Tonight, the Yankees will face off against the Cleveland Indians at Yankee Stadium, and many hope the Bronx Bombers can avoid the sweep (and mayflies) and claw their way back to winning this first round of playoff games. Since things are so nerve-wracking, we thought some Yankees fans - and even haters - might be find this Village Voice story funny. Found amongst the paperwork that showed how the Yankees were basically billing the city......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an attempted abduction at Balcolm and Barkley Aves. in the Bronx, loose horses on Tremont Ave. in the Bronx, and a school bus fire at the toll booth plaza of the Throgsneck Bridge in the Bronx. Not showing a lot of confidence in the Ivy Leaguers he was cheating money from, Columbia's student-aid head wrote emails to the loan company he held stock in outlining that he needed an......

New York 99 Miami 93: Trying to figure out the Knicks will drive you insane. Off of a terrible loss against the Nets, the Knicks played a decent basketball game against a better team and won. They took care of the basketball, only 10 turnovers and had three scorers with 20 or more points. Eddy Curry had a very nice offensive game, going 9-17 from the field and adding 11 boards. He still doesn’t play......

The Yankees owe a lot of things to Bernie Williams for his great play the past 16 years, but they do not owe him a roster spot for 2007. Bernie can no longer play defense and his offense has eroded to the point that he is only viable against left-handed pitching. But, the Yankees still invited him to camp and instead of accepting or declining, Bernie has gone into hiding. Joe Torre and Jorge......

Jerry Reese didn’t waste any time remaking the Giants. On Monday he cut three players, all starters, as part of a roster overhaul. While it is hard to argue with waiving Carlos Emmons, a disapointment in his time as a Giant, and LaVar Arrington, a great talent who could not stay healthy, the cut of Luke Petitgout is interesting. Petitgout was also injured last year, but he was the only guy on the roster who......

The Yankees needed another pitcher and they got one they knew well. Andy Pettitte is coming back to the Bronx, a move that should make Yankees’ fans very happy. It also makes the team better. With questions about Randy Johnson’s back and Carl Pavano’s heart, the Yankees faced the prospect of entering the season with more question marks than pitchers in their rotation. No longer, now they know they will have a 1-2-3 of Wang,......

The most important game involving a local baseball team was rained out on Thursday when Staten Island's decisive Game 3 against TriCity was postponed. It will be played on Friday, weather permitting, to decide the NY-Penn League championship. -Yankees 7, Devil Rays 4: In The Show, they play through the rain. Either that, or it wasn't as bad in the Bronx as it was on Staten Island. In any case, the Yankees came from behind......

-Yankees 11, Angels 8: The game ended a lot closer than it should have, but the Yankees salvaged the final game of the three-game set. Jeff Karstens earned his first Major League victory, but not without plenty of run support from Bernie Williams and Derek Jeter, who hit two home runs apiece. The Yankees went 2-4 on their trip, but so did the Red Sox, so New York's lead -- just like it was before......

-Phillies 3 Mets 0: For the first time since they went to Philadelphia, the Mets got a good pitching performance. Tom Glavine pitched well, surrendering only three runs over seven innings, but Jon Lieber was better. Lieber held the Mets to only five hits and did not allow a runner past second base as he pitched his first shutout in five years. New York will try and avoid being swept tomorrow afternoon. -Orioles 3 Yankees......

-Yankees 5, Blue Jays 1: Bobby Abreu's walk set up a bases-clearing tiebreaking double by Bernie Williams, and the Yankees won the opener against Toronto. Abreu didn't have a hit in his three at-bats, but his patience fits in with the rest of the Yankees lineup and will be an asset for the team, even if he doesn't hit for power. Jaret Wright gave a typical performance. He lasted only five innings and kept the......

-Mets 7, Florida 6: David Wright's three-run homer helped the Mets come back and earn a split of the weekend's four-game series. They won't be tested until the playoffs, but the biggest challenge for the NL East leaders will be readjusting their starting rotation. After Pedro Martinez and Tom Glavine, question marks remain. The Mets are fortunate to have a second half and a 12-game lead to make adjustments. -Devil Rays 6, Yankees 5: Most......

- Yankees 1, Devil Rays 0: What does Jaret Wright have to do to pitch more than 6 innings? Last night against Tampa Bay, Wright's pitch count was only at 91 after the 6th inning, he tied a career-high strikeout total with 10 and only allowed four hits. The Yankee bullpen kept the D-Rays hitless in the next three innings to preserve Wright's 5th victory of the season. The lone Yankee run came on......

- Orioles 6, Mets 3: For the Mets, their 8-game winning streak had to end sometime, and that sometime was last night against the Orioles in a rematch of the 1969 World Series. Alay Soler struggled at the start of the game, but it he pitched well enough to give the Mets a chance for their 9th straight victory. Aaron Heilman blew the save and the Mets chances at victory in the 7th inning......

- Mets 15, D iamondbacks 2: Pedro Martinez has waited a long time for his sixth win (since April 28), and the Mets didn't want their bullpen to have a chance to blow it. So they scored 15 runs and swept four games from Arizona, who entered the series leading the NL West (they've since dropped to second). The Mets continue to lead the NL East. - Athletics 6, Yankees 5: Oakland completed a......

-Red Sox 9 Yankees 3: For five innings it seemed like the Yankees might pull off an improbable sweep. They led Boston 3-1 heading into the sixth, but Jaret Wright suddenly lost control of his fastball and Boston jumped all over him and two subsequent relievers to cruise to a 9-3 victory. The loss leaves New York with a ½ game lead in the AL East. Before the game, the Yankees learned that Gary Sheffield......

