New York Yankees | The New York Observer

Crime Waves: Pitchers, Commissioners, Carters

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:53:31 -0500

Yesterday, police raided two drug gangs based in South Bronx housing projects, seizing guns, drugs, and cash. They made 37 arrests, and charged 53 people altogether.

Both the The Times and the Daily News lead with the projects' proximity to Yankee Stadium: less than a mile. They're following police commissioner Raymond Kelly's lead in tying the bust to baseball. From the Daily News:

"The residents of the Bronx have a couple of reasons to be happy...

Baseball and the Heart of New York City

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:43:00 -0500

My parents moved to Brooklyn in 1955 when I was almost two years old, and by the time I was four, the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants had played their last home games in the five boroughs. Until Casey Stengel and the Mets arrived in 1962, the only baseball team in town was the New York Yankees. It was during that time, while the Yankees held a monopoly on New York baseball, that ...

Subway Series Time, But the Real Action Is in Philadelphia

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:55:16 -0400

Memo to Major League Baseball: Next season, if you want to put the Yankees-Mets series center stage, don’t schedule the games immediately after the Yankees play the Red Sox and the Mets play the Phillies. No Yankees-Mets series could ever be meaningless, but the one that starts tonight comes as close to feeling anticlimactic as any series played in mid-June.

The Mets are in worse shape than the Yankees, but ought to feel...

Wood War: Who Wins Today's Grabby Tabloid Battle For Your Eyeballs?

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 07:40:17 -0400

Daily News: Wow. It looks like the News got its hands on Sports Illustrated reporter Selena Roberts' long anticipated book about Alex Rodriguez. You'll remember Ms. Roberts as the reporter who broke the story in February that a few years ago, in an anonymous, voluntary test, Mr. Rodriguez had “tested positive for two anabolic steroids” during his 2003 season playing for the Texas Rangers, according to four independent sources. “This is the biggest news...

Wood War! Who Wins Today's Grabby Tabloid Battle For Your Eyeballs?

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 09:18:27 -0400

First, a little bit of business! You can now find a page of nothing but Wood War on the Observer web site! Bookmark this special Wood War Page link.

New York Post: The first great big summer blockbuster is here! And though this morning is a little springy for it, Lou Lumenick was getting pretty hot yesterday as he wrote his review. The Post gives the movie a banner over the top of its front...

What Is It With the Yankees and Phil Hughes?

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 15:45:55 -0400

Jacoby Ellsbury’s steal of home in Sunday night’s game – with New York third baseman Cody Ransom standing so far away from Ellsbury that he couldn’t have identified him in a police lineup -- didn’t end the season for the New York Yankees, but if things continue like this for much longer, Yankee fans will look back on it as if it had.

This team is a $200 million mess with several...

Wood War: Who Wins Today's Grabby Tabloid Battle For Your Eyeballs?

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 09:55:40 -0400

Daily News: We've been counseling the Daily News not to fear overdoing the Craigslist Killer piece this week, but we fear the paper has proven us wrong. Today's front page promises "EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS" and offers one of them: the accused murderer caught in a candid in a sort of party fist-pump in front of some kitchen cabinets! These are wild crazy times! "JEKYLL & HYDE" reads the main headline, then: "Wild College times of...

Wood War! Who Wins Today's Grabby Tabloid Battle For Your Eyeballs?

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 08:22:23 -0400

Daily News: Hey, Madonna's not looking so hot on the cover of the Daily News this morning, is she? That is undoubtedly because the photo on the cover was shot by a News photographer who managed to get the singer, who is recuperating from a fall off a horse at the photographer Steven Klein's Hamptons farm, walking along the beach in Amagansett. To look at today's New York Post you'd think that nobody had...

Wood War! Who Wins Today's Grabby Tabloid Battle For Your Eyeballs?

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 08:52:28 -0400

New York Post: It's always a nice idea to give fans a double-truck cover—that is, to use the front and back cover of the newspaper as a single image that can be pulled off the paper and tacked into that fabricky divider next to your desk at work. We don't think too many Yankees fans will be doing that this morning, though. The Post chooses a photo with Derek Jeter standing rather heroically at...

Wood War! Who Wins Today's Grabby Tabloid Battle For Your Eyeballs?

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 08:26:38 -0400

Daily News: There are exceptions to every rule. Today, I'd like to address the issue, which we've brought up before, of coming in close on faces. It's almost always a good idea! But this morning's Daily News takes things a bit far. It's obvious enough why they chose this picture: the city's new Archbishop, Timothy Dolan, is posing with a proudly displayed framed copy of yesterday's Daily News, on which he also starred.

