Midtown Sunset, by djwerdna at flickr 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......

Back in 2006, an agreement signed the day construction started for the new Yankee Stadium promised the team would pay $1.2 million a year in cash and in kind to a fund benefiting Bronx residents for 40 years. It was a gesture to make up for the inconvenience during construction and loss of parkland the new stadium was costing the neighborhood. After a year and half, none of the money has been distributed - and......

Jim Leyritz, who played with the Yankees, from 1990-1996 and then again in 1999 and 2000, was arrested early Friday morning after getting in a car accident in Broward County, Florida. Thursday was Leyritz's 44th birthday and he was presumably driving his Ford Expedition home early Friday morning when witnesses said they saw him run a red light. His car hit a Mitsubishi Montero driven by 30-year-old Fredia Ann Veitch. The woman was ejected......

Clippers 91 Nets 82: The Nets simply couldn’t shoot Tuesday night, finishing a dismal 32% from the field in an ugly loss to the Clippers at the Izod Center. Jason Kidd managed a triple-double and Richard Jefferson had 21 points, but it wasn’t enough to stop LA. Chris Kaman and Tim Thomas each had 18 points while Dan “the Knicks cut me this offseason” Dickau added 11 points off the bench. Carl Pavano isn’t sure......

The news that Stephon Marbury is heading back to the Knicks may be only the second-biggest reconciliation in New York sports this week. There are reports that Alex Rodriguez and the Yankees are talking again and discussing what it would take to bring Rodriguez back to the Yankees. Apparently stung by the reaction to the timing of his opt-out, A-Rod has approached the Yankees and at least discussed the possibility of a new deal. The......

Mark Messier will forever be remembered for delivering the Stanley Cup to the Rangers in 1994, his famous guarantee before Game Six of the Eastern Conference Finals that year and a tendency to cry in public. The captain had his number retired by both Edmonton and New York and is the only player ever to captain two teams to a Stanley Cup victory and he was second all-time in points scored in NHL history. Scott......

The Yankees have offered Joe Girardi the job of manager, further emphasizing the fact that the Steinbrenner boys, and not their father, are now in control. According to reports, Girardi has been offered a three-year deal worth approximately $2-million a season. Negotiations are described as “ongoing” currently. As a side note, Don Mattingly has apparently turned down an offer to coach on his staff. Assuming Girardi accepts the offer, he will take control of a......

Assuming MLB gives them permission, the Yankees will probably announce their next manager tomorrow. The team has conducted three interviews and according to Hank “Liitle Stein” Steinbrenner, that’s all they plan on doing. So, let’s take a look at the three candidates. First up there is the long shot, Tony Pena. Pena joined the Yankees two seasons ago as Joe Torre’s first base coach, but his biggest impact was on Jorge Posada. Under Pena’s tutelage,......

The Yankees' season ended last week, but the team is still a hotbed of activity. A group of executives for the Bombers will be meeting in Tampa, FL early next week to come to a decision regarding the fate of Joe Torre, the team's manager. George Steinbrenner, who made a name for himself as an eager firer of managers before taking an involuntary break from baseball, declared that he'd like to fire Torre after last......

Welcome to the first day of the Yankees’ offseason, buckle your seatbelts this is going to be a wild ride. While it is 99.9% certain that the Yankees are going to have a new manager for 2008, his identity remains a mystery. Joe Girardi, Don Mattingly and Tony LaRussa are the top names you hear, but remember in 1995 the Yankees shocked a lot of people when they chose Torre, so don’t be surprised if......

Cleveland 6 Yankees 4: The 2007 Yankees’ season ended as it began, in disarray. Chien-Ming Wang didn’t make it out of the second inning and while Mike Mussina was reasonably effective, he left with a 6-1 deficit. Meanwhile, Paul Byrd managed to shut down the Yankees’ offense. Somehow, Byrd pitched around 10 base runners in five innings and the Yankees squandered numerous opportunities to score. In a way, that was the story of this......

IIndians 12, Yankees 3: Well, that didn't go as planned. Chien-Ming Wang didn't have his sinker, gave up a ton of two-out and two-strike hits, and the Yankees got buried. Their patient bats wore out C.C. Sabathia, but they only got three runs for their efforts against him, and that wasn't nearly enough given the way Wang pitched. Then they stunk up the joint against the Indians bullpen, but by them the game was......

A few months ago, a more unlikely scenario could not be imagined. The Yankees are barreling into the playoffs after recovering from one of the team's worst season starts in franchise history. The Mets, on the other hand, are staggering towards the end of the season having lost five straight and 11 of their last 15 games. A seemingly insurmountable lead in their division has been whittled to second place behind the Phillies, and the......

Yankees 12 Blue Jays 11 (10 innings): What could have been one of the more painful losses of the season turned into a very satisfying win. Down 3-1, the Yankees rallied to a 6-3 lead, only to fall behind 8-6. Once again, the bats responded, putting New York ahead 9-8, but Toronto jumped ahead again 11-9 in the eighth. The Yankees had another rally in them and tied things up in the bottom of the......

Blue Jays 5, Yankees 4 (14 innings): If they knew their four-run rally in the ninth inning would only result in a 14-inning loss, maybe they wouldn't have been so excited when they produced that unexpected effort. Roy Halladay hardly had to exert himself over the first eight innings, but some shoddy defense and timely hitting in the ninth undid all that.They always say it's better to have loved and lost than to never have......

