the actual championship, both decline that opportunity now that their games have slipped below a competitive level. The par-three contest affords these two greats a platform to shine on. Not only did Nicklaus nearly ace the second, Arnie put his tee shot on one to within 23 inches of the hole. And how ’bout Charles Coody acing the third!

Our position for the par three contest was about fifteen yards ahead of the second hole tee-box down the left side as you face the hole. It was a perfect spot. You could watch the participants loft their fly balls and then get a good view of their putt attempts. The second hole is the shortest of any (70 yards) on the par three course. When David Toms sized it up, he said out loud that it was “the shortest 70 yards he’s ever seen..”

Those who had the most success on the hole fired it beyond the cup to the left - about fifteen yards from the pin. There was a sweet spot there that produced a slow roll in the direction of the hole. It’s what Nicklaus did, and earlier, it’s what Justin Leonard did (his shot just lipped out).

Because the par three event is less than formal, many players have either their children or grand-children caddy for them. Our favorite pro is Ian Poulter (pictured above with his four-year-old son Luke and his real adult caddy). Poulter is gonna win a major one of these days, although it’s likely he’ll never make good on his now-retracted claim that he’s the world’s number two if he plays to potential.

Tiger was nowhere to be seen either in the par three tourney or practicing Wednesday. It has become Tiger’s recent tradition to practice on Monday and Tuesday and stay away from the course the day before the tournament starts.

Many patrons seemed unaware of Tiger’s customary day off. We heard several fans ask bystanders if they had seen Tiger.

We overheard one older woman tell a pretty good tale about nearly getting hit by a golf ball a long time ago. In a thick southern accent, the lady dressed in shorts emblazoned with flowers told her friend: “I once was nearly hit by a Scott Hoch ball. I was sitting over there on ten, and I heard it go whoosh!”

We left the hotel in Decatur at about ten minutes after five a-m Wednesday , and got right on I-20 eastbound. We stopped for a free Pike Place Roast at a rural Georgia Starbucks (proving that Starbucks are everywhere) about 45 minutes into the drive.

We arrived at Augusta’s parking lot at about 7:30 and walked right in. Security was low key. The only thing security seemed concerned about was removing the labels of the bottled water that people were bringing in. There is no product endorsement of any kind inside the facility other than the trademarked insignia of the event itself.

The weather was perfect. It started out cool and crisp and became sunny and 75 with a light breeze. As we told you last year, the concessions are the best. Fresh turkey sandwiches on wheat are just $1.50 and beers are $2.00. When we first walked in, Pops bought two coffees and two sausage biscuits for a grand total of five bucks.

All staff members are friendly and helpful. The bathrooms are clean. Really, it’s the best sporting venue we’ve been to from an amenity standpoint. Without being pompous or unnatural, Augusta appears to convey a mandate to all of its support people that a top-notch fan experience is required.

But we shouldn’t let it go by without saying that the place is far from perfect.

We didn’t discuss this on our visit last year, but it’s hard to embrace the Augusta experience unequivocally because of its history. It’s a history that is consistent with many of the backwards institutions prevalent in the South (and elsewhere) which have failed to adopt and promote policies of equality. As you know, Augusta refuses to admit women members. It didn’t accept its first black member until 1990. In Damon Hack’s profile of Lee Elder printed last week, the S-I writer perfectly summed up the feeling we get as we visit such a beautiful place flawed by the polices and practices of those who run it.

“In the unique case of Augusta National, with its Old South heritage seemingly frozen in time - a patrician and male white membership, aging blacks on the service staff and plantation-style buildings - a sense of the segregated past still lingers beneath the din of back-nine Sunday roars.”

Other writers like Fil Bondy of the News and Terrence Moore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution have referenced the same kind of feelings in their coverage. In a piece today, Moore alluded to an “antebellum clubhouse stuffed with servants ready for a sequel to ‘Gone With the Wind.’”

So, what do you do? Do you reject the Masters because the venue that hosts it has a distasteful history, an exclusionary policy and a continuing segregationist vibe? Do you purchase Masters merchandise and wear it around back home knowing that some may view it as the equivalent of flying the Confederate flag? We’re conflicted. But we have such a strong appreciation of the tournament that we rationalize it by viewing the competition as a stand-alone entity. It’s convenient compartmentalizing, I suppose. I mean, how does one applaud the disruption of the Olympic torch run - and other efforts by protesters to pressure China to clean up its act - while at the same time embrace the competitions that will take place in that country this summer?

Now back home in New York after an uneventful non-stop flight from Atlanta to Newark early Thursday morning, we’ll have a better frame of reference as we watch the tournament on TV. You know the course a little having been there. And you hope that the club’s decision-makers see the light as time continues to pass them by. From the standpoint of a golf fan, we’d love to sit in the stands on the sixteenth on a tournament Sunday someday.

Who’s our selection to win it this year? We don’t pick against Tiger with a straight face much any more. But if you’re looking for an upset special, watch out for John Senden. We saw him tee off on 15 Wednesday, and man, he has a beautiful swing.

For a few more photos from our day at Augusta , click on the Masters tab at the top of this page. I’ll leave ’em up there for a week or so.

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Wearing a skull belt-buckle (How do you like that, Hootie?), the flashy and outspoken Rory Sabbatini (pictured above) won the par-three contest at Augusta Wednesday. Sabs fired a five-under 22 to win the annual event. It was televised this year (ESPN) for the first time in history.

