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.

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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.

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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.

4-22-08 0144

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.

4-19-08 2255

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 o