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WPCNR PRESS BOX. APRIL 3, 2005: The Yonkers Figure Skating Club held their Thirteenth Annual Charity Exhibition Sunday evening for the benefit of The Jorge Posada Foundation at Murrays Skating Rink in Yonkers, raising close to $4,000 for the organization founded by the New York Yankees Catcher.

Thirty-six skaters preformed solos. Each received proclamations in their honor from Yonkers City Councilman Angelo Martinelli. The Team Image Synchronized Skating Teams, which competed in the national championships in February, both Novice and Junior  opened and closed the performance as Mrs. Laura Mendez-Posada, her child Jorge, Jr. and his sister, Paulina stayed the entire program and selected winners in a post exhibition raffle.

Team Image Novice Starts the Extravaganza. Photo by WPCNR Sports.

Mrs. Laura Mendez-Posada, holding Paulina, and Jorge, Jr., with William Sullivan left, winner of a raffled Jorge Posada baseball card. Mrs. Posada and her family were guests of honor who watched the complete show and stayed to select the winners of raffled prizes, and accept a check approximating $4,000, the largest amount ever raised by the Figure Skating Club since they have been mounting these charity-dedicated exhibitions. Photo by WPCNR Sports.

The organization’s mission to create awareness of craniosynostosis, a condition requiring immediate surgery upon birth. The foundation supports medical facilities and programs conducting research and providing medical treatments for patients suffering this condition. Each year the children of the Figure Skating Club choose a charity or cause to dedicate their show.

Haley-Ann Simpson “Skating on Sunshine.” Photo by WPCNR Sports.

Nicole Muccio’s Ena Bauer at the rinkside box as The Posadas look on. Photo by WPCNR Sports.

Juliana Bailey in flight. Photo by WPCNR Sports.

Senior Graduating Skaters, Julia Boccumini, Hemandria Busgeeth, Jennifer Gottfried, Gail Machado, William McGuinness and Sarah Zanotti were honored for their years of participation and peformed this choreographed number. Photo by WPCNR Sports.

Team Image Junior Skaters closed the program with their spectacular gypsy number. Photo by WPCNR Sports

Mrs. Posada select raffle winners as Jorge, Jr., supervises. Treasure of Yonkers Figure Skating Club, Elise Hubsher holds the tickets. Photo by WPCNR Sports.

 

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WPCNR VIEW FROM THE UPPER DECK. By John Baseball  Bailey. April 3, 2005: This used to be the best day of the year next to Christmas for yours truly, but this year the magic of Opening Day is no longer there. Not a scintilla of heartbeat is there within my breast for the First Pitch. There is no anticipation on my part. The thrill is gone.

 

                             WRIGLEY FIELD, CHICAGO. 1975. Pete Rose at the Plate. Photo, From WPCNR Sports Archive.

The magic of Major League Baseball was killed for me in 1994, when the players and owners killed a season over money. They showed then they did not care about the legions of fans like myself who believed in them and cared about their success on the field for our town, who bought the concept that they were playing for us…that they were our boys.  

 

I knew it was a business. I knew it was all about the money, but still when the Bombers went out there or the Dodgers went out there on that immense green, they were playing for us and we cheered for them. Their success made us happy. Their failures lingered long. To me a ballpark was as good as being in a church, and I got the same feeling as I did when in church.

 

Then the strike broke out and killed the balance of the 1994 season. That strike was orchestrated by none other than Bud Selig and his nouveau riche owners who had the owners stay firm insistent on a salary cap. Well there still is no salary cap today. When Selig and the owners took that strike in 1994 – they shattered the illusion that baseball was a sport not a business. The strike showed us all that it was a business flat out.

 

Now in 2005, Selig and the owners and the media (those shills for the house), who cover major league baseball have destroyed the other pillar that major league baseball was built upon for one hundred and fifty years: integrity.

