Jeter turns back clock to championship years

July 9, 2008

He came up with the sort of defensive play and the sort of clutch hit before that, that he seemed to make three or four times a week back in the day. This has not been Yankees icon Derek Jeter's best season, not by any measure. Yet here he was last night in an early July game the Yankees had to have - which tells you everything you need to know about their ragged season thus far - and suddenly it felt like time was spinning backward as Jeter ranged deep into the hole in the seventh inning to backhand a ball you didn't think he was able to get to anymore.

Recent columns

• Jeter turns back clock to championship years

  July 8, 2008

  He came up with the sort of defensive play and the sort of clutch hit before that, that he seemed to make three or four times a week back in the day. This has not been Yankee icon Derek Jeter's best season, not by any measure. Yet here he was Tuesday night in an early July game the Yankees had to have -- which tells you everything you need to know about their ragged season thus far -- and suddenly it felt like time was spinning backward as Jeter ranged deep into the hole in the seventh inning to backhand a ball you didn't think he was able to get to anymore.

• Yanks aren't holding up their end of the rivalry

  July 4, 2008

  The game ended at 9:54 p.m. but the Yankees' clubhouse door stayed shut for 15 minutes, then 20. At one point a team spokesman poked his head out and said, "We're gonna be here a while, folks." And he wasn't kidding.

• Yanks aren't holding up their end of the rivalry

  July 3, 2008

  The game ended at 9:54 p.m. but the Yankees' clubhouse door stayed shut for 15 minutes, then 20. At one point a team spokesman poked his head out and said,"We're gonna be here a while, folks." And he wasn't kidding. There wasn't any shouting that could be overheard and no clear sound of some clubhouse food spread being tossed over by irritated Yankees manager Joe Girardi.

• Never a dull moment with A-Rod

  July 2, 2008

  You should see the view up here from Idiot Hill. How did I get here? Another A-Bomb from A-Rod, that's how. Let this be a lesson. I'm the genius who wrote a column just last week remarking about how controversy free Alex Rodriguez has been this season - only to get to the ballpark yesterday and find out that Us Weekly was reporting that Rodriguez is allegedly having an affair with Madonna and has been seen slipping in and out of her uptown apartment in the middle of the night. Her doormen said so.

• A-Rod drama returns with Madonna rumors

  July 2, 2008

  You should see the view up here from Idiot Hill. How did I get here? Another A-Bomb from A-Rod, that's how. Let this be a lesson. I'm the genius who wrote a column just last week remarking about how controversy free Alex Rodriguez has been this season -- only to get to the ballpark Tuesday and find out that Us Weekly was reporting that Rodriguez is allegedly having an affair with Madonna and has been seen slipping in and out of her uptown apartment in the middle of the night. Her doormen said so.

• New-found patience paying off for Cashman

  June 29, 2008

  People are clamoring for Yankees general manager Brian Cashman to stop sitting there and do something already - something big - to improve the Yankees' tattered pitching staff.

• New-found patience paying off for Cashman

  June 28, 2008

  People are clamoring for Yankees general manager Brian Cashman to stop sitting there and do something already -- something big -- to improve the Yankees' tattered pitching staff.

• A-Rod's finally realized saying less is more

  June 27, 2008

  The way Alex Rodriguez is smashing out hits is recognizable. It's the rest of what surrounds him that's been startling this season.

• A-Rod's finally realized saying less is more

  June 26, 2008

  The way Alex Rodriguez is smashing out hits is recognizable. It's the rest of what surrounds him that's been startling this season.

• Mets show they're alive, it's NL East in coma

  June 26, 2008

  The Mets are like that cold, creepy hand that comes up out of the grave and grabs your wrist just when you think they're dead and buried, nothing but a bunch of stiffs. They're not hard to figure out anymore. Stop saying that. This is what they are: They're as warped as a funhouse mirror. That's the answer.

• Inconsistent Mets still within reach of first place

  June 26, 2008

  The Mets are like that cold, creepy hand that comes up out of the grave and grabs your wrist just when you think they're dead and buried, nothing but a bunch of stiffs. They're not hard to figure out anymore. Stop saying that. This is what they are: They're as warped as a funhouse mirror. That's the answer.

