New York Yankees Day! [J. Mark English]

From Connor Ennis, of the New York Times:

Thousands of people streamed into Lower Manhattan on Friday to help the Yankees celebrate their 27th World Series championship with a ticker-tape parade.

It was the Yankees’ first return to the Canyon of Heroes since their last title, in 2000.

The parade started at 11 a.m. at Battery Park Place and finished roughly two hours later at City Hall Park, where Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg gave the team keys to the city.

For the Yankees and many of their fans, the parade was a long-awaited celebration, especially after the team’s success in the 1990s.

“It’s been too long, hasn’t it?” Derek Jeter said from the dais at City Hall. He was answered by loud cheers.

People began lining the streets early in the morning — with crowds as large as 20 people deep in some spots — and toilet paper and confetti littered the streets hours before the official festivities began. Construction workers took in the view while standing above the crowd on scaffolding.

Yogi Berra was among the participants, drawing cheers as he sat in a convertible that was near the lead of the parade. Mayor Bloomberg joined Manager Joe Girardi on the lead float, which also featured the World Series trophy.

The mayor’s office said that it expected anywhere from 500,000 to 1 million people to attend the parade. Performers like the cast of the Broadway hit “Jersey Boys” were scheduled to entertain the crowd at City Hall. It will be a rare day of celebration in an area of the city that has been severely affected by the economic downturn.

Hal Steinbrenner, the managing general partner of the Yankees, called it “a magical day.”

Public officials, both current (Senator Charles E. Schumer, Gov. David A. Paterson) and former (Mayors Edward I. Koch and Rudolph W. Giuliani), took part in the parade, while the hip-hop star Jay-Z stood next to Alex Rodriguez on one of the floats. He later performed his song “Empire State of Mind” on stage to conclude the ceremony.

One of those not in attendance was the Yankees’ principal owner, George Steinbrenner, who is in ill health.

“You think about the Boss,” the former Yankee Reggie Jackson said. “I wish he was here.”

Mayor Bloomberg presented Hal Steinbrenner with a key for his father, calling him “the biggest Yankee of them all.”

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Here is a look back at the first ticker tape parade ever:



Also, have you ever been curious as to how a ticker tape parade ever came to be?

Here is a bit from wikipedia:

A ticker-tape parade is a parade event held in a downtown urban setting, allowing the jettison of large amounts of shredded paper products from nearby office buildings onto the parade route, creating a celebratory effect by the snowstorm-like flurry.

The term originated in New York City after a spontaneous celebration held on October 29, 1886 during the dedication of the Statue of Liberty, and is still most closely associated with New York City. The term ticker-tape originally referred to the use of the paper output of ticker tape machines, which were remotely-driven devices used in brokerages to provide updated stock market quotes. Nowadays, the paper products are largely waste office paper that have been cut using conventional paper shredders. The city also distributes paper confetti.^[1]

In New York City, ticker-tape parades are reserved for special occasions. Soon after the first such parade in 1886, city officials realized the utility of such events and began to hold them on triumphal occasions, such as the return of Theodore Roosevelt from his African safari, and Charles Lindbergh's trans-Atlantic flight. Following World War II, several ticker tape parades were given in honor of victorious generals and admirals, including General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Admiral Chester Nimitz. The largest was given for World War II and Korean War General Douglas MacArthur in 1951.

Through the 1950s, ticker-tape parades were commonly given to any visiting head of state, such as Habib Bourguiba representing the fight over colonialism. In the 1960s, following the assassination of John F. Kennedy, they became increasingly rare.

They are generally reserved now for space exploration triumphs, military honors and sports championships. The section of lower Broadway through the Financial District that serves as the parade route for these events is colloquially called the "Canyon of Heroes". Lower Broadway in New York City has plaques in the sidewalk at regular intervals to celebrate each of the city's ticker-tape parades.

Many famous ticker tape parade celebrate sporting events such the Giants winning the Super Bowl in 2008 and the Yankees winning the World Series in 2009

2009 World Series: Various Perspectives Following Game Five [J. Mark English]

• Bob Ford, Philadelphia Inquirer: Now comes the hard part....Monday night's World Series win over the New York Yankees was hardly a sure thing, but it was the surest card the Phillies had in their hand as they attempt to play their way out of the deep hole they dug in the first four games of the series....Cliff Lee settled down after a shaky first inning, got some run support and was able to pitch aggressively against the Yankees. The only reliable starter left in the makeshift rotation wasn't as sharp as he was in the opener, but he didn't have to be. New York hasn't been able to hit him consistently, but, in all likelihood, won't get a chance to prove that again....Whatever carryover momentum they hope to take with them will become moot at approximately 8 p.m. tomorrow night when Game 6 begins. After that, it's all up to the starting pitchers to provide the advantages and disadvantages. The Phillies will feel a little better about their chances (having awakened still having some), but everything that follows rides on what they can get from Pedro Martinez in the first game back in Yankee Stadium and whatever mix-and-match special Charlie Manuel dials up for Game 7.

