The scoreboard graphic in the upper left-hand corner of the TV screen for Saturday’s Wimbledon final listed jut first names:  “Venus” and “Serena.”  The two sisters were going to head-to-head for the eighth time in a grand slam title match.  It’s not usually the most compelling tennis when these two get together.  Some have even suggested the sisters dislike playing each other so much the outcomes of their head-to-head meetings are pre-determined. 

I don’t buy that.  I just think the two know either other’s tendencies and weaknesses so well, the output on the tennis court is bound to look awkward. 

The first set on Saturday was an intense battle that included two break point opportunities for Venus.  Had she converted on just one of them, Venus would have likely defended her title. 

But Serena’s blistering serve was too hot to handle.  The little sis lost just eight points on serve the whole match and ended up cruising in the second set to finish off big sis.      

-I know this gripe surfaces every year, but 2009 television coverage of Wimbledon in this country again had some brutal gaps  – especially for fans of Andy Roddick.  ESPN and NBC divvied up action for the US audience.  The more lucrative quarter-final and semi-final matches are typically reserved and left whole for NBC’s mid-day slots regardless of when Wimbledon schedules them.  This year, it meant the big Roddick/Murray semi was shown by NBC on a 90-minute tape delay.  Two days before, Roddick’s highly anticipated final eight match with Lleyton Hewitt started during NBC’s slot but the Peacock gave us a taped Federer blowout instead.  ESPN2 came on with its second window of coverage at 1 PM that day and picked up Roddick/Hewitt live about halfway through the match.  Fans missed a dramatic tiebreak.  Worse, there was no graphical guidance on either channel – or on the web – about what the heck was going on with the broadcast plan.  This kind of logic-defying, anti-fan scheduling happens every year it seems, with NBC’s Dick Ebersol issuing an annual claim that NBC’s contract gives them the right to “protect” matches.  The bottom line is that critical matches during the quarter and semi-final rounds get lost in the contractual tug-of-war despite day-long windows of live television coverage.  Too much important tennis fails to make the airwaves as it’s happening – every year.  If NBC can’t fully commit to the concept of real-time coverage with cooperation from ESPN, it shouldn’t be allowed to continue as the rights-holder to the biggest tennis tournament in the world. 

-Joey Chestnut won his third straight hot dog eating contest at Coney Island Saturday.  I watched the live broadcast on ESPN.  Chestnut stuffed 68 hot dogs down his esophagus in ten minutes to win the ridiculous annual competition outside Nathan’s.  The funniest moment of the broadcast came in the post-contest interview with the winner.  The ESPN reporter asked Chestnut what he would do for dinner that evening.  Chestnut said with a straight face that he’d have a “cobb salad with ranch dressing.” 

-The winner of Monmouth Park’s biggest turf race of the summer shattered a course record Saturday and did it in dazzling fashion.  The six-year-old gelding Presious (sic) Passion sprinted out of the gate at full throttle for the Grade One United Nations despite the fact the race distance was a mile and three-eighths.  That’s a long haul for a horse.  Presious Passion was up by 20 lengths for a good portion of the race.  What was shocking was that he was timed on the lead going 45 and one-fifth, 1:09 and four, 1:34 and three and 1:59 flat for four furlongs, six furlongs, a mile and a mile and a quarter respectively.  Going that fast early in such a long race almost always spells doom for even the best racehorses.  But somehow Presious Passion held on courageously and won the race by two lengths over the German horse Lauro.  The finishing time was 2:10.97 which beat the mile and three-eighths turf course record at Monmouth by almost two seconds.  As I watched the race on TVG Saturday, I laughed at Passion’s jockey Elvis Trujillo for allowing the horse to go so fast in the first mile.  He’s cooked, I said.  Instead, Passion just kept going. 

7-5-09 0115

My television is on all the time but it’s been two years since I was compelled to watch a regular broadcast drama.  The Sopranos went dark in June 2007 and I just assumed the void would be immediately filled by something creative somewhere along the big channel grid.  I’ve always had a show - something regular outside all the sports and news dominating my viewing schedule.  But for two years, despite an effort to find a show, I’ve never gotten beyond an episode or two of any new program.  

Things were really good during the five years when Six Feet Under ran concurrently with Tony and Carmela.  In a long period before that, it was an event for me to sit down and watch NYPD Blue, Seinfeld and Hill Street Blues. 

But the last two years, I failed to get pulled into a drama despite giving the DVR a workout to make an honest crack at it. 

So, it’s with some excitement now that Nurse Jackie has come along on the cable channel Showtime.  Just four episodes in, I’m ready to declare that I’m hooked.  I finally have that feeling of looking forward to the next episode of a TV drama without letting it just sit there on my archived list of recorded programs.  Nurse Jackie is only 30 minutes a week, and Showtime has bolstered my commitment by buying up a second season. 

Edie Falco is great playing a veteran nurse in a NYC emergency room.  She’s surrounded by compelling characters still developing and each show includes plenty of familiar city landscapes.  I nearly fell out of my chair at the end of episode three when Jackie walked into a deli on the way home from work to buy chicken soup.  The deli is none other than the one run by my pal Steve in Astoria that I’ve been going to regularly since I moved out here more than a decade ago. 

Episode four was directed by Steve Buscemi and his thoughtful fingerprints were all over it. 

-TSR Radio returns Thursday, 7-2 at 8 PM for a special presentation of Work Tape Vol. 1.  An old cassette tape with recordings going back fifteen years captures the early days of what would become my permanent entry into the blue collar workforce.  Work Tape is a basic look at the plight of the low-paid worker.  Phone calls are welcome at the end of the program.  To tune in live – or to catch the archived version after it airs – just click on the TSR Radio tab at the top of the page to get pointed in the right direction. 

7-1-09 2255

The Mets have the look of a sinking ship right now.  Met manager Jerry Manuel keeps talking about “taking games off the board” and has made statements clearly aimed at encouraging his GM to add a guy who can hit.  

On the radio Tuesday afternoon, Francesa asked Manuel if he was frustrated about filling out a lineup card for weeks on end that doesn’t include Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado.   “Do you get up every morning waiting to see if the cavalry is going to arrive with the canteens?  You must be out there like the guy in the desert waiting for the canteens to show up,” said Francesa.  “You hope they don’t shoot holes in the canteens before you get to drink the water.”

Manuel just laughed at the question but he’s made it clear (on the bench with his body language and in the media room with his statements) that the current Met cast should be expected to do little more than tread water until the All-Star break.       

It’s after the break that Beltran and Reyes possibly return.  Nick Johnson of the Nats may end up a Met about that time.  With the Phillies struggling at home, perhaps the Mets can chase when the canteens arrive. 

But for now the Met lineup is parched.  Even more than the past weekend’s hapless subway series sweep, the thing that convinced me that this Met team is way short on punch was when I flipped on Monday night’s game at Milwaukee to see Argenis Reyes batting leadoff.

Tuesday night’s game was a Santana start, which at this point is the only time through the rotation that you feel like three or four runs will win it.  That fourth inning was about as wacky as you get with F Mart slipping in centerfield, the pitching coach getting tossed and a crazy comedy act of a play highlighted by a wild Santana throwing error.  

-I’m not sure I’ve ever seen an active player throw out the ceremonial first pitch, but that’s what Mariano Rivera did Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium.  It was a way to pay tribute to the 500th career save Mo recorded two nights before in Queens.  

-The Rangers traded away one of their expensive star players Tuesday.  The deal to ship Scott Gomez to Montreal takes a big salary off the books and sets the stage for Rangers GM Glen “Slats” Sather to acquire an expensive replacement in the form of Marian Gaborik or Dany Heatley.  Gomez had a bad ‘08/’09 season.  He’s making seven-plus mil annual and had little impact offensively for long stretches of the most recent campaign.  Gomez was one of a trio of extreme Ranger underperformers in a season that included the unfair firing of Tom Renney.  Wade Redden and Chris Drury also stunk, but neither of them are moveable commodities because of their high salaries.  As long as I’m mentioning hockey here on the first day of July, I should mention that more than ten thousand Islanders fans showed up at the Coliseum last Friday night to watch television monitors showing Garth Snow pick John Taveres with the first selection in the NHL Draft.  There are many nights at the Coliseum when the Islanders can’t get ten grand to show up to watch an actual hockey game.  

-My Derby roommate Chris H. put together a nice write-up reacting to the death of Michael Jackson.  It can be found at:

http://www.popnarcotic.com/

6-30-09 2200 

Southwest Airlines initiated service from LaGuardia Airport Sunday.  The popular low-fare air carrier is operating eight flights a day out of a single gate on the B concourse of the Central Terminal Building.  Five of the departures go to Chicago/Midway and the other three go to Baltimore. 

Southwest has been in business for 38 years and up until the last few years, it has deliberately avoided flying out of airports like LaGuardia.  The Southwest business plan has thrived through utilization of airports with comparatively low landing fees and cheap rents. 

The airline also has successfully pursued an obsessive strategy of rapid deplaning and boarding of customers to keep its tightly-scheduled point-to-point routes on time.  By staying away from the popular big-city airports where air traffic control delays and taxiway congestion are the norm, Southwest has stood apart from the rest of the industry in its efficiency. 

But as big city airports have lost bankrupt or financially-troubled tenants in the years after 9/11, Southwest seemed to slowly abandon its strategy by adding Denver, LAX, Philly and Frisco to its route map.  It will launch service out of Boston’s Logan later this summer. 

Off all the new airports added by Southwest, its decision to operate out of LaGuardia is the most surprising.  Government-imposed air traffic control delays can reach four hours plus at LaGuardia when the weather is bad and it’s not unusual for a departing plane to wait in line for an hour to take off.

Add to that the fact Southwest is using gate B4 at LaGuardia.  It’s a gate difficult to access given the volume of activity on adjacent gates and those across the taxi line at neighboring concourse A. 

For the very reasons Southwest had until now limited its New York presence to the quiet airstrip in Islip, Long Island, the airline will quickly find out that it won’t be able to execute its brand at LaGuardia. 

What makes flying Southwest special are the low fares and the airline’s unapologetic and reliable herding of hordes onto colorful airplanes staffed by casual, cool and happy workers. 

LaGuardia will crush Southwest’s ability to consistently deliver this concept. 

-Of all the coverage I read about the life, death and career of Michael Jackson, the most ridiculous statement by a serious journalist came from Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times.  Said Roeper in a piece published Friday:  “It’s the most shocking death of an entertainment superstar since John Lennon in 1980.”  To me, there was nothing shocking about Jackson’s death.  If you want to say Jackson was the most famous or most important entertainer to die since Lennon, that’s a worthy point of debate.  But it has been apparent for years that Jackson had become increasingly frail and unhealthy.  His death was not a “shock.”

6-29-09 0101

The six-year-old Prairie Boy tossed his rider and finished last in Friday’s seventh race at Belmont.  It extended his winless streak to 47 races. 

Prairie Boy (pictured above – before the race) has an intriguing history of consistent participation in claiming races at Aqueduct and Belmont, but he’s only been a winner one time in 54 tries. 

In those 54 races, Prairie Boy has run for a claiming price all but once.  He’s nicely bred (sired by Forestry and his maternal grandfather is Seeking the Gold) and when I saw him Friday he looked like a legitimate race horse.  He started his career in a maiden claiming race at Aqueduct in November 2005 and got his first and only win in a grass race at Belmont in July 2006.  Soon after, Prairie Boy was claimed from Bruce Levine and has been stuck in a long rut of mediocrity ever since. 

What’s impressive despite the long losing streak is Prairie Boy’s staying power.  Many horses are sent away to places unknown if they don’t win over a long stretch.  Most Prairie Boys of the horse racing world don’t get to lose 47 races in a row and keep showing up at the race track.  Sometimes, they’re sent to racing’s minor leagues to attempt victory against lesser competition.  Prairie Boy has stayed in the big city on the big circuit every step of his racing career (including two trips upstate to Saratoga).  Prairie Boy probably has a New York accent by now. 

