Mariano Rivera sits down with ESPN for its "Sunday Conversation" this weekend.
On Bosox closer Jonathan Papelbon saying he'd be open to pitching for the Yankees (or any other team) when his contract expires:
“If he wants to do that, he’ll have to wait for me to retire. You know, then I think he has a shot at that. Besides that, he don’t have a shot at that.”
Joe Torre's "The Yankee Years" remained on the bestseller list for quite a while.
Less so "A-Rod," a book that ran head-first in both A-Rod fatigue and steroids fatigue, and which also suffered from the frenzied speculation over juicy stuff that turned out not to be there.
Well, Super Tuesday in the sports world certainly lived up to its billing, at least with three of the four big games
Only the Yankees-Bosox tilt was a flop, which could make for a very interesting race in our contest to guess the ratings order of the four games.
The Yanks were the heavy favorites, but a blowout there and an exciting game at Citi Field could make for a closer race than expected.
It was a long, strange night overall. SNY's Keith Hernandez at one point got so excited he initially referred to the Yankees' Mariano Rivera by calling him Mario Revano.
In Pittsburgh, NBC offered excellent replays of the Pens' (and Syosset's!) Rob Scuderi making three saves in the final 20 seconds. He's not a goaltender, by the way.
In Orlando, ABC's Jeff Van Gundy admitted he'd rather be pacing in the hallway than actually watching his brother's team try to hold on against the Lakers.
Fun.
Other than the announcement of our ratings contest winner later . . . there will be little or no blogging on this day.
Enjoy our other fine Newsday sports blogs.
Can't wait to find out which star golfer Baumbach tracks down at Bethpage Black today.
Photo: Getty
Accuweather weighs in on the Yankee Stadium launching pad issue here, attributing the phenomenon more to the building than the wind and other weather factors.
Red Sox ratings on NESN got off to a slow start thanks to competition from the Celtics and Bruins and a bunch of West Coast games, but they are nearly back to their normal, astronomical level.
The Sox' average game rating is 8.92 percent of homes in the Boston area, down 6.8 percent from 9.57 at this point last season.
(The '09 number will rise this week with the Bronx Bombers in town.)
Red Sox games regularly attract a higher percentage of the Boston market than what the Yankees and Mets average combined in New York.
Photo: AP
I wrote some stuff for the Tuesday newspaper about the ticket availability for the Subway Series here, and here about Tiger Woods practicing at Bethpage Monday, the big national and New York sports night upcoming Tuesday, and media-related observations from the French Open, the Belmont and the NBA Finals.
Photo: AP
As of 2:30 p.m. Monday, if you and three buddies wanted to attend the Mets-Yankees series in the Bronx this weekend, you could have purchased four tickets to each game through the Yankees' Web site for $900 (plus a $23.45 "convenience charge") per ticket.
That's a total of a mere $11,081.14, food included.
Go for it!
UPDATE: I just checked back and actually you could go with nine buddies for $900 per either Friday or Sunday. The best ticket available for a group of 10 for Saturday's game was $525.
All three games had blocks of 10 available at $375 per, plus $12.45 "convenience charge."
What would you have said a year ago if I had told you blocks of 10 seats could be had five days in advance for the first Mets-Yankees series at the new stadium?
You'd have said this: impossible.
(The ticket search engine FanSnap.com lists numerous tickets in numerous locations at numerous price points.)
Photo: AP
ESPN's resident Bostonian, Peter Gammons, said here on "Mike & Mike in the Morning" that the new Yankee Stadium is poorly conceived and widely ridiculed. (It's about eight minutes in.)
"I'm tired of people saying, 'It's too early; we don't have enough games,'" he said.
"We have enough games. We know this was not a very well-planned ballpark, and any player that's played there will tell you it has become one of the biggest jokes in baseball."
And that was Friday, BEFORE Alex Rodriguez tied Saturday's tilt against the Phillies with a fly ball that barely cleared the rightfield wall.
Fair enough.
Then again, there was that fly ball by the Mets' Omir Santos later Saturday that barely cleared the shallow, gimmicky green thing at Gammons' beloved Fenway. What a not-very-well-planned joke that place is!