Our vantage point was the seventy-yard second hole. We had planned to submit a long report on our day when we got back to the hotel Wednesday night, but we hit a long traffic jam and have run out of time. Our flight out of Atlanta is really early Thursday, so we’ll wait to post the full recap when we get home.

4-09-08 2100

Greetings from Decatur, Georgia. The flights to Atlanta out of LaGuardia via Cleveland Tuesday went off without a hitch.

On arrival at Hartsfield, we jumped on a MARTA train headed due north to downtown. Fare machines at the airport station dispense a one-way fare card for $2.25. A simple wave of the card in front of the turnstile’s card-reader opens a gate, granting access to an escalator which takes you the train platform. The ride from the airport to downtown takes about twenty minutes. After exiting the Peachtree Center MARTA stop, we walked three blocks to the Avis rental car office on Courtland and picked up a four-door Toyota Camry.

Picking up the car in downtown Atlanta rather than the airport reduced the cost of the two-day rental by about $150. Why? The Avis worker said stiff facility charges imposed at the Atlanta airport are not levied at the downtown location.

We’re staying at a Holiday Inn Express in Decatur, about fifteen miles east of Atlanta. It’s a good location because Augusta sits about 150 miles east of Atlanta on interstate 20. Staying in Decatur slices time off the ride to the golf course early Wednesday - and on the return to the hotel when the day is done.

Our lunch at Donnie’s Country Cooking a few miles from the hotel was a dud. We went there on a lark, without up-front research. It was a mistake. We should have walked out immediately after inspecting the sludge-like macaroni and what appeared to be two-week-old green beans in metal trays that comprised a dreary line of cafeteria-style offerings. Two Asian women staffed the kitchen. The woman working the cashier asked if we wanted a roll or what sounded like “home bread.” We went with the home bread and ended up with a piece of cornbread. The country fried steak with white gravy was mediocre. The TV blared the Tyra Banks program featuring junior high school students with active oral sex routines. Pops had the grilled cheese. Why anybody would eat at this dive, it’s unclear.

Dinner was a lot better. Thanks to a steer from Citysearch, we ended up at Maddy’s on Scott Boulevard in Decatur (pictured above). It took a while to get there. Traffic is brutal around dinnertime in these parts. But Maddy’s was a cool, classic bbq joint that hosts live blues acts nightly. It was very good. The baked beans had a hint of rum and a smoky, sweet taste.

Wednesday, we’ll rise early for the two and a half hour ride down I-20. We hope to be at Augusta National when the gates open at 8 AM. The Masters won’t start for real until Thursday, but my bro scored tix for the Wednesday practice round/par three tourney for the second year in a row. We were so blown away by what we saw last year that we couldn’t pass up a repeat invite. Since actual Masters tickets are impossible to get, this is the next best thing. This year, we’ll join Pops who is making his first trip to the historic sporting venue. Most Masters participants (excluding Tiger) use the Wednesday practice round as a final tune-up and a way to survey course tendencies and attributes. The par three tourney isn’t a serious competition., but it’s fun to see current and past players loft balls at the pins on the beautiful nine hole layout separate from the main course.

Back here Wednesday night with a recap on our day at Augusta.

4-8-08 1930

It was hollow and cowardly for New York’s Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver to block a vote on New York City’s congestion pricing proposal. Silver said the measure lacked enough votes in the body he leads for passage. He declared congestion pricing dead Monday night without allowing Assembly members to vote on it.

After a long, hard lobbying effort by NYC mayor Mike Bloomberg to educate lawmakers at both the city and state level about the benefits of the forward-thinking concept, the Mayor couldn’t even get members of New York’s state assembly to give it an honest up or down. “It takes a special type of cowardice for elected officials to refuse to stand up and vote their conscience – on an issue that has been debated, and amended significantly to resolve many outstanding issues, for more than a year,” said Mayor Mike. “Every New Yorker has a right to know if the person they send to Albany was for or against better transit and cleaner air. People know where I stood, and where members of the City Council stood. They deserved at least that from Albany.”

Even if, as Silver claims, there were fewer than 25 democrats ready to support the bill, there were another 42 republicans said to be willing to vote in favor. That’s about 65 yes votes. The bill needed 76. In a body of 150, Silver must let an issue of this magnitude be decided up or down.

But it’s obviously part of Silver’s plan to protect his membership from publicly committing one way or another. Silver likes to work in the shadows, behind closed doors where the public doesn’t intrude or gain access to how their elected officials choose to represent their constituents. It makes you sick. What good are elected lawmakers if they won’t even publicly debate and vote on thoughtful measures of the day?

On an issue as important as this, with billions of dollars in federal transit improvements hanging in the balance, Silver simply killed the bill by claiming the results of an informal closed-door straw poll made it legislation unfit for a publicly recorded vote.

One man shouldn’t have that kind of power.

-Mike Ogle’s game recap of Sunday’s Yanks win over Tampa in the Times includes disclosure that new Yanks manager Joe Girardi prohibits junk food in the team’s clubhouse.

-Liz Phair reviewed the autobiography of ex-Luna frontman Dean Wareham for Sunday’s Times Book Review. She liked the book a lot. What was notable is that Phair emerged from recent obscurity to write an excellent book review in a respected publication. She told Book Review editors that she’s in the middle of several projects including a new record and a documentary about Exile in Guyville.