Credit must be given here to Prairie Boy’s owner Bill O’Toole who undoubtedly is losing money by keeping the horse in training in New York without seeing much in the way of earnings.  In ten races this year, Prairie Boy has won a total of less than eight-thousand dollars.  The cost of housing, feeding and training the horse is probably at least double that during that stretch.   

On Friday, Prairie Boy entered the starting gate with odds of 34-1.  He sprinted to the lead and looked like he might have a shot.  Entering the final turn, his running path was intruded upon by Alabama Man.  The brief collision prompted Prairie Boy to eject his jockey Amanda Casey.  Fans on hand let out a big gasp. 

Luckily, Casey walked away from her ugly spill without injuries but it goes in the books as a last-place finish for Prairie Boy.       

Attendance was 4535.  I’d estimate about half that total was assembled either in Belmont’s backyard area or on the outdoor apron near the finish line.  I went with a crew of five co-workers.  We sat at a picnic table in the backyard.  We brought beer and sandwiches and chipped in on a pick four play. 

The backyard area at Belmont draws the young, casual fan, especially on Fridays when the first race of the day starts at 3 PM.  Fans in the backyard have no view of the race track and watch the live racing action on television monitors.    

Dark clouds approaching from the north rolled in just after the eighth race was completed.  The track accelerated the pace of the program by shortening time between races in hopes it could beat the rain storm.  Unfortunately, the timing was just a bit off.  A heavy downpour began about fifteen minutes before post time for the ninth and final race (a seven-furlong event carded for the grass).

The rain was torrential and the skies were dark as night.  The track’s operator – NYRA – chose to cancel the ninth race and announced the decision about a quarter before 7 PM. 

Bettors with live multi-race wagers contingent on the result of the ninth race were all paid off equally.  In the case of the pick four, everybody with a live $1 ticket got 82 bucks per selection in the final leg of the bet.  It brought a big grumble from the guys in my group since we had a shot at more than $1500 if the six-year-old gelding Munition won the race. 

I took the position that the rain was so heavy, it likely made the turf course unsafe.  I suppose NYRA could have switched the race to the sealed main dirt track, but one could argue that doing so on such short notice is unfair to multi-race wager player who punched tickets with the idea the race would be run on grass. 

The rain ended about twenty minutes after the race’s cancellation.  Fans using the Long Island Rail Road for the trip back to the city were met by a completely flooded accessway between Belmont’s grandstand and the train platform.  There was no train, either. 

On a normal day, the LIRR train sits waiting for riders and departs about thirty minutes after the last race.  On Friday, there was no train waiting after the last race.  Perhaps the quickened pace of the program caused the delay.  One wouldn’t know because there were no representatives of the railroad on the flooded passageway to the platform.  Frustrated train riders muttered.  Rather than wait on the unknown, I darted in the direction of the Belmont Park bus stop to catch the Q110.  It took me to the Parsons Blvd. F-train stop. 

When I came to the surface in my neighborhood, the setting sun was starting to pierce the post-storm skies.  The colors and images generated hit a ten on the scale of trippiness. 

6-28-09 0105         

I’ll consider any first-round selection by the Knicks in Thursday night’s NBA draft a disappointment if it’s not Stephen Curry.  Two months ago, the Knicks seemed a lock to get Curry.  At the time, there was scouting consensus and little doubt the wildly talented but skinny point guard from Davidson would be there when Donnie Walsh selects in the eight slot.  Rather than create smokescreens, Walsh allowed the flirtation between the Knicks and Curry to reach a fever pitch.  Curry dazzled in the pre-draft activities and now the concern is he may go anywhere from two to six.  The thing that really complicates this situation is that Curry wants the Knicks as bad as the Knicks want Curry.  Teams picking ahead of Donnie know they can trade down and extract a premium without losing out on a player with the same potential as Curry.  It’ll be unfortunate if Walsh and the Knicks get seriously played as they trade up, but they have to get Curry.  He’s made for the Garden and it’s no secret he could play a significant role in Lebron’s big 2010 decision. 

-Spain didn’t look like the world’s top-ranked soccer team Wednesday at the Confederations Cup semi, but that doesn’t matter to the up-and-down United States squad.  Regardless of what happens Sunday in the Confed Cup final, the exciting 2-0 US win over Spain (snapping a 35-match Spanish team unbeaten streak) gives soccer fans in this country a little hope the Red, White and Blue can make some hay at next year’s World Cup.

6-24-09 1700 

The windshield wipers are getting a serious workout in the big city this month. 

Through Tuesday, there have only been four days in June without recorded rainfall. 

The National Weather Service has measured 8.35 inches of June rainfall at Central Park through the end of the day Monday.

The all-time record for the month of June is 10.27 inches (2003). 

With a week to go, the forecast makes it unlikely although not impossible that we’ll break the record. 

My pal Marc has taken the position that it would be frustrating to come short of the record given the annoyance level brought by all the bleak, grey wetness.  If we’re gonna suffer, the thinking goes that it should certifiably go beyond anything every experienced in history. 

For those interested in following NYC’s pursuit of the June rainfall record as the final week of the month winds down, you can check this web site and cheer us on. 

6-23-09 2000

LaGuardia was landing airplanes on runway 31 Monday night, putting inbound flights on a path that curled around Citi Field.  Plane after plane descended in a left turn beyond and above the Citi Field scoreboard.

When Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols came to bat in the first inning, the slugger requested timeout to allow an arriving airplane to pass. 

Speaking of Pujols, how ‘bout this stat referenced by Howie on the radio broadcast Monday night: 

Pujols has stepped to the plate four times this year with the bases loaded.  In those situations, he’s four for four with three grand slams!

That led Howie to speculate whether the Mets may walk Pujols intentionally if he were to come up with the bases loaded.  Interestingly, only two major league batters in the last sixty-five years have been given a free pass with the bases juiced.  Barry Bonds (’98) and Josh Hamilton (’08).

-Just about all my golf fan friends are properly cynical – even dismissive – about Phil Mickelson’s legitimacy as a perennial major championship contender.  I totally understand that.  But no matter how many heartbreaking near-misses or choke jobs I see from Lefty, I continue to get mesmerized by the flashes of magic he creates.  When Phil made the eagle putt on thirteen Monday, I yelled at the TV and pronounced him the likely winner.  I should know better.  After Phil nearly ran into a notepad-toting Mike Lupica on the walking path between thirteen and fourteen, Dan Hicks asked the question.  “Is it finally Phil’s turn?”  NBC rolled a prepared piece documenting Phil’s torturous runner-up Open finishes.  All four of them.  Johnny Miller seemed to be rooting for Phil but qualified his confidence in a Mickelson victory with a prediction.  “I think if Phil can get a par on fifteen, he’s going to win the United States Open,” said Miller.  Phil was in position for a par, but three-putted the hole for bogey and then missed a three-footer on seventeen for another bogey.  It was his fifth second place finish in a US Open. 

-It appeared on TV there was plenty of breathing room for fans at Bethpage on Monday.  The USGA announced attendance at 23,985 which is about half of what it was the previous three days.  If you were there on Monday, I’d imagine you had about as good a time as one could have at a major golf tournament given the open space and freedom of movement.    

6-23-09 0130

Hope all the Dads had a good day Sunday.  The new ones.  The old ones.  The really old ones. 

There were three generations of Dads in Huntley, IL when I dialed up Pops midday and it sounded like everybody was having a good time.

-Monday could be a wild sports day here in New York.  That leaderboard at Bethpage has the makings of a classic final round.  Ricky Barnes will crumple, Lucas Glover will sweat and the roars that final pairing will hear ahead of them will be the charge of major champions making big moves.  I disagree with those who argue this championship has lost rhythm and excitement from weather-induced delays.  Each round has drifted a day late but the drama is still very much there.  The grueling length of each day’s competition and the uncertainty of what the skies will bring negates whatever ease the moisture has brought to the putting surfaces.  Whoever hoists the trophy either this afternoon, tonight or perhaps even Tuesday will have won what will be forever remembered as the Mudball Major. 

-Albert Pujols doesn’t have a tee time at Bethpage Monday, but he’ll swing that big club of his for the first time at the new ballpark in Queens tonight.  Let’s hope Jerry Manuel realizes going in that even Citi Field can’t hold what the Redbirds slugger is launching.  The intentional pass should be used early and often.

6-22-09 0155

I was a little surprised at the depth and volume of the public outcry over the initial announcement there would be no rain checks or refunds for those who attended day one of the US Open golf tournament.  Heavy precip flooded Bethpage Black on Thursday, forcing postponement of the first round after just three hours and sixteen minutes of play.  Single round tickets cost a hundred bucks and a lot of fans flipped when the USGA said Thursday ticket-holders had no refund option or right of return because of the shortened round.  The New York media (led in part by a Francesa-led whine-fest during Thursday’s afternoon drive) crucified the USGA.  The story dominated coverage in Friday morning’s tabloids.  When the media tent opened at Bethpage Friday, the USGA’s David Fay tried to calm the mob of critics by saying fans with Thursday tickets could come for free on Monday.  But even that wasn’t enough for New York’s hot-shot Attorney General Andy Cuomo who loves to put on the superman cape.  Cuomo pushed the refund angle and pressured the USGA to amend its policy for a second time on Friday.  In the end, Fay said the USGA would kick back half the cost of Thursday’s tickets if the tournament finished on Sunday.       

Fay admitted the USGA policy wasn’t clear to begin with.  That’s true.  It’s also true that Fay probably should have laid out the Monday option immediately after Thursday’s postponement. 

But the collective media/public freakout about the USGA’s less than deft handling of a tricky predicament will ultimately make the US Open’s return to this area a tough sell anytime soon.  It’s a golf tournament.  The fan should have no iron-clad expectation they’re gonna get a full day’s worth of golf.  New Yorkers (enabled and encouraged by the media) yelled, stomped and made a lot of noise about a weather-induced complication.

Inclement weather is a risk I’ve considered as my brother and I toy around with the idea of making a once-in-a-lifetime investment in a ticket to The Masters.  It’s not a baseball game where you can use your rain stub for a September game against the Mariners or Indians.  You hope for good weather.  You hope to get a glimpse of your favorite players.  You drink a few beers.  You leave your cell phone at home.  And you don’t whine all over the place when the golf course gets swallowed up in a monsoon. 
     
-As bad and out of place Chris Berman is on ESPN’s golf coverage, Scott Van Pelt is on the opposite end of the performance scale.  Van Pelt weaves history and relevant real-time observations into his duties as the primary on-site host without the clownish stuff you get from Boomer.  Aside from Nantz and maybe Tirico, there’s no better emcee of important golf television right now than Van Pelt. 

-Construction on a new air traffic control tower at LaGuardia Airport looks like it’s almost done, but a controller said Friday that it won’t become functional and occupied until the fall of 2010. 

-I watched a rebroadcast of Joe Buck’s first program for HBO and it appeared he was genuinely disturbed and angry about the conduct of guest Artie Lange.  What I don’t understand is how Buck could have expected anything different than the way it turned out.

6-21-09 0115

The steady plume of smoke rising from the Boog’s BBQ stand in center field not only smells good, it creates an interesting visual effect as you look at the long warehouse behind right and center field at Camden Yards.

It’s a great ballpark with a tenant that has played sub-.500 baseball eleven consecutive seasons.  

Hard to believe Camden dates back to ’92.  When it first opened, the ballpark was widely admired by baseball fans because it transported them back in time.  Camden started the whole “retro” design craze.  Now that it’s seventeen years old, it remains as good as or better than the ballparks it inspired.

The Orioles are one of MLB’s have-nots on the spending spectrum but at least they have a ballpark worth visiting.  And with young stars like Nick Markakis, Adam Jones, Luke Scott and Matt Wieters, the O’s seem to have developed a foundation of winning position players.

