WPCNR RINKSIDE. November 3, 2008: The Skyliners , Westchester, New York and Connecticut synchronized skating team, representing the New York Figure Skating Club and the Windy Hill Skating Club of Greenwich introduced their four skating teams for the 2009 season Saturday at the Dorothy Hamill Skating Rink in Greenwich before an enthusiastic crowd of parents, alumnae and friends and saw the season’s new programs. All parents and friends of the team (though understandably biased) were impressed with the the finesse, poise and teamwork demonstrated by the Preliminary, Juvenile, Novice and Junior teams after a summer and two months of practices,  by the young ladies.

Ready for Our Close-Up, Mr. DeMille: The Skyliner Junior Team, bejeweled and bedazzling in their spiral bloc,  as the Preliminary Sychronized Skating Team -- synchro competitors of the future-  look on . The Junior team, 14 to 19 years old, skated their new long program, their powerful, eloquent interpretation of Sunset Boulevard Saturday afternoon: The Juniors, Gold Medal Winners at the Zagreb, Croatia Snowflake Competion this spring have been chosen by United States Figure Skating to represent the U.S.A. at the Spring Cup Competition in Milan, Italy in February.

WPCNR VIEW FROM THE UPPER DECK. By Bull Allen. November 2, 2008: One of the thousands who are running the New York City Marathon today will not be running.  He’ll be walking all 26 miles in support of a little known condition that he has recently found he suffers from: Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis.

Jack Lim behind the Plate Sectional Championship, June 2007.

All the fastpitch coaches and players know him. He’s Jack Lim, the most good-natured, serious and conscientious umpire you’d ever want doing your game. He is past President of the Hudson Valley Chapter of the New York State Softball Officials Organization and has been a fixture behind the plate and in the field the last decade in softball around the county.

WPCNR ICE STREET. October 25, 2008: Everybody got back on the ice at  Ebersole Ice Rink, a White Plains tradition for 53 years with skating lessons beginning Saturday, with skating lessons for Tots, Alpha, Betas and Gammas and children of all ages.  The White Plains Figure Skating Club began Tuesday. Ebersole is also home to the White Plains Plainsmen hockey clubs and the White Plains High School hockey team – one of the few high school teams with its own hometown rink.

Welcome Back! Kristen Fuerst, Ebersole Skating School Director for 12 years, reports 350 boys and girls have already signed for skating classes at Good Ol’ Ebersole, and there is still time for parents to sign their kids up at the White Plains Department of Recreation and Parks Headquarters. Private lessons are also given at the rink by the Skating School Instructors. Contact Rec & Parks at 422-1336, for the Skating School Booklet, or the skating school at 948-6696, for information on Advanced Figure Skating and contact Libby Hollahan for information on the White Plains Figure Skating Club.

WPCNR TRACK SIDE. By Tim Sheehan. October 1, 2008: White Plains High School boosters who needed a warm up to the afternoon football game got to the High School in the morning to stave off the rain and cheer on the Tiger harriers to a 2^nd place finish for the women and 3^rd place finishers for the men at the 13^th annual Fred Gressler Cross Country meet.

WPCNR VIEW FROM THE UPPER DECK. By Bull Allen October 20,2008: I have just taken a look at the new Yankee Stadium with the infield and outfield grass installed, viewed on the WFAN website from the air. The stadium confirms my worst fears.

The Big Ball Park, 1955

In attempting to duplicate the stadium, the architects have completely missed the towering effect of the former stadium, (above, 1955) with the antiseptic cantilever construction and setbacks of the upper decks.  The sheer incline of the old stadium decks spread out all the action below you not way in front of you as the new upper decks will do. It also looks like the rakes of the many thousands of extra high priced lower level box seats may be flatter than they should be. The stadium seems lower in stature too.

Contrast this with Mr. Kaminsky's photos on the WFAN website, You can see the new stadium view from the outfield at  http://www.wfan.com/pages/3156752.php?imageGalleryXRefId=779910#imgGalleryImg

For a view from behind the plate go to http://www.wfan.com/pages/3156752.php?imageGalleryXRefId=779911#imgGalleryImg

Take a good look.

Instead, they have recreated Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles which is the oldest park in the major leagues next to Fenway and Wrigley Field.