 

By the owners and the media unwillingness to expose the steroid use problem the last fifteen years, and  the created enhancements of the game:  pumped up baseball, the shrunk strike zone, the shift to interleague play (in a meaningless format),. the hideous wild card system, the game has been transformed into a travesty of cheap homeruns, and records that mean nothing any more, and a regular season that is beginning to rival the NBA in triviality.

 

This was all brought about by the powers that be creating a tighter-seamed baseball, wound so tightly that when it is hit it ricochets off the bat like a pinball and flies out of the ball park no matter where on the bat the hitter connects with the ball. Balls are hit off the end of the bat and the handle and they go out.

 

Tom Seaver proved the baseball of today is different than 25 years ago on live television, dissecting a baseball from 1969 and a circa 2000 baseball. He showed the difference in the winding, the tighter seams, and I believe the smaller core. Yet, the media still bought the propaganda that the baseball has not substantially changed. The keyword being substantially.

 

But baseball needed to excite the fans after the strike.

 

Then the Major League Baseball geniuses said let’s shrink the strike zone. This made the mediocre big league pitcher worse (more walks, forcing him to throw down the middle), and took away the sleight-of-hand of the superior pitchers who worked the corners knees and  letters. Now the strike zone is knees to the belt. That forces you to throw down-the-middle – not a good place.  The men in blue are also not giving pitchers the black or the knee pitch.  The formula is set for disaster: less strike zone, livelier ball, sucker locations demanded.

 

Then, of course, there were the cheaters: the homerun king with the corked bat (how many cork bats had Mr. Sosa used? How come no one asks that question?)  There were the incredible productions of Mr. McGwire, Mr. Bonds, Mr. Sosa. The records of the Babe, Roger Maris fell by the wayside — a little too easily, I felt at the time.

 

The media chalked this up to the narrower strike zone and superior stronger athletes. This was what was written about the homer barrage of the late 90s.

 

Did any one write about steroids? I can’t recall that even being mentioned by any leading sportswriter when Sosa and McGwire and Bonds were being hailed.

 

Well, now the public knows differently.

 

Steroids may have been taken by more than Messrs McGwire, Sosa and Bonds. How many other inflated performances were there? Does baseball care? Did their teamates care?

 

Baseball has never cared. I happen to recall Steve Howe who was involved with drugs seven times and baseball simply welcomed him back.

 

Well now we have an opening day or night, as it were where fans have to wonder, how many out there are enhancing their performances with junk?

 

How many still remain? How will baseball enforce a no steroid policy?

 

It has been pointed out to this reporter that there never was a ban on steroid use in baseball. So the players did nothing wrong.

 

Well if gaining an advantage by drugging yourself isn’t wrong what is? It is why drugs are not allowed in horse races.

 

Well there should have been a ban. So does that make it all right to cheat, just because you can?

 

But, I allege it was all part of the major league baseball schtick: a phony homerun race, great hitting, no one cared. The message baseball has sent to players is it’s all right to cheat as long as your bottom line is fine.

 

A real commissioner, a leader would order mandatory drug testing of every player right after opening day. Those testing positive would be banned for life. Contracts terminated.

 

But Bud Selig is no leader. He is no Kenesaw Mountain Landis.

 

No media dwelt at length on what steroids did to the NFL’s Lyle Alzado (they killed him young). We expect that the same will happen to those pseudo-stars who have used steroids.

 

The Steroid Stars’ legacy is not being some of the great players of all time. Their legacy is that of the Black Sox – the men who forever tarnished the integrity of the game. The Steroid junkies make a mockery of the greats who perhaps played with no more vices than hot dogs, alcohol, and womanizing and still hit them out with a real strike zone against real pitchers, the Spahns, the Koufaxes, the Groves, the Three Finger Browns.

 

The game is at its lowest ebb in my opinion.

 

Commissioner Bud Selig, the owners, the managers, the trainers, the team doctors and the sportswriters of America have presided over this national tragedy. They gave us a phony game.

 

 More so than the Black Sox Scandal of 1919, the steroid scandal calls into question the very nature of the “competition” we will see today.