• Harvey Araton, New York Times: Aided by his bat and an astute apology, Alex Rodriguez is ending the baseball season not as a former steroids user but as a home run hero. In the process, he may be clearing a path forward for himself and his much-maligned sport...This may go down as the season that the fans forgave baseball — or perhaps just grew tired of worrying about performance-enhancing drugs. Rodriguez and Andy Pettitte, two high-profile Yankees stars who were exposed as past users, are shining in the 2009 World Series....Until recently, players accused of cheating selected from two popular options: vehemently deny, as Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens have chosen, or remain silent, as McGwire has. But beginning with the admission last season by Pettitte that he had used human growth hormone, a third option has emerged: quickly apologize and move on....“Obviously, success on the field has helped, but isn’t it something how they beautifully and effectively transcended their humiliation?” said Richard Emery, one of the lawyers representing Brian McNamee, the physical trainer who cited Pettitte and Clemens in George J. Mitchell’s investigation into steroids for Major League Baseball.

• Lee Jenkins, Sports Illustrated: The biggest catchphrase in this World Series, besides instant replay of course, is short rest. Who's getting it? Who's giving it? Who's refusing it? Charlie Manuel did not ask Cliff Lee to pitch on short rest in Game 4 and the Phillies lost. Joe Girardi did ask A.J. Burnett to pitch on short rest in Game 5 and the Yankees lost. Both managers exposed themselves to criticism even though they made exact opposite moves...The problem was not with their decision-making. It was with their reluctance to reverse those decisions when the circumstances changed. After the Phillies lost Game 3, they had to win Game 4 to stay afloat, but Manuel still stuck with Joe Blanton over Lee. After the Yankees took Game 4, they no longer needed Game 5, but Girardi still went with Burnett on three days rest. It was the bold call, an attempt to press the action and ride the momentum, but given the Yankees 3-1 lead, it was completely unnecessary....In their haste to close the door on the Phillies, the Yankees have left it cracked. Burnett gave up six runs in two innings Monday night, making the case against short rest in an 8-6 loss. Now the Yankees will likely ask Pettittte to do what Burnett could not. While Burnett is in his prime, Pettitte is 37, has not pitched on short rest in three years, and is 4-6 with a 4.15 earned run average when he has tried it in the regular season...The Yankees are gambling heavily in a series that should have been a sure thing. If Pettitte falters in Game 6 on Wednesday against Pedro Martinez -- yes, the self-proclaimed "old goat" is back -- the Yankees will still have Sabathia for Game 7. Sabathia is more comfortable than most on short rest, but even he was not as dominant as usual Sunday night, giving up three runs in 6 1/3 innings. Short rest takes a toll on everyone.

WS Game 1: Cliff Lee Dazzles; Rollins Spot On [J. Mark English]

Following last nights dazzling performance by Cliff Lee of the Philadelphia Phillies, I offer up a reactions from journalists of both cities:

Phil Sheridan of the Philadelphia Inquirer: Cliff Lee is the coolest man in baseball.

There he was, pitching in the first World Series game of his life, and the first ever at the new Yankee Stadium. Derek Jeter, a future Hall of Famer who has played nearly a full season's worth of October games, slapped a base hit up the middle in the bottom of the sixth, the Phillies ahead by two runs. Fifty thousand New York fans leaned forward, eager for the Yankees rally that was sure to follow.

How many times had it started this way, with Jeter finding his way on base and his teammates taking some poor pitcher apart?

So here was Johnny Damon, as capable of tying the game with a home run as hitting behind Jeter and getting the rally going. Ball one. Ball two. A hitter's count. Damon fouled off a pitch, took a called strike. Another foul, then another.

Lee, working fast as always, fired the 2-2 pitch and Damon swung. The ball ticked off the handle of the bat and arced back toward Lee, a little pop-up.

And Cliff Lee, the coolest man in baseball, held his glove waist-high and let the ball drop into it. He caught it as casually as if he were getting a new baseball from the plate umpire, then cracked his gum for punctuation.

"I caught it, he was out," Lee said with a grin. "To be successful at this level, you've got to be confident. You've got to go out there and believe you're going to get everybody out. I try not to go over the edge and rub things in and be cocky."

Oh, and then he got Mark Teixeira and his $180 million bat to ground out weakly to second base. End of another inning, easy as you please.

The Phillies won Game 1 of the 2009 World Series, beating the mighty Yankees' hefty lefty ace and seizing homefield advantage. And they were able to do it because Lee pitched the toughest lineup in Major League Baseball like he was working a B game in spring training.

William C. Rhoden of the New York Times: Jorge Posada was stoic Tuesday afternoon as reporters flocked around, eagerly awaiting a response to the first salvo of World Series trash talk.

The catalyst was — surprise — Jimmy Rollins, the Phillies’ lightning-rod shortstop. On the “Jay Leno Show,” of all places, Rollins had predicted that Philadelphia would do more than defeat the Yankees in the Series, which began Wednesday night. He said that the Phillies would emphatically roll right over the Bronx Bombers, and they started out with a 6-1 victory in Game 1.

“Of course we’re going to win,” Rollins told Leno. Then, as if to make sure he had created a stir, Rollins added: “If we’re nice, we’ll let it go six. But I’m thinking five. Close it out at home.”

Rollins’s comments predictably set off a knee-jerk reaction around New York on Tuesday and created a distraction on a rain-soaked workout day for both teams. In the past, Rollins made extemporaneous predictions in his clubhouse or on the field. In this instance, Leno gave Rollins a grander, more calculated stage on which to be provocative. The talk show host cast the bait, and Rollins happily took it, which leads to legitimate questions as to whether Rollins really believed what he said or was just going Hollywood.

