By Drew Grant 7/24/12 2:51pm

Baseball

Ichiro Suzuki: #31 of the New York Yankees (Getty Images)

Yankees Newest Player Ichiro Suzuki Immortalized in Song By Death Cab For Cutie Frontman

Yesterday was a sad day for Seattle, when the Mariners traded their sui generis right fielder Ichiro Suzuki to the New York Yankees in exchange for two minor league players, D.J. Mitchell and Danny Farquhar. After all, the Japanese-American player spent 12 seasons in the Pacific Northwest, breaking records all over the place, including the single-season record for hits in the history of baseball.

Now he’s heading to NYC to play alongside A-Rod, and just to rub salt in the wound, his first game was played the same night as the trade, against his former teammates.

No hard feelings though: as a parting tribute, Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard wrote Ichiro Suzuki his own anthem. Read More

By Kim Velsey 5/09/12 6:16pm

Manhattan Transfers

Hudson River views for $6.6 million

Former United Airlines Chief Scores A-Rod’s Rushmore Apartment

It must have been the view that convinced Gerald Greenwald and wife Glenda to purchase Alex Rodriguez‘s 35th-floor condo at the The Rushmore.

Mr. Greenwald, the former chairman and CEO of United Airlines and current managing partner of the Greenbriar Equity Group, must have been accustomed to lofty views from his days at the airline. And this apartment has views galore—”forever unobstructed views” with 60-linear feet over the Hudson, as the Adam Modlin listing gushes. Read More

By Foster Kamer 3/01/12 11:03am

SPORTS AND THE CITY

New York Yankees' owner George Steinbrenner gives

Steinbrenner Syndrome: The New York Sports Sickness

I first recognized it on Dec. 14, 2009, though I didn’t know its name then.

The news broke that Hideki Matsui—the George Harrison of the Yankees, the quiet, stoic performer, and the 2009 World Series MVP—wouldn’t play for New York the following season. The Yankees told Mr. Matsui’s agent that he wasn’t a priority, so Matsui took a one-year, $6.5 M. contract with the Anaheim Angels.

The same team who gave Carl “Ass Injury” Pavano a $40 M. contract (for which he earned $17,646 per pitch, having thrown in only 26 Yankees games) not four years before let Matsui go, just one month after he was named the MVP of the World Series he’d helped the team win. Even now, when I speak with fellow Yankees fans about this travesty, they just shake their heads and shrug, as if to say: Yeah, we know. What’re you gonna do?*

It was a classic, symptomatic moment of Steinbrenner syndrome, a disease characterized by short attention span, poor memory and fits of ecstasy followed by angry outbursts. It affects nine out of 10 New York sports fans (and 10 out of 10 New York sports editors). Its only treatment is frequent, intense doses of winning. Read More

By Drew Grant 2/22/12 4:29pm

New York Yankees

Is that a whiff of bubblegum and stale beer?

Smell Like Yankees Stadium: New Scent For Baseball Fans Evokes Childhood Memories, Sweaty Men

Merchandizing! It’s as natural for the world of professional sports as it is for a Kardashian (or anyone else who sleeps with a member of a professional sports team). Jerseys, hats, kosher hot dogs (actually, scratch that last one), baby clothes…these chintzy, overpriced gifts make up a major part of the revenue for any red-blooded American league.

That’s not to say that there haven’t been missteps in marketing over the years. (Nascar scrubs, anyone?) And last night, going to the fragrance launch of The New York Yankees (and the more feminine The New York Yankees for Her) over at Catch Roof, we were expecting nothing less than a full-on flop. Why would anyone try to bottle and sell the rank sweat of a baseball stadium? And what women in her right mind would buy it? Read More

By Drew Grant 12/13/11 10:09am

Derek Jeter

One of the several items you receive after hooking up with the Yankees star!

Sleep with Derek Jeter, Win Fabulous Prizes

While our comment board is going crazy (almost as crazy as that investment banker) over whether or not a man should pay for dinner if its unclear whether or not he’ll be getting some action later in the evening, there’s one man who still abides by those traditional forms of courtesy. You know, like paying a woman after sex–but not actually paying her, because that would be gross–but paying her with free stuff.

That man is Derek Jeter. Read More

By Foster Kamer 8/08/11 3:15pm

Words of Wisdom from the Yankees Locker Room

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Hideki Matsui is a Stone Cold Pimp, You Are Derek Jeter’s Squeegee, and Other Stories From a Yankees Bat Boy

After last night’s extra-innings loss to Boston in a crucial game for the New York Yankees, there was little consolation to be had for their fans. Except for this: the New York Post got their hands on and excerpted the new memoir from a former Yankees batboy, one of the last of his kind who didn’t have to sign a presumably eternal confidentiality agreement. If the excerpt they used is any indication, this is going to be one of the better, jucier reads in Yankees history.  Read More

By The Editors 7/12/11 7:45pm

opinion

Derek Jeter is the Pride of the Yankees

Derek Jeter’s 3,000th hit came just as the sport whose virtues he personifies is about to endure yet another public disgrace. Roger Clemens, one of Mr. Jeter’s former teammates on the great Yankee teams of the late 1990s, will soon find himself on trial in a court of law for the crime of lying to Read More

By The Editors 6/07/11 11:51pm

Opening Shot

Rep. Anthony Weiner Admits To Tweeting Lewd Photo, Lying

Photo Finish: Bratty Breitbart Bogarts Weiner Fest

So, Monday was fun. Not only did we learn that embattled amateur underwear model and unwavering mayoral aspirant Anthony Weiner really did tweet that infamous crotch shot to Gennette Cordova, in addition to numerous other indiscretions conducted over social media (we couldn’t resist imagining how a certain member of–well, Mr. Weiner’s person–may have felt about the whole affair), but we also learned that Andrew Breitbart has no qualms about creating new photo ops for himself. Read More

By Matt Sullivan 4/06/11 1:53pm

Nomenclature

Will Ferrell: Gary Sanchez Is Legitimately Gary Sanchez!

New York Yankees minor league prospect Gary Sanchez hasn’t been called up to the show yet (he’s 18), but he’s already fielding big-league offers from Hollywood players. “We have to go hang out with him!” Will Ferrell, cofounder of Gary Sanchez Productions, told the Transom at Comedy Central’s Comedy Awards at Hammerstein Ballroom, explaining that Read More

By John Koblin 7/14/10 1:29am

Exit The Boss

George Steinbrenner, New Yorker

“I will never have a heart attack — I give them,” once said George Steinbrenner, the endlessly quotable owner of the New York Yankees, off and on, since 1973.

On Tuesday morning, he finally had one. Steinbrenner, 80, died of a heart attack, at his home in Florida.

On the New Read More