 

I see no point in ever watching another major league game because I do not know what I am seeing. It has taken on the odor of a fixed horse race – a figure skating competition where the competitive balance is compromised. The strike zone inconsistent. Players unversed in the fundamentals.

 

 

I have scorn for the sportswriters, those pressroom buffet hogs who have as much nose for news in the club house as Fox News. I have to wonder at how the sportswriters are rehabilitating the local abusers of steroids on local teams in print.   

 

The steroid users are not strong people. They are weak. They are small.  To think that team management did not know they were taking is laughable. Junkies is what they are.

 

I weep for this beautiful game, I weep for myself and the loss of innocence, and have nothing but scorn for those entrusted with the game who have betrayed it by their dishonesty, their acceptance of  performance-enhancing drugs on members of their team, their aggrandizement of profit at the expense of integrity. You have allowed this.

 

It saddens me that I can no longer make myself care when the Bombers take the field.

 

I’ll go watch the New Jersey Jackals, the Toledo Mud Hens, the Harrisburg Senators, the Norwich Navigators, the Lowell Spinners, the PawSox, the Cedar Rapids Kernels, the Arkansas Travelers, the Chattanooga Lookouts, the Modesto Nuts, the Rochester Red Wings, the Buffalo Bisons, the bushleagues – the wonderful minors – where they’re still playing to make the show.

 

Where they pay you in dirt, and  in order to make the bigs, you have to agree to play for less dirt. You give them all the hustle you got, and you still might not make it. As it turns out the minors are the major leagues, and Major League Baseball is the bush league.

 

I’ll still root for the Twins — and I admire the Red Sox for their great achievement last fall. But I never saw an inning.

 

(Thought I’d go to the tube, last fall,  got as far as the knob, would have turned it on but what for? They would have asked me to care, and I don’t get care much any more.)

 

The steroid stars insult the honest effort and hustle of those less gifted, by tarnishing the record book, destroying the game’s sense of fairness.

 

Their records should be expunged from the game. 

 

What would Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis have done with these guys? He would have thrown them out. And removed all their achievements. No question.

 

Baseball, fastpitch softball they are still the greatest games. I still love a ballpark or  a ball field. And I  will watch a game I pass by in progress. I long to play it.

 

It fascinates me how those in charge of the game think so little of it. Of those players gifted enough to play the game for money are so insecure that they cheat. Who do not think of us. Of the effects their actions have on  the children who idolize them.

 

I find it hard not to root.

 

But I am like a lover who has been betrayed once too often. It is hard to care any more when baseball has betrayed your love once too often.

 

As Jim Bouton wrote at the end of Ball Four, when he was thinking of whether he would go and pitch in an industrial league like the Cincinatti Reds Jim O’Toole, who was still trying to get back into the bigs, playing for the Ross Eversoles in an industrial league. Bulldog Bouton wrote: 

 

“Then I thought, would I do that? When it’s over for me, would I be hanging on with the Ross Eversoles? I went down deep and the answer I came up with was yes. Yes, I would. You see, you spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time.”

 

It is easier for me to think about baseball’s past.

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WPCNR WHITE PLAINS LAW JOURNAL. April 2, 2005. UPDATED 12:45 P.M. E.S.T.: The Appellate Court, Second Circuit, in Brooklyn ruled this week upholding (in effect) Louis Cappelli’s purchase of the 240 Main Street (Corner Nook, Main Street Bookstore and deli) property. The decision orders F & J Continental Food Corp. to assign its right of first refusal to Cappelli Enterprises within 30 days. 

Cappelli Hotel & Condoplex Work In Progress. Photo by WPCNR News

 The Common Council is scheduled to take up a possible vote on approving Mr. Cappelli’s 221 Main Hotel & Condominium project for 40 stories each tower Monday evening. The decision would appear to clear the way to provide Cappelli the ability to satisfy his affordable housing committment on that hotel project by building them on the 240 Main Street site, should he choose to do so.