-Our pal Heckler Bob tells us he went to the Mets Clubhouse store on 42nd street Monday to buy a new cap in advance of today’s home opener and ran into Cowbell Man. The Heckler reports that Cowbell Man was purchasing Mets gear, too, and seemed in good spirits. Both the Heckler and Cowbell Man will be at Shea today, the final home opener in the history of the ballpark. TSR can’t make the opener today. We’ll attempt to reach Decatur, Georgia, which will serve as our launching point for a Wednesday day trip to beautiful Augusta National Golf Club. We will say hello to you from Decatur this evening. Go Mets.

4-8-08 0115

New York City Council speaker Christine Quinn has likely destroyed her aspirations of running for higher office with news she presided over a secret slush fund comprised of taxpayer dollars. Newspaper reports say Quinn stashed nearly five million dollars in the secret fund and disguised it as earmarks for organizations with phony names. Like disgraced governor Elliot Spitzer, Quinn had sold herself as a reformer only to be exposed as a hypocrite. If she isn’t criminally charged or hit with some kind of sanction, Quinn should probably abandon talk of running for mayor. No book cookers allowed please.

-The Post’s college hoops writer Lenn Robbins broke a wild story Sunday saying that Seton Hall basketball coach Bobby Gonzalez is about to get fired after two pretty good seasons at the Hall. Robbins cites “several sources” in reporting that the University’s governing body will consider axing Gonzalez when it meets this week. Again citing unnamed sources, Robbins said “it was unlikely he would retain his job.” Gonzalez has compiled a record of 30-31 since arriving at the Hall. He appeared to be leading a restoration of the program. But Robbins says university officials are upset about a fiery outburst Gonzalez had in a game against Rutgers to end the regular season. Robbins also wrote that the university was unhappy when Gonzalez provided analysis on this year’s big dance in a piece published in the Times. If Seton Hall does indeed fire Gonzalez, the school’s grounds for doing so as cited by Robbins seem ridiculous. Yes, Gonzalez is a spazz. He’s a flamboyant nut on the court. But the school had to know that going in. He has always been that way. Seton Hall got Gonzalez being Gonzalez. To say now that the school doesn’t like his behavior suggests it didn’t watch the way Gonzalez conducted himself as coach of Manhattan for seven seasons. Incidentally, a Star-Ledger follow-up to the Robbins story quotes Seton Hall A-D Joe Quinlan as saying the school’s board has no plans to discuss Gonzalez and his job status when it meets this week.

-Much to our surprise, there were still some tickets left for the Devils/Rangers playoff series when we got home from work late Sunday night. We scored a pair for game five in Newark. You can bet that a ton of Rangers fans scooped up tickets late Sunday afternoon into evening for the games in Newark. What few tickets the Rangers put on sale Tuesday for the games at MSG will be near impossible to obtain. It should be a wonderful series. The Rangers have far more talent. The Devils have one of the greatest goaltenders of all time and play a tightly-controlled mistake-free game. We’ll say Rangers in seven.

4-7-08 0212

With 7:32 left in the first half of Kansas/North Carolina, Billy Packer made a risky statement. “This game is over,” he said. It was 38-12 Kansas at that point. Packer’s partner Jim Nantz seemed shocked that the old hoops analyst would put a fork in a Carolina team loaded with offense at such an early juncture. Nantz asked Packer to repeat his statement, which he did.

As you’d expect, Carolina made a run in the second half, cutting the lead to four with eleven minutes to go. “This would be the mother of all comebacks,” said Nantz. Packer had to be uneasy. He’s seen plenty of Carolina this year, and knows the team’s firepower. But the Carolina rally would be met with more Kansas domination on the inside. Darnell Jackson was especially impressive in crunch time with some big hoops. The K-U lead was back to 17 with 2:08 left in the game. Nantz reminded Packer of his first half prediction. Packer didn’t flinch. “You say what you see,” he said.

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Before MSG boss Jim Dolan introduced new Knicks president Donnie Walsh at a news conference Wednesday afternoon, he asserted that Walsh will have totally unfettered decision-making power. Walsh comes from two decades at the helm of the Pacers. He will now attempt to rejuvenate the most dysfunctional and broken franchise in the NBA. Dolan acknowledged that one issue demanded by Walsh and agreed to by Dolan was the dismantling of a Garden policy that had set unreasonable limits on media access to the team. Dolan snickered about the Walsh demand as if he thought it was fool-hardy and then brought Walsh to the podium.

After reading a statement, Walsh took questions from the assembled writers and broadcasters who found a dozen different ways to ask Walsh whether Isiah had a prayer of returning as coach in ’08-‘09. Since Walsh has a pretty good idea of Isiah’s history of destructive decisions that led to the current Knicks predicament, it’ll be a shock if Thomas isn’t fired. Walsh said he needs some time to mull it over, and wants to talk to Isiah.

So, with Walsh postponing disclosure on his Isiah intentions, it was Ken Berger of Newsday who inserted the most insightful inquiry that was especially relevant given Walsh’s success in gaining the repeal of the MSG media policy.

BERGER: “Hi Donnie. I think everybody is aware that you are an attorney as well as a basketball man. In every negotiation there’s give and take. In order to get the concession from Jim (Dolan) on autonomy and the media policy and who you would be reporting to, did you have to also give up something in that negotiation in terms of agreeing not to make any rash decisions on Isaiah.

WALSH: “No. No. No. I can you assure you that.”

Also encouraging was Walsh’s stated awareness that it’ll take three years to get out of the salary cap hell that Isiah saddled the franchise with. In other words, Walsh appears poised to adopt a franchise-building approach very much unlike that of his predecessor. Ideally, Walsh will force Isiah off the premises as soon as the season is over, if not before to set a much-needed tone of professionalism.

