Tom Seaver has dementia, retires from public life

 In tribute to the phenom pitcher, here's the broadcast of Tom Terrific's 19 strikeout game against the San Diego Padres where he struck out 10 batters in a row, a record that still stands.

De Blasio has landed a helicopter in a park before

From the NY Post:

Mayor de Blasio shut down a Little League baseball game in a Harlem park for more than an hour in August so police could ready a field for his helicopter, The Post has learned.

The chopper landing was then abruptly canceled after an angry dad started griping to cops about the intrusion, threatening to post pictures of the mayoral interruption on social media, a source said.

The extended seventh-inning stretch got underway at Harlem River Park during an Aug. 9 Little League game when the NYPD cleared the diamond of two under-14 teams, one dad told The Post.

The cops “basically told everybody to get off the field,” the dad said.

“The mayor wants to land his helicopter here,” he recalled police telling him.

And when he griped to the officers they sympathized. “They said it’s absolutely ridiculous and that I should file a complaint,” said the dad, who didn’t want his name printed for fear of retribution.

Another angry dad confirmed the story.

De Blasio was slated to deliver remarks at Gracie Mansion at 7 pm that evening and visited an injured firefighter at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx earlier that day. He had nothing else on his public schedule.

Not all of Alley Pond Park is treated equally

"The part of the park near Union Turnpike and Winchester Blvd is overrun with weeds and hasn't been cared for in months while the tennis courts are fit for kings." - Linda S., Bellerose

A Friday puzzle for you

Open up the photo nice and big and tell me what's wrong here.

All-Star game coming to Citifield

From Eyewitness News:

Major League Baseball finally announced Wednesday that the 2013 All-Star game will be hosted by the New York Mets at Citi Field on July 16.

The announcement was made during a news conference at City Hall with baseball Commissioner Bud Selig, Mets owner Fred Wilpon, Mr. Met and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Baseball decided at least four years ago that the Mets would host the game at the ballpark, which opened in 2009, but held off an announcement until it reached agreements with the city and agencies for All-Star services and related events, such as the FanFest.

Selig said the Mets' financial problems caused by the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme didn't delay an announcement.

Proposal to purchase old CYO site

While we haven't worked out all of the details, nor put together an exact proposal, we believe the following is a decent description of a proposal that would benefit the entire community and provide Employment for the Youth of the Community.

There are currently 6 acres in Whitestone waiting to be developed off of 6th avenue and 150th street the old CYO. Wouldn't it be fitting if our elected officials along with the Parks Department, Community, Community groups, CYO, D&G, Churches, etc.. purchased the property and turned it into a Little League field run by a community group for the community. We could obtain Operational Expenses Funding from our elected officials as well as host fundraisers, and it could be run by a joint group of volunteer board members, with a salaried staff of children with working papers, to do upkeep and maintenance.

It is an old CYO site, (thus fitting that it be converted into a community little league site) which is sitting in limbo as of now. This would prevent more overcrowded overdevelopment, give the community a space of their own for the children and families that call Whitestone home, it would provide employment for the youth of the community.

Alfredo Centola
President
Malba Gardens Civic Association

Where the game was played in 1956

Taken around 1956 at Forest Hills, NY Little League field on Queens Blvd.
on what is now Parker Towers.

Do you recognize any landmarks in the background?

Wilpon with hat in hand

From the NY Post:

JPMorgan Chase -- which led the banks that loaned the team about $430 million last year -- is trying to recruit other institutions to join a syndicate to put together a new loan that would tide the Mets over until they sell a minority stake in the ballclub.

The Mets' financial health has been imperiled by investments by its owner, Fred Wilpon, in Bernard Madoff's massive Ponzi scheme.

A well-placed source said both the Mets and Major League Baseball are exerting strong pressure on JPMorgan to make that loan happen.

The bank already has a tight relationship with MLB because it finances MLB operations.

Revelations about the proposed new loan comes days after it was revealed that, in late 2010, the Wilpon family borrowed $25 million from Major League Baseball -- which had previously loaned the Mets $50 million.

Wilpons forced to sell part of team

From the NY Post:

Mets owners on Friday said they’re considering selling 20-25 percent of the team to "strategic partners" because of the financial uncertainty created by the lawsuit filed against them by the trustee in the Bernie Madoff bankruptcy case.

Fred Wilpon said the decision to offer part of the team was not made under pressure from Major League Baseball.

"At the outset I want to emphasize what we are discussing today has not and will not affect the Mets day-to-day operations and control," the Mets CEO said.

"Let me stress, at the end of the day, we may or may not do anything."

