Results tagged “jackierobinson”

• Mets 6 Washington 0: It was a great day and night at Shea. During the day, Rachel Robinson, Jackie’s widow, toured the Jackie Robinson Rotunda at Citi Field and described it as “walking into a cathedral in a way.” She also addressed the crowd before the game tonight and every player from both teams wore #42 in tribute.
  Continue reading "Last Night's Action: Remembering Jackie"

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bank robbery on 31st St. and 7th Ave. in Manhattan, an attempted sexual assault at Broadway and Gates Ave. in Brooklyn, and an aircraft incident at Laguardia in Queens.
• The Yankees Double-A farm team in Trenton has a mascot named Chase, who catches frisbees, brings water to umpires, and serves as a canine batboy. In his off hours, he managed to knock up the other team mascot, Cynderella, and they're expecting a litter soon. Congratulations to the both of them.
• Gov. Spitzer's budget, released today, is about $100 million shy of what educators were hoping for.

Johnny Podres died last night in a hospital in upstate New York at the age of 75. He'd been suffering from serious medical problems for some time. In 1955, Podres ensured himself a place in Brooklyn and baseball history as a young left-hander who pitched the Dodgers to their only World Series Championship while in Brooklyn, and he did it against the hated Yankees.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: person under a train at 71st St. and 16th Ave. in Brooklyn, a stabbing on 112th St. and Lexington Ave. in Manhattan, and a bank robbery at Ave. of the Americas and West 18th St. in Manhattan.
• The Times wonders if people will be hoarding pre-rate-increase Metrocards the way token buyers used to stock up before a fare hike.
• A 17-year-old from Mt. Vernon was being held at Rikers Island after he was accused of statutory rape for having sex with a 14-year-old girl, and the judge who sent him there ordered that he should be put under suicide watch. The teenager was put into the jail's general population instead and he hung himself within 24 hours.

In the wake of the horrific tiger escape resulting in one death and two injuries at the San Francisco Zoo, zoos around the country are examining their tiger exhibit set-ups. Tiger Mountain at the Bronx Zoo has the following set-up, per the Post:

Tiger Mountain is surrounded by a moat about 10 feet wide and is enclosed by a fence that is 15 feet high and has a five-foot overhang. That means that the last five feet slant inward.

Continue reading "New Yorkers Not Worried About Tigers Escaping Zoo"

MOVIE: The 2006 Clark Kent hit the big screen in Superman Returns. Tonight catch the superhero do his thing all over again at the River Flicks outdoor film series. Free popcorn, free film and a nice cold summer breeze. Bring a blanket!

EVENT: Join a slew of artists, bid on their work and enjoy complimentary cocktails tonight at a benefit for the Seed Project. Artwork from Swoon, Lisa Dahl, Todd Deluca, Troy Dugas, Lee Everett, Midori Harima & Annysa Ng, Fumiko Toda, Sarah Trigg and a whole bunch more will be auctioned. The Seed Project asks that you buy basil seeds and after planting them:

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a pedestrian was struck at East 51st St. and Linden Blvd. in Brooklyn, a fatality as a person was struck by a train at West Houston St., and a baby water rescue on Bodine St. on Staten Island.
• In response to an overabundance of animals at city shelters, Broadway stars gathered to promote pet adoption this weekend at Broadway Barks.
• Little Leaguers played tee-ball on the South Lawn of the White House, and all wore number 42 in honor of Brooklyn Dodger Jackie Robinson. It's the 60th anniversary of Robinson breaking the color barrier in baseball.
• A seventh floor apartment in the newly renovated Plaza on 5th Ave. and Central Park South was sold in 2006 for more than $51 million.
• The Vatican says that the Pope's NYC visit is being scheduled for sometime in 2008.
• IFC will be airing ten more installments of R. Kelly's "Trapped in the Closet" rap opera series. The channel will be also streaming the original twelve episodes with the ten extra chapters.
• WNYC public radio host Soterios Johnson has a very large and devoted contingent of fans.
• The tourist who had his neck broken at Yankee Stadium, when a possibly drunken fan fell on him, was released from the hospital today.

Joel Siegel, perhaps best known as Good Morning America's film critic (a program he was on weekly since 1981), died yesterday in New York at the age of 63. Siegel had been battling colon cancer, though many didn't even know he was sick as he stayed positive until the end and kept working until just two weeks ago.

The best rapper in the Mets organization might be Lastings Milledge, but he shouldn't be expecting a call-up because of his music anytime soon. Milledge a 22 year-old outfield prospect for the Mets who was briefly in the bigs last season. While with the Mets last year, some criticized him for his showiness at times, being late, and not running hard on the basepaths. In 166 at bats, Milledge had a .241 average. Though he's currently in the minor leagues and on the DL, it doesn't mean he can't cause controversy. Besides playing baseball, Milledge dabbles in the music business as the CEO of Soul-ja Boi records, a label he co-founded in Florida. Milledge raps as L Millz (is that for millions or Milledge - the double entendre is brilliant!) in "Bend Ya Knees," a track by Manny D, the label's "premier artist". The lyrics in the song (which you can listen to at their website) have shocked some people with lyrics that the Daily News excerpts as: "rich (N word)," "wealthy (N word)," a "top-notch ho" and having "a different bitch for every night." Gothamist could swear we heard something about getting high in the song too.

