Jayson Williams … WTF?

I am one of the 23 or so living New Jersey Nets fans and, before the team’s brief period of actually being somewhat relevant under the leadership of Jason Kidd, my favorite player was Jayson Williams.

Jayson Williams

Ironically, I also root for a college team that has long been forgotten by most of the country: the St. John’s Red Storm. Back in the days before political correctness caused them to adopt that stupid-assed nickname, Williams also played for the St. John’s Redmen.

He was a nonentity for the Philadelphia 76ers for a while, then came to the Nets and mastered the art of rebounding. Williams was never particularly skilled either offensively or defensively, but he went after every rebound with ferocious effort and was, quite simply, a likeable guy.

His NBA career ended in a nasty collision with then-Nets point guard Stephon Marbury, which left the two of them writhing in pain on the floor of the Continental Airlines Arena (now the IZOD Center — sickening, I know). Williams got the worst of the impact, suffering injuries that doctors likened to those from a motorcycle crash. He tried to come back about a year-and-a-half later, but he just didn’t have the strength or explosiveness.

So one of the guys who was always among the more personable in the NBA did the next-best thing: He started working on NBC’s basketball telecasts. That came to a crashing halt, as well, but not due to injury — due to blatant stupidity.

For anyone who doesn’t remember the details of the case, Williams was playing around with a gun in his house and accidentally shot and killed the limo driver who had driven him and a few other people home. Then he tried to cover it up, making matters worse.

On the one hand, there’s a big difference to me between deliberately pulling the trigger and an accident. But on the other hand, the driver’s friends and family lost a loved one due to complete idiocy, and Williams deserves whatever happens to him in the retrial, as much as I hate saying that about a guy whom I’ve always been a huge fan of.

Unfortunately, things only seem to be getting worse. Williams’ wife filed for divorce, and both that case and the retrial of the limo-driver case are due to start soon, and everything must have gotten to the guy. He was removed from a Manhattan hotel room by police and is being held for observation after being described as suicidal.

I know Williams is far from perfect and has done several more bone-headed things that I didn’t even bother to touch upon, but it’s still sad to see someone whom I was such a huge fan of, and whom I believe is a good person deep down, become such a mess. I’m still rooting for him but, rather than rooting for him to grab a rebound, I’m rooting for him to somehow turn his life around. I am not, however, rooting for him to be exonerated in the limo-driver case. As I said, he deserves whatever he gets in that case.

This sucks. Speedy recovery, No. 55.

Common Sense 1, New York Yankees 0

Earth is flat. Santa Claus, the Easter Beagle and the Great Pumpkin are real. Soy burgers taste just like grade-A beef. That dog you had as a child really did go to live with a nice couple on a farm. And the high and mighty New York Yankees actually admitted that they were wrong.

Empty seats at the new Yankee Stadium

The Yankees announced today that they are slashing the prices of the best seats in the ballpark. If you’ve watched one of the six games that have been played at Yankee Stadium thus far, the seats I’m talking about are the ones filled with all of the fans who came in costume, dressed as empty seats.

The prices for the seats are still beyond ridiculous — $2,500 tickets were cut to $1,250 and $1,000 seats to $650, plus season-ticket holders are being given additional tickets in comparable seats — but it’s a step in the right direction.

There are few people who love baseball more than I do, but $2,500 to see one regular-season baseball game is a sick joke, no matter where the tickets are. Most Yankees games drag on for about four hours, and ex-New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer paid less than $2,500 for four hours with Ashley Dupre.

I guess two weeks of being abused via just about every form of media about the number of people in the best and most visible seats in the ballpark resembling the crowd for a Men Without Hats reunion tour got to the arrogant upper management of the Yankees. But I have no sympathy for Hank and Hal Steinbrenner, Randy Levine and Lonn Trost, who have been nothing but condescending throughout the entire relocation process to the new ballpark.