Nationals 9, Mets 8: If a four-run lead can't stand up against the Nationals, against whom will it last? The Mets are hoping what was a seven-game lead as recently as Sept. 12 stands up, but they're not helping their fans maintain regular heartbeats. John Maine hit before he threw a pitch and still couldn't get out of the fifth. That's against a team that's last in the Major Leagues in runs scored and playing......

Yankees 8 Baltimore 5: Nothing comes easy at the end of the year. The Yankees fell behind 2-0 before rallying for a 5-2 lead. But, Phil Hughes was shaky and had to be lifted in the sixth as the Orioles threatened. Edwar Ramirez managed to end that threat, but the Orioles rallied in the seventh and Luis Vizcaino had to come in and snuff out that rally. Kyle Farnsworth created problems in the ninth and......

Phillies 5, Mets 3: After every one of these crushing losses, the Mets must thank someone that the Phillies don't play as well against the rest of the league as they do against New York. Pedro Martinez's six-inning, nine-strikeout performance was a distant memory when Carlos Beltran's field trip misplay turned what should have been an inning-ending lineout into a two-run triple. With the win -- the seventh straight against the Mets -- the Phillies......

Sports are always a big story in NYC, but yesterday's NY Post cover had three sports stories: The Yankees-Red Sox game, the Jets-Pats spying controversy, and the former Knicks executive's lawsuit from accusing coach Isiah Thomas and Madison Square Garden of sexual harassment. But the Knicks-MSG lawsuit was the only story with a photograph, and it was of Kathleen Decker, the former Knicks marketing intern who had sex with Stephon Marbury in 2005. Decker, who......

Mets 4, Dodgers 3: The performance of the Mets bullpen and of Carlos Delgado haven't exactly inspired fear recently, so when Orlando Hernandez pitched deep into the game and Delgado actually hit, things were going pretty well. Hernandez threw for 7 great innings, allowing only 2 runs by the Dodgers and retired 12-straight at one point. Delgado used the game to break out of a 0-19 slump at the plate. Dropped all the way down......

Padres 9, Mets 8 (10 innings): After playing two back-and-forth games, the Mets and Padres pulled out all the stops in this 10-inning affair. All the stops, that is, except the ability to hold leads. The Mets rallied from a 6-1 deficit in the sixth inning to take a one-run lead, but Billy Wagner blew that as the Padres took the lead in the top of the ninth. Not to worry. For the second time......

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. The win moved......

Angels 7 Yankees 6 (10 innings):Extr Up and down, up and down, this game kept spinning. Alex Rodriguez hit a two-run homer to put New York ahead, but the Angels came back. Jorge Posada hit a homer to tie things up in the eighth, but the Angels wouldn’t relent. They made things very interesting in the bottom of the ninth, but Mariano escaped a huge jam. Unfortunately, that left him unable to pitch the tenth......

Mets 8, Nationals 2: After fooling around with some of the National League's weaker teams, the Mets finished a sweep in Washington with this drubbing. Carlos Beltran led the way with two homers. His trip to the disabled list seems to have helped him out of his slump. Orlando Hernandez, who said his team had "good offense" and "good defense," won his fourth straight decision. He hasn't lost since July 4. Yankees 9, Tigers 3:......

Red Bulls 5, Galaxy 4: Giants Stadium fills up for plenty of events, but Red Bulls games don't usually rank among those. Saturday's did, if only because David Beckham's Los Angeles Galaxy was in town. Those fans, who were there for Beckham and not the Galaxy, found another rare treat: goals in a Major League Soccer game. Soccer doesn't need frequent scores to be exciting, but the rare 5-4 game never hurt anyone. Not......

Tigers 8 Yankees 5: Detroit is a great offensive team and the question the Yankees have to answer is, can their pitching stand up to a great offensive team? In the first of eight games against Detroit, the answer was a resounding no. The Tigers knocked around Mike Mussina for seven runs (six earned) in five innings of work. The Yankees had some chances, getting fifteen runners on base, but couldn’t mount a sustained rally......

Yankees 6, Indians 1: The Yankees played well against the soft part of their schedule and last night, against an actual playoff contender, they continued their recent winning ways (they've won 20 of the last 27 games). In his second start since returning from a May leg injury, Hughes, a key player in the future of the Yankees rotation, pitched brilliantly. He allowed only one run over 6 innings to the AL Central-leading Indians. Equally......

Yankees 16, Royals 8: It was bound to happen and it took a little while, but Alex Rodriguez became the 22nd player in Major League history to hit 500 career home runs and the youngest player to reach that mark. A-Rod got it done early in the game, hitting a three-run shot in the 1st inning of yesterday's win against the Royals, which is the same team he hit #499 off of on July......

The Yankees and Mets head into today’s trade deadline with similar objectives, upgrading their bullpens, but the Mets have already strengthened their team. Yesterday, the Mets acquired Luis Castillo from the Minnesota Twins for AA catcher Drew Butera and Class A outfielder Dustin Martin. Martin had a .779 OPS for St. Lucie while Butera, considered more of a defensive player, had struggled in AA hitting only .188. In Castillo, a three-time All Star and former......

Mets 5, Nationals 0 (5 innings): John Maine lasted five innings. Normally that wouldn't that be that good, but then the rains came, the game was called 90 minutes later and Maine had a complete-game one-hitter. Don't look past Maine's battery-mate, Ramon Castro, who went 2-for-2 with a home run and has looked great when he's seen the time. Would the Mets be a better team with him as the regular catcher and Paul......