Results tagged “sportsnews”

Certainly, it's her word against his word, but if former Knicks marketing vice-president Anucha Browne Sanders is telling the truth, the disorganized management of the Knicks suddenly makes sense! Browne Sanders, who had filed a sexual harassment suit against Knicks President and coach Isiah Thomas after being fired last year, testified in Manhattan federal court yesterday. She made a number of spectacular claims: That Thomas frequently called her a "bitch" and a "ho," that he didn't care about his sponsors or fans, and even said that he was in love with her.

• Yankees 8 Angels 2: Don’t let the final score fool you, this was a much closer game. The Yankees scored in the fourth and the Angels scored in the sixth to make it 1-1 heading into the seventh. That’s where the starting pitching diverged. Andy Pettitte continued his brilliance while John Lackey ran into trouble. New York scored twice in the seventh and four-times in the eighth to blow the game open.
  Continue reading "Last Night's Action: Congrats, Joe!"

• Mets 5 Pittsburgh 4: El Duque struck out eight, but he was also wild, walking five and allowing three runs over six innings. Moises Alou gave the Mets the lead with a two-run single in the eighth and Lastings Milledge made a great catch in the bottom of the inning to preserve the win. Billy Wagner worked a flawless ninth for his 27th save.
Continue reading "Last Night's Action: Beating The Bucs"

Former Yankees shortstop and long-time announcer for the team Phil Rizzuto died this morning at the age of 89. Rizzuto played his entire professional baseball career with the New York Yankees after being selected by the team as an amateur free agent in 1937. He wouldn't play his first major league game with the Yanks until 1941, but then served as shortstop for 13 seasons, during which the Bronx Bombers won 10 Pennants and 8 World Series Championships.

Luis Castillo tied things up in the seventh with a two-out single and Moises Alou put the Mets ahead with a home run on an 0-2 pitch in the eighth. So, the Mets turned to Billy Wagner, but the first three Atlanta batters reached base, leaving no margin for error. But, Wagner induced Jeff Francoeur to hit a ground ball which David Wright went home on for the first out. Then, Andruw Jones grounded into a double-play and the Mets had a victory and a 4-1/2 game lead in the division.

After the Post went for the jugular with its "Stray-Rod" cover, the floodgates of gossip about the Yankees third baseman (and the leading vote-getter for the All-Star Game so far) have opened.

The Rangers dominated the first two periods, building a 2-0 lead behind goals from Jagr and Nylander. Once again, it was short-handed goals that killed them as they gave up two of them to start the third period. They managed to take the lead back off of the power play, but then fell into a tie when Pittsburgh scored on their own power play.

The Rangers played a great hockey game and bombarded Martin Broduer with 30 shots, but could not find the difference maker so they headed to overtime.

Last month, Jason Kidd filed for divorce from his wife, Joumana, citing extreme cruelty. The Nets point guard claimed his wife kicked and punched him, as well as put tracking devices on his cars and computers, not to mention taunted him during games. The Kidds' relationship had its patches and other allegations of spousal abuse - back in 2001, Joumana Kidd had some called 911 while Kidd played for the Phoenix Suns (she said he had punched her in the face because she didn't want him eating their son's French fries).

Yesterday was the NY Road Runners Club's 30th Annual Empire State Building Run-up. And, yes, the runners were wearing shorts and T-shirts when they emerged on the skyscraper's roof. Thomas Dold (above, left) of Germany won the men's race in 10 minutes and 25 seconds while Suvy Walsham (above, right) of Singapore (and Australia, apparently) won the women's in 13 minutes 12 seconds. (American Cindy Moll-Harris finished second, at 13:24.)

Besides the Umenyiora pick, Reese has been widely respected for his work in scouting and was considered in many circles as a potential GM for some time. Since Reese comes from within the organization, that should simply personnel decisions and prevent any conflicts with Tom Coughlin.

Back in 2004, the former captain of the NY Rangers cheerleading team, the Rangers City Skaters, accused Madison Square Garden executives of sexually harassing and verbally abusing her and other skaters. Courtney Prince said that MSG executives took underage skaters to bars, intimated they should get breast enlargement surgery, and threatened to cut off their supply of free cookies so the City Skaters would lose weight.

- The increased risk that these unacceptable approval requirements could result in higher construction spending and annual operating costs, which would have a significant negative impact on the financial model for the speedway development.Even before this announcement, the racetrack proposal encountered stiff resistance and wasn't looking too good.

If you're heading to work in midtown Manhattan this morning, you should watch out for the race cars going really, really fast. As part of its Championship Week celebrations in New York, NASCAR is doing a "Victory Lap" with their top 10 drivers.

- While he was at USC, Reggie Bush paid homage to his hometown by writing "619" on his eyeblack. Now those that live in New York City can show off their area code pride with "212" sneakers from Nike. We doubt the sneakers will be be quite as coveted as an actual 212 phone number (limitless availability and ugliness of sneaker). And while we're all for representing New York, what about 347, 646, and 718? 718's gotta have more street-cred than 212. Then again, those that actually have street-cred wouldn't be caught dead in these shoes. They're for the people that say...street-cred.

- Newsday is passing along information that the new Mets ballpark will be named CitiField. The source of their information? A blog - though their link to the site is incorrect. Someone wrote into Hot Foot with this bit of information:

I was talking to my father who is working on the new mets stadium and he told me that they just put up a sign saying : "CitiField: Coming in 2009"..also if you didnt know, theres going to be a ground breaking ceremony Monday for the new stadium.

- Rangers 3 San Jose 1: New York completed a successful west coast swing with their second win in as many nights. Kevin Weekes looked stellar between the pipes, stopping 29 of 30 shots and Matt Cullen, Martin Straka and Brendan Shanahan scored. With Weekes playing well in consecutive games, the question is, who will start in goal on Sunday?