Or maybe he was really trying to get inside the Yankees’ head. “He’s been Nostradamus, that’s what I heard,” Posada said. “So we’ve got to take that away from him.”...

....But in Game 1 on Wednesday night, Rollins was more quiet than he was with Leno until the eighth inning, when he started a two-run rally with a walk and a stolen base. In the ninth, he added an infield single and scored. And Howard was right: the crowd booed Rollins loudly.

What was interesting about his latest prediction is that some Yankees fans reacted indignantly. It’s almost as though this is 2000 and the Yankees are the defending champions and the Phillies are The Little Engine That Could facing the Yankees’ mighty freight train.

In fact, the Yankees do not even have quite the home-field advantage they used to enjoy. Although the Yankees were 57-24 in their first season in the new Yankee Stadium, it is not the intimidating place that the old one was, where so many visiting teams got the shakes. This new stadium has no memories yet, no haunting veneer. It is a flashy billion-dollar building waiting for its first championship.

Dementia Risks Connected with NFL [J. Mark English]

Alan Schwarz of the New York Times reports on the recent studies connecting Dimentia to many former NFL players:

A study commissioned by the National Football League reports that Alzheimer’s disease or similar memory-related diseases appear to have been diagnosed in the league’s former players vastly more often than in the national population — including a rate of 19 times the normal rate for men ages 30 through 49.

The N.F.L. has long denied the existence of reliable data about cognitive decline among its players. These numbers would become the league’s first public affirmation of any connection, though the league pointed to limitations of this study.

The findings could ring loud at the youth and college levels, which often take cues from the N.F.L. on safety policies and whose players emulate the pros. Hundreds of on-field concussions are sustained at every level each week, with many going undiagnosed and untreated.

A detailed summary of the N.F.L. study, which was conducted by the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research, was distributed to league officials this month.

The study has not been peer-reviewed, but the findings fall into step with several recent independent studies regarding N.F.L. players and the effects of their occupational head injuries.

“This is a game-changer — the whole debate, the ball’s now in the N.F.L.’s court,” said Dr. Julian Bailes, the chairman of the department of neurosurgery at the West Virginia University School of Medicine, and a former team physician for the Pittsburgh Steelers whose research found similar links four years ago. “They always say, ‘We’re going to do our own studies.’ And now they have.”

Sean Morey, an Arizona Cardinals player who has been vocal in supporting research in this area, said: “This is about more than us — it’s about the high school kid in 2011 who might not die on the field because he ignored the risks of concussions.”

An N.F.L. spokesman, Greg Aiello, said in an e-mail message that the study did not formally diagnose dementia, that it was subject to shortcomings of telephone surveys and that “there are thousands of retired players who do not have memory problems.”

“Memory disorders affect many people who never played football or other sports,” Mr. Aiello said. “We are trying to understand it as it relates to our retired players.”

As scrutiny of brain injuries in football players has escalated the past three years, with prominent professionals reporting cognitive problems and academic studies supporting a link more generally, the N.F.L. and its medical committee on concussions have steadfastly denied the existence of reliable data on the issue. The league pledged to pursue its own studies, including the one at the University of Michigan.

Dr. Ira Casson, a co-chairman of the concussions committee who has been the league’s primary voice denying any evidence connecting N.F.L. football and dementia, said: “What I take from this report is there’s a need for further studies to see whether or not this finding is going to pan out, if it’s really there or not. I can see that the respondents believe they have been diagnosed. But the next step is to determine whether that is so.”

The N.F.L. is conducting its own rigorous study of 120 retired players, with results expected within a few years. All neurological examinations are being conducted by Dr. Casson....

Big Fan the Movie [J. Mark English]

Over the last few months I've been hearing more and more about a movie that was released on August 28th, titled "Big Fan" starring Patton Oswalt, and directed by Robert Siegel. From what I hear it might relate to most fans of any sports franchise. It deals with someone who loves to call in to sports talk radio, and is obsessed with his favorite team, the New York Giants.

Here is the trailer:



Here you will find an interview between Steve Somers of WFAN and Robert Siegel the director of Big Fan:

http://www.wfan.com/topic/play_window.php?audioType=Episode&audioId=4044396

The movie gets an 88% rating from Rotten Tomatoes.

Here is a review from NY Times movie critic, Manohla Dargis:

The little man at the center of the spasmodically funny and bleak love story “Big Fan” doesn’t come with a halo slung over his head. His speeches are written in ballpoint with a heavy hand and delivered with bleats and bellows on the radio. (The words are so deeply inscribed on the page you could read them by touch.) He doesn’t come with a fanfare and, to judge by the square, squat cut of his jib, he’s an unlikely contender. He’s a regular guy or as close to regular as any 35-year-old can possibly be who sleeps under a poster of his favorite football star while tucked under a coverlet imprinted with the names of N.F.L. teams.

As its title suggests, “Big Fan” is about the love that speaks its name, though also often shrieks it in rock arenas, sports stadiums and other public places of worship. That love can be a beautiful, touching thing: I still remember John Belushi kindly taking the time to sign an autograph that I soon threw away. I just wanted the contact with someone I adored (and being a teenager, I had no idea of its possible market value). There’s a kind of grace in that kind of exchange, as the idol recognizes the supplicant and, if only during the seconds it takes to scrawl a name on a scrap of paper, comes down to earth with the rest of us.