With a lot of ping-pong balls making the Knick lottery pick an important one this year, at least there’s hope that the wise old ex-New Yorker with integrity and a solid basketball pedigree will do the right thing.

Walsh also alluded to the insane Isiah attempt to field a starting lineup that includes both Curry and Randolph in the low post. It is clear Walsh will end that experiment when the Knicks open up next fall.

We won’t get truly excited about Walsh and his effort to re-build the Knicks until he insists that the guy who was given free reign to ruin the team over and over is banished from 7th and 32nd.

-Chris Chelios blatantly cross-checked Hawks rookie Patrick Kane six times in a single sequence with about fifteen minutes to go in the first period of Wednesday night’s Wings/Hawks game. It was vicious and violent. Chelios was whistled for a two-minute minor penalty. He mouthed off to the officials before heading to the box.

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The Q and A with Steve Malkmus by music writer Peter Cobus of the Voice this week didn’t include a direct inquiry about a prospective Pavement reunion. Instead, Cobus asked Malkmus if he was irritated by the speculation about whether it will happen. “It’s not bruising, but it gets repetitive. It’s a verbal repetitive stress injury,” he said. Malkmus fueled the whole thing when he recently turned on a green light to the reunion idea in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. The fact the story gained legs via the the mainstream, high-circulation platform makes you hopeful that Malkmus isn’t serious about his trial balloon. Unfortunately, very few once-great dissolved music entities can resist the lucrative reunion tour or show. In this instance, the portion of history that led to the band’s breakup is such that awkwardness wouldn’t stink up the reintegration. What would suck is that the band would step on stage a decade after its last performance and see a crowd different from the one it played for when it was making records. Bad reunion crowds infiltrate the reunion shows and can taint the band/fan link established during the original run. We hope it doesn’t happen with Pavement. Too much time has passed. No matter how relevant and viable the band’s core members remain in their current endeavors, the band split because it was clear to Malkmus that greatness had been achieved and had started to appear in the rear-view. Why reconstitute a decade later for a walk down memory lane when it would appear to some Pavement purists that it was a bad turn down shady lane? Everybody wants one, I guess.

-One of the greatest aspects of the Extra Innings package as we’ve said a few times here before is listening to Vin Scully do the Dodger games. Not only is he a great in-game narrator, but he tells fascinating detail-filled stories from his past as the Dodger broadcaster. Late Tuesday night during Dodgers/Giants, Scully took us back to the first game of the ’59 World Series. It was White Sox/Dodgers in Chicago on a cold, windy day. The White Sox would rout L-A that day and Scully says later that night he accepted an invite to see his pal Nat King Cole perform in the Windy City. Scully says “without a doubt (Cole was) one the greatest baseball fans that ever lived.” When Scully took his seat for the show he found that Cole “could not sing a lick…he had no voice at all.” So after the gig, Scully says he visited Cole and asked him: “What happened to your voice?”

Cole told Scully: “I was hollerin’ for the ballclub (the Dodgers).” Scully says Cole also sang the national anthem before the game that day and ran into trouble when a piece of paper containing the song’s lyrics flew out of his hand. Scully laughed in recalling that Cole was forced to fake the last few stanzas by singing “Oh bah bi di bo do…oh bi dab o do.” To hear Scully do an imitation of Cole fumbling the anthem was priceless.

-In that Dodgers/Giants game last night, third base umpire Ed Montague made a fool of himself by making an issue out of Dodger third base coach Larry Bowa’s positioning outside the third base coaching box. Bottom six, Bowa was trying to get a clear visual angle of left-handed batting James Loney. A scoreless tie at the time, Montague ordered Bowa in the middle of Loney’s at-bat to limit his positioning to the small chalk-lined third base coaching box that nobody ever observes. Bowa appeared to tell Montague that he wasn’t budging and Montague quickly tossed Bowa. At that point, you got the famous Bowa explosion of temper which forced new Dodger skipper Joe Torre an attempt at physical separation of the two feuding old baseball men. It was hilarious. But it got even funnier when the Dodgers had to fill Bowa’s spot on the field. First base coach Mariano Duncan shifted to third. And it pressed Dodger hitting coach Mike Easler into action to take Duncan’s spot at first. Problem was Easler needed to find a helmet which is now required equipment for base coaches. Easler dug through the Dodgers helmet rack trying on various head protection and finally found one that fit what appears to be his large head. As Scully narrated the replay of the Bowa ejection, he said of the incident: “Thinking outside the box means you’re out of the game.”

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The Yanks really blew it Monday with their decision to postpone the team’s final home opener at old Yankee Stadium. Yeah, it was raining a little before 2:25 PM, the time of the decision. But there was no precipitation to speak of for much of the afternoon and the weather appeared to mirror the conditions that existed during the Cubs/Brewers game.

Not ideal conditions, for sure. But you gotta play the game with 57-thousand assembled in the Bronx mist. Now, the Yanks opener is tonight – a scheduled off day created for this possibility. But you know there will be at least a few thousand empty seats. Many people probably took the day off work or school to attend Monday’s game and won’t (or can’t) make the effort to return on Tuesday.

We periodically checked the weather radar in the hours before the game’s scheduled 1 PM start time – and in the hours following the postponement announcement – and it seemed like a mostly clear shot from our read of the up-to-the-minute picture. It makes you wonder whether some other factor was at work here.