Red Bull New York lost to FC Dallas, 2-1. While the loss was only the 2nd loss of the season for the Red Bulls, they only have one win. The rest of their games all ended in a tie. The Mets will try for the sweep on Thursday afternoon after beating the Phillies 5-4 Wednesday night. David Wright hit a home run for the third consecutive game while Alay Soler won his first career start.......

The Mets won a 9-8, 16-inning thriller over the Phillies. The official length of the game was 5 hours 22 minutes. The game ended on a home run by Carlos Beltran. Mets fans should rejoice tomorrow as there's no more Lima Time. It will mark the debut of Alay Soler, the team's 9th starting pitcher this season - the team used 8 all of last season. The Mystics crushed the Liberty in WNBA action. Despite......

Billy, it’s Metallica on the phone, they want their song back. Actually, you have bigger problems than a stupid song, you just threw your manager under the bus after blowing a 4-0 lead in the ninth. You were “surprised” to be used in that situation? Don’t you think for $11-million a year Willie Randolph should be able to choose when and how often he uses you? Wagner’s terrible performance erased a fantastic start by Pedro......

A four-run Yankee first inning and Randy Johnson starting against them couldn't stop the Mets from a come-from-behind, 7-6 victory over their neighbors in the Bronx Friday. David Wright's two-out single off Mariano Rivera won it in the bottom of the ninth. In such an up-and-down game, that wasn't the main story. The Yankees' Johnson looked ineffective again, and Gothamist is concerned he won't even revert to the form he showed in the second......

Stick a camera in his face and Randy Johnson is the toughest guy on the planet, but if you put him in front of hitters he turns into mush. Johnson was pathetic last night, not only giving up hits, but also walking five batters. Sixteen million dollars sure doesn’t go as far as it used to. Despite his putrid pitching, Johnson could have escaped a lot of damage if his defense had performed better. A......

Was the first game of the season an aberration or are the Yankees simply a victim of superior pitching? Does Gary Sheffield need another visit from Barry Bonds’ trainer? These are the questions they face as they look at a 1-3 start after losing last night in Anaheim 4-1. While it’s far too early to be worried, Joe Torre has already started to change things a little bit. Friday night he moved Bernie Williams into......

The Yankees head into the season hoping to capture their 27th World Championship. Once again they have the highest payroll in baseball and once again anything less than total victory will be a failure in the eyes of their bombastic owner. Offensively, the Yankees should score close to 900 runs. Johnny Damon and Derek Jeter will set the table for A Rod, Matsui, Sheffield and Giambi. Jorge Posada, Bernie Williams and Robinson Cano fill out......

Yesterday, Billy Wagner, the new Mets closer announced that he was dropping out of the inaugural World Baseball Classic. CC Sabathia of the Cleveland Indians is also stepping aside, which is potentially a bigger problem for the United States than Wagner not playing. The US team now only has 3 starting pitchers - Jake Peavy, Dontrelle Willis and Roger Clemens - potentially a problem considering all the rules on the books. Lucky for the United......

Major League Baseball announced the 60-man US World Baseball Classic roster yesterday with several players on the Mets and Yankees named as possible team members. The US list includes Johnny Damon, Derek Jeter, Al Leiter, and Alex Rodriguez. The Mets have Paul Lo Duca, Billy Wagner and David Wright on the US players listed. While the 60-person list is a list of players that can play in the tournament, the eventual roster must be trimmed......

The Yankees may have found a new centerfielder, but that doesn’t mean they are saying goodbye to their old one. Bernie Williams has agreed to return to the Bronx for another year and $1.5 million. The question is, what role will Bernie have on the 2006 Yankees? There are certainly at bats to be had at the DH spot, but do the Yankees want to use Bernie everyday? Ruben Sierra was successful as a pinch......

Baseball has a wacky transaction system. Yesterday the Yankees offered Bernie Williams arbitration, but only because they knew he would decline it. Why the apparent waste of time? Because without the offer, the Yankees would have lost negotiating rights to Bernie and if Bernie had accepted he would have been in line for a salary near ten million dollars for 2006. So, the Yankees and Bernie have until January 8th to make a deal. Even......

It was a season of lows and highs from an 11-19 start to 95 wins and a playoff spot the Yankees gave their fans a story with many twists and turns in 2005. There was the emergence of Robinson Cano and Chien-Ming Wang and the painful decline of Bernie Williams. In the end, the Yankees couldn’t keep the momentum they had built in September going and fell to the Angels in five games. The......

The Yankees used timely hitting and solid pitching to beat the Angels 3-2 Sunday night knotting their series at two games apiece. The decisive Game Five will be played tonight at 8pm. Shawn Chacon gave the Yankees six plus innings, allowing only two runs before yielding to Al Leiter in the seventh Despite Chacon’s solid outing, the Yankees trailed 2-1 when he left the game. In the bottom of the seventh Robinson Cano singled and......

The Yankees' season comes down to this final week. They are in a flat-footed tie with Boston for the AL East lead, and both teams are a half game behind the Cleveland Indians for the wild card. For the Yankees, it is the first time the last week of the regular season has mattered since 1995. For Yankee fans, it may be a bit too tense; for baseball, it's great. The Yankees and Red Sox......

Monday’s game was a microcosm of the Yankees’ season, not pretty but ultimately effective. It took them almost four hours, but in the end the Yankees outlasted the Rangers 11-10. As a result, the Yankees are back in first place for the first time since April. Gary Sheffield, Jorge Posada and Hideki Matsui all had home runs for the Yankees, but Ruben Sierra delivered the big hit, a two-run single that put the Yankees ahead......