An inability to recognize that love gives “Big Fan” its igniting moment. One evening while chowing down on pizza in Staten Island, two friends, Paul (Patton Oswalt) and Sal (Kevin Corrigan), notice Paul’s favorite Giants player, the fictional Quantrell Bishop (Jonathan Hamm), gassing up his S.U.V. Giddy with excitement, the friends start tailing Bishop. They spend much of their days and most of their solitary nights obsessing about the Giants, swapping stories about the team’s triumphs and defeats like war veterans, so following him seems natural, even if it means entering unknown territory like Manhattan. (Where, an incredulous Paul marvels, there are no parking spaces.) Then Bishop discovers he’s been shadowed and flies into a rage, unleashing all the furious energy that makes him so magnificent on the field.

Paul ends up in the hospital, his head wrapped in bandages. Much of what ensues involves his coming to painful terms with the horror of that violent night, a reckoning that upends his life and a favorite late-evening ritual: his calls into a local sports radio show. These broadcast interludes are the high point of his day, week, perhaps life, giving “Paul from Staten Island,” as he’s called, the chance to advocate on behalf of the Giants while trash-talking the competition. Reading from a notepad and pouring all his libidinal energy into the task, he drops statistics, predicts plays and taunts the enemy, his voice alive with swagger and heat. More than an enthusiast, he is a defender of the faith.

Coming soon, in Your Face! COWBOYS STADIUM! [J. Mark English]

Sunday night, the team that America either hates or loves will be treated to the sights of the new wonder of the world. Cowboys Stadium.

The Giants will play the roll of sacrificial lamb, like early Christians in the Roman Colosseum in the good old days.

These photos are from Larry W. Smith/European Pressphoto Agency:


























Nicolai Ouroussoff of the New York Times highlights this new 'mecca' or 'monstrosity':

Here’s one thing that can be said for the new Cowboys Stadium, where the Dallas Cowboys will play their first home game of the regular season on Sunday against the Giants: it’s not Mickey Mouse architecture.

With a $1.15 billion price tag and a flying saucer-like form, the stadium’s design mercifully avoids the aw-shucks, small-town look that has become common in many American stadiums over the years. There’s no brick cladding, no fake wrought ironwork, no infantilizing theme restaurants that seem as if they had been commissioned by Uncle Walt for the Happiest Place on Earth.

Still, Cowboys Stadium suffers from its own form of nostalgia: its enormous retractable roof, acres of parking and cavernous interiors are straight out of Eisenhower’s America, with its embrace of car culture and a grandiose, bigger-is-better mentality. The result is a somewhat crude reworking of old ideas, one that looks especially unoriginal when compared with the sophisticated and often dazzling stadiums that have been built in Europe and the Far East over the last few years. Worse for fans, its lounges and concourses are so sprawling that I suspect more than a few spectators will get lost and miss the second-half kickoff.

At one point, it looked as if the stadium might be built in a more contained urban setting. Jerry Jones, the team’s owner, considered situating it in Fair Park, a 277-acre park near downtown Dallas whose many Art Deco buildings, including the Cotton Bowl, were built for the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition. That location would not only have contributed to the revival of the park’s derelict landmarks, but it would also have helped spark the revitalization of one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods.

But the city rejected the plan as too costly, and Jones was forced to look farther afield, eventually settling on a generic suburban enclave midway between Dallas and Fort Worth, not far from the ballpark where the Texas Rangers play.

Compared with the retro brick facing and quaint castle towers of Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Cowboys Stadium, designed by HKS, which has its headquarters in Dallas, does have a certain boldness. Approached from Interstate 30, its massive dome brings to mind the simple geometries and aggressive modern aesthetic of Houston’s Astrodome and the Louisiana Superdome....

...At first, things seem more promising inside. Monumental concrete staircases and circulation ramps are situated near the four corners of the field. The ramps, which are some of the building’s most enjoyable architectural spaces, look broad enough to fit a pair of Cadillacs. Jones has also commissioned more than a dozen works by well-known contemporary artists for the stadium interiors, including a spectacularly colorful abstract composition by Franz Ackermann that decorates one of the staircases. But the vastness of the concourses, some of them 65 feet wide, can make you feel as if you are lost in an international airport terminal. And, as in almost every American stadium today, the seats are broken up by bands of glass-encased corporate suites. The glass can slide open so that wealthy patrons can feel connected to the action on the field — if not to the average fan. Some of the suites even take up prime real estate along the sidelines, a first for the N.F.L.

As it turns out, the biggest controversy so far about the stadium has to do with its supersize scale. The four-sided video board over the field is so big, and hangs so low, that a Tennessee punter hit it during a preseason game. It’s a nice irony that for all the space, there may not be enough room at Cowboys Stadium to play a game.

This morning on the Today Show, former Cowboy, Emmitt Smith gave a tour of the new stadium:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Baseball Helmets: Safety vs. Helmets [J. Mark English]

As athletes progress, so do safety features in sports equipment. Unfortunately sometimes the safe enhances in the technology of equipment does not always look appealing to athletes. The New York Times' David Waldstein examines this issue:

Three weeks after absorbing the potentially deadly impact of a 93-mile-per-hour fastball on his batting helmet, Edgar Gonzalez still feels dizzy whenever he lies down. Because of the lingering effects of a concussion, Gonzalez, a second baseman for the San Diego Padres, has not played since that experience. When he finally returns, it may be with the newest protective device that could one day come to define the look of a major league batter.