A source close to Nick Swisher - seriously! - informed me after my post the other day about John Sterling seemingly inventing the nickname "Swishilisious" that in fact Nick has been called "Swishalicious" since his days in Oakland.
Regardless, I like it!
I hit for the cycle Thursday night, by the way . . . thanks to a couple of somewhat generous scoring decisions.
Post suggestions below for a John Sterling home run call for me.
Not "Bestalicious."
Photo: AP
The primary element of my Friday column concerns one Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees and his media makeover since returning this season.
A-Rod clearly has been studying at the Derek Jeter School for the Chronically Careful (Eli Manning, headmaster).
Not that there's necessarily anything wrong with that . . .
Photo: AP
This is weird:
I looked up the word "swishilicious," which John Sterling seemed to invent during Wednesday's Yankees game to honor a Nick Swisher tater, but it turns out it already existed.
It says so here.
Gotta go now. No blogging 'til later, or maybe not 'til Tuesday.
To keep you occupied, please provide nominations (and explanations) for ESPN's new ombudsman to replace Le Anne Schreiber.
Most creative wins Friday comment contest.
My nomination: Jon Gruden, who has not always been a fan of the Bristol Stompers.
Photo: Getty
Joba Chamberlain was one of the celebrity guests at ESPN's upfront presentation to advertisers Tuesday. Some of what he said:
Steve Levy: "As a pitcher what's going on out there in the Bronx [with so many home runs at the new stadium]?"
Chamberlain: "We're not making great pitches all the time, first of all. As a guy who sees all the balls go out there you try to make an adjustment, but you can't really worry about it. Other than needing a GPS to find out where the field is every once in a while, we'll get it figured out."
Levy: "We were talking about the clubhouse in the back there, and you were talking about how you need like a half inning to get a refreshment."
Chamberlain: "Yeah, if I have to go get a hot chocolate on a cool day, I have to tell somebody, because they might start looking for me because I might make a wrong turn."
Levy: "Can you hit, by the way?"
Chamberlain: "Yeah, we actually took pitchers' BP yesterday and I was peppering the walls. I felt pretty strong. After watching those guys throw about 95 I'm pretty sure I'm going to stick to the other end of that."
Levy: "So, warning track power?"
Chamberlain: "No, I got a couple over. I hit the weight room every once in a while."
Levy asked Chamberlain for his preference between starting and relieving.
Chamberlain: "Well, this is the first time I've heard this question. [Laughter.] You know what, they are two different mentalities. As a starter you have to pace yourself and the fact you're going to go seven innings. But my mentality is I like to embarrass people for one inning, but I really like to embarrass them for six or seven. So I'm going to stick to the starting part of it."
Photo: AP
I have not listened to this week's Deadspin podcast, featuring Selena Roberts, but based on this summary on the site, it certainly sounds intriguing.
Roberts reacts to some of her most vocal critics quite candidly.
(Parental warning: There are some naughty words in the link above.)
More juicy Selena stuff here, in which she and The New York Times reportedly have not seen eye-to-eye.
The Yankees Thursday announced new procedures for batting practice that will allow fans without tickets near the field to get close to it - but not in the Legends Suite.
The Yankees' policy is now similar to the Mets'. As several readers informed me after I joined the media chorus complaining about the lack of access to the Legends Suite during BP, fans mostly just wanted any area where they could get close to the field. Now they have it.
I wasn't that big on autographs as a kid, and I'm still not.
Once I asked Bonnie Bernstein to autograph something at the Super Bowl because as a child she studied at the gymnastics academy my daughter was attending at the time.
By the way, Bernstein's contract with ESPN is up in July. I talked to her agent, Tony Burton, who said nothing is definitive either way regarding her future at the network.
Photo: Getty
Legends Suite seats empty again, this time for . . . NYU graduation?.
Pete Rose, appearing on Dan Patrick's show, said he would vote for Alex Rodriguez for the Hall of Fame, and that the recent allegation that A-Rod tipped pitches in the early 2000s is a "farce."
