Harness horse racing up close [Photos & Video]

About eight miles north of Yankee Stadium there is a horse racing track. It's called Yonkers Raceway, and you can bet on horses there five nights a week, or waste your money at the slots in Empire City.

I didn't know a thing about horse racing except for when we watch the Kentucky Derby and hear about horses vying for the Triple Crown. In the past two days, I've learned more than I could ever imagine about harness horse racing while participating in the Clyde Hirt Sports Media Workshop.

Yonkers Raceway, click to enlarge

Quick guide: the Kentucky Derby is for galloping Thoroughbred horses. The Hambletonian, the biggest harness racing event of the year that I'm covering for the New York Daily News this Saturday, is for trotting Standardbred horses. You all know what the Kentucky Derby looks like, but I bet you've never seen the type of race shown above.

Rafael Soriano untucks shirt after save [Video & Photos]

Time to show off my new camera for you readers. I like the photos better, but the main attraction, of course, is Rafael Soriano's post-save superstition: The Untuck. Watch it here, and then check out my photos (mostly) from the upper-deck.

Yankee Stadium right now: Uprights and hash marks

Rutgers plays Iowa State in the Pinstripe Bowl Dec. 30. I can't say I've ever made it out to the stadium for a non-Yankees game, but I bet it would be an interesting experience.

Photo via @ISUCy

Anyone ever been to a bowl game at Yankee Stadium? If yes, I'd love to hear what it's like. If not, do you like the idea?

The stadium is only a few years old and it already has hosted an array of non-baseball events. The first occasion was actually a prayer service, held by pastor Joel Osteen.



Here's a look at the first boxing match in the Bronx since 1976: Miguel Cotto vs. Yuri Foreman on June 5, 2010.

Nate’s Takes: Yankee Stadium, Posada, Montero, Joba, Nova

Wow what a terrible week for the Yankees. After losing two out of three to Eric Hosmer the Royals, the Yankees just never showed up to play versus the Red Sox. The Yankees find themselves two games back in the division and have allowed the Red Sox the opportunity to pass them in the standings in the next few days. A combination of not hitting, poor pitching and terrible defense has left fans wondering what this group of former all-stars has left.

Almost everyone in the lineup besides Curtis Granderson is having a down year and Jorge Posada has the worst batting average in baseball.  What was supposed to be a lockdown bullpen has looked average at best and Yankee fans can’t help but wonder if changes are coming soon.  Here is my take on the week.

Review: Yankee Stadium E-Guide

I just received a copy of the Yankee Stadium Ballpark E-Guide, courtesy of creator Kurt Smith. It’s best suited for first-timers, but I bet even a regular attendee would learn a thing or two.

The guide includes detailed reviews of tickets and seating, how to get there, food and drink, and extra features. As someone who has visited the new Yankee Stadium at least a dozen times, it’s tough to disagree with Kurt’s reports.

What makes this guide most valuable is its “Tightwad Tips,” which will save you more than the $5 price of this guide — perhaps hundreds of dollars.

Buy the Yankee Stadium E-Guide here, or check out the rest of his ballpark guides here.

Thanks again, Kurt! Nice work.

Yankee Stadium football transformation time-lapse video

If you’ve got two-and-a-half minutes to spare, this would be a good use of your time. Yankee Stadium will host Notre Dame vs. Army tomorrow at 7 p.m., the first-ever college football game at the new stadium.

I’ll probably watch, as it’s my first day of vacation and I’ll be lying on my couch nestled cozily between its pillows. One. More. Day.

Yanks to open at home for first time in ‘11

News broke last night that the Yankees will start next season at the new Yankee Stadium for the first time in its existence. They’ll face the Tigers March 31, and then finish the season at Tropicana Field to face the Rays.

The Yankees first series on the road, April 8-10, is at Fenway Park.

Their schedule at the end of the year popped out me the most. Their last eight games are against Tampa Bay (5) and the Red Sox (3).

Still, it’s not quite as harsh as the September and October the Yankees are trying to survive through this season.

Another adventure to Yankee Stadium

Yesterday my roommate and I went to the Yankee game. Marcus Thames’ two-run homer propelled the Yankees to a 7-5 win over the Blue Jays, which extended their winning streak to eight. It was a great game, don’t get me wrong, but I think the story of getting to the game from Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn., was a little more entertaining.

Getting the Tickets:
As you probably know, I interned for a digital marketing agency called EIC in New York City over the summer. Toward the end of the internship, my boss, mentioned the possibility of getting Yankee tickets via a connection at Time Warner Cable. I emailed the person we knew there and told him what games in August I could go to (assuming I’d go with one of my co-workers). He didn’t get back to me until Thursday, but he responded with good news.

He dropped off the tickets with my boss and he told me I had to pick them up before 8 p.m. Friday. Since I was at school, my only option was for one of my sisters living in the city to pick them up. Of course, my older sister helped me out; yes, this one. Little did I know the trouble that lay ahead. But first, there was another conflict.

My Blog’s Meltdown:
At 11:41 a.m., while my roommate and I were just entering Manhattan to pick up the tickets and park the car, my dad called me with some frightening news. “I tried going to your site and it says your blog has been removed.” I thought it was a browser problem or my dad typing in my old blogspot URL. But when I checked on my roommate’s iPhone, I thought I was in for the worst day of my life.

I had checked my site before I left for the game and everything was fine. The last thing I did, however, was add the Twitter gadget so fans could follow me tweets live from the stadium. I’m pretty sure that’s what set off the alarm to Blogger, my site’s host. Still in the car, I tried logging into Blogger and was greeted with a message saying they had picked up suspicious activity on my site.

Thankfully, all I had to do was verify a few personal details and my blog was back.

Deja Vu with my Sister:
My roommate dropped me off next to my sister’s apartment to pick up the tickets while he parked the car. It’s 12:30 at this point; we knew were going to be a little late. I buzzed the room. No response. I buzzed again, and again, and again. Still nothing.

I weaseled my way into the lobby through the tenant, but I needed a key to activate the elevator to access the apartment. So I hit the basement button in hopes it would be accessible to get to the stairs. Luckily, it was. I ran up six flights of stairs and started banging on the apartment door. Five minutes later, my sister’s boyfriend asked, in a tired voice, if I brought up the paper. I screamed, “No! I need my tickets!”

Last year for the World Series parade I had planned to stay over at my sister’s house to get a few hours of sleep. She didn’t answer and I spent the entire night out in New York City. When my sister wasn’t responding to my calls, I thought I was in for an awful day.

The Subway Surprise:
We boarded the 4 train only to find out it was NOT running express to Yankee Stadium. This made us even more late. What more could go wrong? 

For some strange reason, my roommate still hadn’t asked where our seats were. Little did he know, we were sitting in section 110, 13 rows from the field.

I asked him about the tickets and he said, “Are they bleacher seats?” I gave him his ticket and he stared at it for a few seconds. Then his smile lit up the subway car.

Photos and Videos:

We spent the bottom of the eighth inning anticipating Mariano Rivera’s entrance. When he came out, the stadium went berserk.


The famous Freddy makes his way up the aisle giving fans a chance to ring his bell.


Mo got the last out, and my roommate and I saluted him.

For more photos from the game, check out my blog’s Facebook page.

Thanks again, Sanford and Rick, for hooking me up with the great seats!

Analyzing Hughes’ and Swisher’s splits

In the past two years, two Yankees have had very, very abnormal home-road splits. Last year, Nick Swisher hit 72 percent of his homers away from the dinger-friendly Yankee Stadium. This year, Phil Hughes has allowed 19 home runs, 16 of which in the Bronx.

There’s really no explanation for either, but let’s dig a little deeper.

Last year, the most homers hit per game came at Yankee Stadium (1.261/game). This year, nothing’s changed. Yankee Stadium has yielded the most home runs per game in the majors at a mark of 1.553 per game.

So if you asked me which home-road split makes the most sense, it would be Hughes’. What in the world was Swisher thinking in the batter’s box at Yankee Stadium last year? Of course, this year his homers are split dead even home vs. road — 11 each.

A failed attempt to witness another big milestone luxuriously

After receiving a surprise pair of tickets to the Delta Sky 360 Suite last night, flashbacks to last year’s memorable 9/11 game hit me. Was I about to witness another milestone from luxury seats?

Not this time! It just wasn’t in the cards. Alex Rodriguez was stranded in the on-deck circle as the would-be winning run in the ninth inning when Yuniesky Betancourt’s throw nipped Mark Teixeira at first base.

On top of that, the Yankees lost 7-4 to the Royals, as Sergio Mitre was completely ineffective in his first appearance since June 4. Dustin Moseley was utterly brilliant in relief, but the Yankees couldn’t dig themselves out of the hole Mitre dug.

I didn’t leave the stadium with a smile, but I’m sure I could have lit up a room with my smile when I took my seat a few moments before the first pitch.

The only thing missing from this picture is the sun. It beat down on us directly from above and forced my friend and I to go inside to the air conditioned suite for beverages at one point. Still, it wasn’t too hot for Carl’s Steaks. In the suite, there was a nice array of photos on the wall in a lounge area. Here’s a brief video tour:

Snapshots from the video and more photos from the stadium can be seen on Facebook.

Back at the seats, as each A-Rod at-bat passed without a homer, my hopes for 600 grew. When it came to the ninth inning, I realized A-Rod might have an opportunity to hit a walk-off grand slam for No. 600.

With two out, none on and the captain at the plate, I expected nothing more than a grounder to short. Instead, Derek Jeter came through with a ground-rule double. Curtis Granderson walked, giving Teixeira, who had hit two homers in the game already, an opportunity to tie it.

Tex worked a 2-2 count against Royals closer Joakim Soria before grounding one up the middle. Betancourt fielded it slowly, but made a hard enough throw to first to beat Teixeira by half a step. My heart sank.

Oh well. My friend had warned me of his hard luck; I just had trouble believing him. After all, Nick Swisher and Brett Gardner were out of the starting lineup. I should’ve listened to him from the get-go.

However, I was still delighted with the seats and the game wouldn’t have been the same without them. For that, I’m extremely grateful. So a big thanks goes out to my older sister’s boyfriend, Adam Klausner, for a belated birthday gift.

Yankees trounce Tribe under my watch, I reveal summer plans for lenNY’s Yankees

I knew it! The Lenny-Fletch tandem improved to 3-0 with tonight’s 8-2 win over the Indians. Nick Swisher’s two-run shot in the second gave the Yankees the early lead, and Robinson Cano’s seventh-inning grand slam put the game away to preserve Phil Hughes’s sixth win.

This was the fourth Yankees game I attended this year. You must understand: I was born and raised in New Hampshire. I went to one game — two if I was lucky — per year for at least 10 years.

Now I feel like I know my way around Yankee Stadium better than I do New York. But hopefully that will change this summer, as I’ll be interning for a small digital marketing agency called eic. I’m receiving academic credit at Quinnipiac University, where I’ll be a junior this fall.

The internship is full-time, and I start Tuesday. On top of that, I’m taking a digital design course online which lasts for the next month or so, so I can, you know, graduate on time. Let’s just say, I’ll be busy this summer.

But I’m not about to put down this blog for the summer. To be honest, I don’t think I could. It’s kind of addicting. As long as I excel in both my commitments and have some extra time on my hands, you’ll have your Yankees daily news and analysis.

Other places you can find me this summer:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• E-mail

Video: Yankees fans fight in stands at Rays game last week

Two Yankees fans broke out in a fist fight in the left field stands at a Rays game last week at Yankee Stadium. Here’s the video (via Pro Rumors):

The fight dies down after about 30 seconds, but the guy in the blue Yankees shirt against the wall really got his hacks in on the grey-shirted fan. Then someone lost their shirt. Quite a mess, really.

Nick Johnson’s stiff back sidelines him until Tuesday

The Yankees won big yesterday, 7-1, without Nick Johnson due to a “stiff back”. This worries me because Johnson missed a little time in spring training with a back injury. Joe Girardi says he’ll be out until Tuesday (Monday’s an off day).

Other notes:

• Andy Pettitte pitched eight innings of one-run ball in yesterday’s win. He’s 3-0 with a 1.29 ERA on the year, both tops in the AL.
• Pinstripe Alley thinks Jesus Montero should be traded. I think he’s out of his mind.
• The Yankees will host the Pinstripe Bowl for four years. I’d be curious to see how a football game is played at the new stadium.

Pics from my Yankee Stadium experience

I attended my first game of the year at Yankee Stadium today to see Mark Teixeira hit his first homer of the year and for the Yankees to complete their sweep of the Rangers.

Oh, and I couldn’t bear looking left (at the demolished stadium) as I entered the Stadium.

Below is the view from Mohegan Sun Sports Bar. I was sitting in the bleachers in left-center field.

Unfortunately, when Teixeira crushed his first home run I watched it land on the televisions shown below.

But hey, at least I got a free Yankees calendar!

My friend and I got there over two hours early, so we had to wait for the gates to open. (The gates opened three hours before games last year.) When I first got in, I bought sliders and fries. They were very filling, and the fries were great — better than the garlic fries I bought in the sixth inning.

I definitely regret getting the cheese with them. After those disappeared, we watched the last couple innings from field level in the infield. Below is a picture of Mariano Rivera closing it out in the ninth.

And here’s a pic from the subway leaving after the game.

Live Tweets from Yankee Stadium

This didn’t work when I was at Fenway for some reason. Hopefully I fixed the problem this time around.

UPDATE: So I guess it didn’t work again. No idea why. Here were my tweets from the game (posted in reverse order).

1. Perfect.
2. Haha. A fan: "no bunting"
3. Enter Sandman is playing.
4. Sorry Gardy, but that's no hit in my book.
5. Gardner always makes me wanna tweet.
6. Seven steals for Brett the Jet. He's on pace for 95ish this season.
7. They just showed "Grand" Tanyon Sturtze.
8. Is he serious?
9. Ramiro "The Hero" Pena (via Yankee Stadium)
10. @Fletch788 called it!!
11. I wonder who leads the league in taking called third strikes?#nickjohnson
12. I like the speed combo right now.
13. That's six steals for Brett the Jet this year. He's on pace for 81.
14. That won't stop him from stealing on you, Hard-on. Oh, it's a party in the U.S.A too.
15. I don't know whether Swisher fielded that ball or not because I can't see from my seat in the bleachers.
16. Staff member jokingly asked for money in exchange for a ball. As if seeing a game isn't expensive enough!
17. No Jeter! Damn it @Fletch788
18. Tweeting live from Yankee Stadium today!