Rawlings is about to introduce its newest batting helmet, the S100, a bulkier but far more protective helmet that can withstand the impact of a 100-m.p.h. fastball, according to Rawlings and an independent testing organization. Most other models, when hit flush by a ball, are compromised at speeds in excess of 70 m.p.h.

As helpful as the new helmet may be, there is resistance to it from some major league players who are not prepared to sacrifice comfort and style for added protection. Gonzalez is not among them. “After this happened to me, I would wear anything,” he said. “I don’t care how goofy it is, as long as it could help protect me.”

Gonzalez and others who choose to wear the new model could become pioneers like Ron Santo, one of the first to wear a batting helmet with an earflap, or Jacques Plante, the first hockey goalie to wear a face mask on a regular basis.

Major league players are a fearless and traditional bunch, and for many any kind of change, even for the sake of safety, is anathema.

“No, I am absolutely not wearing that,” Mets right fielder Jeff Francoeur said with a laugh after seeing a prototype, as if he were being asked to put a pumpkin on his head. “I could care less what they say, I’m not wearing it. There’s got to be a way to have a more protective helmet without all that padding. It’s brutal. We’re going to look like a bunch of clowns out there.”

Among a small, informal sampling of players, several said they would likely stick with their current model, even though the S100 has been proven more effective in independent laboratory testing. In the eyes of some major league players, it’s just too bulky, too heavy and too geeky-looking.

“I want a helmet that’s comfortable,” Athletics infielder Nomar Garciaparra said, “and that doesn’t look bad.”

Yankee first baseman Mark Teixeira said the new helmet would make him feel as if he were wearing a football helmet in the batter’s box.

“The one I’ve used for my entire career is fine,” he said.

Decline of the Sox? Rise of the Yankees? [J. Mark English]

For the first time all season, the New York Yankees beat their rival, the Boston Redsox. The win cushioned their division lead to 3 1/2 games in the AL East. In the beginning of the season, few might have expected this reversal of fortunes. We look at a perspective of the Bosox from the Boston papers, and a perspective of the Yankees from NY papers:

Dan Shaughnessy, Boston Globe: Billy Traber on the mound. Kevin Youkilis in left. John Smoltz in the showers, possibly contemplating retirement.

And the Red Sox sinking like a stone in the American League East.

Not exactly what you had in mind for Boston’s big August series at the new Yankee Stadium, is it?

The Yankees presented Muhammad Ali with an award before last night’s game, and if the champ stuck around, he was probably reminded of his bloodbath victory over Ernie Terrell in the Astrodome in 1967.

Zero for 8 against their division brethren this year, the Yankees pummeled Smoltz and broke through with a 13-6 victory over the unraveling Sox.

Josh Beckett will be asked to stop the madness tonight. The Sons of Tito are 3 1/2 games behind the Bombers and only 2 1/2 ahead of Tampa Bay. Pass the brown paper bags. The Hub is on the brink of panic.

“We’re playing like [expletive] right now, that’s obvious,’’ said AL MVP Dustin Pedroia. “We’ve got to play better.’’

Clearly it’s time for Theo and the minions to Just Say No to the admirable Smoltz experiment. We’ve seen eight starts and Smoltz is 2-5 with an 8.33 ERA. The Yankees roughed him up for eight runs on nine hits and four walks in 3 1/3 innings. Lefty batters went 9 for 13 against Smoltz with three walks.

It doesn’t sound as if Smoltz is going to make it easy for the brass.

“It’s correctable,’’ said the 42-year-old righty, while admitting, “Time may not be on my side if this continues.’’

Continues? That would indicate that he’s getting another start. Though the alternatives are not good (Michael Bowden?), it’s hard to imagine the Sox sending Smoltz back to the mound Tuesday at Fenway against Detroit.

“We have a lot of things to talk about,’’ said Terry Francona. “I don’t think five minutes after a game we need to come to a conclusion.’’

------------------------------------

George Vecsey, New York Times: It was a great day for the Bronx. A Yankee fan from the borough, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, was confirmed for the Supreme Court by a 68-31 vote in the Senate. Whatever else transpired in her hometown on this day would surely be secondary.

Then, on a soft summer evening, the borough that gave the world the Bronx cheer greeted a citizen of the world, Muhammad Ali, making his first appearance in the House That Cable Built.

In his old age, and stricken with a form of Parkinson’s disease, Ali is an icon, the old divisions long forgotten by most. The fans applauded respectfully as he was driven in from the outfield in a golf cart, and Jorge Posada of the Yankees shook his hand on the outfield warning track.

As Ali walked slowly toward home plate, a few in the crowd chanted the familiar “Ah-LEE! Ah-LEE!” that used to rock boxing arenas and spontaneous street appearances by the champ in the old days.

The cheer in the new stadium was definitely not of the Bronx variety as Ali, 67, accepted something called the Six Star Diamond Award from the American Academy of Hospitality Service. Derek Jeter gave him a cap and the Yankees posed around him for a group photograph.

Then the game began. That’s right. The game. The Yankees were playing their rivals, the Red Sox, on the first visit by David Ortiz since recent revelations that he was on a list of ball players who tested positive for banned performance-enhancing drugs in 2003.