Yesterday, St....

Wood War! Who Wins Today's Grabby Tabloid Battle For Your Eyeballs?

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 09:04:55 -0400

The New York Post: All the troops look pretty thrilled that Barack Obama paid them a surprise visit. Sure beats all that Bette Midler-USO crap! Look at all the digital cameras they pulled out! Barack Obama may be all wrong for the military (GITMO!) but when he pays a visit, it pays. The Post knows this, and will not pass up the opportunity to devote cautiously allotted column inches (and real estate on the...

Wood War! Who Wins Today's Grabby Tabloid Battle For Your Eyeballs?

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 08:05:50 -0400

Daily News: Jiverly Wong's letter declaring his intention to commit mass murder in Binghamton was meant to be released to the media: It was to News 10 Now in Syracuse that he delivered it before he murdered 13 people, in an apparent response to paranoid impulses, given the contents of the letter. But this letter was no Unabomber manifesto, the ramblings of an unholy fool destined for tragedy; it's the sad and quite coherent...

Wood War! Who Wins Today's Grabby Tabloid Battle For Your Eyeballs?

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 07:53:55 -0400

The New York Post: Gloria Vanderbilt is 85 years old, and she has written an erotic novel that is giving Post columnist Andrea Peyser the vapors. "Gloria is a dirty old lady," the display reads over a picture of Ms. Vanderbilt from her glory days as a designer. That it's a Ms. Peyser affair inside isn't flagged, so front-page readers won't feel the disappointment when they get to the story and find that Ms....

The Yankees' Transition to a Pitching Team Is Complete

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 12:06:57 -0400

Just two years ago, the 2007 New York Yankees reached the playoffs with 94 victories despite a mediocre pitching staff, because the offense averaged six runs per game. The 2009 edition should reach a similar level of success, but it is likely to happen because of, not despite, their pitching.

This season, it is the lineup that is filled with question marks. Fortunately for the Yankees, a starting rotation loaded...

Wood War! Who Wins Today's Grabby Tabloid Battle For Your Eyeballs?

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 08:54:55 -0400

Daily News: Did you know that Barack Obama, when he goes to Europe, is “The Fonz”? That thumbs-up pose he's doing on the cover of the Daily News, and the faces of Silvio Berlusconi and Dmitry Medvedev smiling (with a little nudge from the display copy, the smiles certainly could look sycophantic, Ralph and Pottsie style), seems to be what suggested the headline “HAPPY DAYS” to the editors. Above the main headline is a...

Wood War! Who Wins Today's Grabby Tabloid Battle For Your Eyeballs? (UPDATED!)

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 08:38:52 -0400

The New York Post: Last night, the President and First Lady arrived in England, bringing along hundreds of security guards and lots of vials of Barack Obama's blood. No, this isn't some kind of remake of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, though the British press is trying to play it that way. And that's a lot of what you get when you turn inside to read the story in today's Post, flagged on the...

Wood War! Who Wins Today's Grabby Tabloid Battle For Your Eyeballs?

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 08:22:01 -0400

Daily News: “AUTOCRAT!” The word was first used to describe Napoleon more than 200 years ago, and my how it's grown! But there is a pun here: President Obama is setting policy for American auto-makers that are benefiting from government bailout money. It's actually pretty nice, except that the overall tone of the article (which begins with the line “Would you buy a new car from this man?” next to a picture of the...

Time for Honesty About the Great Derek Jeter

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 21:57:53 -0400

My father used to clip columns from a popular New York sportswriter named Jimmy Cannon that, in his old age, he enjoyed reading to me. His favorites were about heroes of his youth who were now at their crossroads. They all had leads which read something like this: “You’re Robin Roberts, and though it works for you no longer, you’re still trying to win with the style that once brought you glory ...” ...

Yanks Make a Half-Hearted Offer, Torre Era Ends

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 23:22:48 -0400

The Joe Torre era in New York is over.

Explaining that it was “time for the New York Yankees to move forward,” team President Randy Levine announced in an Oct. 18 conference call Thursday that Torre had rejected a one-year deal with a base salary of $5 million to pilot the Yankees in 2008.

Under the terms of the offer the team says it made to him, Torre, who made a base salary of $7.5 million...

Yankees Eliminated, Bell Tolls for Torre

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 07:37:41 -0400

What happened at Yankee Stadium last night, after the Yankees lost to the Indians 6-4 in the fourth game of the American League division series and the fans were filing mournfully out of the stadium?

George Steinbrenner, the Yankees' principal owner, who had tied Torre's future to the outcome of this series, was said to be fuming in his office and left without taking questions, ushered away by his daughter.