• 601 homers, a million what-ifs

  June 23, 2008

  He's working on his 20th season in the big leagues, and he's not what he was. But Ken Griffey Jr. still has that sweeping home run swing and he still has a terrific hold on people's imagination.

• Griffey Jr.: 601 home runs, million what-ifs

  June 22, 2008

  He's working on his 20th season in the big leagues, and he's not what he was. But Ken Griffey Jr. still has that sweeping home run swing and he still has a terrific hold on people's imagination.

• Yankees' surge adds juice to Red Sox series

  June 20, 2008

  If they can keep this up for the next 12 games, the streaking Yankees will have their first chance this season to make Boston sweat, to make Boston notice them more in the AL East race and forget about that ugly little blood feud the Red Sox have brewing with upstart Tampa Bay.

• Yankees' surge adds juice to Red Sox series

  June 19, 2008

  If they can keep this up for the next 12 games, the streaking Yankees will have their first chance this season to make Boston sweat, to make Boston notice them more in the AL East race and forget about that ugly little blood feud the Red Sox have brewing with upstart Tampa Bay.

• Omar deserves plenty of blame for Mets' fiasco

  June 18, 2008

  Mets general manager Omar Minaya has done a worse job than Willie Randolph during the past year. Minaya just didn't harp on that much when he took the microphone yesterday afternoon and ineffectually explained his bizarre handling of Randolph's firing in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, the most classless move in sports since Colts owner Bob Irsay had the Mayflower vans pull out of Baltimore in the dead of the night.

• Omar deserves plenty of blame for Mets' fiasco

  June 17, 2008

  Mets general manager Omar Minaya has done a worse job than Willie Randolph during the past year. Minaya just didn't harp on that much when he took the microphone Tuesday afternoon and ineffectually explained his bizarre handling of Randolph's firing in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, the most classless move in sports since Colts owner Bob Irsay had the Mayflower vans pull out of Baltimore in the dead of the night.

• Willie firing makes Mets a laughingstock

  June 17, 2008

  Mets general manager Omar Minaya has done a worse job than Willie Randolph over the past year. Not that Minaya will say that when he takes the microphone today to explain how he handled Randolph's bizarre firing in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, the most classless move in sports since Colts owner Bob Irsay had the Mayflower vans pull out of Baltimore in the dead of the night.

• Mets needing big change could cost Randolph job

  June 13, 2008

  If Mets manager Willie Randolph does get fired someday soon, it won't be because he deserves the entire blame for the Mets' play. It'll happen because a change, almost any kind of change, will feel needed after one too many Mets collapses like yesterday, when the hits just kept coming off the Arizona Diamondbacks' bats no matter which reliever the Mets tried after starter Johan Santana. Smith. Wagner. Heilman. The last names didn't matter. All of them stunk.

• Mets needing big change could cost Randolph job

  June 12, 2008

  If Mets manager Willie Randolph does get fired someday soon, it won't be because he deserves the entire blame for the Mets' play. It'll happen because a change, almost any kind of change, will feel needed after one too many Mets collapses like Thursday, when the hits just kept coming off the Arizona Diamondbacks' bats no matter which reliever the Mets tried after starter Johan Santana. Smith. Wagner. Heilman. The last names didn't matter. All of them stunk.

• Desormeaux did horse racing a big favor

  June 9, 2008

  In a Triple Crown season that began with the unforgettably tragic Kentucky Derby death of Eight Belles and ended with a stupefying Belmont Stakes - both of which raised serious questions about the entire horse racing industry, even as the industry was hoping a Big Brown sweep could lift its tattered image - Big Brown jockey Kent Desormeaux added a grace note Saturday that was left too buried in the shock over Saturday's outcome.

• Yanks need conviction to keep Joba in rotation

  May 28, 2008

  While Mets executives are plucking the petals off daisies across town and asking themselves daily if they still love Willie Randolph or not, unmindful they did nothing to lance his festering status as a lame-duck manager with Monday's sit-down meeting, the floundering Yankees' rush to hurry setup man Joba Chamberlain into their starting rotation has been hurtling along with one basic question unanswered.

• Can Casino Drive derail Big Brown's 'Crown' bid?

  May 23, 2008

  Nobutaka Tada was asked if there is a Japanese expression for trash- talking, and he smiled and said, "What is this - trash, trash ... trash what?"