Yankee fans have been saying, Nyah, nyah, I told you so, since the news was revealed in The New York Times. Many of them had been convinced Ortiz had to be doping because of the ridges on his head, or the home runs he was suddenly smiting.

Video: Steve McNair Killed [J. Mark English]

More from Judy Battista and Chris Hine of the New York Times:

Steve McNair, the former N.F.L. quarterback who shared the league’s Most Valuable Player award in 2003, was found dead Saturday with a gunshot wound to the head, according to the Nashville police.

McNair, 36, and an unidentified woman were found dead with gunshot wounds Saturday afternoon inside a condominium in downtown Nashville, the police said. The Associated Press quoted a police spokesman saying that the woman was not McNair’s wife, Mechelle. The police also said they had tentatively identified the dead woman but were not releasing her name.

McNair played for the Tennessee Titans for 11 years, taking them within inches of overtime against the St. Louis Rams in the Super Bowl after the 1999 season. He retired before the 2008 season after playing for two years in Baltimore. In his 13-year career, he established himself as one of the best quarterbacks of his era and earned the nickname Air McNair.

“The N.F.L. has lost a brother, and I believe black quarterbacks have lost a pioneer,” said Jets linebacker Bart Scott, who played with McNair in Baltimore.

The Houston Oilers, who later moved to Tennessee, drafted McNair with the third overall pick in 1995 out of Alcorn State, a historically black college where McNair first displayed his dazzling ability to scramble or throw — and a toughness that pushed him to play through numerous injuries. Other players marveled at his grittiness, and in 1999, he returned from early-season back surgery to take the Titans to the Super Bowl.

The greatest stretch of his career may have occurred in the 2002 season, when McNair had so many injuries that he could not practice for two months. He led the Titans to five straight victories to finish the regular season before they lost in the American Football Conference championship game.

Phelps is Back After Suspension [J. Mark English]

Michael Phelps, after serving a three month ban from swimming, will be returning to the pool this weekend. Karen Crouse of the New York Times writes:

Delivering multiple golds was going to be like labor: an all-out push for the Beijing Olympics, followed by a breather, then another hard push for the 2012 Games in London.

That was the master plan drawn up several years ago by Michael Phelps’s coach, Bob Bowman, and approved by his mother, Debbie, and it worked like a dream. For nine days last summer in China, Phelps could do no wrong as he surpassed the swimmer Mark Spitz’s record with eight gold medals.

With the high-degree-of-difficulty phase of the plan completed to perfection, there seemed like less need for a safety net. Bowman broke ground on his horse farm in northern Maryland and resumed coaching. Debbie Phelps worked on a memoir and welcomed new students as the principal of Windsor Middle School.

For the first time in his life, Phelps, 23, was allowed time and space to broaden his circle of influence and interests.

The idea was to give Phelps room to breathe, not inhale.

In February, a photograph of Phelps holding a marijuana pipe surfaced. Bowman had miscalculated. Swimming would not be the hard part for Phelps. Negotiating his way on land with only his wits to guide him would be more difficult.

For nearly 12 years, Phelps had been hermetically protected from the outside world. From his heart rate to his social activities, nothing went unmonitored.

“I had this monster goal and I achieved it,” Phelps said last week. “To be able to do what I did, my life growing up had to be how it was.”

The blueprint for becoming the most well-rounded swimmer in history turned out to have a built-in flaw. It made Phelps one-dimensional, someone who by his own admission is lost without the structure of his sport.

“The trade-off is he missed some experiences that other people had,” Bowman said. “I guess the question is, what do we do after that? And I think that’s what he’s working on now, expanding his horizons beyond swimming.”

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Shortly after being suspended, Saturday Night Live did a great "Really?" segment in regards to Phelps:

Photos: New York, New York! (Score: Giants 35, Jets 24) [J. Mark English]

U.S. Open: Early Exit for Sharapova [J. Mark English]

My macho side is disappointed. I wanted to see the gorgeous Maria Sharapova play in the finals of the U.S. Open in Flushing, New York. The defending U.S. Open champ lost to Agnieszka Radwanska. In doing so, Sharapova, the No. 2 seed, lost to a No. 30 seed. Its the first time since 1981 that No. 2 seed had been knocked out before the round of 16.

Here is more from Karen Crouse of the New York Times:

As Maria Sharapova’s United States Open title defense unraveled yesterday, the indignities piled up as fast as the double faults. Her teenage opponent, Agnieszka Radwanska, crept in close to the service line to receive Sharapova’s second serves as if she were playing an advanced beginner and not a two-time Grand Slam champion.

In the third set, with Sharapova trailing, 5-2 and 15-0, her father and coach, Yuri Sharapov, moved from the first row of the guest box to a seat higher up, where he could not be seen so easily. Sharapov has been known to coach his daughter from the stands, but he had to recognize that there was no hand signal appropriate for this occasion except for the sign for surrender.

The 18-year-old Radwanska, seeded No. 30, sent Sharapova packing with a 6-4, 1-6, 6-2 upset at Arthur Ashe Stadium in a third-round match that was played in the early afternoon, the bright rays of sun illuminating Sharapova’s flaws and Radwanska’s promise.

N.Y. Giants Thank Their Lucky Stars - Strahan Will Return [J. Mark English]

Hats off to Jerry Reese (the Giants GM), who refused to give in to Strahan's hold out. Strahan may have had his reasons to hold out for a better contract, but Reese would have none of it, even at the risk of losing their best defensive player. As a result the Giants will remain in good financial shape as far as the salary cap is concerned, and can expect to have a solid defensive front going into the regular season.