In his postgame news conference, Torre...

The Problem Is Pitching, Not Management

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 07:27:22 -0400

The Yankees’ winter unofficially began at 10:19 P.M. Monday night. Trailing 6-2, with runners at the corners and one out, a capacity Yankee Stadium crowd was silenced when Derek Jeter grounded into an inning-ending double play.

New York eventually fell to Cleveland 6-4, falling short of getting to the World Series there for the fourth straight year and making it seven years without a championship.

Fans and owner George Steinbrenner will be looking for scapegoats,...

Living or Dying by Offense

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 08:43:40 -0400

Though they showed signs of holding the Yankees in check early, asking Indians pitchers Jake Westbrook and Aaron Fultz to keep the Yankees away from the big innings proved to be futile, while the collapse of pitching icon Roger Clemens was rendered irrelevant thanks to the heroics 21-year-old Phil Hughes.

The 8-4 win by the Yankees, which averted a three-game sweep by Cleveland, was typical stuff for a team that scored 968 times this...

Yankees Save Their Skins With Victory Over Indians

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 07:28:05 -0400

The Yankees saved their skins—and by some accounts, their manager Joe Torre—when they rallied past a two-run deficit and Roger Clemens’ injured hamstring to beat the Cleveland Indians last night at Yankee Stadium 8 to 4.

Johnny Damon, who put the Yankees to sleep three Octobers ago with a grand slam as a Red Sox leadoff hitter, woke up the masses with a three-run homer that shook the Stadium and escorted the Yankees to an...

Yankees Aced

Thu, 04 Oct 2007 22:45:55 -0400

With runners at first and second and one out, already leading 1-0, the script must have seemed familiar to the Yankees, who are used to jumping all over pitchers.

But they don’t often face pitchers the caliber of C.C. Sabathia, who struck out Jorge Posada, and induced a weak groundout from Hideki Matsui.

The Yankees have not had a pitcher as effective as Sabathia for quite some time—a period of time, incidentally, that coincides with their...

Big Yin Buys Big Apartment for $3.85 M.

Sun, 01 Apr 2007 20:00:00 -0400

Despite his illustriously shaggy hair and dirty mouth, sexagenarian Scottish comedian Billy Connolly isn’t (yet) a humor icon in America. Maybe that will change for New Yorkers: He and his wife Pamela, a comedienne turned psychotherapist, have bought an apartment in the Flatiron district. According to city records, they paid $3.85 million for a 10th-story loft at 105 Fifth Avenue. Century-old arched oak windows skirt the 2,900-square-foot co-op’s main space, making for bright semi-circle...

The Train Station That Ruth Didn't Build

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 10:29:01 -0400

It always seemed like a funny trick to get support for the new Yankee Stadium: build a new Metro North station nearby, not with the Yankees' money, mind you, but with the public's. Unfortunately, the $45 million that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority had set aside for the project, which was supposed to start this spring, is not nearly enough. Try $80 million instead. All of which, Real Estate Weekly reports in its March 21...

Where the Air Is Rarefied

Sun, 18 Mar 2007 20:00:00 -0400

Look, you can see Britney Spears’ former penthouse,” said real-estate agent Adam Modlin, pointing out one of 50 windows at the triplex penthouse at 704 Broadway. That long greenhouse? “No, no, look—five windows in. It’s the top three floors under the roof and the glass on top …. I sold it last year for $4 million.” The apartment Mr. Modlin was currently showing has been on the market on and off since 2002, originally...

Angry Sportscaster Keith Olbermann Has Piazza's Bat—And Is Keeping It!

Sun, 18 Mar 2007 20:00:00 -0400

As spring training turns serious and the Mets and the Yankees limber their hamstrings in the Land of the Pregnant Chad, the sportscaster Keith Olbermann will now clear up a couple of baseball related items: 1. She’s fine. 2. No, he’s not giving it back. “She” is Mr. Olbermann’s mother, Marie, who was memorably bonked between the eyes by an errant throw made by Yankees second baseman Chuck Knoblauch last June. Such an event may...

The Tishman and Speyer Families

Sun, 17 Dec 2006 19:00:00 -0500

The Speyer family does everything fabulously, and the only reason you don’t hear more about them is that they are fabulously modest. (They are also fabulously rich.)

They collect art by artists whose names are still not widely known. Father Jerry is a policy whiz and the confidant of city mayors. Son and heir apparent Rob used to be a crack newspaper reporter. The mother, Katherine Farley, just took over the ailing Lincoln...