-Since our work tube doesn’t carry SNY, we listened to the Mets on radio and watched Cubs/Brew Crew on the Deuce. ESPN2 held off on its commercial break at the end of the ninth inning to show Fukudome run out to his position in right field after hitting the dramatic bottom nine three-run homer off Gagne to tie it for the Cubbies. “Here comes the hero,” said Brent Musberger on ESPN2. The Wrigley crowd looked delirious when Fuku rounded the bases on the clutch home run hit into the right field bleachers. As is the Cub way, Fuku’s heroics went for naught as Howry faltered in the tenth. At some point, Lou is gonna realize that his most reliable option out of the pen is Carlos Marmol. He used him Monday and never had the lead, so there’s nothing to second guess. But really, Marmol should be the closer whether it hurts Woody’s feelings or not.

We’re not a big Musberger fan, but he was pretty solid in his ESPN baseball debut. Musberger called one post-season baseball series for ABC in 1995, but no baseball since. Working with Orel Hershiser, Musberger was enjoyable to listen to and clearly felt at home at Wrigley. He heaped praise on Fukudome and was backed by some excellent crowd shots showing Wrigley fans showering love on the Japanese import.

-On a vote of 30-20 (26 votes needed for passage), the New York City Council passed the Mayor’s congestion pricing plan Monday. Now, it’ll be up to state lawmakers to follow suit. It should be noted that Queens councilman Eric Gioia reversed himself and provided a key “yes” vote on the measure. As expected, our city councilwoman Helen Sears joined fellow Queens council members Melinda Katz and Peter Vallone Jr. in voting no to the plan aimed at boosting funds for public transit in this city. The votes by Sears, Katz and Vallone Jr. should be remembered going forward. All three have aspirations of higher office, and their decision to oppose a forward-thinking plan should be taken into consideration when they face the electorate in the future.

4-1-08 0301

Happy opening day, baseball fans. It’s finally here. The Mets will start the season down in Miami this afternoon against the Marlins and their $20 million payroll. Out in Chicago, it will be an early home opener for the Cubbies as they host the Brew-Crew at Wrigley with rain in the forecast. Our pal Guz will be there. It will be his 25th consecutive Cubs home opener. The first opener of that long run was the ’84 home opener against the Mets. We all had a barrel of fun that afternoon as Ron Cey stole (waddling the whole way) second base on John Gibbons and Dwight Gooden got rocked in his major league debut. Three days later, we would skip another day of our senior year of high school to head up to Milwaukee for the Brewers home opener, where beers were easier to obtain and they sold brats with “special sauce.”

A lot of time has passed since all those good times at the ballpark in the mid-eighties. The game has changed a lot and so has the team we root for. Now a Met fan, we acknowledge distaste for the widening economic advantage our team has. Even worse, we believe throwing money at players can be a path to unhappy endings. Chemistry can’t be bought. And trading players that are cultivated in an organization’s minor leagues can alienate a segment of the fan base that supports the development of young players like Carlos Gomez and Lastings Milledge. Both those guys are gone now. Unfortunately, the Mets are seeking to erase the memory of the ’07 collapse by bulking up with a win-now type roster.

Their big move was to add a number one starting pitcher. The Mets “traded” three top prospects for the right to give Johan Santana a six-year deal worth $137.5-million. The Mets had previously vowed not to give any starting a pitcher a contract exceeding five years in length. Instead of continuing a deliberate program of promoting home-grown talent – which led to the arrival of Jose Reyes and David Wright – the Mets appear to have shifted their approach to one that out-bids their rivals and buys the roster.

So with an annual payroll that will be about $135 million this season, there is a great deal of pressure on the Mets to go to the World Series. The ’07 collapse is a recurring nightmare for the Met fan and some will act out with venom should periods of failure repeat themselves this year - whether they’re fatal or not. Like the team’s current management, many of the fans lack patience.

On paper, the Mets have a roster that appears to have more talent top to bottom than any team in the league.

But so did the ’07 team. The fact that the Mets blew a seven-game lead with 17 to go hasn’t really ever been explained or understood.

So, we begin a new season with an only slightly modified team and what we would describe as a cloud of concern brought by the expectations and pressure to rebound.

We’ve got a Church (Ryan) instead of a synagogue (Shawn Green) in right field. Light-hitting Brian Schneider replaces Mitchell Report notable Paul LoDuca behind the plate.

The Mets threw a lot of money – and worse, gave Luis Castillo a four-year deal despite creaky wheels. Castillo will play second if he can stay healthy. Carlos Delgado has a balky hip and can’t really get around on the fastball any more. He’ll play first. Left field is Cubbie castoff Angel Pagan’s job for now. Moises Alou will play the position for periods of time this year, but he rarely stays healthy for any consistent stretch.

Wags is back as the closer. He ended last season mouthing off about Willie and the coaching staff. He should probably worry more about keeping the hum on his fastball.

Our favorite Met is Aaron Heilman and he again will be the quiet and steady set-up man. Deep down, Heilman wants to be a starter. He asserted that again this spring. But he never squawks too loud about it, and he’s become a very valuable member of the team.

We expect Pedro will be productive with his surgically-repaired right shoulder. He gets guys out with smarts these days and his aura of positive vibes makes everybody feel good.

This will be the 45th and final season at Shea. Next year, it’s across the way to the much smaller Citi Field. Those who are excited about the new ballpark should be careful what they wish for. With capacity reduced by about 15-thousand, tickets will be scarce and expensive at the new facility. On many cool weeknights at Shea, you can buy a five-dollar ticket, sneak into a good spot and have some bucks left for beer.

That’s what we’ll do this year as we cobble together what should be another 25 games or so. Enjoy the season and see you at the ballpark.