For more on the conclusion of how it all played out, here is John Branch of the New York Times:

Michael Strahan will rejoin the Giants today and expects to play in the team’s regular-season opener Sunday, Sept. 9, against the Cowboys in Dallas.

Strahan had not reported to the Giants since training camp opened July 27, and told the team that he was considering retirement. He gave few clues to his intentions until he informed the Giants yesterday afternoon that he would return for a 15th season.

“He ultimately decided that he wanted to play,” said Tony Agnone, Strahan’s agent. “He wanted to contribute to the team and didn’t want to leave his teammates hanging.”

The Giants will not fine Strahan the full amount that they had threatened through the holdout — $514,368 through yesterday — but Strahan will owe the Giants “a significant amount,” Agnone said. He declined to release the figure.

The Giants had told Strahan early during the holdout that they would fine him the league-maximum of $14,288 a day.

Strahan’s contract will remain unchanged. The active N.F.L. leader in sacks, with 132 ½, Strahan, 35, is due to make $4 million in salary this season.

His decision to return came a day after the team’s fourth and final preseason game, and the day before the Giants have to cut their roster from 75 players to 53, the maximum allowed during the regular season.

The Giants are not scheduled to practice this weekend. They will resume preparations for the regular season Monday. The Giants will not only be interested to see if Strahan is in strong enough condition to play against the Cowboys, but they also are curious to see how well he has healed from a foot sprain he sustained last season, which kept him out of seven games and forced him to spend the end of the season on injured reserve.

State of the Mets: Swept by the Phils, Falling Fast [J. Mark English]

"Met Fans Your Season has Come"...

Thats what the public relations office of the New York Mets keeps reminding us. If this is the season that was meant to be, then what was meant to be is turning into a nightmare.

Last Saturday the Mets, despite their problems at home, held a comfortable seven game lead over the Philadelphia Phillies. A mere five days later, that lead has been cut to two, and the red hot Phillies have found their swagger going into the final month of the season.

As summer gives way to fall, the Mets are playing the part of a dying leaf, violently falling back towards earth.

The Mets lost in four disturbing games to the Phillies. They were blown out 9-2 in game one. Their pitching staff could barely contain the potent Phillies offense as the Mets gave up 18 hits in eight innings.

On Tuesday the Mets showed a little more moxy with Tom Glavine on the mound, but as soon as he left the game with a 2-0 nothing lead, fortune favored the Phillies. They tied the game 2-2 on a rolling bunt, in which the ball remained on the fair side of the foul line. The Mets just stood and stared at the ball as the Phillies erased the magnificent work of Glavine's pitching. Then the Phillies notched the win in the bottom of the 10th with a walk homer off the crushing bat of Ryan Howard. At least it wasn't Pat Burrell, who still continues to kill the Mets as if they were his own pinata. (He hit two homer today.)

Last nigth, it was the Mets who had to mount a come back in the late innings. Conspiracy enthusiasts would have had a field day with yesterday's loss. Ben Shpigel of the New York Times explains:

The first loss here this week did not disturb the Mets too much because their healthy lead remained intact. The second one stung a little bit more, but they figured there were still two games left to salvage a split and leave in good shape. But the third one, a controversial 3-2 defeat to the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday night, left them outraged, confused and one game away from being swept.

Their anger was directed at the second-base umpire, CB Bucknor, who wiped out the tying run by calling out Marlon Anderson on a runner’s interference call that resulted in a game-ending double play. Anderson tore off his helmet and screamed for an explanation from Bucknor. Manager Willie Randolph sprinted out of the dugout demanding one, too, as the Phillies, flabbergasted, started celebrating on the infield grass.

Heading into this afternoons fourth game of the series, the Mets were losers of four in a row, three in a row to the Phillies, and their lead in the NL East trimmed to just three games.

Matt Cerrone of Mets Blog sums up the frustrations of today's loss:

…this is a devastating loss, if for no other reason then because it appeared Charlie Manuel was doing everything within his power to give the Mets a win, and they still lost…not too mention the Phillies are now two games back…two…i mean, screw Pittsburgh, this game, this one right here was the most painful loss of the season, despite the team ‘still’ being in first…

…given how sad the Mets bullpen has been of late, willie chose to use Billy Wagner for a six-out save in what he clearly felt was a very, very important game…wagner allowed a home run to, yep, you guessed it, Pat Burrell, another run in the ninth, and then for whatever reason he ignored Jayson Werth, who stole second and then stole third without so much as a look over…i can only think wagner and Paul Lo Duca determined that the game was to be won at the plate…the only problem is that while they were trying to win at the plate, the Phillies were winning it by running around the bases…at any rate, Chase Utley ripped a bullet below the glove of Carlos Delgado and the throw to the plate was not in time, Tad Iguchi slide home safely and the game was over…the Phillies completed the sweep…

…man, i’m exhausted from this game…i can only imagine how the players feel…frankly, this game felt like a microcosm of this entire hi-wire, roller-coaster of a season…good play, bad play, down, out, dejected, hopeless, up, winning, hopeful, then, bam, the carpet is yanked out and i’m sitting here confused, looking at the scoreboard wishing it would change…

…well, enjoy the drama, guys, it’s only just begun, because the Mets have a pennant race on their hands with just 29 games left in the year…

There you have it folks. The Mets head to Atlanta with their backs against the wall, with much to prove, and a lot to lose. Their mettle will be tested. I'd suggest they play the song "I Won't Back Down" by Tom Petty on the flight down to Atlanta, and start tuning out "I'm Free Falling."They need to really pull it together over these last 29 games if they really want to prove to us Met fans that our "season has come."