Photographer Tom Kaminski’s photographs show the mezzanine and upper decks set quite a bit farther back. Instead of the upper decks’ edges being about 20 rows back from the edge of the field boxes as they were at the original Yankeee Stadium, they appear a good 40 rows back. Instead of the 60  degree rake of the old stadium, they appear to be 20 to 30 degree rakes. I think spectators are going to be way away from the action.

Note how the upper deck of the old stadium (circa 2003) poised you with the action at your feet -- not way in the distance as it will be in the new stadium.

The field itself gives you a lot of left center, like the old ball park. But right field looks too shallow all the way to right center.  The Yankees will need better arms than Matsui and Daimon in left next year. You have an approximation of new Comiskey Park in Chicago as a result.  The outfield instead of the classic everyman melting pot bleachers of the old Big Ball Park, you have the monstrosity of the bleachers being split with what is going to be a restaurant in dead center field, with a big wrap around scoreboard. The wrap around scoreboard at the old ball park I never liked. 

The replace of the copper frieze façade effect at the top of the top deck is lost because it is too far back. It will not dominate. You cannot even see it in the new photographs. 

 Overall this new stadium is a bad job, unimaginative, lacking grandeur. Of course, I am a crotchety old school baseball fan, so you may reject my views. However turning the new stadium into symmetricity, and allowing the tall scoreboard to block off views of the elevated loses a lot of the old stadium atmosphere, and creating a shooting gallery in right center in the outfield is not good in my opinion. Right field to right center has been given a Fenway look.

The new Yankee Stadium will be a fitting showcase for the team in decline that will inhabit it. A phoney, cheap imitation of baseball's Westminster Abbey next door, which of course, they are going to tear down like the Barbarians did with ancient Rome.

Far be it from the city to keep the old stadium and tranform it into a New York Baseball Museum, which could actually still be used as a neighborhood ballpark, while preserving Yankee and Met, Dodger and Giant legacies with exhibits under the old stands, the old locker rooms -- where the greats, Williams, Wynn, Dean,  Grover Cleveland Alexander, Whitey, Mickey, Joe D., the Babe still haunt.

No, who would ever think of that -- turning the old Stadium into a year-round tourism attraction for the South Bronx.

Go over to www.wfan.com and see what you think.

WPCNR PRESS BOX. By Grantland Rice. October 20, 2008:  In honor of the Tampa Bay Rays, Grantland Rice from the Heavenly press box behind homeplate in the great pantheon stadium in the sky, has penned another immortal poem of verse to celebrate a team that will always be remembered for their season of hope: the American League Champion Tampa Bay Rays!

Hail to the Ray Men

By Grantland Rice

The  American Leauge Champions Tampa Bay Rays ascend to Baseball's Elysian Fields, shown above, Hoboken New Jersey (Weehauken, N.J.)  Engraving, Harper's Magazine, Library of Congress, Washington D.C

Hail to the Raymen,  brash brave Champions of  Junior Circuit!

Conquerers of the prentenda 2^nd Place Sox.

Restoring honor to horsehide postseason hustings, the team with no quit,

Exploding the clichés of sportswriters’ doubt with timely socks!

Hail to Garza the Goateed Guardian, "Matty the Second," throwing inside like Gibson of days gone bye

Silencing vaunted scarlet hose cannons, fanning Big Papi  in 6^th when it mattered most.

Defusing  loaded New England batz with daring rise and darting drops to dazzle the eye.

To Young Reliable  Langoria, eclipsing Eva, with trademark 2 strike  opposite field clutch two bagger

Inside the line for equalizer, with Pena’s crafty slide turning Trop crowd to roaring host!

Here’s to the eyes of Willie in the 5th, Aybar sending  Lefty Lester’s crafty curve one hop to corner's wall.

Roars for  Rocco-October’s 2-strike stroke in the SS hole to bring the Say Ray Kid around.

Plaudits again to noble Baldelli, ,modern Gehrig, his  running, dashing one hand catch at his knees in right  causing Boston to bawl

Kudo’s to the Say Ray Kid hero’s towering blow on 3-2 in the 7^th  to extend

Boston’s misery at the end

World Series passes to maligned Ray Bullpen crew

Defusing Beaneaters’ last threats in faithful 7^th and 8^th.

 To Wheeler the dealer bailing Matty out in 7^th, to Hang in There Howell hanging out Big Papi

To fearless Rookie David Price sacks full of Saux, fanning the redoubtable Drew on 3-2

The Tampa Bay Rays to the all – Improbable but true,

The nimble Iwamura, solving Lester to get things started.

The elegant Upton and threatening Crawford Carrying Rays

Over hard times and getting the Rays through.

To the starters, stoppers all who got the jobs done : Shields, Kazmir  of The Kays,

Jackson and Sonnanstine one after another they threw.

To the Rays of the bedraggled moth-eaten Trop rug of the showing seams,

Take their place with the ball’s hope teams:

The Hitless Wonders, the Miracle Braves, Leo’s Giants,

The Impossible Dream Mets, creating others’ Improbable Dreams

WPCNR VIEW FROM THE UPPER DECK. October 18, 2008: Coach has died. Pleasantville High School’s  coach of 32  years, Peter Kurachek died this week in Minnetonka, Minnesota, and this reporter remembers this energetic, bear of a man with the blue eyes, the jut jaw, the rock hard body at 49  and the brush crew cut who scared me a lot when I was in junior high school in Pleasantville High. He looked like a coach, acted like a coach, and scared the heck out of you.  

WPCNR VIEW FROM THE UPPER DECK. By Bull Allen. September 22, 2008: Today, I say goodbye to The Stadium. I will not be going to the game. But, Baseball Johnny has written an ode to the Stadium nobody wants anymore. I will always remember her:

So long Big Ball Park

By Baseball Johnny

The  Big Ball Park the Old Redhead called her,

The Sultan of Swat did build, closes gates forever.

The Elysian Fields where boys turned into greats, will be torn asunder

The towering grandstand no longer will inspire worthy endeavor.

Baseball Joes and Stadium Lounge on 161^st Street long gone to Salsa Lounge and garage

Her sisters in New York ball, Polo Grounds and Ebbets apartments now

Her original grandeur modernized under George’s regime, endured 70s dressage

Architects’ tweaks, defrocking her of majestied façade

World Series 2003

They took out elegant aqua wood seats for blue hard plastic gracelessness.

Removed the Flying A sign and auxiliary scoreboards in left and right, arbiters of anxiety

Still she survived, her cathedral-majesty between innings shattered by  subway races.

The ugly scoreboard above great bleachers no longer showing scores in other cities.

Rivera's Last Walk-in. September 22, 2008. Photo by Candyce Corcoran

They closed the bullpens where Page, Grim, Duren, Lyle, Goose and Rivera walked in slow stride.

They added monuments and plaques and took the majestic monuments out of play.

The alleys of 357, 402, 457 and 461 no longer inspired Dimaggio’s glide

Now  we will shall never see  again her famous leftfield sun in autumn, she's seen her last day.

The Big Ball Park, 1956 The WPCNR Collection.

She is baseball’s Westminster Abbey, turned into modern church bland

Decreed to be torn down as the Vatican tore down Rome, though those coliseums still stand.

Yankee Stadium, September 22, 2008. Photo by Candyce Corcoran.

What is there that makes us tear down that would inspire with no thought to preserve

 What happens to hallowed ground where achievement was measured, tested, exulted for nerve?

The Great Green Stage September 22, 2008 Photo by Candyce Corcoran

No historical landmark status is given America’s Stadium

Where foe of feared Bronx Bombers yearned to play in the sun

Up Close and Personal Photo, Candyce Corcoran

The Yankees will sell her piece by piece like booty from battle

Instead of preserving the tarted-up dowager as a New York museum.

Old Yankees Never Die, They Live in Memory. Photo, Candyce Corcoran

The great field is doused in darkness, ghosts take the field

From the dugouts,  patroling  the outfield in moonlight.

The Last Save. Mariano Rivera, September 22, 2008. Photo, Candyce Corcoran

Hoyt, Reynolds, Ford, Larsen, Guidry,  Rivera stalk the mound and stylishly wheel

 Ruth and Gehrig, Mantle and Maris and No. 5 “cracks” split the night.

Jeter Walks, beneath the cliff of the towering grandstand. September 22, 2008. Photo, Candyce Corcoran

The Stadium remains in memory in her grandeur: The  grandstand façade

Showcases pennants on its roof snapping sharply in  delight.

Vendors shout, “beah, heah,” “Hot dog, heah,” “peanuts, peanuts,”

Mel says, “Hello again, everybody,” on WINS 1010 and she lives always in

in memory's ephemeral light..