-Too bad that final possession for Davidson played out the way it did Sunday evening. You could stomach the result a lot better if it was Stephen Curry that took the shot. The 27-footer by Jason Richards wasn’t what you’d want if you drew it up. It would have been preferable for Curry to heave it up, even with the double coverage. Try to draw contact – or let the game be decided up or down by one final magical launch by Curry. Oh well. Curry had some shot opportunities down the stretch. We take our hat off to a team that provided a lot of thrills over a four game stretch in this tournament. Davidson will be remembered for their run for a long time – and obviously we’re gonna see Curry playing basketball on big stages for many years to come.

3-31-08 0220

Stripped of his power at JetBlue, the former boss of the budget airline based in New York says he’ll start another domestic low-fare carrier in Brazil. David Neeleman says he’s put together $150 million in financing and has cut a deal to buy 36 new Brazilian-made jets with seating capacities of 118 each.

After catching blame for a 2007 Valentine’s week operational breakdown, Neelemen was pushed out of the top spot at JetBlue. He remains chairman of JetBlue’s board and the Times says he still owns seven million shares of the company’s stock. But the Times says he’s been selling off the stock at a clip of 100-thousand shares a month and may quit the airline altogether. “That’s a discussion I’ll have to have with the board,” said Neeleman in the Times.

Like some of the flippant approaches he applied in the JetBlue start-up, Neeleman says he’ll let Brazilian consumers name the airline and help decide items such as the flight attendant uniform style and the fleet’s paint job. The airline is slated to open for business in 2009.

-Davidson coach Bob McKillop is sure to get some enticing offers to coach at a bigger college basketball program as soon as the dream run of the Midwest region’s ten seed ends. That’s what U-Conn coach Jim Calhoun told Chris Russo Saturday morning on the FAN. McKillop – a New York guy - has said there was a time when he badly wanted to land a coaching job in the New York area. He was one of three finalists in ’98 for the St. John’s job when Mike Jarvis got it instead. And according to a story in Newsday printed this past week, McKillop nearly became Stony Brook’s coach in ’99 as the school transitioned to D-1 status but backed away from the job when the school reneged on a provision within an offer made by the AD at the time. If we were McKillop, we’re not sure we’d want to leave Davidson until Stephen Curry is done at the collegiate level. But if it’s a higher-profile job with more money and a bigger stature that McKillop is seeking, you’d think that opportunity will present itself.

-Since hundreds of thousands of Catholics in the region won’t be able to access the few public events lined up when the Pope visits New York next month, there’s talk of some Papal parades. New York Archdiocese spokesman Joseph Zwilling told the News that the Pope will use his “Popemobile” when he travels point-to-point in the city. “That will be an opportunity for people to see His Holiness,” said Zwilling. The Pope’s only big New York gathering will be Sunday mass at Yankee Stadium on April 20th. Tickets for that event were distributed through the parishes but supply was said to be miniscule vs. demand.

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With a looming deadline to cash in on a one-time 354-million dollar federal payment for public transit in this region, it’s been frustrating to see many of TSR’s local lawmakers line up in opposition to a proposal that would trigger the payment. The proposal is called “congestion pricing” and it needs the approval of both the New York City council and the state legislature. In order to collect the $354-million dollar federal payment (intended as an enticement to adopt congestion pricing), both the local and state decision-making bodies must approve the plan by April 7.

The “congestion pricing” concept is pretty simple, and there are many benefits. From 6 AM to 6 PM weekdays, any car entering Manhattan below 60th Street would be assessed a charge of eight bucks. It would reduce insane traffic in the city’s main business district, move even more people onto trains and buses and pull in cash from those crazy enough to insist their car join them in Manhattan during the week. New revenue from the charge is expected to be about a half-billion dollars annually. Both the one-time payment from the feds and the annual intake from the congestion fee would be earmarked for public transit infrastructure improvements.

London has had a congestion pricing system since 2003.

Opponents call congestion pricing yet another tax. Call it what you will. We call it a win-win at a time and place that calls exactly for what congestion pricing is intended to achieve. With dirty air, a diminishing oil supply, work-week gridlock and shrinking public transit funding sources, it seems reasonable to ask those who insist on driving into Manhattan during the week to pay eight bucks.

Yet, somehow there’s significant resistance both in the city council and Albany to the plan.

Of the fourteen members of the city council from Queens, only two are on record as saying they’ll support congestion pricing when it comes to a vote. Those two: Hiram Monserrate and John Liu are known for their progressive thinking. Liu specializes in public transit issues. He chairs the council’s transportation committee and has been a key proponent of congestion pricing. “A city asphyxiated by congestion doesn't have to be our future. Let's transform this nightmare scenario into an opportunity to reinvest in our transportation system,” he said.

The council member representing TSR’s home district is Helen Sears. She’s on record as opposing congestion pricing. Like her Queens colleague Melinda Katz, Sears is worried that people who live in areas underserved by public transit will flood her neighborhoods to park near subway stations. Not that there’s any parking to be had, anyway. Plus, why not issue residential parking permits like they do in the neighborhoods surrounding ballparks and the like?

One thing for sure is that few of Sears’ constituents will end up paying the charge if implemented. According to the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, a very small percentage (3.3%) of residents in Sears’ district drives to the congestion zone daily. More than half of the households in Jackson Heights and the neighborhoods in Sears’ district don’t even own a vehicle.

We sent an e-mail message to Sears on Wednesday asking for details about her congestion pricing concerns. No response as of yet.