• Trainer Dutrow enjoying the spotlight

  May 19, 2008

  He hit and left town for the Preakness the same way he rolled into Lexington for the Kentucky Derby, calling folks "Babe" and correctly promising that his horse, Big Brown, wouldn't be beaten. "Go to the window," trainer Rick Dutrow told bettors. His biggest concern about Saturday's race? "My girlfriend getting here from Canada," Dutrow said Friday. So when did he finally relax? "After my girlfriend got here," Dutrow told the crowd at his victory news conference with a bad-boy smirk.

• Standing in Big Brown's way: Casino Drive

  May 18, 2008

  BALTIMORE

• Jock knows as well as anyone, 'Brown' can lose

  May 17, 2008

  BALTIMORE

• Eight Belles' jockey still in disbelief over tragedy

  May 16, 2008

  In a perfect world, he would have been riding in the Preakness Stakes Saturday atop Eight Belles again, his filly that broke down in the Kentucky Derby after a runner-up finish and had to be destroyed on the backstretch, touching off a firestorm of protests about horse racing - some of it directed at him. Instead, soft-spoken 20-year-old jockey Gabriel Saez went mostly unnoticed on a muddy, dreary day at Pimlico Race Course Friday.

• Part owner wisely turned down sale of Big Brown

  May 16, 2008

  If he had behaved like a died-in-the-wool pinhooker is supposed to behave, Paul Pompa Jr. might not be making the trip of his racing life down to Pimlico tonight to watch his so-called super horse, Big Brown, try to pick up the second leg of the Triple Crown in tomorrow's Preakness. Bethpage's Michael Iavarone would not have gotten a 75-percent stake in the horse. And Darley racing stable owner Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the most powerful man in the sport, would never have heard two little words that the Sheikh almost never hears: No sale.

• D'Antoni better be himself

  May 14, 2008

  Mike D'Antoni heard the cynicism ricocheting around the NBA, not just here in New York, that he wasn't the right coaching hire for the Knicks, and he came prepared yesterday with a few jokes and deft comebacks. D'Antoni talked so much at his introductory news conference yesterday about being able to "adjust" the run-and-shoot attack he ran in Phoenix, where the Suns' stated goal was to hoist a shot in seven seconds or less, that a thought sprang to mind: D'Antoni better not go changing too much.

• Mussina adjusts and does job for Yankees

  May 9, 2008

  As funny as it seems to say this about a pitcher whose 255 big-league wins give him at least a fighting chance at the Hall of Fame, Mike Mussina was just as big a question mark in the Yankees' rotation at the start of this season as kid starters Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy. The particulars were different, of course. But the basic question all three pitchers have had to face in the past year has been the same:

• Hornets Scott is proving to be super coach

  May 7, 2008

  He has never talked publicly about settling any scores, but it's hard to ignore how New Orleans coach Byron Scott is quietly crossing some names off the list. The experts who said his upstart Hornets would eventually fade in the hypercompetitive Western Conference were wrong. The Hornets won the Southwest Division and challenged the Lakers for the best record in the conference despite Kobe Bryant's MVP season.

• Mets' Wright needs to step right up, knock club

  May 2, 2008

  It was encouraging to hear Billy Wagner call out Oliver Perez and the rest of his Mets teammates after Wednesday's 13-1 embarrassment against the Pittsburgh Pirates, baseball's perennial doormat. At least someone was disgusted. But such complaints would have been better coming from Mets third baseman David Wright. Or Carlos Beltran. Not just the Mets' closer.

• Yankees' Hughes looks too rattled to stay

  April 30, 2008

  After the shaky way he performed again last night, Yankees' starter Phil Hughes is officially on the clock now. He might not be out of time like Barry Zito, the $126-million man moved to the bullpen yesterday by the Giants, who are baffled that his fastball can't top 83 or 84 mph and his curveball doesn't fool anyone anymore.

• Jets need McFadden but may look elsewhere

  April 25, 2008

  If you're a Jets fan, first of all, God bless you for even daring to pay attention to the NFL draft, the occasion that brought you disappointments such as Johnny "Lam" Jones, Blair Thomas and Ken O'Brien, not Dan Marino.