The Tishman and Speyer Families

Sun, 17 Dec 2006 19:00:00 -0500

The Speyer family does everything fabulously, and the only reason you don’t hear more about them is that they are fabulously modest. (They are also fabulously rich.) They collect art by artists whose names are still not widely known. Father Jerry is a policy whiz and the confidant of city mayors. Son and heir apparent Rob used to be a crack newspaper reporter. The mother, Katherine Farley, just took over the ailing Lincoln Center...

The Wilpon and Steinbrenner Families

Sun, 17 Dec 2006 19:00:00 -0500

Amid the frustration and heartbreak in the Mets locker room after Game 7 of the National League Championship Series—the end of an illustrious season—the team owner, Fred Wilpon, made the briefest of appearances. Looking withered and ghostly, he peeked over the shoulder of his general manager, Omar Minaya, saw that all was under control and promptly vanished. By contrast, his son Jeff—the future owner of the New York Mets—had seemed to be everywhere throughout...

The Boies Family

Sun, 17 Dec 2006 19:00:00 -0500

On a recent afternoon, David Boies, 65, and his son Christopher, 38, pulled up chairs for an interview in the firm’s glossy new Manhattan offices on Lexington Avenue. “DB,” as he is known in the office, was adrift in a baggy navy suit and suede walking shoes. Christopher, who shares his father’s sharp turquoise eyes and ruddy cheeks, looked like the banker he once was, in gleaming penny loafers, cuffed gray slacks and a...

No, No, No. Yes. The Mayor's Curious Evolution on Public Money for Private Real Estate

Sun, 10 Dec 2006 19:00:00 -0500

Mayor Bloomberg came into office vowing to end corporate welfare as we know it. And he did.

Unless your name is George Steinbrenner, Hank Paulson or Hank McKinnell. On his first day as Mayor-elect, Mr. Bloomberg renounced the property- and sales-tax breaks that his own media company received for its 59th Street headquarters. “Any company that makes a decision as to where they are going to be based on the tax rate,”...

Hillary and the Cat

Sun, 10 Dec 2006 19:00:00 -0500

Hillary Clinton called Representative Eliot Engel on Monday morning to ask him to support her potential candidacy for President of the United States. “She essentially asked me if she were to do this, she would hope that she would have my support,” said Mr. Engel. “I told her she would.” In a half-hour conversation, the two asked after each other’s spouses, joked about taking full Spanish-immersion lessons together and reminisced about thrashing their primary...

No, No, No. Yes. The Mayor’s Curious Evolution on Public Money for Private Real Estate

Sun, 10 Dec 2006 19:00:00 -0500

Mayor Bloomberg came into office vowing to end corporate welfare as we know it. And he did. Unless your name is George Steinbrenner, Hank Paulson or Hank McKinnell. On his first day as Mayor-elect, Mr. Bloomberg renounced the property- and sales-tax breaks that his own media company received for its 59th Street headquarters. “Any company that makes a decision as to where they are going to be based on the tax rate,” he...

Puff Daddy's Black and White Ball '98

Sun, 03 Dec 2006 19:00:00 -0500

Sean (Puffy) Combs was on the phone from a yacht in the Bahamas, and he was laughing.

“When Penny Marshall comes to my joints, she gets buck wild!” Mr. Combs said with admiration in his polite voice. “Every time she comes to one of my parties, she gets … ” he paused, then continued excitedly, “Penny Marshall stopped the music and sang ‘Happy Birthday.’ She spent the night at the house in the Hamptons...

Puff Daddy's Black and White Ball '98

Sun, 03 Dec 2006 19:00:00 -0500

Sean (Puffy) Combs was on the phone from a yacht in the Bahamas, and he was laughing. “When Penny Marshall comes to my joints, she gets buck wild!” Mr. Combs said with admiration in his polite voice. “Every time she comes to one of my parties, she gets … ” he paused, then continued excitedly, “Penny Marshall stopped the music and sang ‘Happy Birthday.’ She spent the night at the house in the Hamptons...

Tuesday: The Whitney Dumps Renzo; Damon Dumps Boston; Will New Yorkers Dump Westchester?

Tue, 31 Oct 2006 03:30:23 -0500

Mr. $5 million [AP] The cost of single-family homes in pretty little Westchester has hit a record high. And that's bad news, obviously, because it's inevitably all downhill from here. (And because there's going to be the first year-to-year decrease in sales since the elder Bush administration.) (AP/NY Daily News) Jay McInerney is leaving his lady friend's 72nd Street apartment for the Village, but first he's going to hit up "all the Upper East Side...

Urban Legend Rudy Drops Into Flyover Land

Sun, 15 Oct 2006 20:00:00 -0400

These days, Rudolph Giuliani is not coy about running for President.