Also from Patrick, an interview with Isiah Thomas in which the former Knicks coach bluntly describes how bummed out he was to flop in New York.
Click below for an interesting transcript of part of that interview, courtesy SportsRadioInterviews.com.
Continue reading "Pete Rose supports A-Rod, Isiah sorry for Knicks flop" »
I promised after writing that column the other day about the secondary ticket market that I'd have related tidbits later in the week. Such as . . .
Through Monday, here are some teams with noteworthy drops in the average resale price of tickets on StubHub compared to this point last year:
Yankees, $84 to $79.
Red Sox, $113 to $94.
Phillies, $68 to $61.
Astros, $71 to $57.
Nationals, $69 to $56.
Diamondbacks, $54 to $43.
Pirates, $54 to $37.
The one that shocked me was the Rays, from $70 to $44. How is that possible after the season they had in '08?
I am told there is so much more interest and activity and availability on the Rays ticket market the effect has been a slide in resale prices. Interesting.
(Mets tickets are up slightly, $70 to $72.)
Photo: Getty
OK, one last post on this:
In fairness I wanted to offer a complete transcript of the brief exchange at Yankee Stadium Tuesday between a small group of reporters and Yankees COO Lonn Trost regarding the policy of not allowing all fans into the Legends Suite during b.p.
His tone was not really angry or defiant, nor was it defensive.
I'd say he sounded mostly baffled about why this has become such a big issue.
Click below for that.
(UPDATE: Here is an online fan petition urging the Yankees to alter their b.p. policies.)
Continue reading "Yankees executive discusses b.p. policy with scribes" »
Back from the Bronx. I missed you.
Here is my newspaper story that offers comments from Yankees COO Lonn Trost on the subject in the post below as well as others involving the new stadium, such as wind, ticket prices and fans interfering with questionable home run balls.
And here is the article I wrote about memorabilia from the old stadium going on sale.
Here is the Web site where the stuff is being peddled.
And here is Davidoff's story about Roger Clemens' interview on ESPN Radio this morning, in which he either told bold truths or displayed ongoing delusions.
In either case, he did an excellent job promoting the new book about him and the steroid era, "American Icon," which I waded through before I read Selena Roberts' A-Rod book and which I mini-reviewed toward the end of this column last week.
Davidoff has good items in his blog about Clemens and about a new book about Bobby Thomson's home run ball that the publicists sent him but not me.
Strangest moment in the Clemens interview this morning was when he suggested he is concerned about a family history of heart disease because his stepfather suffered from it. Hmm.
Yankees COO Lonn Trost made it quite clear about an hour ago that the team has no current plans to reconsider its policy of not allowing fans into the Legends Suites area during batting practice to seek autographs or simply to get close to their heroes.
I asked him the rationale behind the policy. His blunt comment on that:
“Well, if you purchase a suite, do you want somebody in your suite? You purchase a home, do you want somebody in your home?’’
Here is a column I wrote for Tuesday's newspaper about the unprecedented doings on the resale market, where (relative) bargains for Yankees and Mets tickets abound.
The market is awash in availability, even more so since the Yankees started handing out free extras to some season ticket holders in ultra-expensive sections.
I had way, way more information on this topic than I could fit in the newspaper, so I will be offering more as the week unfolds and as I have time to do so.
Which will not be anytime Tuesday.
(For example, the dude from StubHub told me a ticket to the May 2 Bruce Springsteen concert in Greensboro, N.C., sold for . . . $1.99!)
How much will seats from the old Yankee Stadium cost?
Darren (Roslyln) Rovell reports here the price will be announced this week, presumably more than the $869 per pair the Mets charged for Shea seats, but presumably less than the cost of two of the best seats in the house for a single game at the new park.
In 1979, a friend gave me a seat from the pre-renovation Yankee Stadium that had been rotting in his back yard since 1973. I had it fixed up and gave it as a wedding present in 1986.
Haven't asked for it back . . . yet.
Have a nice little debate going on my Facebook page after praising John Sterling's call of the A-Rod A-bomb Friday and asserting that for all of his well documented faults, no one is better at a dramatic, over-the-top home run call.