Appellate judges  Thomas P. Adams, Fred T. Santucci, Gloria Goldstein and Stephen G. Crane, ruled “the agreement included all essential terms, F & J’s contention that there there is  a distinction between fair market rent and market rent is not supported by any authority. The fact that what constituted fair market rent was subject to arbitration did not render the option agreement indefinite.”

THE HOT CORNER: Dispute over whether Louis Cappelli had the right to purchase 240 Main Street was thrown out this week by the Appellate Court. Property is shown, center of picture. City Center garage is in the background. Photo from WPCNR News Archive.

The justices concurred that F & J ‘s protest that Mr. Cappelli put them under duress did not hold water, noting “where a party (F & J) has accepted the benefits of an agreement and then seeks to repudiate the agreement on the ground of coercion, it must do so in a timely fashion or any objection is waived.”  (F & J entered into the option agreement with Cappelli June 22, 2001, and it was not until May 14, 2003, that F & J raised objections to the agreement).

Mr. Cappelli has told WPCNR that F & J had sold him the right of first refusal, and that F & J had sold the right to continue its lawsuit to Ginsburg Development Corporation, which has been seeking to use the suit to block Mr. Cappelli from erecting 42 units of affordable housing on the 240 Main Street site. Building the units there would  satisfy Cappelli’s affordable housing commitment to the city for the City Center and his 221 Main Street Hotel and Condominium complex (scheduled for a possible approving vote Monday evening.)

A Domain on Main for the Common Man and Woman: The affordable housing apartments/condos Louis Cappelli is thinking of building on the 240 Main Street site. Photo by WPNCR News.

THE FIT WITH “THE PINNACLE:” A Cappelli Enterprises graphic showing an 8-story Affordable Housing building on 240 Main Street and a 5-story Affordable Housing complex adjacent the Ginsburg Development Corporation planned Pinnacle complex. The Pinnacle is the larger building in each picture. Photo, WPCNR News Archive.

In order for the Appellate Court decision to be appealed, the Ginsburg Development Corporation counsel would have to ask the Court of Appeals to hear the case, (seek leave for appeal). They are not automatically entitled to appeal it to the higher court, because the decision was unanimous.

The complete decison follows:

Decided on March 28, 2005

APPELLATE DIVISION : SECOND JUDICIAL DEPARMENT
THOMAS A. ADAMS, J.P.
FRED T. SANTUCCI
GLORIA GOLDSTEIN
STEPHEN G. CRANE, JJ.

2003-09898

Delbello Donnellan Weingarten Tartaglia Wise & Wiederkehr,
LLP, White Plains, N.Y. (William E. Dumke and Alan
Scheinkman of counsel), for appellant.
Saretsky Katz Dranoff & Glass, LLP, New York, N.Y. (Alan
G. Katz and Eric Dranoff of
counsel), for respondent.

In an action, inter alia, for specific performance of an option agreement contained in a lease, the plaintiff appeals, as limited by its brief, from so much of an order of the Supreme Court, Westchester County (Dillon, J.), dated October 1, 2003, as denied its motion for summary judgment on its first cause of action seeking specific performance of the option agreement and on its second cause of action for a judgment declaring that the defendant F&J Continental Food Corp. forfeited its right to any additional consideration pursuant to the terms of the option agreement.

ORDERED that the order is modified, on the law, by deleting the provision thereof denying that branch of the plaintiff’s motion which was for summary judgment on its first cause of action for specific performance of the option agreement and substituting therefor a provision granting that branch of the motion; as so modified, the order is affirmed insofar as appealed from, without costs or disbursements; and it is further,

ORDERED that the defendant F&J Continental Food Corp. shall deliver to the plaintiff an assignment of its right of first refusal within 30 days after service upon it of a copy of this decision and order.