The New field awaits. Not as tall not as grand. A different place. A new management. An uncertain future. Photo of the new stadium by Candyce Corcoran

WPCNR SPORTS. From Wendy Traskos. August 24, 2008: "New York Pole Dancing" has recently opened up a studio at 110 Mamaroneck Avenue in White Plains, bringing a trendy new fitness craze to Westchester County -- poledancing. This latest fitness trend has gotten thousands of women in shape, from young hot Hollywood to trendy China, and has finally arrived in White Plains.

WPCNR VIEW FROM THE UPPER DECK. By Bull Allen. August 15, 2008:  New York’s sports therapists are no more. Monday afternoons will never be the same in New York.  When the Giants blew another game on Sunday afternoon, you tuned in to Mike and The Mad Dog to round up the usual suspects. When the Knickerbockers had another debacle, you tuned in to hear Francesca and Russo light them up. You delighted in it. When the Metropolitans let another lead slip away, M&TMD  made it better as fans listened  to their blunt knowledgeable criticism, they made the hurt and the heartbreak go away.

Yankee Stadium, 2003

WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. By John F. Bailey. July 27, 2008 UPDATED WITH MORE PIX, 11:05 EDT: Last week, the Board of Education ordered a new scoreboard for Loucks Field from Daktronics of South Dakota, whose scoreboards are seen throughout major league baseball (including Chase Field in Phoenix, home of the Diamondbacks). White Plains football fans will be able, (should the high school choose to use all the scoreboard bells and whistles) to see instant replays, slides of their favorite players, live close-ups of field events, and pre-programmed CD programs on the scoreboards jumbotron. (Perhaps even closeups of the band marching live.)

A Scoreboad similar to this Daktronics installation at East St. Louis High School in Illinois will be coming to Loucks (with larger matrix message board), according to the Daktronics salesperson on the account. No prototype design to replace the scoreboard at Loucks (shown below) was apparently shown to the school board, according to Fred Seiler, the Assistant Superintendent for Business. The scoreboard consists of one giant matrix, that can be programmed for different sports, shift to messages, slides, or video.

The software package presents unique custom scoreboard formats  football, soccer, field hockey,track and lacrosse as well as other sports. The cost of this state-of-the-art scoreboard is an additional $104,000. The purchase order was cut this past week according to the Business Office.

WPCNR VIEW FROM THE UPPER DECK. By Bull Allen. July 26, 2008: It’s been two weeks now since Mount  Vernon football, basketball, baseball, track and all their other teams, learned that there will be no sports this year unless the $1.2 Million to run the sports program is raised privately.

Where are the New York megafranchises when you need them?

WPCNR VIEW FROM THE UPPER DECK. By Bull Allen. July 20, 2008: This has been a sad week for baseball fans. Two events became public this week. After nine years, Detroit’s Economic Growth Corporation has greenlighted the tearing down of Tiger Stadium where Ty Cobb played.

So Long Tiger Stadium.

Photo: Rashaun Rucker, Detroit Free Press

In an obituary today, I read also about the death of the first African-American sportscaster,  Sherman Jocko Maxwell. It was the first I had heard of him – who according to reports broadcast scores and did interviews of the players in the old Negro Leagues covering the Newark Eagles.

The two events have two different legacies and say much about America and what's wrong with it.

WPCNR VIEW FROM THE UPPER DECK. By Bull Allen.  July 17, 2008: The New York Mets after dogging it for two months, petulant under the professionalism of Willie Randolph  put together a 9 game winning streak by surprise, playing hard (what a concept) for new Manager Jerry Manuel,  and now are being anointed contenders for first place. Suddenly Met pitchers have found the plate and are making good pitches – against kind of lousy ball clubs I might add.

The Big Ball Park, 1956

The New York Yankees are pretender contenders and can only hope the Tampa Bay Rays collective hitting slump against the Tribe (looking like the Sioux at the Little Big Horn last weekend and leaving the Rays reeling) shatters that team’s confidence enough so New York can acquire the Wild Card.

But what the first half of the season said about the New York professional baseball teams on both sides of Long Island Sound is that like the NFL, baseball has indeed achieved parity. Every team is flawed or mediocre (or pretty good and exciting, depending on your optimism). The myth that half the teams have a chance to win the Super Bowl, so naively accepted by the pro football public has been fiendishly, slowly moved into major league baseball by the Dr. Frankenstein of baseball, This Bud’s for You Selig.