On Wednesday night, Wieters hit his first career home run.  The 23-year-old switch-hitting catcher is six-foot-five.  He has drawn comparisons to Joe Mauer.  The scoreboard said the Wieters home run traveled a distance of 366 feet.  Orioles ushers quickly descended on the fan who gained possession of the Wieters home run baseball and recovered it.  I was surprised that the fan turned it over without much of a fuss.  You’d hope the Orioles will make significant concessions to the fan considering the importance of the memento.   

It rained all day before the game and at times during it.  But it never came down in buckets once the game started.  There was no batting practice, but many of the Mets were on the field two hours before the game playing catch.  
 
Attendance was 31,906.  That’s a big jump from the night before when just 20-thousand showed up.  Wednesday night’s Adam Jones bobble-head giveaway likely produced the spike. 

Not only was Wednesday night’s crowd bigger, it was far more vocal and supportive of the home team compared to the night before. 

The bobble-head gift is a quality item but I was confused over a policy that limited distribution only to fans age 15 and older.  A family of four Mets fans entered in front of me – and the family’s two children were disappointed when a worker for the Orioles told them they weren’t eligible for the bobble-head.  Who better to give a bobble-head to than a kid?      

Pedro Feliciano gave up a two-run shot to Aubrey Huff in the seventh and the Mets lost 6-4.  Feliciano has been great all year, so it’s hard to be too upset. 

George Sherrill closed the game for the O’s.  He has saved thirteen of fifteen opportunities.  I asked the O’s fan sitting in front of us if Sherrill is reliable and the fan said yes.  “But he’ll make you nervous,” he said. 

After both the Tuesday and Wednesday games, we walked back to our lodging spot about a mile due south of the ballpark.  Foot traffic was heavy, so there was no concern about safety. 

As one circulates in this city however, it can be jarring to see so many dwellings and businesses shuttered or abandoned.  It appears to be a city fighting a losing battle against poverty, crime and suffering.

Baltimore’s homicide rate is through the roof.  Of cities with populations of a half-million or more, Baltimore had the highest murder rate in 2008. 

My room at the Holiday Inn Express on South Russell was $143 per night.  There was nothing but gas stations in the immediate vicinity, so I ate the free breakfast buffet on the hotel’s first floor.  The view from my room (pictured above) included a nice look at both the football and baseball stadiums.  Noisy work crews at a large demolition site across the street woke me up early Wednesday. 

The best meal of the trip came Wednesday afternoon at Faidley’s inside the Lexington Market.  Thanks to Jeff D for the tip on this place.  The jumbo lump crab cake at Faidley’s is the top of its kind anywhere.  Eat a Faidley’s lump cake and you’ll be crabby the rest of the day. 

We killed time before the game Wednesday staking out what we believed was the Mets hotel (The Renaissance Harborplace on Pratt).  There were no player sightings but we said hello to Howie Rose in the shopping mall adjoining the hotel.  We also passed by WFAN’s Evan Roberts. 

Transportation to and from Baltimore was a tale of two distinctly different experiences.  On the way down, I took a Chinatown bus operated by Eastern Travel.  I bought an $11 round-trip ticket a few weeks in advance, thinking the bus would be more reliable than flying – and more affordable than Amtrak. 

The bus departed from an address in Chinatown doubling as a massage shop.  When the bus pulled up promptly at 10 AM Tuesday, a herd of people tossed their bags in the cargo hold and hurried on to the bus to get a good seat.  It was a chaotic and disorganized boarding process.  The driver (looked like late-era Jerry Garcia with a pony-tail) barely examined the printout of my online reservation and grumbled when I tried to confirm the bus stopped in Baltimore. 

The bus filled to capacity at a second NYC stop at Penn Station.  A large-framed young man carrying a cooler and a large economics textbook sat next to me and slept the whole ride.  At about 11:15 AM, traffic came to a standstill in the Lincoln Tunnel.  The bus was halfway through the tunnel and went nowhere for at least thirty minutes.  A driver switch at Cheesequake cost us another ten minutes but a rapid pace from that point got me to Cherry Hill Road in Baltimore by 2:20 PM.  From there I took light rail to the Hamburg stop.  Total time on the bus was almost four and a half hours.  It wasn’t really a pleasant experience. 

With that in mind, I discarded my return bus ticket and made an Amtrak reservation for the trip home.  I caught a 5:30 AM Thursday train from the Baltimore airport stop and pulled into New York/Penn at 8:15 AM.  The train trimmed more than ninety minutes off the journey and it’s so much more comfortable than the bus.  The only negative is the train fare.  64 bucks one-way.  Not horrible - but you wish it were a bit cheaper.  

6-18-09 1515

I took a bus down to Baltimore Tuesday morning to catch the first two of three Mets/Orioles games at Camden Yards. 

I’m not particularly fond of Baltimore as a destination.  I came here several years in a row earlier this decade for the Preakness Stakes before my work shift changed.  It’s a decaying city that seems to be fighting a losing battle to revitalize.  The public transit system is iffy and cheap hotels are hard to find. 

But Camden is a great ballpark and the distance from New York makes it reachable for a 48-hour visit. 

My friend Jackie scored some primo seats behind the plate for Tuesday night’s affair.  Roberts and Huff had huge errors for the Orioles.  The two miscues paved the way for all six Met runs.

K-Rod (pictured above) entered the game in the ninth after Parnell gave up two singles with the Mets up 6-2. 

Adam Jones faced the Met closer and could have won it for the O’s with a homer but K-Rod struck out Jones to end the game.  6-4, the final.  On Wednesday night, fans attending the game will get an Adam Jones bobble-head doll.  I hope to arrive in time to receive the gift.    

Last week, Yankee reliever Brian Bruney criticized K-Rod’s theatrics after closing games so I was interested to see if Rodriguez would tone it down Tuesday night.  Indeed, he did.  He was downright calm after the game ended.  

Attendance was announced at just 20,626.  I’d say nearly half the crowd backed the Mets. 

I had a crab cake sandwich from the concession stand.  It was $13 and well worth it. 

-All I'll say on the Sosa news flash is that Bud Selig's subsequent reaction was about as weak as it gets. 

6-16-09 2355

The new internet search engine “Bing” is pretty cool.  But after a week’s worth of Binging, I must bang the drum for the big daddy of cyber-exploration.  I must reaffirm dedication to Google.     

I use Google a lot.  Every day.  In addition to the places it takes me via its main search engine page, it does so much more.  It plucks news stories in a pretty precise manner from a world’s worth of journalism.  It does it fast and it finds fresh stuff.  It’s amazing. 

It also culls images of people, places and things in a way that can be very helpful to the curious.   

Bing has come along with the idea it can do much the same or more than the almighty Google.  As far as I can tell, the only noticeable improvement or twist you get from Bing is the open space down the right hand side of the page that serves as a blank slate for pop-up info describing each search result in detail greater than what you get from Google. 

Rather than clicking on the link to the web site produced by the search, Bing believes you can better make decisions about relevance of individual search results through a dozen lines of text that flashes down the right-side margin. 

To me, the supplemental info from Bing isn’t enough to pull me away from the familiarity and trust I’ve built with Google.  The Bing twist is not helpful enough to switch. 

Additionally, I noticed Bing’s image search seems to exclude the tremendous body of work collected via Picasa, a Google-owned software and storage depot that accumulates pictures from amateur photogs all over the world.  It’s not clear whether it’s Bing – or Google – doing the excluding of Picasa shots from Bing’s image search, but it’s a glaring deficiency. 

One inconsequential difference I’ll mention between the two search engines that may evolve over time:  When you enter the word “Sauerbrun,” Google consistently lists this web site in the second slot, just below the football player’s Wikipedia entry.  Bing requires both the word “Sauerbrun” and “Report” in the same query to lead one here. 

Most of the readers of this site - outside the hearty regulars who bookmark the URL - end up here thanks to Google.  Based on the data collected by this site’s host, not a single visitor has landed here via Bing as of yet.

6-14-09 0115

The first session of the New York state senate since a sudden and unexpected overthrow of the democratic majority was broadcast on cable TV Thursday. 

I watched it on the New York State Legislative Proceedings Channel (Time Warner-NYC channel 159).   It was on about a one-hour tape delay.  

Of special interest to me during the 19-minute floor session was a speech by my state senator Hiram Monserrate. 

It was Monserrate’s Monday defection (along with Bronx senator Pedro Espada Jr.) from a 32-30 democratic majority that tipped the balance in favor of republicans and their leader Dean Skelos.

Two days of upheaval followed, including a sour-grapes lawsuit by democrats over the validity of the coup. 

There was also much scrutiny on the motives and shady backgrounds of Monserrate and Espada. 

As a constituent embarrassed by Monserrate’s woeful conduct since he gained the senate seat, I was curious to hear what he’d say about his participation in the coup. 

Monserrate had at least 72 hours to prepare for the speech of his life. 

What his constituents got was a load of nonsense (to hear the three-minute floor speech – click the arrow below). 

I don’t really understand what Monserrate is saying or doing here.  He seemed to re-state his allegiance to the new majority through renunciation of the old.  But he also insists on labeling himself a member of the democratic party.  Monserrate threatened to vote “no” on any legislation brought up by the new majority – and he rudely walked out of Thursday’s session (attended only by republicans plus Espada/Monserrate) before it ended.  Monserrate says his defection is motivated by reform but in the floor speech of his life offers no specifics on what he means by that.   

You’d think a guy facing felony charges of cutting up his girlfriend’s face would walk softly in the halls of the state capitol.  Collect the big paycheck, vote your conscience, stay out of trouble.  Instead, Monserrate has inserted himself and has become the star stooge in the biggest state government story in years.  The coup and ensuing shenanigans have been on the front pages of all the newspapers every day this week since it went down. 

Until Monserrate truly explains what the heck he’s doing, you can only assume he’s selling his twist-in-the-wind nonsense to the highest bidder. 

If it was the big stage Monserrate was seeking, he got it briefly on Thursday.  But after garbling through remarks confirming he’s a mindless and spineless buffoon, both sides in the fight for a senate majority should quit worrying which camp Monserrate’s tent is pitched in.  Monserrate and his wavering vote are not worth all the attention.           

6-11-09 2100

While the Yankees will likely take steps at season’s end to make their new stadium less of a launching pad, I’m concerned the Mets may go the other direction at Citi Field to soften it up a bit for the batter. 

Francesa has said on a couple of occasions in the last two weeks that he wouldn’t be surprised if the Mets move the fences in to start of the 2010 season. 

Add to that comments made on the Sirius XM radio show “Ripken Baseball” by Chipper Jones. 

Said Jones:  “I actually feel sorry for some of the guys (Mets) out there because their power numbers are really going to take a hit;  guys like David Wright, Beltran, Delgado.  The days of them hitting 35, 40 homers – they’re over.” 

“It is the biggest park that I have ever played in in my life…I juiced the ball just right of center field, as hard as The Good Lord can let me hit a ball, and it hit midways up the center-field wall for a double.” 

“Every time there was a long fly-out or a double that hit off the wall or something, David Wright would run by me and go, ‘Nice park.’”

There were seven home runs in Tuesday night’s Mets/Phils game at Citi Field, but there’s no doubt the ballpark is playing big.  Through Tuesday, Citi is yielding 1.67 home runs per game.  Only five of the other fifteen NL yards are giving up fewer round-trippers per game (SF 1.0, PITT 1.19, ATL 1.28, LA 1.55, SD 1.57). 

For comparison’s sake, Yankee Stadium is yielding 3.62 homers per game.  

Personally, I like the way Citi Field is playing.  The brand of baseball necessary for success at the new Met home is way more interesting than reliance on the home run.  Speed, defense, adept baserunner advancement and attacks on the gaps will win games.  The Mets already have a lock-down closer which is big. 

If Wright doesn’t like the place because it hurts his home run totals, maybe he can try hitting a few more on the road.  I’m guessing he was just having friendly conversation with Chipper – if the second-hand account of his remarks is accurate.  Wright can adapt.  Remember, he’s at his best offensively when he’s driving the ball hard to the opposite field.  Most of those power shots at Citi will stay in the yard, but plenty of them will find gaps.

