Mike and the Mad Dog Break Up at LastAfter months of rumors, Chris Russo is off the popular sports-radio show — that and more, in of our daily industry roundup.
Home Run Derby Already Not a Hit With FansModerately popular All-Stars will compete to hit the most home runs toward Pleasantville, White Plains, or whatever other upstate suburbs Chris Berman has identified on a map of the metropolitan area.
gossipmonger
Lizzie Grubman Rises AgainThe PR guru takes on a managerial role, Dina Lohan goes house hunting on Long Island, and Kathie Lee Gifford makes people uncomfortable in the bathroom. That and more in our daily gossip roundup.
David Ortiz ‘Curse’ Jersey Up to $30K on eBayJust when you thought we had put that whole story behind us, it rears its ugly head again on the online auction site (though it’s for a good cause!).
the sports section
Hank Steinbrenner’s Greatest HitsThis weekend the Yankees owner told the ‘Post’ that he hoped that the guy who buried Red Sox uniforms in the cement of his new stadium got the shit kicked out of him by his co-workers. We take this opportunity for a short walk down memory lane.
Yankee Stadium: The Long Good-byeAnd so it begins: the final season in the old Yankee stadium (built in 1923) begins today. The first regular game, against the Blue Jays, starts today at 1:05 p.m. What the press is wondering about on the big day.
the sports section
Yankees’ New Monument Park Hints at Another Retired NumberWhen we first saw the photo of the new Yankee Stadium’s Monument Park last week, we were bummed to learn that not only had it been moved from its quirky home in left–center field, but that its new location would be a charmless spot underneath the restaurant, in the center-field batter’s eye. But after seeing the photo again on Curbed today, we noticed something much more uplifting.
the sports section
Derek Jeter Considers Himself Less Mickey Mantle Than Jim CarreyThe Yankees begin full-squad workouts tomorrow, but that doesn’t mean their focus has completely shifted back to baseball yet. Take Derek Jeter, who spent his off-season working on plans for a line of health clubs, the first of which will open this June near Madison Square Park. The Yankee captain says that not only will his name be on the front door, but he’ll often be inside working out. We caught up with him last week and asked whether he was afraid of this additional opportunity for fans to harass him for autographs. “Not at all,” the shortstop laughed. “The more you’re around, the more people get used to seeing you, and probably tired of seeing you.”
Beef
The Mets Scored Shake Shack. What Will the Yankees Do?
Now that the Mets seem to have a lock on New York’s most coveted hamburger business, we’re waiting for the other shoe to drop: What will be the Yankee response? Clearly, it won’t do for the Bronx Bombers to let their National League rival upstage them like this. We fully expect the Yankees to open the vault in hopes of attracting a major free-agent restaurateur. But who?
developing
What Does a $91 Million Train Station Look Like?
Because there’s news today that the new Metro-North station to be built at Yankee Stadium, set to open in spring 2009, will cost $91 million, twice its initial price tag, with the city kicking in some $39 million, and because we also like showing you renderings of construction projects under way throughout our fair city, we herewith present a sketch of the new station — that bridge on the right heads east from the station, above East 153rd Street, and lets fans off behind home plate of the current stadium, which will still leave them more than a few blocks from the new stadium — provided by the MTA. For what the thing costs, we hope the real one’s at least in color. —Alec Appelbaum
Next Stop: Yanks [Metro NY]
intel
Bank-Branch Infiltration Reaches Madison Square Garden
This just in via e-mailed press release: The space formerly known as the Theater at Madison Square Garden, formerly known as the Paramount Theater and even more formerly as the Felt Forum, will now be known as the WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden. “The name of The Theater will be changed immediately,” the release reports, and the deal will include signage throughout the Garden and eleven WaMu ATMs at the venue. (Please tell us this doesn’t mean the end of the Chase machines near the Seventh Avenue entrance. WaMu, as we discovered the other night, is now up to a $2 charge for using its ATMs. So much for the buck-fifty stopping there.) Six months ago, the city’s three major sports venues — the Garden, Shea Stadium, Yankee Stadium, — remained proudly unsponsored. Now the Garden’s got WaMu, at least peripherally, Shea’s gone Citi, and only one question remains: Which bank will meet Steinbrenner’s price? Full press release is after the jump.
Mediavore
Pinkberry Isn’t Yogurt, Suit Claims; Yankee Stadium Gets Latino at LastA lawsuit filed against Pinkberry claims the chain isn’t actually serving yogurt but some kind of powdered mix. [Defamer]
Zagat surveyors, asked to rate the nation’s fast-food options, declare Wendy’s the No. 1 burger, Outback Steakhouse top full-service restaurant, and Panera Bread Co. the top fast-food outlet overall. [MSNBC]
Yankee Stadium finally wakes up to its massive Latino customer base and starts serving foods like empanadas and papas rellenas. [NYT]
photo op
Freddy Sez: It’s Opening Day!
And the Yanks beat the Devil Rays, 9-5, at the Stadium yesterday. Welcome back, Freddy.
party lines
Yankees Too Hard to Resist
In April, it’ll be 60 years since Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier, but as the scholarship foundation in his name gathered at the Waldorf-Astoria on Monday to hand out awards to modern-day African-American pioneers like Spike Lee, Merrill Lynch chairman and CEO Stan O’Neal, and BET founder Sheila C. Johnson, the speeches were mostly about how little race relations in this country have changed. MC Bill Cosby advised one black college student there to change his last name from Robinson to Robinsky. “They’ll think you’re white!” Cosby said. “How do you think Stan O’Neal got ahead? They thought he was an Irishman.” After the jump, Jackie’s daughter Sharon, an educational consultant for Major League Baseball, answers a few pressing questions.
The Gobbler
Eat Your Way Through the Ball Game: A Crazed Food Binge at Shea Stadium
It’s October in this baseball-obsessed city, and for one final game, at least, the Mets are the only show in town. But what about the food? The Gobbler (whose sad fate it was to grow up rooting for the Washington Senators) made his way out to Shea Stadium the other evening for one of the recent playoff games. It’s good to go to a ball game, of course. But the real purpose of the visit was to overdose on foot-long hot dogs (by Nathan’s), to drown in tepid buckets of Bud Lite, to addle himself with withered chicken tenders and $8.50 containers of “Nacho Supreme.”