By option agreement dated June 22, 2001, contained in a lease, the defendant F&J Continental Food Corp. (hereinafter F&J), gave the plaintiff an option to purchase its right of first refusal with respect to its landlord’s property for the total price of $82,500, $27,500 due upon the [*2]signing of the option agreement and the remaining $55,000 due upon the exercise of the option. As further consideration for the option agreement, the plaintiff agreed that if it purchased the property it would extend F&J’s lease for a period of 10 years at market rent or at the plaintiff’s election relocate F&J to a comparable location at fair market rent. If there was a disagreement about fair market rent, the issue would be determined by arbitration.

F&J claims that the agreement was void for indefiniteness, duress, and overreaching. With respect to indefiniteness, the courts should endeavor to hold parties to their bargain and the definiteness doctrine is a doctrine of last resort (see Marshall Granger & Co. v Sanossian & Sardis, AD3d [2d Dept, Feb. 28, 2005). The agreement included all essential terms. F&J’s contention that there is a distinction between fair market rent and market rent is not supported by any authority. The fact that what constituted fair market rent was subject to arbitration did not render the option agreement indefinite (see Matter of 166 Mamaroneck Ave. Corp. v 151 E. Post Rd. Corp., 78 NY2d 88, 91).

With respect to duress, F&J’s president, Frank Lombardi, claimed that the plaintiff threatened to use its influence to have the City of White Plains condemn the property if he did not sign the option agreement. Lombardi further claimed that he did not retain an attorney because the plaintiff promised to take care of him, and the unequal bargaining power between the plaintiff and F&J gave rise to overreaching. Lombardi raised these claims for the first time by letter dated May 14, 2003, after F&J received and retained the $27,500 downpayment, and after F&J’s counsel demanded an additional $1,000,000. Lombardi admitted that his counsel asked for an additional $1,000,000 from the plaintiff but claimed that this was “a settlement proposal to compensate me for the monies that I believed I was to receive.”

Where a party has accepted the benefits of an agreement and then seeks to repudiate the agreement on the ground of coercion, it must do so in a timely fashion or any objection is waived (see Capstone Enters. of Port Chester v County of Westchester, 262 AD2d 343, 344). In this case, the claim of duress was not raised in a timely manner, and was only raised after F&J had ratified the agreement. Further, Lombardi failed to set forth a sufficient factual basis for his claims (see Lane-Real Estate Dept. Store v Muchnick, 145 AD2d 469).

F&J further contends on appeal that this controversy has been rendered academic since the owner entered into a contract with the plaintiff to sell the property directly to it. However, the plaintiff was entitled to an assignment of F&J’s right of first refusal to determine the parties’ rights in the property and settle any claims F&J may have. There was no basis in the record to deny the plaintiff the assignment of F&J’s right of first refusal.

Summary judgment was premature with respect to the issue of F&J’s rights to additional consideration pursuant to the option agreement and the parties’ rights to damages. Further, we note that any dispute between the plaintiff and F&J as to what constitutes fair market rent is subject to arbitration.

F & J’s remaining contentions are without merit.
ADAMS, J.P., SANTUCCI, GOLDSTEIN and CRANE, JJ., concur.

ENTER:

James Edward Pelzer

Clerk of the Court

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WPCNR STAGE DOOR. From Westchester Broadway Theatre. April 2, 2005:

The Westchester Broadway Theatre, in Elmsford, Bob Funking and  Bill Stutler those showmen who know theatre and have been turning a healthy profit at the bistro/theatre/showplace in Elmsford for 30 years are introducing an exciting new feature for Westchester residents with children this summer – the 2005 WBT Summer Theatre Workshop. 

 

This is a terrific new summer venue for kids, where they learn all about the different aspects of the theatre; Acting, Dance, Voice, Staging….even Improvisation, in a fun and entertaining environment.

 

The Summer Theatre Workshop is offering 3 consecutive three-week sessions; June 27 thru July 15, July18 thru August 5, and August 8 thru August 26.  All sessions run Monday through Friday, from 9:00 am until 3:00 pm, and are a great place for the kids to be entertained and instructed while school is out and the parents are still at work each weekday.