Over the past decade, Major League Baseball has experienced its largest shift in ethnicity since Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier. Numbering about two in ten in the mid-1990s, Latin American players now constitute about 30% of the rosters in the big leagues, and nearly half of the 2006 All-Star players were Latin American. The trend should continue: a 2005 New York Times article stated that almost half of all minor leaguers are Latino. The growing Latin American presence in baseball is not confined to just the field.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a water main break on Rosedale Ave. in the Bronx, a shooting on 80th St. and 41st Ave. in Queens, and shots fired on Coney Island Ave. in Brooklyn.
• Several firefighters jumped into the Hudson yesterday afternoon to rescue a husband who was trying to save his wife, who had somehow fallen into the river.
• A man and a woman embarked from Hoboken this afternoon on the 70-foot boat "The Schooner Anne". They intend to sail continuously for 1,000 days without resupplying or visiting any harbor. Good luck!
• Julia Campbell, the Brooklyn native and former journalist who joined the Peace Corps and travelled to the Phillipines to teach English, was found buried in a shallow grave Wednesday. An autopsy revealed that she died from multiple blunt traumas to the head.
• A 29-year-old man driving drunk last night crashed into the back of a tractor trailer on the Cross-Bronx Expressway. He ran home, leaving his injured female friend in the car. She died and he is under arrest.
• Somebody must have made the members of Community Board 2 an offer they couldn't refuse, because it reversed its earlier decision and unanimously recommended application approval for the San Gennaro festival.
• A 40-year-old Mets fan sitting behind home plate and near the Mets dugout at last night's game was arrested after he used a high-powered flashlight to temporarily blind or distract the Braves' pitcher and shortstop during the 8th inning. (registration required to view story)
• The Empire Roller Skating Rink in Crown Heights, Brooklyn will close tomorrow after more than 60 years in business. It is considered the birthplace of roller disco.
• Happy 5th birthday to Carl and Clarence Aguirre, the formerly conjoined twins who were successfully separated at Children's Hospital at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx in 2004.

Sixty years today at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, Jackie Robinson made his debut for the Brooklyn Dodgers. When Robinson took the field to play first base against the Boston Braves, he became the first African-American player in modern era of Major League Baseball. Despite enduring constant harassment by fans and other players during his first year, Robinson won Rookie of the Year honors from the Sporting News and Major League Baseball. In what would become a Hall of Fame career, Robinson was a six-time All Star (1949-1954), the NL MVP in 1949, and made six World Series appearances with the Dodgers.

We don't know about where you are, but it seems like spring can't decide whether or not to happen. Some days are warm, some days are cold, and sometimes you aren't sure which. Baseball may have started up (and soccer/football winding down) but it still seems cold out there. Unless it's not. Anyways, onto the -ists.

Mayor Bloomberg has been denying that he will run for President in 2008, steadfastly maintaining that he will be Mayor for two full terms. Except yesterday, the billionaire mayor told Fox News "You never know", which instantly sprinkled fuel on the "Is he or isn't he running?" fire.

Yesterday, the Mets organization and various city and state officials broke ground on the new Mets stadium, Citi Field.

Finally, an update to the story from last year about the tiger that escaped from the Cole Bros. Circus in Queens and tried to run away. When the tiger bounded across the Jackie Robinson Expressway, one car stopped in order not to hit the white Bengal tiger, but that caused a three car pile-up. The drivers of the first car and third cars each filed a $10 million lawsuit against the circus and the city's Parks Department for letting the tiger run rampant. Quisorys Wanda Colon told the Post, "Everything was fine. "It was a nice day out. Suddenly, I saw this tiger a couple of lengths in front of my car, it was right in front of me." Colon's car was rearended, and she required backsurgery, plus a rib removal. And the other lawsuit was filed by an NYPD officer who has been disabled since the accident. Eek - and we thought that that there weren't too many accident from the incident, as it was cute to hear that the tiger was really tired from running around the highways back in the day.

Darrell Shines, Producer of Anything

Kevin Walsh, Forgotten NY

Gothamist imagines that Apollo was trying to get the Bohemian Beer Garden in Astoria, or perhaps the new Lee Bontecou exhibit at the MoMA Queens. We wonder what would have happened if Ming the tiger had escaped his Harlem apartment - a trip to Sylvia's, perhaps?

The Straphangers and Tri-State Transportation Campaign have been collecting collected suggestions for how to celebrate the subway system's 100th anniversary next October. The Daily News has the top ten suggestions: