March 7, 2009
Emptying the notebook
PORT ST. LUCIE -- News and notes after a WBC- and injury-depleted Mets lineup dropped a 7-5 decision here to the Nationals in Grapefruit League play: * Angel Pagan just...
HARLEM SCAFFOLD HIT BY VAN, FALLS AND INJURES 6
An out-of-control van jumped a curb and barreled into a scaffold in Harlem today injuring several pedestrians in a rain of steel pipes and wood, cops said. "It sounded like...
BARKLEY BEGINS SERVING TIME IN PRISON
Former NBA star Charles Barkley has begun serving a three-day sentence on a drunken driving charge. Maricopa County sheriff's Deputy Lindsey Smith says Barkley reported to Tent City on Saturday...
Pelfrey out with leg strain
PORT ST. LUCIE -- Mike Pelfrey suffered a muscle strain in his lower left leg during his bullpen session Friday and will be sidelined until he is pain-free, the Mets...
SECRETARY OF GAFFE
With reporters looking on, Hillary Clinton met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and handed him a gift - a green box tied in green ribbon. He unwrapped it to reveal...
Video of Santana's live BP
PORT ST. LUCIE -- Here is video I shot of Johan Santana's entire 36-pitch live batting practice session here this morning. It also includes all of Santana's news conference with...
CSI: WITHOUT A CLUE
Dust off the history of forensic science and you'll find Henry Faulds, a Scottish physician who in the late 19th century discovered that powder could make the perspiration from fingertips...
WBC is Great for Fans
For the fans here in San Juan, there is no better experience than the WBC. In the spring, this is the place to be.The weather is warmer than Florida, there...
Santana throws live BP
PORT ST. LUCIE -- Johan Santana threw 36 pitches over two simulated innings without incident here today in his first round of live batting practice this spring. Santana faced Nick...
It's a pain in the Danilo
By MARC BERMANThat the Knicks are allowing rookie Danilo Gallinari to play with back and leg pain - as we wrote about in yesterday's Post - shows he is not...
Grapefruit: Nationals at Mets
PORT ST. LUCIE -- Good luck recognizing most of the Mets' WBC- and injury-depleted lineup today when Dillon Gee takes the mound for a Grapefruit League game here against the...
HATTON PLANS TO PACK 'BIG' PUNCH VS. PACQ
SIZE does matter. At least that's what Ricky Hatton thinks.When Manny Pacquiao fought Oscar De La Hoya in December, De La Hoya was the favorite because oddsmakers figured he was...
WAITING FOR ANSWERS, A-ROD SURGERY STAYS ON TABLE
TAMPA - According to Hal Steinbrenner, a final decision on Alex Rodriguez's torn hip labrum is still being discussed. And while Brian Cashman said no surgery has been scheduled and...
SABATHIA SHARP IN LONG-AWAITED DEBUT
TAMPA - CC Sabathia finally got into a game last night against the Tigers at George M. Steinbrenner Field. Steven Jackson and Ian Kennedy, pitchers with no chance to make...
BERNIE: ALEX COULD USE THE BREAK
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Alex Rodriguez told Dominican Republic GM Stan Javier on Thursday that he would likely have surgery on his torn labrum in his right hip on...
LABRUM PAIN COULDN'T STOP CHASE
Even though it was painful, restrictive and eventually led to offseason surgery, Chase Utley's injured hip was tolerable enough for him to remain in the Phillies' lineup last season. Utley,...
WILCOX GETS IN MIX QUICKLY TO HELP SICK GIRL
Knicks forward Chris Wilcox drives a white Rolls Royce. League insiders say he enjoys the "Hollywood" lifestyle of being an NBA player more than most. But in just his second...
HEATED CLASHES NOTHING NEW FOR SEVERAL NETS
Think Nets-Knicks is a rivalry? Guess you never experienced Simeon versus Whitney Young high schools in Chicago. Or the college clashes between Memphis and Tennessee. With so many new faces...
ROTO FILES
With the season right around the corner, now is the time to get your fantasy baseball draft plan in order. Here's a look at the top starters and relievers to...
PITCHING GREAT LOVING LIFE; BLAMES LEAGUE, UNION FOR STEROID PROBLEM
SAN JUAN - Life is for living. That's the final lesson Jim Kaat's wife, MaryAnn, blessed him with before she died of cancer in July after their 23 years together....
ENJOY BRODEUR WHILE HE'S STILL AT TOP OF GAME
Four games, two shutouts, two with two goals-against, four victories. It's only a slight exaggeration that Martin Brodeur's comeback has been his career in a nutshell. Hockey is watching, and...
LATEST PURGE LEAVES THREE RANGERS STAPLES
So now there are three. With Petr Prucha being traded to the Coyotes on Wednesday, there are three Rangers left from the first post-lockout team of 2005-06. There are three...
SCORE ONE FOR BRUNO
Bruno Gervais admitted he felt the effects of not having scored a goal in nearly three years. "The guys have laughed at me because I hit the post so much,"...
TOURNEY GROWS TOO BIG FOR ITS OWN GOOD
Though everyone is screaming for restraint, an orgy of college basketball is about to descend on the city. All 16 teams in the Big East Conference - even DePaul, which...
BROOKLYN PRODUCT SHOWING SOME BITE WITH GATORS
HE'S BECOME something of a fan favorite at the University of Florida. He may not have all the tools some other stars have. He may not have the body-type that...
KENTUCKY FAVES DON'T HAVE TRIPLE CROWN FOUNDATION
SUDDENLY, the Derby hunt is on. Emerging from winter hibernation, the season's 3-year-olds are on the move, coast to coast, pointing toward Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May....
ALL HALLOWS PUTS HEX ON X
There has been plenty of tumult for All Hallows this season. The Gaels have had their fair share of losses, seen seven players leave the team for various reasons and...
TIGER COMMITS TO DORAL
Though there never was any serious doubt he'd play the WGC-CA Championship at Doral next week, Tiger Woods made it official yesterday, committing to play his second event of the...
PRO BONO: FORDHAM AWAKES TO U2
It was a beautiful day at Fordham University yesterday when U2 rocked the Bronx campus. The Irish rockers did an 8 a.m. gig in front of Keating Hall that was...
STAR BACK TO HBO
DARREN Star has inked a two-year first-look deal with HBO - for whom he created "Sex and the City." Under the deal, he will create a series, his first solo...
CRYSTAL GALE
Tomorrow's episode will suck you right into the weird, horrific world of Walter White. IF tomorrow's second- season premiere of "Breaking Bad" is any indication, the show's fans, who've been...
WHAT'S UP?
TODAY AN UNFORTUNATE EVENT: Lemony Snicket's best-selling series has ended (tragically, of course), but Daniel Handler (above left, with composer Nathaniel Stookey) the man who created him, promises to spread...
THE WORD ON THE STREET
ADVICE books aren't the bibles they used to be. In the Peter Cooper Village playground off First Avenue, many parents say they rarely read parenting guides anymore. "I think people...
STREET SMART
PARENTING books are finally getting real, and at least one New York parent has gotten in on the act. Brooklyn's Beth Harpaz, author of the just-out "13 Is the New...
AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER
It's a remembers-only event. Dozens of contestants from around the country will descend on Manhattan today for the 12th annual USA Memory Championship - and you can bet none will...
DIM LIGHTS BIG CITY
THINK you're smarter than everyone else? Join the club. Feeling superior is a time-honored New York tradition, up there with pizza and movies about single gals trying to make it...
ED FOUNTAIN'ES STAKES SPOT PLAYS
TOBOGGAN HANDICAP Aqueduct, 8th race. Grade 3. Purse: $100,000. Six furlongs, 3-year-olds and up. Post: 3:49 p.m. LOWDOWN: Eternal Star has improved by leaps and bounds since he ran second...
BLOODY TRAGIC BINGE AUTOPSY
An autopsy has determined that a 19-year-old college student found dead at a banned upstate New York fraternity house had a blood-alcohol content as high as 0.55 percent - nearly...
TAX TIPPING POINT?
'ANIMAL spirits," said John Maynard Keynes, are the essential spring of capitalism. We depend on the animal spirits of investors, high earners and entrepreneurs for a growing economy. Keynes knew...
AUSTERITY EVERYWHERE BUT DC
MAYBE thrift isn't dead after all. The Year of the Bottomless Bailout has yielded a much-needed correction in the lives of ordinary Americans. While fiscal restraint is AWOL in Washington,...
CONN. BIDS TO BAN CHIMPS
HARTFORD, Conn. - The chimpanzee attack that has left a Connecticut woman fighting for her life has led to a proposed state ban on private ownership of dangerous animals. Attorney...
BUSINESS BRIEFS
IMF: Oops The International Monetary Fund acknowl edged it fell short in its job as the world's global financial overseer. It said a patchwork of uncoor dinated oversight and in...
BAM'S BEAR OF A START
Stock prices have plunged faster since President Obama's inauguration than for any new president in nearly a century, an analysis by Bloomberg News found. The Dow Jones industrial average has...
SHARE THE PAIN? UNIONS ALREADY HAVE
When times were flush, I don't remember any Post editorials suggesting that we share in the wealth that the Wall Street mavens were rolling around in ("Share the Pain," Editorial,...
COKE-CAST MAN WEARS 'HIGH' HEEL
A drug smuggler was busted at a Barcelona airport after cops found that a cast on his broken leg was made entirely of cocaine, authorities said yesterday. Spanish police suspect...
DEAD-MAN CAR HALTED AT TUNNEL
A bullet-riddled corpse was found last night in a minivan driving near the Queens-Midtown tunnel, sources and witnesses said yesterday. Triborough Bridge and Tunnel cops stopped the beige Honda Odyssey...
MIKE RIPS STIM '$TIFF'
Small counties around the state are going to suffer a lot more than New York City as a result of Albany's grab of federal Medicaid stimulus funds, Mayor Bloomberg said...
SLAY-BY-COP GOES TO TRIAL
Two cops used excessive force when they fired 28 bullets at two robbery suspects back in 1995 in The Bronx, the victims' lawyer said yesterday as their wrongful-death civil trial...
'ROCKY' BUDGET
ALBANY - In a move one state lawmaker called "the worst form of political chicanery," Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith announced yesterday he would pack a measure for Rockefeller drug-law...
UNEMPLOYMENT HITS HIGHEST LEVEL SINCE '83
The nation's unemployment rate soared to 8.1 percent - the highest in 25 years as employers cut 651,000 jobs last month, figures showed yesterday. The latest batch of bad news...
NYPD DAILY BLOTTER
Brooklyn Cops are hunting a burglar who was seen on tape breaking into a Brooklyn Heights synagogue where he helped himself to charity donations. The thief forced open the front...
ZIM PM IN FATAL CRASH
HARARE, Zimbabwe - Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's wife was killed and he was injured yesterday when a truck slammed into their vehicle, officials in his MDC party said. Tsvangirai suffered...
HAVE A NICE LIFE, MOB COPS
Two disgraced NYPD detectives who doubled as hit men for the mob finally met their fate yesterday as a federal judge sent them to prison for the rest of their...
BAD GANDHI KARMA
The happy Bollywood ending to the high drama surrounding the $1.8 million Mohandas Gandhi auction just might have been too good to be true. A day after the over-the-top Manhattan...
DON'T HIKE DISABLED FARES: POLS
Two politicians want to derail the MTA's plan to hike fares on transit riders who are disabled. Assemblyman Micah Kellner and Sen. Thomas Duane have filed a bill that would...
AMID LOSSES, ANN 'TAYLORS' CUTS
Ann Taylor's stock plunged nearly 40 percent to all-time lows after the struggling women's clothier reported a wider-than-expected loss and said it will close more stores than previously planned. The...
SHOCK-ABSORBING GM HITS 75-YR. LOW: $1.27
General Motors' stock continued to be a lemon for its investors as shares in the ailing automaker yesterday briefly touched their lowest level in 75 years. As worries swirled that...
'OUTSIDE' SHOT AT MID-60S
This week started with a winter snowstorm, but it's ending with a spring break. The temperature could soar to 65 today, allowing New Yorkers to finally emerge from hibernation and...
THE 'SACRIFICE' GAP:
'WE are the ones we've been waiting for," Barack Obama proclaimed many times during the campaign. He and his throngs of supporters preened in the glow of their own righteousness...
SLAY 'DEAF'ENSE DEFIES LOGIC
If a Queens doctor on trial for murdering her ex-husband was a liar, she certainly would have done a better job at it, her lawyer told the jury yesterday during...
FUROR OVER BOGUS BALLOTS
ALBANY - Staten Island and The Bronx were among six counties slammed by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli (right) yesterday for accepting bogus absentee ballots - including some from voters not...
'RAPE' CABBY: SHE BEAT ME
A livery cabby accused of trying to rape a woman in his back seat surrendered to cops yesterday - and said he was only trying to awaken the women. Klever...
WHOLE FOODS SETTLES CASE
Whole Foods Market Inc., the largest natural-food grocer, agreed to sell 32 natural and organic supermarkets to settle a fight with US antitrust enforcers over its 2007 takeover of Wild...
JUDGE RIPS COP OVER 'RAT' TRAP
A federal judge threatened to jail an allegedly dirty NYPD detective yesterday after he blabbed to buddies that a convicted police official is secretly cooperating with the feds. Alarmed prosecutors...
APPLE FALLS ON ESTIMATES
Apple Inc. fell 4 percent in Nasdaq trading after JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut its estimates for iPhone and Macintosh sales, citing a worsening economy. Apple will probably ship 2.19...
THE TIERS OF A CLOWN
The city's own documents show it would save $35 million in the first year after proposed pension-tier reforms, not the $200 million Mayor Bloomberg included in his budget, a watchdog...
B'KLYN DA TAKES ON LOAN WOLVES
The Brooklyn District Attorney's Office is taking on mortgage scammers who prey on homeowners with a new, first-of-its-kind unit to fight real estate fraud. DA Charles Hynes said his office...
'DEAD' MAN WALKING FROM JAIL
Accused cyberbully Raphael Golb - who allegedly harassed the academic rivals of his father, a Dead Sea Scrolls scholar - emerged from Manhattan's Tombs yesterday looking rumpled, tired and a...
STEM STUDY BOO$T
President Obama is about to open the government's wallet for research on embryonic stem cells, a move certain to re-ignite the bitter national debate over whether it will lead to...
WALL ST: T.G.I.F.
Wall Street is having little luck finding a bottom to a long stock slide that's wiped more than $11 trillion from portfolios and pensions. Shares struggled yesterday to end their...
FORTUNOFF'S MESSY DEMISE LEAVES SHOPPERS FUMING
Fortunoff's end has been a sticky one for its shoppers. Customers of the bankrupt jewelry-and-home-furnishings retailer - which began dismantling its 86-year-old chain last month after failing to find a...
MICHELLE'S TASTY TALK
Michelle Obama says living in the White House can hold perils - especially when you are trying to keep a Vogue-quality figure with the presidential pastry chef around. "The pie...
FIRST LADY OF THE PROM
David Upchurch is one man who will never forget that girl the got away. His lost love is now the first lady of the United States. PHOTOS: Style Of Michelle...
GET SET TO ROT, BERNIE
Bernie Madoff is getting ready to kiss freedom goodbye - for good. In a one-sentence court filing, the Ponzi-meister agreed yesterday to waive his right to a grand-jury hearing, setting...
NANNY CLO$ET CASE
A West Side nanny - confronted by cops with the $150,000 in cash that had disappeared from her boss' closet - admitted to taking it, according to new court documents....
HUGO'S 'SOCIAL' CALL
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said yesterday that President Obama should see socialism is "the only road." "The capitalist model and its perverse values have failed," he said. "I recommend to...
A DUMB INTELLIGENCE PICK
What stands out most about Team Obama's bizarre selection of Chas Freeman to head the National Intelligence Council is its overwhelming lack of . . . intelligence. Sheesh! Was anyone...
JUST FIX IT, BARACK
At least President Obama knows the economy has problems. He's spoken of a "financial crisis," a "housing crisis," a "credit crisis" - you name it. So he earns points for...
NY'S SENATORS REFUSE TO 'VOUCH' FOR PUPILS
New York's two US Democratic senators yesterday said they will vote against an amendment that would preserve a Washington, DC, school-voucher program that helps lower-income students attend private schools. Sen....
ICAHN GAINS AT LIONSGATE
Lionsgate Entertainment Corp. is in talks with Carl Icahn that could lead to the billionaire gaining one or more board seats at Hollywood's largest independent film studio, a person with...
$TALLED POLS OK STOPGAP
WASHINGTON - With a $410 billion catchall spending bill stalled in the Senate and a midnight deadline looming, Congress rushed through stopgap legislation yesterday to keep the government running for...
$2.6M SLAP AT MED SCHOOL
Weill Cornell Medical College has agreed to pay $2.6 million to settle civil fraud charges involving more than $14 million in research grants it got from the federal government. The...
CUOMO'S DC PLEA ON BOFA
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is seeking help from House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank to compel Bank of America to cough up details of the billions of...
FACE OF MUGGER SLUGGER
This a peek at the face of evil - a powerfully built mugger being hunted for a string of vicious bat attacks on unsuspecting women on the Upper East Side....
SPARE THE WEALTH
Mayor Bloomberg warned yesterday that proposals to tax the rich will backfire and end up hurting the poor whom they are intended to help. "They [the wealthy] are the ones...
SIS' SHAMING DEFEATS 'BANDIT'
Oh, brother! A guilt-ridden thief who held up a Staten Island gas station turned himself in after his sister spotted him in a surveillance photo online and asked him to...
ONE WAIL OF A MIRACLE
Firefighter Alcide Falce feared he was holding death in his hands - until the baby he'd just rescued early yesterday from the smoke-choked upper stories of a burning Midtown building...