Even though the current Met lineup isn’t tailor-made for Citi, you see signs of adaptation.  In comments to the Times a couple weeks ago, Met TV analyst Keith Hernandez took the position that Citi’s big field promotes a more interesting brand of baseball.  “I think the Mets would be out of their minds to bring in the fences or change the dimensions.  Unbeknownst to management, they did something really good by building such a big park.  It’s forced the Mets to reconsider how they play and, to me, it’s been much more enjoyable to watch than a team reliant on the long ball.” 

6-10-09 2130

All the newspapers here are calling it a “coup.”  More accurately it should be referred to as yet another shady and stinky backroom deal in New York’s legislature guaranteeing more dysfunction, distrust and government gridlock from our state lawmakers.   

The alignment of New York’s State Senate changed Monday afternoon from a 32-30 democratic majority to a 32-30 republican-led majority.  The membership remained the same, but republicans convinced two democratic turncoats to cross the aisle, enabling the sudden and chaotic overthrow of Senate majority leader Malcolm Smith. 

To call the two senators who changed allegiances “renegades” or to say their switch was motivated by “reform” as they claim – well – that’s pure bullshit.  The two senators who enabled this dramatic shakeup in Albany are big-time scumbags trying to pump up marginalized political careers punctuated by corrupt and criminal behavior.  The two are Pedro Espada Jr. of the Bronx and Hiram Monserrate of Queens. 

I’ve talked plenty here about Monserrate.  He’s my senator.  He lives a few blocks from me.  Monserrate faces felony assault charges for slicing open his girlfriend’s face with a broken glass in a fit of rage after a Christmas party last year.  Even though his girlfriend has recanted her original account of the attack, the case against Monserrate appears trial-bound.  The police say there’s surveillance footage from a camera in Monserrate’s apartment building showing the senator dragging the victim away from the door of a neighbor as the victim pleaded for help.  There are also pending claims of a sham “social services” organization Monserrate used to funnel city council funds through.  If Monserrate doesn’t end up in the clink for the assault, the Queens D-A may take him down on the now-defunct bogus shell outfit called “Libre.” 

On top of those transgressions and a legendary short fuse of a temper, Monserrate is out of step with the will of his constituency.  He helped scuttle the bridge-toll component of the Ravitch plan to revitalize public transit and he refuses to publicly back the same-sex marriage bill. 

Now, Monserrate has cast a vote in support of Nassau County republican Dean Skelos to enable a tumultuous overthrow near the end of a legislative session with plenty of critical issues left on the docket.  Why’d he do it?  Monserrate’s web site issued a statement Tuesday saying Skelos and the republican leadership can better deliver a “reform agenda.”  Monserrate says he’s not changing party affiliation, yet he’s backing the leader of the other party.  Huh? 

Nothing is getting reformed when two evenly-numbered warring sides are wasting all their time plotting coups, seeking majority power so they can better control the pot of discretionary funds that members channel into home districts - often without regard for merit.

Espada Jr. (the other turncoat) is famous for blowing off campaign finance reporting requirements and sticking his hand out for discretionary funds on behalf of organizations he’s created or personally connected to.  You wonder if Espada was enticed to abandon the democratic majority thanks to a back-room promise by Skelos to give Espada a better shot at nailing down slush fund requests.

Nobody associated with this coup comes out of it without egg on face.  Skelos has latched on to two shady characters to elevate himself.  We may never know what he offered them, but it wasn’t for-the-people principle that motivated Espada and Monserrate to change uniforms.  Malcolm Smith looks bad because he couldn’t hold the 32 dems together – and treated the minority party like a doormat.  Even Governor David Patterson looks foolish.  He has refused to acknowledge the change in leadership, despite clear-cut math established during the coup. 

I’d like to say that all of this is interesting – historical – or compelling political theatre.  But really, given the players creating the drama – and the impact the coup will have on the state legislature’s productivity – the whole thing is a disgusting display of selfishness.  

6-9-09 2100

I could hear a big commotion down the block as I readied for work Sunday.  There was music – and loud amplified voices. 

Turns out it was the annual Queens Gay Pride Parade going down 37th Avenue. 

I walked along the route for a few blocks to catch my bus to the job and stopped along a police barricade to watch for a few minutes. 

There were floats, marchers and of course, politicians. 

Congressman Anthony Weiner (pictured above) waved a flag and spoke through a megaphone.  “Let’s hear it for marriage equality in New York!” Weiner said.  “Let’s hear it for marriage equality in the United States!” 

It’s just a matter of time before the state of New York legalizes gay marriage.  The State Assembly passed a same-sex marriage bill three weeks ago and the governor has vowed to sign it.  As is the case with most issues of import, the state senate is dragging its feet on the matter.  The state senate has a narrow democratic majority, but there are indications that Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith may allow the bill to die without a vote by his membership. 

The very powerful and diverse coalition backing marriage equality has ramped up pressure on state senator George Onorato, a democrat from the Queens neighborhood of Astoria.  Onorato is opposed to gay marriage and is considered a key swing vote. 

If Onorato continues to be among those in the senate’s democratic majority who block passage of gay marriage, you can bet voters in Astoria will send him packing. 

Here and now in New York City, an elected official unwilling to support marriage equality is not going to survive politically.  

Heck, the state of New York is surrounded by states that have already legally cleared the way for same-sex marriage (Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire). 

Young people especially (much younger than me) seem to be driving momentum on this issue.  Polling data shows the most support for same-sex marriage among those under age 30.  Overall, it’s still very much a divisive 50-50 kind of split in a lot of places, but you sense that tolerance and understanding is coming down the pike.

One thing I know for sure: the notion that same-sex marriage somehow cheapens the certificate obtained by traditional man/woman couples is absurd.  Love is love.  I understand religion can get in the way of one’s view – or sometimes it’s upbringing.  But love is love.  Or as one of the signs carried by a marcher in Sunday’s parade said:  “A kiss is a kiss.” 

6-8-09 0145

Yet another New York City public school sports championship will be decided in a venue closed to the general public. 

On Tuesday, New York City’s two public high school baseball divisions will play their title games at Yankee Stadium (B Division at 4 PM and A Division at 7 PM).  I was planning to go to the A Division championship, but got word Friday that both games would be played with strict limits on who could attend.

The entity that runs high school sports in this city is the PSAL.  It is not publicizing its draconian ban on regular fans for the title games on its web site, but the PSAL admitted to both the Post and Daily News that only fans with a ticket can get in.  Here’s how the PSAL says tickets will be distributed:

-800 tickets to each of the four participating schools
-200 tickets for NYC Department of Education employees
-1100 tickets to be distributed by the PSAL with unspecified criteria on who gets ‘em

That’s a total of 4500 tickets for the two title games.  Yankee Stadium has a capacity of 52,000.  DOE spokeswoman Margie Feinberg told the Post that ticket distribution is being capped for security reasons.  “We understand it’s a brand new stadium and everyone wants to come, but we have to be concerned about crowd control,” she said. 

In years past, entry into the PSAL title games at either Yankee Stadium or Shea required no ticket, just a valid ID.

What really sucks about the attendance limitation this year is that two of the participating schools are located in the Bronx (James Monroe and Taft Educational Campus).  The other two are Manhattan schools (Norman Thomas and HS Health Profession/Human Svcs.).  

Monroe’s coach Mike Turo blasted the PSAL policy closing the door on regular fans.  He told the News that the number of people who want to attend the game connected with his school far exceeds their allotment.  “I feel this is really a travesty.  They’re making it look like the kids are bad but this is something positive for the school,” said Turo. 

For each of the last two NYC high school basketball championships at Madison Square Garden, the PSAL has barred the public from attending.  It’s outrageous.  The athletics governing body of publicly-funded high schools is shutting out the very people who support these schools – both financially and spiritually.  In my case, I simply have a fondness for the grace and beauty of a high school athletic event.  I have a strong belief that high school athletics can go a long way in shaping a young person’s outlook and determination.  Part of that equation is fans in the stands.  Communities can be strengthened when there is linkage between citizens and their high schools.  The PSAL doesn’t seem to get that.  Instead, the folks who run high school sports in this city get all paranoid about intrusions from disruptive types. 

I sent an e-mail message to the PSAL’s baseball commissioner Robert H. Pertsas on Friday.  I asked him about the attendance ban.  I inquired if I could get one of the 1100 tickets controlled for discretionary use by the PSAL.  I told him I was a big fan of high school sports. 

But just like my repeated e-mails sent to PSAL basketball commissioner Mel Goldstein over the last two years, I have received no response.       

-Most good jockeys have stopwatch-like instincts to mark the pace of the race they’re riding in.  When horses go too fast, too early, they run out of gas before the finish line.  That’s what happened to Dunkirk on Saturday at The Belmont.  Dunkirk’s rider John Velasquez allowed his horse to exert too much, too soon.  The small grey colt ran the first quarter mile in 23 and two-fifths seconds and the first half in 47 seconds flat.  Yeah, the track was producing fast times favorable to front-runners but a more relaxed effort was called for in a mile and a half race.  When Chocolate Candy appeared to stumble out of the starting gate, it left the rail wide open for Dunkirk.  Velasquez did the right thing in hugging the inner part of the track throughout, but it was plain to see the jockey was overanxious to be the leader in the early one-third of the race.  When it came time to finish off the final quarter-mile of the race, Dunkirk showed great heart to come back after being passed by Mine That Bird, but didn’t have the energy to fend off Summer Bird.  Had the stopwatch in the head of Velasquez been synchronized to the real world of such a grueling race distance, Dunkirk might have repelled the winner.  As it is, another son of Birdstone won another big triple crown race.  Birdstone retired 2004 and works the breeding shed at Gainesway Farm in Lexington, KY.  The farm charges a $10-thousand fee for each live horse Birdstone produces.  You’d think that fee will rise dramatically after two sons from Birdstone’s first crop took down both the Kentucky Derby and The Belmont.

-Tired of losing its annual football game with Mizzou, the Illinois football team is raising the white flag.  After 2010, Illinois will replace Mizzou on its schedule with a cream puff pastry so it can devour its new, yet-to-be named opponent at home.  Too bad.  It was fun while it lasted.  Mizzou won all four of the border-state clashes in St. Lou starting in 2002. 

6-7-09 0135

Many of the horse racing handicappers with thinking caps on seem to believe Charitable Man will win Saturday’s running of The Belmont (grade one) in Elmont, NY.  The thinking goes that Charitable Man will be unhurried on the front end of the long, mile and a half journey and will discourage his nine competitors with a lasting kick down the long stretch run. 

Derby winner Mine That Bird will be way behind for the first mile before his jockey Calvin Borel asks the undersized gelding to display the stunning late burst exhibited in his previous two triple crown efforts.

Even though no triple crown is on the line, the weather will be great and there is much intrigue about whether Mine That Bird will again flash that explosive rally. 

I’m picking Dunkirk who spun his wheels in the Derby and will have odds of about four to one.  The way I picture it, either Miner’s Escape and/or Luv Gov will loom close enough to Charitable Man in the early stages to prevent a runaway.  The endurance wall will stop all but Dunkirk, Mine That Bird and Summer Bird - making it a three horse race coming into the final turn. 

The toll of a tough crown campaign will weaken Mine That Bird’s stride when it’s needed most – and Summer Bird will succumb to the realization that the small, grey Dunkirk is operating on the equine equivalent of cruise control. 

I’m predicting a crowd of 48-thousand.  It’s the 141st running of The Belmont.  When Rachel Alexandra withdrew from the race, it had a negative attendance impact of I’m guessing 15-thousand.  

On a normal Saturday at Belmont Park, the crowd is usually a little less than ten-thousand.  

I gotta work – but I’ll watch the ESPN/ABC broadcast from the job – and I’ll punch a few betting slips before I go in.  All my bets will revolve around a Dunkirk victory. 