Jeff Wilpon, the team's COO, said the offer does not include interest in SNY or Citi Field.

The team said in a statement they have hired investment bank Allen & Co. to explore alternatives, including adding “one or more strategic partners.”

Adviser Steve Greenberg said he expects "robust interest" in the part of the team available, which could be worth over $200 million.

The Wilpons are allegedly "distraught" over the popular belief that they profited along with Madoff. But not everyone's buying that.

A local liquor mogul and a group including Martin Luther King III are reportedly potential buyers.

Oh, and the All Star Game is coming to Citifield in 2013.

Gangs wearing colors to court

From the Daily News:

Each day, a dozen or more young men stroll into Queens Supreme Court sporting the Cincinnati Reds' signature red-and-black cap.

The fashion trend doesn't mean the borough has stopped rooting for the Mets in favor of this year's National League Central champions.

Veteran prosecutors say members of the Bloods - the largest and most dangerous gang in Queens - have worked the red "C" into their wardrobe in a direct slap at blue-themed rivals the Crips.

Queens' top gang prosecutor complains the brazen thugs wear the cap to intimidate witnesses or show solidarity with brother gangsters.

Cops and prosecutors say the hats are an especially common sight in Queens because of the Bloods' strong presence in Far Rockaway housing projects for more than a decade.

Lots of waste going on in this town!

From NY1:

An audit released today accuses the Staten Island Yankees of owing the city more than $300,000 in ticket and advertising revenue.

The city comptroller's office charges that the team underreported attendance and miscounted no-show and complimentary tickets over a two-year period between November 2007 and October 2009.

The report also says the Yankees improperly deducted for the installation of the jumbotron.

The comptroller's office recommends the team develop a better system for tracking tickets and work with the city's Economic Development Corporation to better report advertising revenue. The EDC says they look forward to resolving the matter quickly.

From the NY Post:

New York City's government workers are freeloading on the taxpayers to the tune of nearly $1 billion a year by contributing little or nothing toward their health-insurance coverage, according to a bombshell study released yesterday.

The city's health-care giveaway -- amid the worst economic downturn in half a century -- is out of whack with even New York state government policy, according to the Rockefeller Institute of Government analysis.

State government workers and retirees must pay 10 percent of the cost of individual premiums and 25 percent of premiums for family health coverage.

If city workers were required to pay what state workers do, Big Apple taxpayers would realize $923 million in savings annually, the report said.

And other local governments around the state, combined, would save $838 million a year, if their workers shared in the cost of their health insurance.

Meanwhile, the researchers said cash-strapped Albany, which must close a projected $9 billion deficit next year, can no longer afford to subsidize escalating public-employee health costs.

The study recommends approval of a state law requiring that all local government workers -- teachers, firefighters and police -- contribute the same amount that state workers pay toward their health premiums.

From AMNY:

New York isn’t collecting on the majority of fines given to street vendors, according to a report by the city’s Independent Budget Office.

Of $15.8 million in fines handed to vendors in 2008 and 2009, a whopping $14.9 million was still outstanding as of Dec. 15, 2009, the report said.

In addition, the report noted that it cost about the city about $7.4 million to regulate vendors just for fiscal year 2009 and that a 1995 law aimed at improving sales tax collections from peddlers was never implemented.

From the NY Post:

A former housing official has agreed to pay a $20,000 fine for using government resources to run 17 Murray, a popular political hangout in the shadow of City Hall, it was disclosed yesterday.

Joseph Fischetti, the Housing Authority's former senior deputy director for infrastructure technology, admitted in a settlement with the Conflicts of Interest Board that after he bought a 50 percent stake in the 17 Murray restaurant in 2005, he devoted hours to the eatery on the city's time.

Watch Weiner catch a ball

Courtesy of the Daily News.

He's just like one of us! (part 3)

He looks like a totally relaxed, down-to-earth common man that could easily be mistaken for one of his blue-collar constituents...
From NBC Bay Area via Bugs and Cranks, which wrote: ...the leader of America’s largest city committed one of the douchiest acts possible in the stands of a baseball game.

2013 All-Star Game to be played at CitiField

From the NY Post:

The Yankees had their All-Star party last year, with an All-Star farewell to Yankee Stadium. The Mets and Citi Field will be having their All-Star Summer hello in 2013.

That was the word yesterday from MLB sources. The next two All-Star Games are set, Anaheim next season and Arizona in 2011. Then it shifts back to an AL club the following year, most likely in Kansas City. That leaves 2013 all set for Citi Field and the Mets.