Your thoughts?
Oh my goodness gracious. The technical term for this in the journalism business is One Helluva Story.
Michael Kay's call on YES was good, but if any readers out there know of a link to John Sterling's calm, understated call on WCBS radio, please provide it in the comments section as a service to your fellow members of WatchDog Nation.
I will go out on a limb and predict YES' ratings for this one are going to be astronomical for a Friday night in May.
Speaking of YES, I noticed that the network and Mike Francesa's WFAN simulcast demonstrated a new level of partnership when Kim Jones appeared live from Baltimore during Francesa's 6 to 6:20 p.m. segment.
It was the second time Jones has been so deployed - it also happened once in Boston - and confirms what Francesa said in an interview a while back about integrating her Yankees reports into his show, which is a fine idea.
Just before going to YES at 6:05 or so, I watched the first few minutes of SportsCenter on ESPN. When Jeremy Schaap reported that now Brett Favre has NOT decided not to return, I checked the calendar to make sure it wasn't April 1, then turned the channel.
While talking to Joe Girardi about his media relations efforts, I asked him about his most peculiar media moment of 2009 - when he expressed bafflement Sunday about why anyone would want to write a book such as the one Selena Roberts wrote about Alex Rodriguez.
Girardi took plenty of abuse for his seeming cluelessness, which was exacerbated when the game was rained out and his defense of A-Rod filled the void, dominating Monday's tabloid back pages.
While discussing the episode with me, Girardi veered off into a surprising take on the balk rule, of all things.
"I find it interesting I did [get so much attention], because I didn’t say whether it was right or wrong. I said I just didn’t understand it, that’s all. I didn’t say anything about Selena; I made no judgments on her.
"But that’s part of life. There’s a lot things I don’t understand in life. There are rules in the game that I don’t understand. I mean, just for example, the balk move. I’ve never understood it. They say you’re trying to deceive the runner. Well, you’re surely not telling him you’re coming over. I mean, you’re trying to pick him off!
"I even made the point, and I said it right away, people might think I’m shortsighted, but that’s just the way I grew up and the way I feel." [About the book, that is . . . not the balk rule.]
The lead item in my Friday column concerns beleaguered Yankees manager Joe Girardi and his efforts this season to improve his relationship with journalists.
Periodically I do these types of columns on New York coaches and managers, given what a big part of the job dealing with the media is in this market.
Then readers bluntly inform me fans don't care about this sort of thing. It's kind of a tradition now. But I don't mind. I figure one article per year on this topic out of the hundreds we write about the Yankees and their manager is not excessive.
Click below for leftover comments from Joe G. and others.
Photo: Newsday/Alejandra Villa
Continue reading "Joe Girardi smooths rough edges of media relations" »
Toward the end of this video, a Yankees executive urges fans to act quickly if they want to buy into the "scarce" available inventory of premium seats at the new stadium.
This was in October.
That's it for me today, people. Read our other fine Newsday sports blogs, and enjoy "Rangers in the '70s" at 2 a.m. on "MSG Vault."
I hope they don't show that Parise goal from April 11, 1975.
Still haven't gotten over that one.
If you asked me to pick the two sportswriters I would least want to author a critical column about me, I'd go with Selena Roberts and Jason Whitlock.
When so moved, each can eviscerate a subject as effectively as anyone in America - whether or not you agree with his or her take.
So what would happen if one of them took aim at the other? This.
(UPDATE: Here is more from Jason, this time expanding his criticism of sports journalism to . . . well, pretty much everyone.)
Kat O'Brien is leaving the Yankees beat - the toughest job in the sports department, always - after two years to further her education at Penn.
That is the equivalent of 14 non-baseball sportswriter years, I believe.
Tuesday night's tilt against the Bosox will be her last.
Ms. O'Brien will be missed. Sources who witnessed the farewell cake he was served at Jets headquarters say that Kat's successor most likely will be Erik Boland.
Usually the Yankees play Sundays at 1 p.m., so the transition should be easy for Mr. Boland . . . except for the fact they usually play six other times in a given week.