In any event, it will be nice to turn on a Yankees game being played at home and see a color besides the navy blue of the seat backs.

Is there any chance that the ballclub’s generosity will extend to those of us with $40 seats? Um, I won’t hold my breath.

Unemployment Nine: The silence is deafening

My search for gainful employment has ground to a virtual halt, and I am not the least bit happy about this. If it wasn’t for the part-time gig I recently landed, and the fact that it’s baseball season, I’d be going completely out of my mind.

Thumbs down

I have yet to get a single response to a résumé in 2009. And job listings have slowed to a drip. I just sent out my third résumé of April, and today is the 24th. This is not good.

And as I’ve vented about repeatedly, I can’t remember the last time I’ve gone more than a couple of days without hearing about someone I know losing their job or a media company laying people off.

To make matters worse, even when I do find something to apply to, it’s annoying as all hell. I just spent 45 minutes filling out an online application for a webmaster position at a hospital. Maybe someday, someone will explain the point of having people write out everything that’s already included in their résumé. Isn’t that what the God-damned résumé is for?

I really can’t take too much more of this. I think I’d run a victory lap around Hoboken if my part-time job became full-time, because it’s hard to be hopeful about landing anything else right now.

This sucks.

I hate April baseball

Don’t get me wrong: Opening Day is my favorite day of the entire calendar year. But as someone who has had tickets to at least 40 Yankees game per season since 1997, the part of the schedule between Opening Day and Memorial Day is a never-ending pain in the ass.

Old Yankee Stadium in the rain

Why? Mother Nature is a filthy trollop. Weather has been an issue for almost every April game I’ve had tickets to. Nobody wants to sit in the rain, and nobody wants to trek all the way up to the Bronx only to find out the obvious: The game has been canceled. Gee, does the fact that it’s been pouring all day have anything to do with that? Yesterday was one of the rare times when the Yankees actually called a game early enough to save people the futile trip.

Sure, you get your occasional gorgeous day in April. But that’s the exception, not the rule. Even when you’re not dealing with precipitation, which is rare, you often have to dress the way you’d typically dress for a football game.

And all of this, folks, makes April tickets nearly impossible to get rid of. Trust me on this one.

At least the traditional Tampa Rays @ Yankees April series won’t be a factor anymore, with the Rays actually becoming a good team. It seemed that for several seasons in a row, one of the Yankees’ earliest home series would be against Tampa, a then-putrid team, in God-awful weather. The best salesperson in the world couldn’t talk someone into going to see a minor-league baseball team, in 40-degree weather, with rain in the air.

I just hope the weather changes for the better by the time the Yankees return from their upcoming road trip at the end of the month. I don’t have the patience for this crap anymore!

New Yankee Stadium: Consider main level, left-field bleachers

One of the biggest differences between the old Yankee Stadium and the new Yankee Stadium to me is that there are two areas where I hated to sit in the old ballpark, but which I think are among the best values (and I use the term “values” very loosely) in the new facility.

Yankee Stadium seating chart

I never liked the main level at the old Stadium. I found that it was too far back from the field. Also, if you were in one of the lower rows, fans on the walkway between field level and main level were constantly in your way. But if you were in one of the higher rows, you were under the overhang and lost sight of most fly balls.

However, some of the main-level seats in the new ballpark are probably the best in the house. The ones right behind home plate are unbelievable, but they are much too pricey for most people’s blood, as they are part of an exclusive area called the Delta Sky360 Suite. I don’t know how much they cost, and I don’t want to know.

But if you only go to a few games a year, the seats in sections 226-227B (right by third base) and 213-214B (right by first base), at $90 in advance and $95 on game day, offer an incredible view and, while I cringe at calling $90 or $95 a decent price, for this ballpark, they really are a great value. Even the next group of main-level seats a little further into the outfield — 228-230 and 210-212, $75 in advance, $80 on game day — aren’t half-bad.