All we know is that this legislation strives to gain multiple worthy goals. If Queens council members Sears, Katz and big-shots like Eric Gioia and Peter Vallone Jr. help kill this bill, they’re gonna look awfully bad in five years when the smog and gridlock is unchanged – and worthy projects like the 2nd Ave. subway and expanded outerborough bus routing hits the skids from lack of funding.

-Nice job by Lusty Latin in the fourth at Laurel Thursday. At odds of 24.1-1, Lusty maintained his tradition of sitting back early before making a late move to finish second to Buddha’s Song. Lusty earned $3360 dollars for the second-place finish which ought to buy him an extension on his barn-lease – or at least pay a portion of his back rent.

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On a day when the sports fan’s focus returns to the NCAA basketball tournament, there will be two interesting underdogs in search of victory Thursday in places far from the noisy arenas hosting March Madness. Relatively few people will watch these two underdogs perform or write about them. They are participating in sports that get little attention. But they are both intriguing and persevering athletes.

We told you about Yukito Heishi a few weeks ago after we saw him win a four-round decision in a Golden Gloves boxing competition in the Bronx. Tonight, Heishi known by his nick-name “Chiquto” will fight the reigning Golden Gloves champ at Monsignor Ferrell HS on Staten Island. In an e-mail message to TSR, Heishi said tonight’s bout is a difficult assignment but he says “I will do my best.” Heishi is the “floor manager” of a Japanese restaurant in Soho and didn’t start boxing until the age of 29. The 119-pounder stood toe-to-toe with his much younger opponent a few weeks ago and won a memorable slug-fest. If Heishi wins tonight, he’ll gain a slot in the Golden Gloves finals at the Garden. Go Chiquto!

The other underdog with a tough task Thursday is a race horse running in the obscure environment of Laurel Park. Nine-year-old white-haired gelding Lusty Latin will run in the fourth race at the old track outside DC and attempt to win his first race in more than three years. Lusty Latin has taken a break from racing since July of last year. He lost his four attempts in 2007 by a combined 75 lengths. Lusty is best known for his mammoth closing freight-train-like effort to finish third in the 2002 Santa Anita Derby. He would go on to participate in that year’s Kentucky Derby where he loped slowly along near the back of the back to watch War Emblem’s wire-to-wire speed romp in the Run for the Roses. Lusty Latin was our pick to win that Derby. He finished 16th, a full 26 lengths behind the winner. The fact that he’s still running today in a low-level race at morning line odds of 20-1 is amazing – and admirable. Lusty, being a horse, has no way to communicate his thoughts on what it must be like to enter the gate and run competitively at such an advanced equine age. But we hope he’s happy. And we hope he knows somehow that he has a fan that will be rooting for him this afternoon. Go Lusty!

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In his Tuesday column in the News, Dick “Hoops” Weiss reports that Davidson star Stephen Curry had his heart set on playing at his father’s alma mater Virginia Tech. But because Tech’s basketball team was stocked at guard, Va Tech coach Seth Greenberg couldn’t promise Curry a scholarship. In the end, Weiss says Curry chose Davidson over VCU and Winthrop. Curry, a sophomore, scored 30 in Davidson’s upset win over Georgetown on Sunday. When the Davidson team bus returned to campus Sunday evening after the amazing weekend in Raleigh, Weiss says it was met by a local police cruiser. “Lights flashing, sirens blaring, people coming out of their houses waving. Some 600 locals…lined the brick sidewalks” leading to the team’s arena. We saw some of this Hoosiers-like celebration in Raleigh on Sunday when the Davidson players exited their locker room after the game and entered the arena to greet family and friends in the stands. With the UNC game already under way, Davidson players diverted attention from action on the floor as they re-entered the arena. They shook hands and hugged masses of supporters. Their display of pure joy was something you don’t see too often. Let’s hope they can keep it going with a win over Wisconsin.

-One other note we forgot to mention from Raleigh. The local CBS affiliate WRAL provided all of its game feeds to Time Warner subscribers in that jurisdiction. Viewers got all the first and second round games. It was great. We’re not sure if it was a unique programming benefit to basketball-crazed North Carolinians, but we’ve never seen that here in New York.

-Starting with the 2009 Final Four in Detroit, the NCAA will implement a new seating configuration that will put thousands of students on floor level right behind the baskets. It’s likely intended to add a little energy to the dead and dull atmospheres during the dome era at the Final Four. Since ’97, the NCAA has conducted all of its Final Four weekends in a dome. In fact, it’s been a league policy since ’03 that the Final Four is played in a venue with a capacity greater than 40-thousand.

-CNBC’s Scott Wapner interviewed Tiger Woods in Orlando Tuesday and presumably obtained the “exclusive” interview to discuss a new luxury real estate development in the Bahamas that the golfer owns a piece of. That was the entry point for a few random stock market questions that Wapner threw at Tiger. They were questions that appeared to make Woods uncomfortable.

Wapner: “How much do you pay attention to the markets these days…with what’s going on on Wall Street?”

Tiger: “It’s been crazy. So, unfortunately I’ve been following it a little bit, yeah.”

Wapner: “Were you an initial investor in Google as some reports have said – way back when.”

Tiger: “No. Not way back when. No. No.”

Wapner: “But you have invested (in Google)?”

Tiger: “I have. Yes. (laughs) We all have.”

Wapner: “Are you still holding the stock?”

Tiger: “Yeah.”

Wapner: “You are?”

Tiger: “Yeah.”

Wapner: “What do you think about what it’s been doing lately, over the past year or so?”