“I would have to say, from my point of view, the reception has been very encouraging and the polls have been very encouraging,” said Mr. Giuliani as a crowd of fans grew around him—many of them holding “Giuliani for President 2008” flyers for him to autograph. Mr. Giuliani was holding court in the clubhouse of Chandler’s Golf Club in Schaumburg, Ill. He...

Corey Lidle Dies In Plane Crash

Wed, 11 Oct 2006 13:17:17 -0400

Corey Lidle and his plane.
The New York Times is now carrying official police identification of one of two bodies found at the scene of today's airplane crash as Yankees pitcher Corey Lidle. CNN had reported: New York Yankees Manager Joe Torre told CNN that the plane that was a Cirrus SR-20 registered to team pitcher Cory...

The Crash: Update

Wed, 11 Oct 2006 13:03:00 -0400

From ESPN:

New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle was the pilot of a small airplane that crashed into a 50-story condominium in Manhattan, and Lidle is one of two confirmed...

Once in a Lifetime

Sun, 08 Oct 2006 20:00:00 -0400

By the time Todd Zeile dug in his foot to keep from overrunning second base, 55,695 fans at Shea Stadium were standing, screaming, shouting, laughing. Three runners had crossed the plate thanks to Mr. Zeile’s double, and the Mets were ahead 6-0 in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series. Mr. Zeile’s two-strike rocket made the end inevitable. As the Cardinals made a pitching change, the high-pitched roar gave way to a sustained...

We Like Mike

Sun, 08 Oct 2006 20:00:00 -0400

Michael Bloomberg says he is not running for President in 2008. We’ll take him at his word, and with good reason. After nearly five years as Mayor, Mr. Bloomberg has given few reasons for us to question whether he means what he says. But when he gets a moment to ponder the future, he ought to think about why people consider him possible Presidential material. Five years ago, he was a political unknown. Now...

Once in a Lifetime

Sun, 08 Oct 2006 20:00:00 -0400

Time's True Progenitor- Luce's Rival Resurrected

Sun, 01 Oct 2006 20:00:00 -0400

Time Inc. was in trouble. Two men with very different visions for its future fought for control of the company, and even as the company dipped its toe, gingerly, into new media, a big financial downturn was headed its way before the year was out. No, not 2006—things looked far worse for the company in February 1929, when the fledgling media company was also faced with the sudden death of the talented...

Editorials

Sun, 24 Sep 2006 20:00:00 -0400

Anti-Semite Fulani Fleeces the City

Last week, the city approved tax-exempt bond financing for a nonprofit arts group that was founded by Lenora Fulani, a flagrant anti-Semite, and Fred Newman, a quack psychologist who’s admitted that he’s had intimate relationships with women who came to him for therapy. The votes on the panel that approved the financing are controlled by Mayor Michael Bloomberg. What’s going on here? The answer: cynicism and unprincipled...

Editorials

Sun, 24 Sep 2006 20:00:00 -0400

Anti-Semite Fulani Fleeces the City Last week, the city approved tax-exempt bond financing for a nonprofit arts group that was founded by Lenora Fulani, a flagrant anti-Semite, and Fred Newman, a quack psychologist who’s admitted that he’s had intimate relationships with women who came to him for therapy. The votes on the panel that approved the financing are controlled by Mayor Michael Bloomberg. What’s going on here? The answer: cynicism and unprincipled ambition. The...

Fall In, Scamps!

Sun, 10 Sep 2006 20:00:00 -0400

Welcome back, gang!

Now put away the flip-flops and seersucker—it’s time to stop the screwin’ around and get down to the business. After all, it’s New York in September, and we may be on the verge of the second Subway Series of the 21st century. But first the leggy locusts of Fashion Week have to swarm through the city, shunning the pigs in blankets, but dining off the backs of hogs in suits....

Fall In, Scamps!

Sun, 10 Sep 2006 20:00:00 -0400

Welcome back, gang! Now put away the flip-flops and seersucker—it’s time to stop the screwin’ around and get down to the business. After all, it’s New York in September, and we may be on the verge of the second Subway Series of the 21st century. But first the leggy locusts of Fashion Week have to swarm through the city, shunning the pigs in blankets, but dining off the backs of hogs in suits....

Eliot and Hillary in Pinstripes

Mon, 28 Aug 2006 11:07:57 -0400

What baseball analogies best describe the players in this political season (which seems to be ending prematurely)? Jay Gallagher of Gannett News Service solves the mystery!

"Eliot Spitzer is to New York politics what the New York Yankees are to major-league baseball: they're both winning big, but they're taking the fun out of their...