The other part of the ballpark that made my opinion do a complete 180 is the left-field bleachers. In the old Stadium, they were behind both bullpens and Monument Park, so they were about 550 feet from home plate. I hated them. I was unfortunate enough to sit there three times, and I couldn’t follow the game at all. The only way I knew where the ball was hit — or even if the ball was hit — was to look at the fielders.

But in the new Yankee Stadium, they’re much closer and exponentially better. I’d sit there in a heartbeat, especially for $14, which is a fraction of the cost of most of the seats in the ballpark.

One thing to be careful of: Several seats in section 239 are obstructed by the sports bar, which blocks most of right field. They were supposedly reduced to $5 each after a public outcry, but you probably want to be safe and stick with sections 235-238.

Special Opening Day

I went to my first Yankees Opening Day in 1978, at the ripe young age of 10. Since then, I have missed exactly two. I didn’t go to a game for the entire 1984 season because I was irate that the Yankees traded Graig Nettles, the No. 9 in 9nine9. And I missed Opening Day in 1995 because I had just started a new job less than two weeks earlier.

2009 Opening Day, Yankee Stadium

Opening Day is always special to me, and I sometimes think my butterflies are worse than whatever the players are experiencing. The date is stamped in my mind the minute the schedule comes out, and I always have trouble sleeping the night before.

Today was an extra special Opening Day. After all, how many chances do you get in your lifetime to be at the very first official game in a brand-new ballpark?

In true Yankee fashion, the opening ceremonies were over the top. Bernie Williams, who is delusional enough to think he can still play in the majors, played “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” on the guitar, and did it well. John Fogerty, who looked about 81, did a horrible job lip-syncing “Centerfield.” Kelly Clarkson sang the national anthem, and she has apparently been living the good life, as part of her ass was in the right-handed batters’ box and the other part was in the left-handed batters’ box.

In between “Centerfield” and “The Star-Spangled Banner,” a plethora of former Yankees were introduced.

The all-time greats made sense: Yogi Berra (who threw out the ceremonial first pitch), Whitey Ford, Goose Gossage, Ron Guidry, Reggie Jackson, Don Larsen, Nettles, Paul O’Neill, Willie Randolph, Mickey Rivers, Moose Skowron, Mel Stottlemyre, Dave Winfield.

The recent favorites also made sense: David Cone, Chili Davis, Tino Martinez, Luis Sojo, David Wells, Williams.

But the Yankees were apparently desperate to fill a quota. How else could you explain including John Flaherty, who does a decent job in the broadcast booth but was a marginal backup catcher for a couple of seasons? Or Lee Mazzilli, who was a Yankee for about 27 minutes and is far better known as a Met? Or Jesse Barfield, who was a very good player on some very, very bad teams?

As for the game, CC Sabathia struggled horribly with his command, but the Yankees still managed to get to the top of the seventh inning tied 1-1, thanks to some clutch defense and the new ballpark’s first home run, off the bat of Jorge Posada. Then, thanks to the horrific pitching of Jose Veras and Damaso Marte, 1-1 became 10-1 in quick and bloody fashion, and the final score was 10-2, Indians.

Still, despite the loss, Opening Day is always a great experience. I joke (and I’m not sure how much of a joke it is, because I’m actually pretty serious) about how Opening Day is my only religious holiday. It’s always been the most special day of the year for me, and breaking in the new Yankee Stadium made today extra special.

I’ll be back in the ballpark tomorrow afternoon, hoping that Joba Chamberlain can get the Yankees back on track.

God, I love baseball season!

2009 Opening Day, Yankee Stadium

Partial Employment Nine

After six months and a handful of days on the unemployment line, I finally had a little luck, but I’m nowhere near out of the woods yet.

I got an e-mail from a former co-worker of mine who left long before my old company started purging the majority of its editorial talent. It’s not for a full-time position, but it will hopefully lead to one.