6-4-09 1800

A couple of things puzzled me when I heard the first day of news reports on the failure of Air France flight 447 to complete its Monday journey from Rio to Paris. 

First:  How is it possible that a modern jetliner flying a route between two major international cities could simply disappear without an immediate understanding of where and when it went down? 

I simply assumed that a GPS tracking device or some other technology allowed both airlines and aviation authorities to keep tabs on every commercial flight in the air – worldwide – no matter where it was.  A publicly-available web site called Flight Aware (with an assist from FAA computers) does this with a six-minute delay on all commercial flights operating in this country.  Why not worldwide? 

There have been widespread reports that flight 447 lost electrics.  I can’t possibly speculate on the cause, and I’d lean against weather, but it boggles the mind that it took 24 hours to pinpoint wreckage and confirm a crash.   

Additionally, I saw a grim-faced French aviation official speaking pessimistically about finding both the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder.  Those two so-called black boxes will solve this mystery, yet there’s doubt about whether they’ll be recovered.  That’s insane.  Satellite technology can track the most basic movements and data used to gather government intelligence, yet it’s not being used to transmit the data on those boxes in real-time to a land-based device?  The money spent searching for those boxes would be made up and then some by technology that captures that data in the home base of either the air carrier or aviation overseer.  It’s hard to place monetary value on ascertaining what happened here quickly.  It’s critical.  

The investigation into this horrible disaster should at minimum produce mandates that big airliners have black box technology that eliminates the need to find hardware contained within or separated from the doomed airliner.  The technology exists.  In the meantime, you’ve got Airbus A330’s flying all over the world with nagging doubt and questions about what the heck happened.  Those doubts would perhaps be erased if somebody in Paris could simply pull tapes from a big computer linked via satellite to the airplanes Air France operates.  Needle in a haystack is where the search for that data is right now, instead. 

6-2-09 2255

There have been several quickly-reported pieces of news to emerge subsequent to the murder of Dr. George Tiller in a Wichita, KS place of worship. 

The sidebar story that has been especially unsettling is a chronology of the persistent four-year smear campaign of Tiller by Fox News show host Bill O’Reilly. 

Gabriel Winant wrote a piece for Salon.com that documents many of the 29 episodes of O’Reilly’s national cable show “The Factor” in which Tiller is typically described as “Tiller the Baby Killer.”  I’d mention some of the outrageous claims and statements O’Reilly has made on the air about Tiller, but they’re so beyond reasonable I’ll simply just provide the link. 

The public will learn more about the man suspected of murdering Tiller as he faces justice.  He may or may not have been a fan of “The Factor.”  Early indications are that the suspect was troubled and fixed on a mission that didn’t need a talk show for motivation.  Linkage between O’Reilly and the suspect could very well be a stretch.  But O’Reilly’s rhetoric about Tiller was way over the top and appears at minimum to be defamatory and inflammatory.     

Opponents of abortion as allowed by law (it’s legislated differently state-by-state) are certainly entitled to vociferous expression of their feelings.  Effective grass-roots and political maneuvering on both sides of the divisive issue can influence policy.  But elements (including O’Reilly) of the anti-abortion movement can dangerously stoke and provoke an even more un-hinged fringe when they equate the regulated procedure of ending a pregnancy with murder.  Or as O’Reilly has done – with the extermination of Jewish people in the Nazi death camps. 
 
Monday’s Tiller story in the Times said Kansas state law allows abortions at 22 weeks and beyond only if the fetus is considered not viable or the woman faces “substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.”  The most egregious of all the O’Reilly smears on Tiller is a claim by the Fox bully that the doctor performed late-term abortions without meeting the justifications required by law.  O’Reilly pushed the notion that Tiller was a ruthless practitioner of enabling abortions of convenience at late stages of pregnancy.

For more than thirty years, Tiller performed abortions.  Yes.  Anti-choice forces cite the numbers of abortions he performed over a long career without amplification of the agonizing associated factors and choices made inside and outside Tiller’s facility by women before those procedures were done.  Tiller dodged bombs and got shot up before his assassination.  He wouldn’t have continued his practice for so long in a conservative community without adherence to a strong belief in a woman’s right to choose – and a doctor’s duty to make that choice accessible.      

O’Reilly sat in that studio and made careless and inaccurate representations targeting a brave man.  On Monday night, he condemned Tiller’s murder.  Hopefully, O’Reilly will frame future commentaries on abortion with greater attention to accuracy, less on hostile direct attacks on medical professionals doing a job protected by law.

6-2-09 0155

Costco stubbornly resisted for as long as it could, but rising outside pressure from policy-makers and social welfare advocates has forced the company to announce it will accept food stamps at its New York City locations.  The big-box retailer sells family-sized grocery items at good prices but has never accepted food stamps. 
 
In New York, food stamps are redeemed through use of what’s called an “electronic benefits transfer” card.  Each month, government funds are deposited into the eligible cardholder’s account.  At all of my neighborhood grocers or markets, no matter how big or small, customers with EBT cards simply swipe it through a machine at check-out and enter a PIN.  It’s quick and easy and merchants typically don’t bat an eye.  

But Costco has expressed concern that purchases made through use of an EBT card may be cumbersome or potentially damaging to its business.  That’s ridiculous.  Aside from the occasional confusion about which items can be bought with stamps, the process differs little from the customer who buys groceries with a regular credit or debit card.     

In a statement that amounted to whimpering by a cold and insensitive corporate giant, Costco CEO Jim Sinegal seemed to acknowledge that his company was getting heat for its position.  “In the past, we have not been convinced that there was sufficient demand among our membership to justify the expense and possible inefficiencies associated with accepting food stamps.  However, we are mindful that many of our fellow citizens are facing unprecedented economic challenges at this time, and it seemed to us that it was worth reconsidering our position in that light.”

I believe what really happened here is that Costco doesn’t want to blow its incursion into a city that doesn’t take these matters lightly.  Costco is planning to open a location on 116th Street in East Harlem at the end of the year.  The development of the project was aided by millions of dollars in tax-free bonds.  Costco already operates big retail warehouses in Queens and Brooklyn.  Charlie Rangel, Bill Thompson, Eric Gioia and Andrew Cuomo are among the political heavyweights who have turned the screws on Costco so it would discard their discriminatory policy.  No doubt Rangel and Cuomo could have complicated the process of opening the East Harlem store. 

It doesn’t hurt that city pension funds and investment pools hold a ton of Costco stock.  Nothing like the threat of divestiture to wake up the sleepy.   

New York City’s public advocate Betsy Gotbaum says that as of January 2009, there were 32.2 million food stamp recipients nationally.  In New York City, that number is 1.3 million (roughly one in seven New Yorkers).  You have to be income deficient to gain eligibility and the average benefit is roughly $100 a month. 

Whatever its motives, Costco should quit kicking and screaming about food stamps.  Make acceptance of them a national corporate policy.  Food stamps are as good as cash.  Nobody’s asking Costco to waive membership fees.  Nobody is asking Costco for free stuff.  Forget the notion that people with food stamps are a whole lot different than shoppers with cash, credit or debit.  Just let customers slide the card and run the business like it would run otherwise.  Costco is the perfect place for a shopper on a shoestring.  Why not let everybody got a shot at their deals?

5-31-09 0130

I said last week that I’d mention what’s become known as the Yankee Stadium Moat.  It’s a deep and distinct concrete divide that protects those who pay a thousand bucks to sit in the Legends seats from the rest of the fandom. 

There is no water or hungry alligators in the moat.  But the moat is effective in protecting the privileged few inside it from those on the outside, nonetheless.   

To enter the moat, one must have a Legends seat ticket.  After entering through a “private” ballpark entrance and using a “private” ballpark elevator, the Legend as we’ll call them (or inside-the-moater) passes through a steel gate monitored by Yankees security.  Once in the moat, the Legends seat holder is protected and safe from the enemy behind it and can feel extra secure as he/she sinks into his/her padded seat.  The Yankees stress when selling the Legends seat that even the concourse is “private.”  The moat assures that.      

A Legends seat for this Tuesday night’s game with the Rangers is priced at $900 before additional charges.  Few people are shelling out at that number.  Of the 1800 cushioned “suite-style” seats protected by the moat, there’s only about half that number sitting in them on most nights. 

Some of that might be because those with a Legends seat have access to the Legends Suite Club and two Legends Suite “dugout lounges.”  I mean, why watch the game from your thousand-dollar seat a few rows off the field when you can be watching it on television in the lounge.  Heck, the food is “all-inclusive.”  Beers aren’t but that’s ok because if you plunked down a grand for a ballgame you probably have a few bucks left over for brewskis. 

During batting practice, there’s no hope of penetrating the moat by those with seats outside it.  Youngsters seeking a signature from their favorite pinstriper are relegated to a cluster of seats near the foul pole.  Of course, the few people who paid a month’s rent to gain moat access aren’t there for BP (as documented in the picture above – photo caption inserted without the expressed written consent of the Yankees baseball club).  

On television, the protected side of the moat looks lonely and desolate.  The imagery isn’t at all TV friendly.  Yeah, it’s great when Kate Hudson shows up – and the moat really serves its purpose when she’s in the house – but her interest in A-Rod will likely soon wane and she’ll stop going to games.  Plus, the Lakers will be playing into August which will split her time. 

5-28-09 1630

Soon after President Obama announced his Supreme Court pick Tuesday , Tom Robbins of the Voice dug up and wrote about a 1983 Times mag profile of Sonia Sotomayor during her days as a prosecutor in the Manhattan D-A’s office headed by Bob Morgenthau.  In it, Sotomayor discusses conflicting feelings about sending criminals to jail.  To those who will try to sink Sotomayor’s nomination, her quotes will likely be parsed and used against her.  But really, she’s describing the kind of empathy Obama was seeking (“you have to be able to stand in somebody else’s shoes”) as he reviewed potential nominees to replace David Souter. 

Said Sotomayor twenty-five years ago: “No matter how liberal I am, I’m still outraged by crimes of violence.  Regardless of whether I can sympathize with the causes that lead these individuals to do these crimes, the effects are outrageous.  It pains me…when I meet particularly bright defendants – and I’ve met quite a few of them – people who, if they had the right guidance, the right education, the right breaks, could have been contributing members of our society.  When they get convicted, there’s a satisfaction, because they’re doing things that are dangerous.  But there are also nights when I sit back and say, ‘My God, what a waste!’”

Conservatives will stress in the coming weeks that judges should set aside their own passions and beliefs and simply apply and uphold the law.  They will stir fear that Sotomayor will impose her own values as she decides what the law means.  They’ll mock her 2001 statement at the UC Berkeley law school in which Sotomayor said her heritage and upbringing may give her an advantage in applying the law over white men because of the “richness of her experiences.”  (Glenn Beck on Fox News ridiculously called the remarks “racist”) 

Well, to the charge empathy has no place in the search for and nomination of a Supreme Court nominee, I’d simply refer you to the recent Jeffrey Toobin profile of Chief Justice John Roberts.  Toobin lays out numerous on-the-record actions that make it clear Roberts consistently carries the conservative torch.  It’s empathy of a different sort.  “In every major case since he became the nation’s seventeenth Chief Justice, Roberts has sided with the prosecution over the defendant, the state over the condemned, the executive branch over the legislative, and the corporate defendant over the individual plaintiff…Roberts has served the interests, and reflected the values, of the contemporary Republican Party,” writes Toobin. 

And to the right’s claim that Sotomayor will be a liberal judicial activist, I say fine, if that’s how it turns out.  She’s replacing a justice already in the liberal minority on most issues.  The split will remain 5-4.  It’ll stay that way if and until Obama or a democratic successor outlasts Sam Alito or Anthony Kennedy.

The two Bushes stacked the deck.  Obama deservedly gets a chance to shuffle it.  Assuming the leaky vetting that plagued some of the new President’s early executive branch picks has been corrected, this choice should be accepted.         