• Hank needs to boss like the Boss

  April 23, 2008

  The only thing worse than Hank Steinbrenner's impetuous demand that he wanted setup man Joba Chamberlain moved to the Yankees' starting rotation right away was the startling retreat that Steinbrenner made Monday. Sure, criticism was pelting down on him. But since when does a Steinbrenner apologize? Pull yourself together, son. Do you have the onions for this gig or not?

• Everything adding up for Mets' rising star Wright

  April 21, 2008

  Numbers in baseball can be tricky. They can tell you a lot, tell you nothing, create a false impression or perfectly capture someone's failings. But the biggest lie about numbers is that numbers don't lie. Bill James' ability to prove that's untrue made him a millionaire, turned him from an anonymous night watchman in Kansas into the best-selling author of the Baseball Abstract and, more recently, a Red Sox executive.

• Start spreading news: Starters ace it!

  April 20, 2008

  PHILADELPHIA

• Dolan finally might stay out of Knicks' way

  April 19, 2008

  By the time Isiah Thomas' dismissal as Knicks coach finally was announced late Friday afternoon - quietly, with an eye on the Saturday news cycle, the oldest PR trick in the book when an organization doesn't want to draw any more bad attention to itself - Thomas' long-overdue exit didn't seem like the real news that came out of Donnie Walsh's conference call.

• Avery's act just part of the hockey culture

  April 16, 2008

  Considering the NHL is the same league that's given us the face wash, the high stick, the hip check, the crosscheck, some amazing adventures in dentistry, the unique nightly phenomenon of legal bare-knuckle fistfighting and those unseen backstage seamstresses who stitch up players' faces and send them flying back to the ice after barely missing a shift, it was comical to hear how many folks in the NHL were outraged, just outraged, I tell you, about the novel stunt that Rangers instigator Sean Avery pulled against Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur on Sunday.

• Santana faces harsh music

  April 13, 2008

  This was one of those games you circle on the schedule weeks beforehand, then forget everything about two days later - except for the booing.

• Straight shooting a rarity at MSG

  April 10, 2008

  Between all the mortifying scandals and lawsuits and dead weight on the Knicks' roster, it was hard to remember what credibility looked like and sounded like around the organization until new team president Donnie Walsh started talking last night. Just a few minutes earlier, his beleaguered coach, Isiah Thomas, vacated the same room after his own pregame talk.

• For Willie, it's win or else

  March 28, 2008

  The new season is here, but he is the only Met who doesn't get to shake the team's collapse last fall. As long as the 2008 Mets win, everything will be fine for manager Willie Randolph. But the first time the Mets show any serious vulnerability -- and you know slumps will come -- the memory of last September's disaster will come rushing back and Randolph will be on the hot seat. For him, it's pennant or bust in 2008. Win or else.

• Clemens dug a hole and Pettitte can't help him

  February 13, 2008

  If the leaks about Andy Pettitte's deposition are correct, Roger Clemens will sit in a congressional hearing room today on Capitol Hill and continue a crash to Earth of his own making. The narrative about whether Clemens cheated to become the greatest pitcher of his generation will sharpen into more detail. And Clemens' crossover from icon to con man could be near complete.

• Either Roger or McNamee is kidding himself

  February 8, 2008

  Personal trainer Brian McNamee's new assertion that he gave federal authorities some seven-year-old bloody syringes and steroid-laced vials that he says proves Roger Clemens is a performance-enhancing-drug user did more than rachet up the intrigue about who's the spectacular liar in this case just days before both men are scheduled to appear at a congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday.

• Giants made themselves into champs

  February 5, 2008

  That the Giants' hotel was still standing yesterday morning after a raucous postgame celebration that stretched on until 4 a.m. ranked as only the second-biggest upset they pulled off as a team in the previous 24 hours.

• MVP Eli outduels Golden Boy Brady

  February 4, 2008

  Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was hammering his feet up and down, anxiously slapping the ball against his left hand, hurriedly scanning the field to find someone open, but the Giants' pass rush just kept coming toward him like a lava flow, incinerating everything in its path.

• Amazing Eli outduels Golden Boy Brady

  February 3, 2008

  Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was hammering his feet up and down, anxiously slapping the ball against his left hand, hurriedly scanning the field to find someone open, but the Giants' pass rush just kept coming toward him like a lava flow, incinerating everything in its path.

• Spygate rewind yields minor nuggets

  February 2, 2008

  NFL commissioner Roger Goodell didn't look like a man who had awoken yesterday to the news that "Spygate Lives!" - sort of.

• Strahan enjoys 2nd Super Bowl

  January 31, 2008

  If someone could guarantee him this kind of payoff every year, Giants defensive end Michael Strahan would have an easier time deciding "should I stay or should I go?" He's been so animated and happy during the run-up to Super Bowl XLII, it's easy to wonder why he ever thought of retiring as he sat out training camp last summer.

• Patriots linebackers aged to perfection

  January 30, 2008

  They are not your typical snowbirds who come to Arizona for the warmth and the sun. Just the Super Bowl. Junior Seau turned 39 days ago, which makes him a certifiable antique among NFL linebackers. New England inside linebacker Tedy Bruschi is a stroke survivor in his 12th NFL season, and he's hinting at retirement after Sunday's game. Next to them, 11-year veteran Mike Vrabel can actually brag about being young despite the flecks of gray in his brushcut hair and beard.

• Giants, Pats don't come clean about dirty players

  January 29, 2008

  They forearm each other in the throat, land a punch in the gut now and then, run full speed at each other, collide, fall down. Then get up and do it again. The job description is high-stakes tackle football - for pay. So don't blame them for throwing up their hands and laughing like choir boys in the past week every time someone says there are dirty players among them.

• Boston must be stopped

  January 23, 2008

  Well, there they go again in Boston. How do I say this nicely? What a bunch of freaking nut jobs. Try the decaf tea, will you? Even if they are three hours away from New York City, you could hear all their shrieking yesterday from here: What if Tom Brady can't play against the Giants in the Super Bowl? What if the Patriots end up 18 and Oh No? First there was the Bloody Sock. And now this: The Boot.

• Which version of Favre will show up?

  January 20, 2008

  He is one-half of today's quarterback showdown - the record-setting, Hall of Fame-bound half - yet a question that's always shadowed Green Bay's Brett Favre has hardly been mentioned at all this week. Nearly everyone is wondering if the Giants are going to get the Good Eli or the Bad Eli in the NFC Championship Game at Lambeau Field, yet few people are harping on which Favre the Packers will get.

• Lambeau? Brrrring it on

  January 16, 2008

  Worried about Eli Manning's ability to play effectively in the cold during the NFC Championship Game on Sunday against the Green Bay Packers? Admitting it is your first mistake.

• Giants are having fun as they await Cowboys

  January 11, 2008

  Giants linebacker Antonio Pierce was smiling yesterday at the news conference podium even before he took a question. He was amused in advance.

• They should interview Pettitte, McNamee instead

  January 4, 2008

  I know 10 million people are expected to watch disgraced pitcher Roger Clemens defend himself on "60 Minutes" Sunday night, but interviewer Mike Wallace is talking to the wrong guy. Clemens, in addition to being Wallace's self-described good friend, doesn't have anything new to tell us about his alleged steroid and HGH use. Clemens' lead attorney, Rusty Hardin, said so himself in an interview this week.

• Mitchell Report has plenty to blame for steroids

  December 14, 2007

  With every turn of the page in the Mitchell Report on performance-enhancing drug use that was released yesterday, what had been seen as a baseball-wide scandal at the start of the day narrowed swiftly and sharply, at least for New Yorkers. It became a Yankees and Mets story that will cast aspersions on everything from the Yankees' title runs of the 1990s to the damaged Hall of Fame candidacy of Roger Clemens. A few minutes after 2 p.m, Clemens officially became the white Barry Bonds.

• Mitchell Report has plenty to blame for steroids

  December 14, 2007

  With every turn of the page in the Mitchell Report on performance-enhancing drug use that was released Thursday, what had been seen as a baseball-wide scandal at the start of the day narrowed swiftly and sharply, at least for New Yorkers.

• Beltran' best shot to being key to city

  May 20, 2005

  He will go into this weekend thinking less about what his first Subway Series will be like and more about whether this will be the weekend when something big finally happens for him. Is this the weekend when something inside of him finally ignites, clicks in and breaks out?

• Make it not pay to use

  December 8, 2004

  It's a consoling little idea to think that the baseball players' union and baseball commissioner Bud Selig will agree swiftly to a neat and tidy policy that will snare the steroid cheats, and quiet the federal prosecutors and grandstanding lawmakers who are baying at baseball's door and threatening to intervene. It's equally nice to daydream about a time in which Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi and every other alleged steroid user will have to live in a prison of his own shame, even if they're not prosecuted in court.

• Quite a show on back nine

  June 21, 2004

  Phil Mickelson was straining at the seams of his talent and his patience and his nerves, he was pushing, pushing, pushing, trying not to wait till the last minute, trying his damnedest to send a wave of cheers, a heart-sinking roar - something - rolling back up the fairway at Retief Goosen, just to let Goosen know that his final-day lead suddenly wasn't safe at the U.S. Open, and that Mickelson had just done something to threaten him in this taut, two-man fight to the finish.

• Mean course is great theater

  June 20, 2004

  The winds finally were gusting at Shinnecock Hills yesterday and suddenly, the golfers' scores were bobbing up and down like some poor little buoys on whitecapping seas. Jeff Maggert's score sank six shots during yesterday's third round.

• Phil a major domo

  June 19, 2004

  Two months ago he still was dogged by that ear- burning, career-long refrain that he can't win the big one. Then Phil Mickelson won the Masters. Now the crowds swoon for him.

• Enough already! We need old Tiger to be Tiger of old

  June 18, 2004

  Hey! I want the Master of the Golf Universe back. It's hard to see Tiger Woods reduced to this. It really is. I don't mean the sight of Woods landing only five of 14 shots on driving holes in the U.S. Open fairways yesterday or the sight of him muttering, cussing and slapping his thigh in anger during his fitful 2-over-par, opening-round 72. Anyone can have a rough day. What was extraordinary was the spectacle of seeing the once mighty Woods smile (smile?) after his petulant round and say - with a lilt in his voice, no less! - "I played all right."

• Driven Singh not shy about dishing it out

  June 17, 2004

  Given his terrific tournament success, his penchant for blunt talk, his occasional willingness to rattle Tiger Woods' grill more often than anyone else in golf, fear is not a word you'd typically associate with Vijay Singh. Neither is guilt.

• Masters win wipes away pained refrain

  June 16, 2004

  For two months, Phil Mickelson has been basking in the validation his Masters victory gave him. He has lapped up the affectionate applause from fans. He admitted on national television that he went to sleep that giddy night still wearing the green jacket he'd just won. He's no longer the best player never to win a major. He turns 34 today but suddenly he's seen as someone bursting with untold possibilities, a golfer whose ceiling has turned limitless, a remarkable athlete who finally understood the swashbuckling shot isn't necessarily the smartest one.

• Much ado about 'I do'

  June 15, 2004

  Raymond Floyd has been a lot of colorful things during his 40-year golf career - big-time PGA Tour winner and high-stakes hustler, playboy/bar owner and backer of an all-female topless band called the Ladybirds during his hell-raising bachelor days.

• Images of the Heart Are the Best Memorial

  September 11, 2002

  The first few days after it happened, the image that haunted me most wasn't the sight of the Twin Towers tumbling down one by one, horrific as that was as viewed from my Brooklyn apartment window. It wasn't the memory of that muffled boom I had heard before that as I sat on my sofa last Sept. 11, drinking my morning cup of coffee. "What the heck was that?" I asked a friend sitting next to me, not yet knowing a second plane had just hit the World Trade Center. Had I looked over my left shoulder, I would have seen both Twin Towers sheared open and belching smoke.

• One Eye on Field And One on Sky

  September 16, 2001

  THE METS have followed the gruesome stories and mounting toll of Tuesday's plane hijackings and terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon as closely as anyone. But as the Mets drove into the parking lot at Shea Stadium yesterday to get back to work, what confronted them were a host of sobering new reminders.

• Tragedy Hits Close to Home

  September 12, 2001

  Nothing immediately suggested something unspeakable had happened just outside my window, just seven miles away. All I heard was a muted boom. Then the Venetian blinds in my Brooklyn living room shuddered ever so slightly.