I’ll be working a few hours here and there, doing exactly what I was doing — editing, writing and posting news items for a Web site — for a publication that covers sports video technology. I certainly have no complaints about the subject matter, even though some of the stuff can get very technical. I’m used to dealing with tech content, so I’m quite comfortable.

The people are great, the office is casual and friendly, and the work is like second nature to me. I would love to see this become a full-time gig, but it’s out of my hands. All I can do is try to make a good impression and influence their decision, but I’m worried that no matter how well I do, if the money isn’t there in the budget, this may all be in vain.

Still, it’s getting me out of the house and feeling productive again, and I’m hopefully optimistic that it will turn into something. I’m certainly no worse off than I’ve been, and this can only help matters, one way or the other.

Keep your fingers crossed.

Unemployment Nine: Career change beckons

Mrs. Doubtfire

I think craigslist joined CareerBuilder in trying to send a subtle message that it’s time for a career change, because this is the second ad for a nanny that I’ve found while looking for writing/editing jobs.

Here’s the ad, untouched, and if you don’t chuckle at the part about “a school that’s at least decent,” then you clearly have no sense of humor:

High-end Nanny. (Norwalk)

Childcare position for three children that leaves time for other things. You would: function within an upscale household with 1-2 other staff; cook; drive; run errands including grocery shopping; buy things for the children; and do some sporty activities. You should have: excellent judgment (no telephone, personal distractions while with children); an undergraduate degree from a school that’s at least decent; interpersonal judgment, not just with children but with the adults in household; several years’ experience working with children; a clear sense of self and maturity no matter what age.

Full-time hours unevenly distributed so that you have several days off/week.

Cover, resume, photo.

Opening Day? Fail! Dinner at Waffle House? Win!

In my ongoing quest to take advantage of the free time I have due to being unemployed, I did something I’ve never done in my illustrious career as a baseball fan: I went to Yankees Opening Day on the road.

The good news is that I showed up. The bad news is that most of the Yankees didn’t.

Yankees and Orioles line up for Opening Day

The drive to Baltimore started in silence — one hour of silence, to be exact. It turns out that when I got the transmission fixed on my car, they obviously had to disconnect the battery. When the battery is disconnected, it activates an incredibly annoying security feature in my car stereo that requires inputting a five-digit code before it will work again. If three attempts are unsuccessful, the stereo locks up. My mechanic apparently tried three times, and the only way to unlock the stereo is to drive for one hour with the system on, so I had no tunes until I was nearly off the New Jersey Turnpike.

Lack of audio aside, I pretty much drove through car-wash-like sheets of rain for the entire trip, but on the bright side, there was very little traffic, as only a moron would drive from Hoboken to Baltimore for a baseball game in that kind of weather.

Weather.com was dead-on, though. It stopped raining literally seconds before I parked my car, and the precipitation held off, other than a half-hour shower right before game time, which delayed the start a bit.

My first stop was Pratt Street Ale House, an outstanding brewpub a couple of blocks from the ballpark. It used to be known as Wharf Rat. My visit there consisted of a pint of outstanding porter, a pint of decent stout, another pint of porter and some good-natured ribbing from Orioles fans, whom I affectionately refer to as Baltimorons.

Then I entered Oriole Park at Camden Yards and headed straight for Boog’s BBQ and the pit beef platter. I’m drooling just thinking about it.

Oriole Park at Camden Yards

Orioles fans are lucky. Camden Yards was built just before suites and luxury boxes became the top priority for a ballpark. As impressed as I was with the new Yankee Stadium and Citi Field, frankly, I’d take Camden Yards over either one of them. Of course, neither of the New York ballparks has something like the warehouse building to work with, and, as I mentioned in my blog about Citi Field, the Yankees were trying to keep attributes of both previous renditions of Yankee Stadium prominent. But Camden Yards set the standard for the wave of new ballparks, and it’s still a special place to catch a ballgame.

My seats were also in a great area that has no counterpart in either New York stadium. It’s called club seating, but it’s nothing like the various clubs and suites in Yankee Stadium or Citi Field. For $50, I sat in the first row down the right field line — very decent vantage point — and had access to a climate-controlled indoor concourse area with various restaurants, bars and its own bathrooms. I first sat there on a 102-degree Sunday a few years ago, so I welcomed the air-conditioning break. Of course, Baltimore is going to be cheaper than New York, but neither the Yankees nor the Mets offer anything resembling this value.

Anyway, everything was great until the game started. CC Sabathia had nothing and the Yankees’ bullpen had even less. In a mirror image of too many games last season, the Yankees stranded 10 base runners and wasted numerous opportunities. Final score: Orioles 10, Yankees 5.

Dinner, Waffle House-style!

I figured I’d break up the three-hour-plus drive home with a stop for dinner, likely at one of the fast-food restaurants in a rest stop on I-95. Then, a stroke of genius occurred: WAFFLE HOUSE!

I absolutely love Waffle House and would probably weigh more than a circus elephant if there were any locations in New Jersey. In fact, the woman behind the counter told me the company explored expanding into the Garden State but didn’t do it because the way they clean their dishes doesn’t conform to New Jersey’s regulations. This made me sort of nervous, but it’s been more than 24 hours and I haven’t dropped dead yet.

After a waffle the size of a small pizza, scrambled eggs, hash browns, bacon and toast, I bid goodbye to Maryland and headed back home, defeated but full.

Mmmm … Waffle House!

Waffle House

Citi Field: What a weird ballpark (in a good way)

There cannot possibly be a more no-lose situation for a ballpark than replacing Shea Stadium. No matter what the new facility is like, it’s guaranteed to be an improvement. But Citi Field, the new home of the New York Mets, is a delightfully quirky ballpark, and I liked it a great deal.

Citi Field

Did I like it as much as the new Yankee Stadium? No, but I’m biased. Plus, the two ballparks were built with different missions. Yankee Stadium was built with the intention of keeping a lot of the features of the pre-1976 and post-1976 Yankee Stadium, while Citi Field was meant to be an entirely new concept. Citi Field definitely fulfilled that expectation.

I loved the fact that it’s not a uniform playing field. It’s definitely a pitcher-friendly ballpark, but the dimensions are all over the place. Right field is especially quirky, with an area called the Pepsi Porch that overhangs the playing field, similar to the upper deck in Tiger Stadium, and a right-field wall that juts out sharply then bends back in.

Citi Field

The bullpens were also quite unique: The visitors’ bullpen is behind the Mets’ bullpen, under the seats, so you can’t really see it. It took me a while to locate.

The seating areas have a lot of odd little nooks and crannies and small sections, with some seats that seem like fantastic places to watch a game and a few seats that are God-awful. There are also a great number of standing-room areas that provide great views of the field.

When I first entered the ballpark, the upper deck seemed excessively high and far away from the field, but our seats were in the seventh row of the upper deck, between home place and third base, and they were fine. The upper deck appears far worse than it actually is.

There’s an area behind the center-field scoreboard that features several food options, a beer stand with an unbelievable selection and activities for kids, such as a batting cage and a miniature Citi Field Wiffle Ball field. And the back of the center-field scoreboard has a video monitor, so you don’t miss any of the action.

Citi Field

There’s a similar area in the upper deck behind home plate, just for food and a gift shop, but there’s no video monitor. I have a feeling the Mets will add one eventually.

One thing that puzzled my friend and I: There are a ton of seats in fair territory in left field. They’re not necessarily bad seats, but they’re still in fair territory. In fact, due to a handful of club areas and suites, there really aren’t that many seats in the infield, which is strange for a new ballpark.

Citi Field will definitely be confusing the first few times around — for both fans and opposing players — but it’s a truly fun place to enjoy a baseball game.