-Numerous news organizations have reported that Sotomayor grew up in the “shadows of” or “near” Yankee Stadium.  That’s not true, really.  Sotomayor grew up in the Bronxdale Houses at Watson and Rosedale Avenues near the St. Lawrence Ave. stop on the 6 train.  It’s a world away from the ballpark.  To say she grew up in the shadows of Yankee Stadium is to say I live in the shadows of the Empire State Building.        

5-26-09 2130

The simple but straightforward block letter signage adorning the big parking garage in front of LaGuardia Airport’s central terminal building has long been a signature identifier of the busy travel hub. 

In capital printed letters, it simply says “LA GUARDIA AIRPORT.”  A large American flag hangs below it.  The presentation is not spectacular in its beauty but it has always seemed to be a just welcome to an outdated but well-functioning air transportation facility. 

Those using the Grand Central Parkway in either direction get a clear idea they’ve come upon the airport.   The signage is tasteful and seems to blend well with its surroundings. 

Unfortunately, that changed this week when the airport’s operator sullied the identifying signage with tacky advertising banners promoting the upstart air carrier JetBlue.  Two massively-sized vinyl banners have been attached to the garage on both sides of the LaGuardia sign.  The banners carry the typical cutesy and wordy JetBlue message long consistent with their advertising campaign.         

Aside from the fact that those traveling at highway speed on the Grand Central will have no chance to digest the message on the large banners, the ads obscure and destroy the dignity of the simple beacon that welcomed visitors to the airport. 

To the uninitiated, the advertising makes it appear that JetBlue is a major player at LaGuardia.  It’s JetBlue airport, right?  Well no.  JetBlue operates just nine departures a day at LaGuardia.  It’s at JFK that JetBlue runs most of their operation. 

The airport operator is the Port Authority of NY/NJ and you’d hope the agency is getting ridiculous money in exchange for the prime ad space.  Reduced air traffic likely forced the revenue hand.  It’s too bad, because it looks horrible.

-Phil Jackson’s post-game news conferences have always been thoughtful and entertaining, but this post-season the Zen-Master seems more cantankerous than ever as he fields questions – especially after a loss.  ESPN News has become go-to for me after a Lakers loss these last few weeks.  I enjoy watching Phil try to out-wit those who frame questions based on the expectation that the Lakers should never lose.  As it stands now, I think you’re looking at two game sevens with the dream matchup about even-money to become a reality. 

5-26-09 0120

For more than two years now, I’ve been relegated to a work shift that has me on the job until at least midnight on both Saturday and Sunday nights.  It eliminates any shot of experiencing regular weekends with the rest of the citizenry and it occasionally torments me to hear about fun get-togethers enjoyed by others on a Saturday or Sunday.  Football season is especially rough.  And I’ll be bouncing off the walls a week from Saturday when all my pals are at Belmont Park to watch the running of the final leg of the triple crown.   

With the exception of about a five-year period that included Saturday’s off, I’ve had pretty lousy work schedules for most of my working life.  But at least I’ve got a job, I tell myself.  I manage to sneak in plenty of fun on my days off in the middle of the week and I’m allotted generous periods of vacation time. 

I bring all this up because there’s an odd collection of characters that are called to duty at my workplace on the weekends.  They are folks typically with the least amount of seniority and/or the least amount of seriousness about the task at hand.  It’s a rag-tag bunch.  The third-stringers. 

One guy on this weekend crew I describe who stood out as notably different was a guy named Peng Zhang (pronounced Pang Zang).  Peng worked the weekend shift not because he was forced to.  His eighteen years with the company could have put him in a much more desirable work slot.  He worked the airstrip on weekends because he had a job in the financial sector during the week.  Up until last year when Peng’s financial services gig vanished with the banking bust, he juggled two full-time jobs.  One white-collar, one blue-collar. 

The immigrant from China burned it on both ends to help raise kids in the big city.  Peng never really complained about what must have been an exhausting routine of maintaining two full-time jobs.  He simply showed up and did the work.  When he lost the financial job, he revealed little frustration and said he hoped an economic bounce-back would bring back his white-collar gig.  He continued to work with me on the weekends at the airstrip and he did so with great enthusiasm and competence. 

Our conversations usually centered on sports, the stock market or politics.  Peng was especially adept at forecasting market trends and many of his co-workers took cues from him as they managed their 401-K accounts.  When inbound airplanes parked for the night, Peng would often collect the left-over, unused food and drink from the aircraft galleys and distribute it to whoever was near. 

As I recounted here last summer, Peng would sit with me during broadcasts of the 2008 Summer Olympics from Beijing.  He would provide interesting supplementary commentary on the sights shown on TV.  He was clearly proud of the organizational effort made by his native country but didn’t gloss over the problematic human rights issues that swirled over the gathering of the world’s top athletes. 

Best of all from the perspective of my work post, Peng was serious about the job and always seemed to be where he was assigned to be at the time prescribed.  He kept my workplace sane with his seriousness.  He never ducked the physical demands of throwing heavy and cumbersome pieces of luggage regardless of the weather.  When it was cold, he wouldn’t wear a hat.  He laughed at guys who ordered Chinese take-out food for dinner.  He had a strong, sturdy frame and he outworked guys half his age. 

Peng was 52.  He more than deserved to retire in a few years after a long working career.  He should have been able to enjoy life without punching a time clock or answering an alarm buzzer.  But it didn’t go down that way.  He worked his regular night shift a week ago Friday.  He punched out about 12:30 AM Saturday and was due back at the airstrip the next day.  Instead, his sister called the job Saturday morning to say Peng was dead.  Here one day, gone the next.  The family says it was a heart attack.  It probably didn’t help that he smoked like a chimney.  But if you saw the way he threw around luggage, it appeared his blood was pumping pretty good despite the smokes.      

This past Thursday, Peng’s family, friends and co-workers gathered at a Manhattan funeral home on Mulberry Street to pay respects.  Peng’s mother was stricken with uncontrollable grief.  She pounded her cane on the ground as she entered the Chinatown funeral parlor and wailed “no, no, no, no.”  It was about as sad a sight as you’ll ever see.   

The funeral and burial was Friday. 

All the while, workers at the airstrip carried on without him.  But it sure isn’t the same.  For me, he brightened the bleakness of working on the weekends.  He will be remembered by me forever for his reliability, toughness and great companionship.

5-25-09 0144

The sample size is apparently sufficient now for baseball writer Tyler Kepner of the Times to make a blunt declaration about the new ballpark in the Bronx.  In the lead paragraph of his Yankee game story in Saturday’s paper, he used a tag you never would have expected when this season started.   

Said Kepner:  “For $1.5 billion, the Yankees built a bandbox on 161st Street.” 

A bandbox. 

Kepner’s right.  It’s a bandbox.  And the paper of record has now officially dubbed it as such. 

Through the first 22 regular season games at the new Yankee Stadium (included Saturday’s 5-4 Yankee win), there have been 86 home runs.  If the current pace continues (and why wouldn’t it), there will be 317 homers hit over the course of the 81-game home sked.  For comparison’s sake, Kepner points out that just 160 home runs were hit at the old Yankee Stadium in all of 2008.

Both Joe Girardi and Brian Cashman have tried to minimize concern over the ease of going deep in their new home ballpark.  But there’s no way this will be allowed to continue beyond season’s end.  A bandbox might be fine in Philly – or the South side of Chicago – but it won’t be tolerated by the Yankees. 

Re-sizing the outfield dimensions seems difficult, so don’t be surprised if MLB adds its second humidor.  The one used in Denver was fantastically effective in reducing the long ball.  It was added in 2002 after a total of 268 home runs were hit at Coors Field in 2001 (303 were hit there in 1999).  Now, the ballpark is consistently yielding fewer than 200 homers per season.  Last year, there were a tolerable 174 home runs hit at Coors.

I understand that New York’s average relative humidity during the baseball season is well above what it is in Denver, and may reduce the effectiveness of the humidor.  But if you pack enough moisture into the ball, it’s not gonna sail like it would otherwise. 

I am going to go a step further than Kepner with a bold declaration of my own.  I’ll say right now that 2010 will bring custom manipulation to the baseballs used at Yankee Stadium.  The dimensions will stay the same.  The baseballs will not.

5-24-09 0119

The two baseball teams in this town will only get to build a new stadium once or twice each century.  It’s just coincidence that both the Yanks and Mets opened a new building in the same year, but it provides the baseball fan the chance to compare them. 

In my opinion, the Yanks did a better job with their twice-a-century opportunity.  

With one visit to see a ballgame at each new ballpark now under my belt, I can say that the baseball cathedral at 161st and River absolutely takes your breath away while the comparatively modest ballpark in Flushing leaves you short of that same feeling.  The difference in quality certainly isn’t enough to switch baseball loyalty, but it always seems to be the Yankees that have a clear edge in execution on matters such as these.  

Whereas the transition from Shea to Citi dished the Met fan a jarring (albeit mostly positive) change in the baseball experience, the new Yankee home gives its loyalists a massive upgrade in amenities without sacrificing the profound and important feeling that you’re surrounded by the ghosts of Ruth, Mantle and Jackson. 

When I left the game down an escalator from the main level to the exits leading from the Great Hall to Babe Ruth Plaza, a bank of lights shined on massive banner depictions of Yankee greats. 

The white, wooden fence façade on the upper edge of the building matches the look of the old stadium as do the blue seats.  They took what worked and made it all better.  They took out the steepness of the climbs in the upper reaches and went crazy with the concourse widths.  The 360-degree access regardless of ticket type is true – although one must pass through a tunnel (without a view of the playing surface) in left field to reach the bleachers.       

You look at the place from the outside and it’s a palace.  It looks especially good at night.  Yeah, I’m aware of the broken promises to the community as it relates to restoration of public park land, but that will likely get corrected.  The interaction of urban landscape – the hustle and bustle – the bars – a commuter rail line with a new station – two major express subway lines – well, it really works. 

I bought a bleacher seat on Stub Hub for nine bucks a few hours before the game.  With side charges, it was about twenty bucks to get in.  I started in the bleachers and proceeded to roam in search of different vantage points before settling into a “main” level seat in section 224.  It was just above the third base bag.  There were pockets of empty seats waiting to be poached and the ushers don’t seem too vigilant about checking stubs.

The food hasn’t been hyped as much as the offerings at Citi, but there are plenty of great options.  I got a $12 chicken parm hero from Mike’s Deli in the food court.  What’s really cool about the food court is a display of Yankee greats showing pictures of them eating.  (the picture of George above made me laugh).  The most popular food item appears to be the sliced steak sandwich ($15) served on the field level along the third base side.

Beer is pricey and it took me a while to understand where the value was.  They sell sixteen-ounce plastic bottles of domestic beer for nine bucks.  But they also have plenty of stands selling 24-ounce “souvenir” cups of suds for $10.  That same cup can be filled with a Heineken or Peroni for $11.  When I got home from the game, I measured the volume of the cup to verify that it was indeed 24-ounces and it was.  If you’re going to the game, you gotta get the plastic cup. 

Unlike the old Stadium, you can drink beer in the bleachers.  For me, that’s the place I’ll end up when I go to Yankee games.  The view is much better than it was at the old Stadium and it’s a fun, young crowd (mixed with the older creature crowd in right.)  If you’re pressed up against the ill-conceived Mohegan Sun sports bar, you’re forced to rely on monitors to cover the blind spots but it’s not a huge deal. 

The view of the 4 train isn’t the same as it was in the old place but you can still get a glimpse of it through an opening in right field. 

I tried to get a handle on the “wind-tunnel” theory people are using to explain all the home runs to right and I’m not sure it makes sense.  The height of the structure is such that it would seem to blunt wind impact when it’s blowing out to right.  On Tuesday night, the wind was blowing right to left but could barely be felt in the bleachers. 

The main high-def video board in center field is the biggest and nicest I’ve ever seen. 