- Curtis Martin gave the Jets notice that he won't be playing this year. On the physically unable to perform (PUP) list since the start of the season, Martin and the Jets had until Tuesday to determine if he would be coming off that list. The all-time leading rusher for the Jets now moves to the reserve PUP list and his future playing prospects look doubtful. While he didn't explicitly say that he was going to retire, Martin is without some cartilage in his right knee, resulting in a bone-on-bone condition. Sounds delightful! If he retires, Martin would leave as number 4 on the NFL's all-time leading rushers list behind Emmitt Smith, Walter Payton and Barry Sanders with 14,101 yards. Gothamist once heard a story that Martin dropped a deuce in a urinal at his old high school in Pittsburgh (Taylor Allderdice). Does that detract from his accomplishments? Of course not. If anything, it makes them even better.

- There's lots of stuff going on at Governors Island, like the golf tournament later this year, but this Saturday, 100 plus swimmers will be participating in the Governors Island Swim, a two-mile swim around Governors Island. The race starts at 8 a.m. in front Castle Williams, with competitors swimming south (counterclockwise) around the island. Organizers expect the race to be finished at about 8:30! While this is something that could be fun to watch - laughing at the stragglers from dry land, for example - the first ferry to Governors Island isn't until 10 a.m and half the island is closed to the public. If you do want to visit, the ferry is free this summer, so there's no reason not to check out the abandoned Army and Coast Guard station. Warning: there's a hot dog monopoly on the island.

-Yankees 10 Indians 4: Until he hit the eighth inning, Randy Johnson looked like his former self. Mixing fastballs and sliders with precision, Johnson dominated Cleveland holding them hitless until the fifth and off the scoreboard until the seventh. He left after 7 2/3 innings having allowed three earned runs and striking out five.

-Pirates 11 Mets 1: This one was just embarrassing. Sure, the Mets were forced to start John Maine because Pedro’s hip is bothering him (uh-oh), but Pittsburgh is the worst team in the National League and New York is the best. On Monday it looked like the roles had been reversed as every Pirate position player had a hit and Jason Bay drove in three runs.

-Yankees 16 Mets 7: You can cross “A-Rod never gets a big hit against the Mets” off your list of reasons to boo him. Sunday night A-Rod delivered two huge hits, a grand slam and a three-run homer as the Yankees drew a split in the Subway Series.

-Yankees 2 Mets 0: Are the Mets simply picking the wrong time to slump, or is the American League just that much better than the National League? It’s a legitimate question after the Yankees held the Mets to only one hit and increased their losing streak to four games. While Mets’ fans have been eager to draw parallels to 1986 this year, they should remember that winning the World Series requires beating the team from the American League.

While the Yankees couldn’t find a way to fit in Old Timer’s Day or a baseball game due to the rain, the Mets were in Toronto facing the Blue Jays. El Duque simply didn’t have it and the Blue Jays cruised to a 7-4 victory.

-Reds 6 Mets 5: Jose Reyes recorded the first cycle in the majors this year, but Billy Wagner blew the save and the Mets lost. Wagner got the first two outs of the ninth, but then walked Austin Kearns and David Ross and gave up back-to-back singles to Rich Aurilia and Brandon Phillips. Carlos Beltran led off the bottom of the ninth with a walk, but Carlos Delgado flied out and David Wright grounded into a double play to end the game. The Mets finish their homestand tomorrow before heading to Toronto.

-Yankees 9 Ryan Howard 7: New York broke a three-game losing streak, but almost lost to Philadelphia thanks to the electric performance of Ryan Howard. Howard had two home runs and a triple, knocking in all seven of the Phillies’ runs. Howard ended the game 3 for 4 and only Mariano Rivera was able to get him out.

Holy home run. Or is that holy Star Jones-style chutzpah? A couple has managed to land about $80,000 worth of sponsorships for their wedding at a Brooklyn Cyclones home game. Flowers are covered by 1800Flowers, cake by Grandma's Secrets in Harlem, Diageo will create a special wedding drink, and more. Caroline Fisher, a radio station sales manager marrying marketing consultant Dave Kerpen, told Ad Age, "It was an idea that both met our needs romantically in terms of getting married on the field and at a baseball stadium, which we love, and simultaneously doing what we love, which is putting together promotions and selling them." Well, we can only guess that the sponsors will call them repeatedly over their honeymoon to ask them about make-goods. The Fisher-Kerpen nuptials will be on July 8, at home plate when the game ends - and Tien Mao is probably available for a wedding cake eating contest.

- Early this morning, Xavier Nady underwent emergency appendectomy surgery and was later put on the 15-day DL by the Mets. Nady's unfortunate situation is good news for Lastings Milledge, arguably the best player in the Mets farm system. Milledge was called up from AAA and will start in tonight's game, playing right field and batting 8th. The 21 year-old Milledge was hitting .291 with 32 runs, 4 home runs, 19 RBI and 32 walks. The young outfielder also had 8 steals and 42 strikeouts in the 50 games with the Norfolk Tides.

Rush & Molloy theorize how the Yankees won against the Oakland A's the other weekend - it was because Athletics' players Nick Swisher and Joe Blanton (who wasn't pitching) went to Plumm in the Meatpacking district, ordering $1,000 of vodka (which means 2 bottles) and "helped close the bar." That's a new, subversive angle for the NYC Nightlife Association to bring to community boards - "We're here to souse visiting sports teams' players!" Then again, maybe going out so much isn't that good an idea, as Rush & Molly also point out that Yankees Derek Jeter, Johnny Damon and Bubba Crosby were at 40/40 Club and all were only okay the next day. We bet George Steinbrenner will have a talking-to with them this morning!