A MODEL CAM-PAIN
The city Campaign Finance Board is looking into some contributions Rep. Anthony Weiner's mayoral campaign received from a model-studded fund-raiser - including some from foreign catwalkers who aren't allowed to...
9/11 KIN'S GITMO GRILL
Families of 9/11 victims grilled the White House yesterday over President Obama's decision to release a Guantanamo Bay detainee to Britain despite charges he plotted terrorist attacks. They questioned Caroline...
RIHANNA: I'LL BE A COURT CANARY
Pummeled pop princess Rihanna will sing - in court. The battered beauty's lawyer yesterday said Rihanna will not object if she is called upon to testify against boyfriend Chris Brown...
GARDEN FIGHT CARD CANCELLED
The poor economy has claimed another casualty. Irish Ropes Promotions yesterday cancelled its March 16 boxing card at Madison Square Garden's WaMu Theater and is shutting down its promotional business...
BRODEUR FACES ISLES FOUR WINS FROM MARK
Martin Brodeur is just four wins away from breaking Patrick Roy's record for career victories of 551, but he's doing his best to keep that on the back burner as...
INCONSISTENT DUANER MAY BE A GONER
JUPITER, Fla. - Duaner Sanchez might not have much longer to prove himself to the Mets. If the Mets release the right-handed reliever by April 1, they would save three-fourths...
OLYMPIAN EFFORT POWERS SOUTH KOREA
TOKYO (AP) - South Korea made the most of a big first inning to dominate Taiwan in the World Baseball Classic. Lee Jin-young hit a grand slam in a six-run...
'HOLLY' HITS 64-1 PAYDIRT
For sixth time in just over four months at Big A, horse paid over $100, and each time it was ridden by an apprentice. Yesterday's winner was 8-year-old mare Wild...
RANGERS TRADE FULL OF MYSTERY
In surrendering the second-round pick to Toronto that all but surely will fall between 44th and 52nd overall in June's entry draft in exchange for impending free agent Nik Antropov,...
OPENING DAY-ROD
TORONTO - Ever the optimist, Derek Jeter still envisions an Opening Day lineup for the Yankees that will include Alex Rodriguez. After a workout yesterday in preparation for Team USA's...
EYEING OPENER, SANTANA HAS METS PUSH UP SKED
JUPITER, Fla. - The Mets continue to put their faith in Johan Santana's self-diagnostic skills. In a decision that put the ace left-hander firmly on track to start Opening Day,...
EDDY READY FOR GARBAGE-TIME MINUTES
Knicks center Eddy Curry was back on the practice court for the first time in nearly two months yesterday, but Mike D'Antoni made it clear he likely won't be back...
SPORTS SHORTS
NBA: Chuck Daly diagnosed with cancer Former Pistons and Nets coach Chuck Daly has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The team says Daly "is being treated for the cancer and...
'SUPERMAN' HOWARD LEADS MAGIC BY NETS
ORLANDO - Dwight Howard had 26 points and 15 rebounds, and the Magic rallied to beat the Nets 105-102 last night. Devin Harris had 25 points and nine assists, and...
WEIRD BUT TRUE
Is there crack in this stuff, or what? An apparently iron-jawed resident of Fairfield, Conn., was busted for shoplifting hundreds of packs of chewing gum. Kenneth McManus, 21, allegedly took...
CORNELL COPS IVY CROWN
Ryan Wittman had 25 points, freshman guard Chris Wroblewski added 12 in just his seventh start, and Cornell beat Penn 83-58 last night in Ithaca to clinch the Ivy League...
GAELS' SEASON RUNS OUT OF GAS
ALBANY - The wheels started coming off for Iona last month, but it wasn't until there were 11 minutes left in last night's MAAC Tourney opener that the season crashed...
IRISH DEFEAT ST. JOHN'S IN SEASON FINALE
SOUTH BEND - Notre Dame got no sense of revenge in beating St. John's. The Red Storm gave the then-No. 7 Fighting Irish a damaging loss in the second Big...
FSU FACES FORFEITS
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Florida State may have to forfeit some of coach Bobby Bowden's 382 wins and will be on probation for the next four years as part of its...
RBNY academy's Dilly Duka scores in U-20 debut; U.S. wins CONCACAF opener 3-0
The U.S. opened the CONCACAF U-20 championships today by putting a 3-0 beating on Jamaica. And the star of the show was Jersey-boy debutant Dilly Duka, a Rutgers sophomore and...
Red Bull salaries released, Celades update
Since I many of you wanted updates on Alberto Celades and Emiliano Diaz, here they are.Celades missed today's friendly, but the Spaniard is NOT seriously injured. He actually flew home...