The bathrooms were fine.  I never had to wait more than a minute.  The urinals are too widely-spaced and the faucets produce nothing but cold water, but it’s still a major upgrade from the bathrooms across the street.

The most glaring mistake in the place is what’s being called “the moat.”  I’ll talk about the mote at length in another post here in a few days. 

Attendance was announced at 42,838 Tuesday night, about ten-thousand shy of capacity.  It felt nearly full to me but the way the place is built, another ten grand would fit in just fine without causing a feeling of being cramped. 

The MTA had D trains lined up to whisk the crowd away after it was over.  I got home in about forty minutes.  

5-20-09 1515

It was a ridiculously nice day in New York Tuesday.  I had the day off with little on the docket so I decided to make my first trip to the new ballpark in the Bronx. 

I’ll write more tomorrow, but for now I’ll say that the new Yankee home is decisively better than the one the Mets have opened in Flushing. 

I sat with the creatures and did the roll call.  What a great experience that was.  I gave the place a couple of laps and feel like I only covered half there is to see.  It’s amazing.  A-Rod hit an A-Bomb and Tex sent a text message.  The Yanks won their seventh in a row.

5-20-09 0030

The prestigious restaurant review slot in the New York Times Dining and Wine section is changing hands.  It was announced last week that Frank Bruni is leaving his beat sometime this year.  Bruni has written the main weekly restaurant review in the Times for the last five years.  No replacement was named. 

Bruni has been must-read during his run and he’s helped uphold a tradition of Times food section excellence.  During my time here in New York, I’ve had the pleasure of reading many great Times food writers including Eric Asimov, Peter Meehan, Ruth Reichl. Johnny Apple, Amanda Hesser and William Grimes. 

My pal Bill is a high-level staffer at a Manhattan restaurant group and a former chef at a popular, well-regarded restaurant.  I asked him for his reaction to Bruni’s departure.  His response appears below.

I think he has been good.  Better than Grimes, not as good as Ruth.  I like how he has championed casual dining while giving props to fine dining places that deserve it.  I think he wrote more deserved takedowns than others in recent memory. 
 
Honestly, the impact of this position is not what it was when Ruth held it.  The combination of internet, foodblogs, chowhound, yelp, etc etc have diluted the impact.  But Frank was a good fit for his era.

Now the question is:  Who replaces Bruni?  One of the intriguing possibilities being floated on food blogs is Jonathan Gold, who writes really great reviews for LA Weekly.  Gold won a Pulitzer in 2005 and has a nose for the underappreciated, off-the-avenue type places.

5-19-09 0145

A new policy banning patrons from bringing coolers full of beer into the infield produced a shocking drop in attendance at this year’s Preakness Stakes in Baltimore. 

For the better part of the last decade, attendance at Pimlico for the second leg of the triple crown was solid six figures.  Last year, 112,222 filed in for undefeated Big Brown’s five length win.  With arguably the same racing intrigue on tap this year, just 77,580 showed up on a day that was warm and mostly rain-free. 

What gives? 

Most of the drop-off has to be explained by the new, no carry-in policy enacted to reduce extreme drunkenness in the infield.  It’s become tradition for many of the region’s cooler-toting college kids to make a day of it in the Preakness infield.  Track officials adhered to an anything-goes approach and consistently got an infield packed with young people. 

This year, patrons who wanted to drink beer in the infield had to buy it inside.  Overhead television shots of the facility showed large pockets of empty space in the grassy infield.  Clearly, the kids took the party elsewhere.  Whether the racing establishment misses them is unclear. 

I believe racing ought to get people through the gates first – and then worry about whether they gamble or not.  Get ‘em to the track and the gambling side of it often takes care of itself. 

In this case, you’re dealing with the complicated side issue of binge drinking.  The Preakness took a stand – and perhaps was motivated by capturing a larger slice of revenue from beer sales – but got a pretty big boycott in return.      

As for the race itself, what can you say?  The filly met high expectations with a wire-to-wire win that started with a wide trip around the first turn.  She was forced to dig deep in the final yards to fend off the Derby winner.  It was a dramatic and memorable minute and fifty-five.
  
Now, the only way it would make sense for Rachel Alexandra to run in the Belmont Stakes would be if she was running for a triple crown.  She’s not, so she ought to take a break.  I’d expect her new connections will announce as much in the next few days. 

For Rachel to be asked to run the grueling mile and a half Belmont Stakes distance after two big wins in five weeks – well – that’s asking a lot.  If she was running for the triple crown, you’d have to give her a shot, but the horse has demonstrated enough brilliance for now.   

Yes, her legacy would be elevated with a Belmont win, but now is the time to protect her so she can continue performing in big races later this year and beyond.    

Rachel’s new owner Jess Jackson proved his point.  He bought the filly after her beautiful 20-length Oaks Day win knowing she was better than the boys.  Jackson did what Rachel’s previous owner refused to do.  He let her run against the boys – and he let her demonstrate that she’s the best three-year-old in America (boy or girl). 

If Jackson wants Rachel to continue competing against the best male horses in this country, he should wait until August when some of the best three-year-old colts compete at Saratoga.  Don’t push the envelope with such a special animal. 

True racing fans will completely understand if Rachel takes a break.  They’ll look forward to a fresh Rachel romping in big races this fall.  Maybe we’ll get a head-to-head matchup between Rachel and the great, undefeated five-year-old mare Zenyatta.  It’s not clear where or when that might be happen, but Jackson is the kind of owner who recognizes the logical showcase spots on the racing calendar.     
  
I guess the only disappointment in all of this Rachel excitement is that she didn’t run in the Derby.  With a clean trip, she likely would have beaten Mine That Bird on the first Saturday in May.  Had she run in the Derby, we might be looking at a legitimate and fully embraceable triple crown shot.  We’ll never know.  

5-18-09 0145

I’m now getting three mailings per week on average from the re-election campaign of New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg.  The semi-glossy brochures remind the recipient of the “tough economic times” and of Mayor Mike’s “strong, independent leadership.” 

The mayor’s television commercials are on constantly – especially during Met and Yankee broadcasts.   

Campaign finance records show that Bloomberg’s campaign spent $15.7 million during the two month period ending May 11.  That’s a ton of money in a short amount of time for a guy who has already all but sewn up a third-term.  But hey, to Bloomberg the two-month sum is just a small sliver of his massive personal fortune.  Bloomberg isn’t waiting for the run-up to the November election to blast the airwaves.  He’s doing it now.  Bloomberg has chosen a shock and awe strategy that likely demoralizes his potential democratic opponents Bill Thompson and Anthony Weiner.   

Bloomberg mentions no political affiliation on his brochures or commercials.  He officially changed his registration from republican to independent in June 2007.  He was elected mayor as a republican in 2001 but was registered as a democrat before that.  Based on his body of work as mayor of this city, Mayor Mike’s current political affiliation is probably most appropriate.  He’s an independent.  His extreme wealth (net worth estimated to be $16 billion) makes it easy for him to be politically pragmatic and free of some of the burdens of political affiliation.  Most of his non-fiscal decisions are shaped by the majority view of city residents.    

Mayor Mike bought his way into the job.  He’s buying the retention of it.  Yet, all his dough (and his “independence”) actually allows him to avoid at least the perception of conflict that bedevils many politicians in these parts.  Yeah, it helps that he’s deft at avoiding controversy and rides the subway to work.  He seems to have sharper department heads than Giuliani and keeps an even keel publicly.  I’m ok with the guy.  I’d prefer a true liberal democrat with strong ties to one of the outerboroughs – and I’ve never voted for Mayor Mike – but I’ll take his last eight years. 

What I don’t like is that Bloomberg torpedoed a city law limiting NYC mayors to two terms.  Bloomberg thinks he’s such a special mayor that he had the law changed to extend his career by four more years.  The term limit law he got overturned (with the help of the city council) was twice approved by NYC voters.

On that fact alone, I’ll vote against Bloomberg again this time around.  It won’t matter.  Mayor Mike is coming back and city voters are getting plenty of reminders of that in their mailboxes.  

5-18-09 0055

When the controversial author James Frey was introduced at a Wednesday night reading in Manhattan to promote the paperback release of his excellent novel Bright Shiny Morning, he took the stage and punched the live public address microphone with the back of his hand. 

It was a sound check.  It produced a loud boom.  And it’s the kind of thing I guess you’d expect from an author who likes to create loud booms. 

Frey’s next book is halfway done and there will probably be a boom when it comes out.  Frey says he’s writing “the third book of the Bible” starring a tolerant Messiah living in New York City.  He hopes it will be “a cool book that will get me in a lot of trouble” and one that “hasn’t been written before.”

I loved Bright Shiny Morning and look forward to Frey’s next effort.  On the fourth floor of a chain book store off Union Square, Frey read a passage added to the Bright Shiny paperback.  About 150 people were there to see Frey.  The new section of the book includes a third-person depiction of a 2006 Oprah Winfrey appearance in which Frey was scolded by the talk show host for revelations that Frey fabricated parts of his memoir A Million Little Pieces.  The passage seems to suggest that the real-life Frey is sitting on audio recordings of Oprah later disclosing serious personal mistakes of her own during an “apology” call to Frey.

Frey was skewered as a fraud for his truth-stretching memoir.  Oprah hammered him especially hard because she loved the book and made it one of her book club picks. 

A Gawker reporter at the reading Wednesday night asked Frey about the existence of tapes.  Frey wouldn’t confirm or deny holding tapes, but said Oprah did indeed call him to apologize.  Reuters is reporting that a rep for Oprah confirmed the call and apology. 

Frey said a couple of times that he would answer any and all questions no matter how long it took.  But a bookstore employee controlling the event rushed to limit inquiries so that Frey could sit down and sign copies of the book.   

Prior to Frey’s appearance, the former rock and roller Tony O’Neill (one-time touring keyboard player in Kenickie and a stint in the band Southpaw) read from his book Down and Out on Murder Mile.  It’s a novel, but it’s based on O’Neill’s struggles to kick a wicked heroin addiction in a rough neighborhood in London.  O’Neill slurped a large vodka/orange juice drink from a plastic cup and captivated the audience as he recited a passage about a man’s attempt to gain a counter job at a porn shop.  After he was done reading, a member of the audience asked O’Neill about how he gained “recovery” from the needle.  He scoffed at use of the word “recovery” as it’s advanced by Dr. Drew and the twelve-step crowd.  O’Neill credited the use of marijuana and ecstasy to transition away from the harder, injected substances that pushed him to the brink of uselessness.  O’Neill appeared healthy and happy and there’s no doubt his earlier life as a musician gives him the flair to perform on the stage he had Wednesday night.     

After the reading, I went over to Heather’s Bar in the East Village to see the great Deadheat DJ duo blend a soundtrack fit for the tipping of cold beer.  Deadheat does regular performances in the city and told me they have again been invited back to do their thing at the big Siren Festival on Coney Island in July.

5-14-09 1910

The three-day NTSB hearing on the Colgan Air flight that went down outside Buffalo in February started Tuesday and included release of a detailed transcript of the cockpit voice recorder. 

The transcript is one of dozens of pieces of evidence being examined and discussed as part of the investigation into why Continental Connection flight 3407 suddenly nose-dived into a home below the approach path, killing all 49 people on board plus one in the house. 

Before Tuesday’s start of the NTSB hearings, there had been plenty of speculation and leaks (much of it funneled through reports in the Wall Street Journal) on why the crash occurred.  The leading theory from information gathered by NTSB investigators is that the flight’s captain Marvin Renslow improperly attempted to raise the plane’s nose after a mechanism in the cockpit warned of a “stall” or an aerodynamic condition that inhibits the plane’s ability to fly.  Rather than point the nose up, aviation experts say pilots should react to an impending stall or actual stall by pointing the nose down to gain greater airspeed and a quick resumption of “lift.”  In fairness, Renslow isn’t here to explain his actions.  But the NTSB probe to date suggests a recovery from the stall was very much possible had Renslow reacted properly to the problem. 