Tour De France: Leader Rasmussen is Out [J. Mark English]

Can they race afford any more turmoil? They are like the NBA, NFL, and MLB rolled into one. Drugs, scandal, the whole thing. Here is more from Edward Wyatt of the New York Times:

Chaos and disgrace enveloped the Tour de France early Thursday after the event’s overall leader, Michael Rasmussen, was removed from the race by his Rabobank team for lying about where he was training.

The announcement came hours after Rasmussen, who had already been riding under suspicion of doping, won the 16th stage Wednesday and appeared to be in position to claim the championship of cycling’s most prestigious event on Sunday in Paris. The news came shortly after the withdrawal of a second team in two days from the Tour amid the ever-widening doping scandal that has rocked the sport since last year’s champion, Floyd Landis, was found to have failed a drug test on his way to the title.

This year’s Tour has lost at least two teams, the winners of four stages and the overall leader. But organizers have so far said the event would not be canceled. Doing so, said Patrice Clerc, the president of the company that organizes the Tour, would mean victory for the riders who violate the rules.

Rasmussen, a 33-year-old Danish rider, was awarded the race leader’s yellow jersey for nine consecutive days, and, with his second stage victory of this Tour, he extended his lead to more than three minutes over his closest competitor. Almost from the time he gained the lead, however, questions have dogged him about his training and about why he missed at least three drugs tests this year after antidoping officials could not locate him.

On Wednesday, members of seven teams staged a protest at the beginning of the stage in Orthez, refusing to ride out with the other teams for a few minutes to bring attention to what they said was their united effort to combat doping. They soon joined the race, a 136-mile stage to the top of the Col d’Aubisque in the Pyrenees.

With Rasmussen gone, the new overall leader will be Alberto Contador, a Spanish rider for the Discovery Channel team who has fought a fierce battle with Rasmussen in the Pyrenees over the last three stages. The Rabobank team spokesman, Jacob Bergsma, said the team would announce later Thursday morning if the remaining riders would complete the Tour.

Photo: Tom Glavine at Win 299 [J. Mark English]

Photo: The Night the Lights Went Out at Shea [J. Mark English]

This is from the New York Times:

The blackout began at 9:34 p.m. on Wednesday, July 13, 1977. At Shea Stadium, it was the bottom of the sixth inning, and the Mets were losing to the Chicago Cubs. Emergency lights illuminated the stadium. The game was not finished until Sept. 16, when the Cubs finally won, 5-2.
















A quick note -

Mets pitcher Jerry Koosman already had accumulated 11 strikeouts by the sixth innings. If the lights had not gone out, who knows...he may have gone on to at least tie the record of 19 strikeouts.

But the A.L. Stars Shine that Much Brighter...Again [J. Mark English]

What is wrong with the National League? They lost again tonight to the American League, in a losing streak dating back to 1996.

Here is a bit of a recap from the New York Times:

On a night of tricky hops, Ichiro Suzuki and the American League also bounced back to win. Instead of a Barry Bonds splash shot, the defining hit at Tuesday's All-Star game was Suzuki's inside-the-park home run, the first in the game's history.

Suzuki lined a go-ahead, two-run drive off the right-field wall in the fifth inning, Carl Crawford and Victor Martinez later hit conventional shots and the Americans made it 10 straight over Nationals, holding on for a 5-4 victory.

After Alfonso Soriano's two-out, two-run homer in the ninth, the NL loaded the bases. Angels closer Francisco Rodriguez then retired Aaron Rowand on a routine fly to right for a save.

Willie Mays, Bonds' godfather, was honored with a touching tribute before the game. In the Say Hey Kid's day, the NL ruled All-Star games but not anymore. The AL closed to 40-36-2 and improved to 5-0 since the All-Star winner received homefield advantage in the World Series.

In a decade of dominance, the notorious 2002 tie at Milwaukee was all that interrupted the AL's run. The only longer streak was when the NL took 11 in a row from 1972-82.

America's Cup Gets Interesting... [J. Mark English]

...well, at least thats what Christopher Clarey of the New York Times wants you to believe:

Now the America’s Cup gets really interesting, even if the sailing is not guaranteed to do the same.

What continues to separate the Cup from other sports spectaculars is that the winner takes possession of much more than the trophy. The winner takes control of the event itself.

Imagine if Italy now had the power to name the terms of engagement for soccer’s next World Cup, including the rules, the number of teams and the host country (presumably Italy). Imagine Rafael Nadal winning a third straight French Open and deciding to airlift the entire tournament to Majorca next May.

The closest equivalent, and it is not terribly close, is an Olympic bidding process. The moment when Jacques Rogge opened the envelope in 2005 to decide between Paris and London provided the same sort of unambiguous turning point that an America’s Cup match provides.

Like hockey, I haven't the foggiest notion of what channel to watch the race for the cup on, but if I ever find it, I'll at least give it a chance. If you get a chance to read the whole article, make the time to do so.