Tiger: “You know what. I’m gonna keep holding it. (smiles awkwardly)”

Wapner then went back to softballs about Tiger’s golf career. What Wapner failed to ask Tiger was whether he was deeply invested in Bear Stearns. Tiger’s primary partner in the real estate business is Joe Lewis, the British billionaire who lost his ass on the quick fold job by Bear Stearns. Lewis had an estimated 10-percent stake in Bear and reports have indicated he paid more than 100 bucks a share for most of the shares.

-The MLB Extra Innings package is back on cable this year, although it will be inferior to the Extra Innings package offered by Direct TV. In Demand is distributing the out-of-market baseball package to cable companies and its web site says it will offer ten games in HD per week in addition to all the others in standard def. Comcast has already announced that it will not provide the HD games as touted by In Demand. As is usually the case, Time Warner isn’t saying what it will do. Last year, the HD games weren’t available to Time Warner subscribers in the New York market. Meantime, Direct TV will have a regular Extra Innings package. Plus they’ll give their subscribers about 40 games a week in HD as part of what’s called the “Superfan” package at a cost of $229. It’s yet another major advantage to those who have a Direct TV dish.

-Off the success of their New York live performance debut the night before the Super Bowl, the great Chicago rock band The Sharks (now d-b-a The Prairie Spies) have announced they’ll return to Brooklyn’s Trash Bar the last Saturday in July. Mark your calendar. July 26th is the date. By that time, the Spies’ new record (tentatively titled “Everyone Should Have a Gun”) will have been out for a while. The band also lists a gig two nights before in DC at a venue called The Red and the Black.

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It was another Carolina cream-job here in Raleigh as the Tar Heels toyed with Arkansas on Easter Sunday. When the tourney started, we thought UNC’s path to the championship had too many road blocks, but now we’re not sure anybody can beat this team.

We say hello from Raleigh-Durham airport where we’ve hung around all day as a standby passenger hoping for an empty seat. No luck so far as big crowds are filling airplanes to New York.

The highlight of Sunday’s action was yet another magical performance by Stephen Curry. The sophomore finally found his shooting touch during a second half Davidson run. Curry is the most exciting basketball player we’ve seen in a long time. He can do it all. His court vision allows him to make passes that Jason Kidd would take notes on. Curry’s long-range shot is deadly. Reggie Miller-like. You probably saw his drive and scoop late that sent the crowd into a tizzy. And like his Davidson teammates, he never takes a play off on either end of the court. Davidson outworked Georgetown by an exertion ratio of ten to one.

It should be noted that any NBA team that spends anything higher than a second round pick on Georgetown big man Roy Hibbert is nuts.

Curry was well-covered and harassed by Georgetown for much of the game, but it seems like all you have to do is build a screen play that ends with the ball in his hands and he’s guaranteed to do something great with it. We shook our head in amazement at Curry all weekend. To top it all off, Curry is near-automatic from the free-throw line.

Davidson’s enrollment is only 1700, so we’re talking about a big-time Cinderella story. The tiny liberal arts college with an excellent reputation was down 17 points to G-Town and came all the way back with a packed RBC Center pulling hard for the underdog. It was a real thrill to see. Davidson’s coach Bob McKillop is a Long Island guy who has toiled in the lower echelon coaching ranks for a long time. We don’t know much about him, but his team should have been no match talent-wise for Georgetown. But his kids played really, really hard and you can tell they’re well-coached.

We don’t have a feel whether Davidson can keep it going against Wisconsin. Again, the size disadvantage will be a potential problem for the ten seed. But at worst, we’ll have at least one more chance to see Curry work his magic.
Carolina fans occupied at least 75-percent of the seats in the sold-out RBC Center Sunday. Outside, one UNC fan sold t-shirts mocking the head coach of their most bitter rival (pictured above).

Late in the blowout win, UNC’s Tyler Hansbrough (the likely winner of the college hoops player of the year award) slipped on the slick NCAA appliqué that covered the center of the court. While UNC coach Roy Williams should examine his own decision-making for allowing Hansbrough to be in the game at that late juncture, he is justified in his long-held belief that the mid-court stickers need to be eliminated from the tournament. “They need to rip the dadgum things up,” said Williams in his post-game news conference.

Year after year, you see players slip and fall on the slick decal, yet the NCAA continues to apply them as a self-promotion tool. The NCAA ought to just let the host site use its existing court design rather than add the unsafe logo.
Over the course of six games, dozens of timeouts and several intermissions, it was a young Jay Farrar look-alike that provided much-needed entertainment. The young man (pictured above) was seated in the next section over. Several impersonations, jokes and observations of the fella among my seatmates provided a comedic outlet during breaks in play. Unlike most professional and college sporting events, there were few entertaining diversions in the arena to pass time between action. Thank goodness for Jay Junior.

What was the dining highlight of this trip to Tar Heel country? We had an excellent experience at Chapel Hill’s Lantern Restaurant on Saturday. Located on the college town’s main drag - Franklin Street - we sat in the dark back bar area. Buds were $2.50 and our steak and peanut sauce lettuce wrap was excellent. The comfortably cool place is owned in part by Mac McCaughan of Superchunk fame. We also had excellent barbeque one night at Durham’s Q Shack. And for Saturday night’s UCLA/A&M thriller, we had drinks at the Southern Rail in Carrboro and watched the game on a big screen TV.

Thanks to UNC die-hards Roberta and Jared for showing me a good time (the three pictures above were all taken by Roberta with her non-detachable lens camera). Back to the regular flow Tuesday. Go Davidson.

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