Mostly at night. Sometimes in the rain. Often for around four hours. And, of course, there's A-Rod . . .
Good luck, sir.
(UPDATE: This one fits better with an earlier post on overbearing Yankee Stadium security, but I figured you'd be more likely to see it here. It's Barbara Barker expressing exasperation with the vibe at the big ballpark in the Bronx.)
This has absolutely nothing to do with anything - certainly nothing to do with sports - but the earlier post about "The Odd Couple" caused my mind to drift to other classic television moments, and I ended up here.
One of the best 70 seconds in TV history, from 7:50 to 9:00. Enjoy.
Sorry about Posada, Yankees fans. Face it: Your team is old.
Interesting story here about a near-riot Monday night as fans tried to re-enter Yankee Stadium upon learning the game against the Bosox was not rained out.
Here's the thing: There are very good reasons for the no re-entry policy, and said policy clearly is stated on tickets and signs.
BUT it also is true the Yankees - and many other major league teams - do a poor job keeping fans informed about the status of rain delays. (Did I ever mention that in 1990 I was present for the longest rain delay in MLB history at old Comiskey Park?)
Why do people who run baseball teams, airlines, trains and other businesses that involve schedules not realize that an informed customer is a customer infinitely less likely to become frustrated during a delay?
The Yankees, Mets and every other team should announce official updates every 15 minutes, put weather radar maps on the video board and do whatever else is necessary to avoid the kind of misinformation that apparently led to Monday's troubles.
In the bigger picture, from everything I have heard about the vibe at the new building, it appears the overbearing mood of security/paranoia at the old stadium has transitioned across the street.
(WatchDog kudos to first reader to write what is going on in this picture.)
Photo: AP
It's Throwback Monday in the basement.
Blogging . . . no.
Reading a book . . . yes.
(I thought about getting a mullet to give me that pre-Internet Era look and feel, but was stymied by an unfortunate shortage of hair.)
In the meantime, here is the author of the aforementioned book in interviews with the MLB Network and WFAN.
Some interesting observations from Jeff Brantley, a teammate of Alex Rodriguez on the 2001 Rangers, in an interview with Sirius XM's Chris Russo in the wake of the latest A-Rod allegations.
Brantley is extremely skeptical that A-Rod was engaging in pitch-tipping with opponents - which doesn't necessarily make it untrue, of course.
Click below to read it all.
(Did I ever mention I interviewed a very young Brantley when he was with the Mat-Su Miners of the Alaska League in the early 1980s? Probably so.)
Continue reading "Jeff Brantley dismisses A-Rod pitch-tipping charge" »
Some interesting observations from Jeff Brantley, a teammate of Alex Rodriguez on the 2001 Rangers, in an interview with Sirius XM's Chris Russo in the wake of the latest A-Rod allegations.
Brantley is extremely skeptical that A-Rod was engaging in pitch-tipping with opponents - which doesn't necessarily make it untrue, of course.
Click below to read it all.
(Did I ever mention I interviewed a very young Brantley when he was with the Mat-Su Miners of the Alaska League in the early 1980s? Probably so.)
Continue reading "Jeff Brantley dismisses A-Rod pitch-tipping charge" »
An interview of SI's Selena Roberts on SI.com regarding the assertion in her new book that Alex Rodriguez engaged in pitch-tipping during his days as a Ranger.
Selena Roberts appeared on Dan Patrick's radio show today to discuss the leaked copy of her book that was described in today's Daily News and thus far has inspired widespread yawns and shrugs.
She said that account was basically fair and accurate. So I'm assuming there are no bombshells that we haven't now read and heard about.
(BTW, the official on-sale date of the book now is Monday, moved up from May 12.)
Carry on, America.
Evidently the new Selena Roberts book on previously established liar / cheater / womanizer Alex Rodriguez, long rumored to be full of fantastically juicy dirt, merely asserts that he was even more of a liar / cheater/ womanizer than previously established.
That's it???
Play ball!
Continue reading "Book suggests A-Rod juiced earlier, later than believed" »
The NHL's unfortunate decision to allow two Game 7s in one TV market to take place Tuesday night at least made for an interesting ratings race involving the two hockey games, plus Yankees and Mets tilts.