 

“Summer Theatre camps have become very popular in the Westchester area,” said WBT co-owner Robert Funking.  “And many of our customers have asked, since we’re the longest running Professional Theatre in Westchester, why we weren’t providing one.  Frankly, we didn’t have an answer for them, so we decided to give them what they wanted.”

 

Funking, and his partner, William Stutler, have hired John Fanelli as the Summer Theatre Workshop’s Artistic Director.  Mr. Fanelli brings over 10 years of experience in the field of Children’s and Young Person’s theatre to the Workshop, having taught and directed thousands of youngsters throughout California, and even internationally in New Zealand. John has shaped an exciting and innovative educational approach that has inspired these kids to pursue their goals, theatrical and otherwise.  Mr. Fanelli holds a BA from the University of California at San Diego, and has directed children’s and young person’s versions of such favorites as, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, The Secret Garden, Peter Pan, and The Fantasticks, to name just a few.

 

The Summer Workshop students not only learn the different crafts of the theatre, they actually learn, rehearse and perform a full-scale musical during each session.  Performances are held on the mainstage at the Westchester Broadway Theatre on the Saturday following the last day of each session.

 

“We’ve been presenting Equity Productions for over thirty years,” said Bill Stutler.  “And we’ve worked, and continue to work, with some of the most talented theatre people in New York City.  And because of this, we’ll be able to bring in these top Actors and Directors as ‘Guest Lecturers’ every session, so the kids can learn from some of Broadway’s Best.”

 

In addition to the shows the kids learn and perform during the first two sessions, the Session 3 students will be able to take part in Fanelli’s exclusive “From The Page To The Stage” program, where the kids, themselves, utilizing the techniques they’ve learned during the summer, actually write the Script and the Lyrics to the final session’s production.  It’s a truly unique program Mr. Fanelli developed in California, and in now bringing to the Workshop right here in Elmsford.

 

The daily classes will be held at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel School, conveniently located on Rt. 119 in Elmsford, just minutes away from the Westchester Broadway Theatre.  It is a terrific and easily accessible facility, which can be reached by all major roads and parkways throughout the area.

Session tuitions are $585 for a single session, with discounts for additional sessions, and discounts for additional family members.  Tuitions include not only the 3-week sessions, classes and games, and the performances at the WBT, but also a special group trip to a mainstage performance at the Dinner Theatre, where the whole class will enjoy the professional production at no charge.

 

For information and reservations to the Summer Theatre Workshop, parents should call 914-592-2268, and ex. 842.  John Fanelli will get them an application, and answer any questions regarding this fun, entertaining program for the kids this summer!

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WPCNR’S ADAM IN ALBANY. From Assemblyman Adam T. Bradley’s Office. March 31, 2005: Assemblyman Adam Bradley (D-White Plains) announced that the state Assembly and Senate have passed a budget plan that will provide over $848 million more in funding to public schools than last year – approximately $354 million more than the governor proposed.

 

The budget includes $26.6 million in operating aid for schools in the 89^th Assembly District, which is $787,000 more than the governor provided in his budget.

 

 

 

“It’s incumbent upon us as state legislators to do our best to adequately fund our schools.  I strongly urge the governor to accept this bipartisan compromise which secured substantially more for the education of our children.”

 

The Legislature restored the governor’s cuts for various expense-based aids, funds that local schools already spent and are entitled to state reimbursement for, including BOCES services, transportation costs, and educating students with disabilities.

 

To better ensure schools are spending tax dollars wisely, an additional $2.9 million was added to the state Comptroller’s office for additional school audits. The legislative budget also includes $4.5 million in additional aid to local libraries vetoed by the governor last year. Westchester’s library system will receive more than $2.5 million, which is a restoration of $128,000.[1]

 

“The governor has made it a point to cut funding to libraries year after year. The Legislature’s appropriation puts that funding back in the budget,” Bradley said. “Our communities depend on public education resources to thrive and it’s unacceptable to withhold funding to libraries.”