Photo of old Yankee Stadium demolition

What an ugly sight of the snowy Yankee Stadium! This picture was taken by Tom Kaminski of WCBS 880 (found by Zell’s Pinstripe blog).

My Yankee Stadium experience part 2 (with photos)

I was also at the stadium for Saturday’s game. Like Friday, the Yankees lost to the Orioles by a wide margin (any loss over one run against the Orioles is too big).

The main corridor really struck me. It was fun to try and name all of the players (not all of them were as easy as Ruth and Gehrig).

Is it really necessary for every single field level seat to have one of these signs posted on them?

I wanted to go visit Monument Park before the game, but it was already closed a half hour before game time. This is as close as I got:

I tried the regular fries sold at some hot dog stands, but there were also garlic fries. The Yankees felt the need to advertise them on the big screen, making them look gigantic.

I loved the way the Stadium flaunted their history everywhere — even above the concession stands.

Of course, we ended the day with the annual Neslins and Taylors photo. Isn’t little Logan adorable?

A few other notes and observations from the Stadium:

• The cup holders were a nice addition — even in the upper deck.
• I wish the arches around the stadium were lit up more. Even with the lights on, they weren’t very bright.
• In general, each of the levels were far more packed with vendors than Citi Field.
• Also, the food was spread out throughout the stadium far more equally than Citi Field, where all of the good food was located behind the outfield wall.
• Apparently the new stadium doesn’t like me being there. The Yankees went 0-2 against the Orioles, a team they were 6-0 against at home this season prior to the weekend.
• It seemed the general incline of the upper deck wasn’t as steep as the old stadium. You just don’t feel quite as on top of the action as you used to.
• It’s sad to think that Nick Swisher was roaming different territory in right field than Babe Ruth.
• All in all, it’s a good stadium, but was it really worth the upgrade?

My Yankee Stadium experience part 1 (with photos and video)

Geared with my FDNY t-shirt and Yankees jacket, I left Quinnipiac University at 3 p.m. on Sept. 11. An hour-and-a-half train ride and a 20-minute subway later, I wound up on 161 St. and River Ave., waiting to witness Yankees history (three hours in advance).
The gate entrance looked even better as I was leaving. Just wait until you see my seats.
Yes, this is where I was sitting. And no, I did not have to pay for these. That’s Derek Jeter, digging into the batter’s box in the first inning after an hour-and-a-half rain delay. He struck out, but all of the fans in the stadium had their cameras ready.

Now, these seats aren’t the Legends Suite, but it is the first section behind in the front row. I was offered a menu to order from, but I didn’t get the free water treatment.

Jeter struck out swinging the first time up. But this is what happened after his second at bat.

I know my camera phone is pretty bad quality, but it’s better than nothing. I didn’t capture the hit, but I did get the team congratulating him at first base. It was easily the most exciting event I have ever attended in my entire life.

The rest of the game was pretty ugly. Andy Pettitte didn’t have his best stuff, and Damaso Marte blew the game in the sixth. They lost 10-4, but that was irrelevant.

I felt it was necessary to purchase the commemorative t-shirt as well. There were about 300 people in the team store fighting for these.

A quick story on watching history being made:

As soon as Brett Gardner grounded out to end the second, I left with my friend I went with to get a steak sandwich from Lobel’s. As we were waiting in line, we saw Pettitte roll through the top of the third, so we knew we had to run back to our seats.

We made it just in the nick of time. Sandwich in hand, the rest of the fans and I rose to our feet as Jeter stepped in. When the first pitch came in, I saw thousands of camera flashes going off. It was an electric atmosphere, and I think I was shaking. On a 2-0 count, Jeter ripped one down the first baseline. I thought the first baseman Chris Richard was going to knock it down, but the ball rocketed by him into right field.

Everyone was going nuts, and the stadium roar was the loudest I’ve ever heard. Jeter had to tip his cap twice. Nick Swisher stepped out of the box a few times to regain his focus. Everyone stood for the rest of the inning, hoping the captain would come around to score. Instead, Matsui flied out to center, stranding Jeter on second base.

I’ve never been so thrilled. The images of Richard diving and all the cameras going off kept on coming back into my mind the rest of the game.

This great experience would not have been possible without Paul Argenti. So I want to thank you, Uncle Paul, for making my day, and one of the best memories of my life.