Who won?
The Yankees, but the Blueshirts made a game of it.
The Yankees' contest against the Tigers on YES averaged 3.16 percent of area households, compared to 3.02 for Rangers-Capitals on MSG.
Marlins-Mets averaged 2.44 on SNY, and Hurricanes-Devils 1.65 on MSG Plus.
The Rangers' figure was the third time in the series they attracted their best rating on MSG since 1997.
That's it for today, people. Enjoy "The Boomer Esiason Show" at 11 p.m. on MSG.
Photo: AP
As you might have heard and read by now, the Yankees reduced prices and/or will give away tickets to some of their costliest seats as part of a spectacularly complicated new plan chronicled here and commented upon here, including Yankees president Randy Levine reluctantly saying this to Wally Matthews about the original pricing structure:
"For a very small number of seats, in this economy, I guess it was a mistake.''
This is no surprise - and perhaps inevitable - and a small victory for free market economics. Or maybe it's all just about the public relations disaster that is those empty seats the centerfield camera keeps capturing.
Anyway, it's been a weird ride so far, from late 2007, when Yankees COO Lonn Trost explained to me the team's Robin Hood approach, in which the expensive seats would keep the cheap seats affordable, to February, when Trost told me there would be no adjustments - "Our prices are our prices" - to two weeks ago, when Levine said, "We'll see," to Tuesday's announcement, which probably is the final word on adjustments for this season.
Photo: AP
YES said its telecast of Friday night's Yanks-Bosox tilt averaged 6.9 percent of area homes (and 651,000 viewers), making it the highest-rated game for the network since the same teams met on Aug. 29, 2007.
The network said the 6.9 household rating was better than that night's Mets-Nationals, Rangers-Capitals, Cavaliers-Pistons and Magic-76ers games combined (6.5).
Speaking of the Yankees, WFAN's Craig Carton reported this morning they will lower prices one some of their ultra-expensive tickets.
No confirmation from the Yankees on that yet. No denial, either.
Like him or not, you have to admire Randy Levine's feistiness. The guy is as shy as Sean Avery when it comes to picking or escalating a fight.
The subject of empty premium seats has become a particularly touchy subject for the Yankees and their president, as MLS commish Don Garber discovered Friday.
(By the way, Mr. Levine is correct in his assertion that the Yankees outdrew the entire MLS in 2008.)
A review of NYY Steak at Yankee Stadium . . . by a Mets fans and a Red Sox fan.
This should go well.
For the most part, the studio hosts and analysts at the MLB Network (see post below) are a likable, entertaining bunch, but one thing Matt Vasgersian said Tuesday night bothered me.
Regarding the epidemic of empty seats at Yankee Stadium, he said, "People gotta start coming out to that new ballpark."
No problem, Matt. You buy the tickets, and we'll sit in the seats.
Very interesting take on the Yankee Stadium situation from economist Roger Noll here, via Jeansonne.
Also, thoughts on the matter from Bud Selig here and Brian Cashman here.
If the Yankees are going to do anything about all this, it presumably will happen while the team is on the road for the coming week. Fascinating stuff.
Photo: AP
Wow. The virus of empty chairs at Yankee Stadium now has spread beyond the ultra-expensive seats to all parts of the ballpark.
I know the weather is not good this Wednesday, but it's an afternoon game, currently tied at 7 in the bottom of the seventh, and . . . where is everyone?
Some of the problem is unsold seats, of course. But here's another thing: Many of the empty seats were sold to someone, and many of those someones are off somewhere on a concourse or in a club - eating, drinking, talking and perhaps keeping an eye on the game on TV.
It has been happening all over the country since the big-concourse fad began, and now it's happening here, one of the last places to build new stadiums, ballparks and arenas designed to draw people away from their seats to spend money elsewhere.
Perhaps it's time for a new trend to develop for the next generation of sports facilities:
Keeping people in their seats to watch the game they have come to see, and expanding existing waiter services to bring food, beer and cash registers to them.
(UPDATE: 11th inning now, stadium even emptier than before.)
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