That raises the issue of training and pilot competence – and the NTSB hearing agenda includes hours and hours devoted to those subjects.  The Journal reported Monday that Renslow had flunked multiple “check rides” or flights in which he was monitored by an experienced training pilot. 

From the perspective of the victim’s families, I’d expect deep anger and outrage if they choose to read the 63-page transcript of the conversation between Renslow and first officer Rebecca Shaw during the flight.  Entered into the NTSB hearing’s public record as Exhibit 12-A (and available for review in PDF form on the Journal’s web site), the document puts into written word the entire (excluding expletives) conversation in the cockpit from takeoff clearance to a few moments before the plane was engulfed in flames.

It reveals not a professional and business-like approach to the serious nature of commercial flight in difficult weather conditions.  Rather, it paints a picture that makes one think the pilots believed the plane was basically flying itself.  Renslow and Shaw carried on as if the cockpit was a place to pass time by getting to know each other – and commiserate about career trials and tribulations.    

Of course, the tone and substance of conversations like the one between Renslow and Shaw in this instance likely happens in commercial airline cockpits every day.  Transcripts never see the light of day because the voice recorder is never pulled and the tape starts anew when the next flight begins. 

But that is of no comfort to those impacted by this crash.  They will read this transcript and likely will be unhappy with several sequences that reflect a lack of full concentration on the task at hand. 

After the plane takes off at 9:18 PM on Feb. 12, Renslow spends much of the first twenty minutes telling Shaw about prior maintenance issues he’s had on earlier flights including one in which he was getting a false smoke alarm indication while en route to Alexandria, LA.   Renslow was flying the Saab 340 at the time and he told Shaw he was directed by a Colgan dispatcher to continue flying to Alexandria where the smoke detector would be fixed overnight.  “Of course, after that day we all went to the steakhouse.  We ate steak, baked potato and drank a messload of beer,” said Renslow.    

Shaw subsequently laughed when she recounted flying with newer pilots who manipulated the rudder to “fling the plane back and forth” such that it would “knock the flight attendants down in the back.”    

At 9:45 PM, the conversation turned to each of the pilot’s career paths.  Renslow (age 47) told Shaw he had previously taken a (buyout) “package” from Verizon and was unsure if he wanted to move on to one of the major airlines if given the opportunity.  “I don’t have to make $200-thousand a year or $150-thousand a year, whatever.  I can certainly be comfortable on $100-thousand,” said Renslow.  At about this time, an air traffic controller at Cleveland Center came on the frequency being monitored by Renslow and Shaw.  The controller cleared Southwest flight 615 “direct” to Buffalo’s airport. 

Shaw: “That us?”

Renslow: “Nope.” 

Shaw: “I didn’t think so. (laughs)  I just heard direct Buffalo.”

Shortly thereafter, Shaw resumes the discussion about career path.  “I have goals but I have such a wide range of goals I don’t know exactly what I want.” 

At this point, the flight was down to its final fifteen minutes and Renslow went back to reminiscing about a time earlier in his relatively short flying career when much of his flying was in the south.  “Down in Houston, you’re more spread out.  The flying is a whole lot nicer down there.  The controllers are a whole lot nicer.”

At 10:10 PM, Shaw observes ice on the windshield.  Renslow says it’s the most ice he’s seen in a long time and Shaw responds by saying she has little experience in such conditions.  Amazingly, the cockpit conversation again turns back to promotions and career aspirations before Shaw makes a disconcerting remark about icing.  “I’ve never seen icing conditions.  I’ve never deiced.  I’ve never experienced any of that.  I don’t want to experience that…I’d have freaked out…and thought oh my gosh we were going to crash.”  Shaw mixes verb tenses so it’s unclear if she means that her trepidation is in the present tense – or came earlier.  She later says she’d like to fly as a first officer for a full winter’s season to gain experience in inclement weather before advancing to captain.       

At 10:16 PM, the stall warning comes and in less than thirty seconds the plane is on the ground.  Just before it hits, Renslow says:  “We’re down.” 

Obviously, the two pilots had no idea their conversation would ever be heard.  Their decision to mix personal with business may not be an aberration from standard conduct.  But it has to hurt those who lost loved ones to know that those occupying the cockpit lacked total focus on the task at hand.  The weather was horrible that day in the New York area and less than ideal in Buffalo.  It should have prompted a heightened seriousness.  Ultimately, if it’s decided by the NTSB that Renslow blew his response to the stall, the light will shine most bright on training.  But it seems likely that the NTSB may ask the FAA to toughen its rules and/or enforcement on cockpit chit-chat.  Pilots vehemently oppose monitoring of inside cockpit conversations by outside sources – and I can understand why.  But the Renslow/Shaw transcript may prompt a change.   

Much to my surprise, there was no continuous television coverage of Tuesday’s hearing.  I can understand that the cable news networks are more interested in the Trump/Miss California news conference and items of the like, but I expected one of C-Span’s three channels to carry the event.  Since C-Span failed on that count, I relied on the NTSB’s webcast which provided decent video/audio once one was able to access their web site (likely burdened by heavy traffic). 

-The Post’s horse racing columnist Ray Kerrison added another ridiculous piece to his scrapbook of lousy columns Tuesday, arguing that Calvin Borel is a “sellout” for choosing to ride Rachel Alexandra rather than Derby winner Mine That Bird in the Preakness Saturday.  “Opportunism won the day. Borel has effectively devalued the horse that won him the Kentucky Derby, leaving a bad taste in the mouth,” said Kerrison.  Wrong.  Borel knows Rachel is the better horse.  He had a difficult decision but must do what’s best for him.  He’s had his rib cage crushed riding horses and knows a jockey’s career could end at anytime.  Nobody should call a jockey a “sellout” for choosing the horse he believes has a better chance of winning.   

-Another great picture has turned up at Joseph Holmes’ photo blog.  This one perfectly captures the artistry of Brooklyn pizza maker Dom DeMarco.  

-Montclair Mike made his first visit to Citi Field Monday for the Santana/Lowe matchup.  He wrote an excellent review of the ballpark and TSR thanks him for allowing it to be re-printed.  It appears below.

I love ballparks. As a kid I had not one but three books detailing all the big league ballparks and I wore out all three with dozens of readings. For me, going to a new ballpark for the first time is more exciting than the game itself, so I approached my first visit to Citi Field with real excitement. I was not disappointed.

If you take the 7 train to Citi, the approach to the ballpark is a treat. The staircase from the tracks to the street level is covered by an awning, so as you descend you can't see the park. Then when you hit the sidewalk it's as if a curtain has been pulled back and you suddenly have a perfect view of the rotunda. The staircase has obviously been situated to maximize this effect and it really works. It's a great introduction.

The "Fan Walk" outside the rotunda is inspired. As you may know, thousands of fans have bought personalized bricks with their own brief inscriptions.

The Fan Walk is like a more formal (and monetized) version of the inscriptions that fans write on the finish line at NASCAR races. Yes, it's a way for the team to squeeze even more money out of its fans, but collectively the inscriptions create a strong feeling that there's a lively community of Mets fans that you're about to join just by walking onto the grounds. Really, every team should just steal this idea.

The Jackie Robinson rotunda may be the feature of Citi Field that has attracted the most notice, but it was one of the few elements of the ballpark that left me disappointed. The huge empty archways make it feel unfinished and it has a museum-like quality that's almost sterile. It would really benefit from some music; just a simple brass band or a live organ would make it much more welcoming. All that said, I appreciated the effort to honor Robinson, and when you think of the millions of kids who will read Robinson's quote - "A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives" - as they enter and exit the park, well, you can't be too critical.

The concourses throughout the park are exceptionally roomy, which is welcome anywhere but especially in claustrophobic New York. After a typical day in Midtown just walking around Citi Field is soothing. The centerfield plaza has quickly become very popular and it's easy to see why. It's as good a communal space as exists anywhere in baseball. The significance of the replica bridge between the right field corner and the centerfield plaza is unclear to me. It looks like the Kosciuszko Bridge, which hardly qualifies as an NYC landmark. Nonetheless, when you walk across the bridge into the centerfield plaza you definitely get a feeling that you're entering something, and the whole area seems to already have a fun and unique character.

The much-discussed food and drink selections live up to their considerable hype. In my opinion, the concessions at Citi Field don't quite measure up to San Francisco's AT&T Park - the gold standard with their incredible selection of Napa wines by the glass - but they're better than any other park I've been to. The centerfield beer stand with its amazing selection of 27 bottled beers is enough to make a guy like me downright giddy. I don't think it's slighting Queens at all to say that Citi Field may be one of the 50 best places to eat in Queens (compared to, say, Madison Square Garden, which is clearly not one of the 1000 best places to eat in Manhattan).

I was already a fan of Citi Field by the time I made my way up to the upper levels, but the 300 level - or Excelsior level - really delivered the knockout blow. Most of the sections on this level are part of the "Caesars Club" and for most games they carry a price tag of over $100, which is admittedly steep for regular season baseball. If you can afford the seats it's a tremendous area. The concourse ceilings are lined with bare light bulbs, like you would see at a church fair. The standing room views are excellent and if you stand there's a little shelf behind the last row of seats for your food and drink.

There's a horseshoe bar in the concourse on each baseline. I sat at the bar on the third base side, ordered a Knob on the rocks and enjoyed the view of the game to my right and a panorama of the setting sun behind midtown in the distance to the left. Fantastic. Behind home plate there is an enormous bar and lounge area with leather chairs and couches and plenty of flat-screen TVs. I'm not sure if this area really works. It feels like something you'd find in a casino, and although it's comfortable it doesn't really say ballpark and it doesn't really say luxury either. Still, considering Citi Field is just as breezy as Shea was, it's a decent place to duck out of the cold for a half-inning. Overall, the 300 level at Citi is the best non-field level seating I've ever seen. They've taken a whole ring of good-not-great seats and turned them into something pretty special.

The collapse of Citigroup may actually be a small blessing for Mets fans, as the Citi signage is not as obnoxious as it might otherwise have been. I had mixed feelings about the advertising at Citi. The outfield walls are garish with advertising and just looking out there is an assault on the eyes. From foul pole to foul pole, however, Citi Field is remarkably clean and when your attention is on the infield - which it usually is - there is hardly any advertising intrusion at all.

As far as how the park affects the game itself, I didn't learn anything from this one game that you couldn't have already learned from watching the Mets on TV. Personally I like that the park plays big. It's a pitcher's park but a fair one, sort of like Dodger Stadium. I like the contrast between Citi Field and the bandbox Citizens Bank Park in Philly. It sets up the possibility of a rivalry with a sharp contrast in roster make-up for many years to come. The way the outfield wall slants toward the poles is not as distracting in person as it is on TV, but I still don't really care for it. It's excessively gimmicky in a park that already has plenty of distinguishing elements.

Citi Field is not without its issues, but for the most part they're fixable. The rotunda can be improved. I can see where longtime Mets fans might feel that there's not enough in the park that makes you feel like this is the home of the New York Mets. That's an easy fix. You can always add memorabilia cases or add more orange and blue. They got the big things right.

More problematic is the pricing. The Mets have been lucky to get something of a free pass on pricing in the papers because the Yankees new pricing has been so shocking, but the fact remains that there are a lot of empty seats around home plate at Citi (and this on a pleasant night with Santana pitching and the team riding a seven game win streak). JT complained about the divide between the haves and have-nots and I agree to a point. For the most part Citi Field is a welcoming place and I got the (completely unscientific) feeling that fans were more excited by what they had access to than they were bummed out by what they didn't. The overall fan vibe was very positive - never a given when talking about Mets fans - so they must be getting a lot of things right. Still, those empty, high-priced seats are impossible to ignore, and it may not be until next year when those seats are re-valued that Citi Field can reach its full potential.

Leaving the park it seemed to me that the exterior looked even better at night. The red brick façade, darkened arches, and clean sightlines down the baselines make the building look dramatic. It made me think ahead to autumn and the days getting shorter. It's going to look amazing in October.

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