So Long, Big Ball Park

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 161st 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

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Should Independent Public Investigation Go After Extent of Lectric Larceny

WPCNR MR. AND MRS. AND MS. WHITE PLAINS POLL. September 19, 2008: In WPCNR reports this week, The CitizeNetReporter has found that neither the New York Independent System Operator nor the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, charged with monitoring electric commerce to protect consumers, just has not been doing the job. Over a dozen organizations, power utilities, and industrial groups are howling for an investigation of the hidden profiteering in electricity routing, and the extent of profits, number of energy traders involved and cost to all consumers is being covered up. The New York Municipal Power Agency, representing 36 small municipalities in New York charges NYISO with being unforthcoming with information and piling on charges. Costs could have been a Billion dollars or more direct to New York users, but we do not know.


But, here’s the twist: no media has picked up on this story and dug into it. Even Senator Charles Schumer is accepting the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission refusal to quantify the extent of the costs to New York customers. Even Westchester County government, a consistently carping critic of Con Edison (which WPCNR has found exposed this energy ripoff by lobby NYISO), has not expressed strong interest in how Westchester customers have been bled by NYISO and FERC failure to watch the electric traffic. How can this indifference be?


What do you think, Mr. and Mrs. and Ms. White Plains, should this be investigated? Maybe a billion dollars or more in overcharges is nothing to sweat about, as our press release-happy representatives seem content with. 


 Say what you think at the right. And who should do it? The Wall Street money is now long gone, but these and similar scams may still be happening every time you are using electricity elsewhere in the state and in the country on different electric schemes every day. How do we know it is not? Send the “watchdogs” who have not been watching a message!

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Hollywood/Vine? No! It’s Super Developer’s “V.Q!” at Main & Ritz Carlton Drive

 


WPCNR Main & Ritz-Carlton Drive. By Johnny Paparazzi. September 18, 2008: For two hours Thursday evening,  Wall Street wailing, the agony of the economy,  and the money tag team of the Paulson and Barnanke show, the sideshow of Obama-McCain were forgotten on the jumping corner of Main Street and “Ritz Carlton Drive.” Mayor Joseph Delfino dubbed the boulevard that Via Quadronno overlooks at  the Grand Opening of the White Plains V.Q. Thursday night.  Everyone else may be in trouble but you got the impression that Louis Cappelli and White Plains were still moving forward.



The Via Quadronno jumping Thursday night at Main and “Ritz-Carlton Drive,” as the Mayor calls it at the V.Q.’s Grand Opening.


Louis Cappelli, The Super Developer,  returned to White Plains Thursday evening  to throw an understated trendy party  featuring  the feel of “Rio” with a live salsa band to entertain a friendly and impressed, milling, mingling, schmoozing crowd from bankers to arts enthusiasts, realtors to bankrollers, White Plains luminaries, media types, business associates, and an extraordinary number of beautiful tall women and, as Mr.Cappelli’s parties always do, it  created an air of confidence, optimism and achievement.


.



Limo conveys a contingent of models to grace the evening.



The Mayor of White Plains, Joseph Delfino (right) was there, with Louis Cappelli’s partner in the “V.Q.”, Louis Ceruzzi  (Center) was there with his sister who manages the upscale casual breakfast, lunch and dinner café niche and together with a gathering of easily 125 persons schmoozing and cruising and looking beautiful and upbeat they celebrated the vampy little venue on White Plains hot corner.



Mingling at the V.Q



Mr. Cappelli in addressing the crowd promised he would be opening the second tower of the Ritz-Carlton Condominiums in two weeks, and told the CitizeNetReporter privately he would be holding an opening celebration for his Catskills hotel and gambling resort in about a month after his financing is finalized.


The V.Q. has been gathering a reputation for itself since its soft opening in June, having its biggest crowd just last Saturday night, when 216 persons packed the place, and over 140 persons according to Ms. Ceruzzi, the manager, were walk-ins.



 


V.Q Patio dining is the most sophisticated in White Plains. It’s diagonal interior  with exciting lighting is made up of banquette wall seating, with the elegant  “Shell Bar” as I have dubbed it,  tastefully centering the  white and swank interior making even breakfast elegant. The menus are “high end” according to Ms. Ceruzzi, and feature tasty light Italian fare.



The Dessert Bar.


Too cool for a bar, too good food to be called just a restaurant, the desserts richer than a Starbuck’s, the expresso stronger, V.Q. can start the day off right, power up the day at lunch, and create a great impression at night.



Mayor Delfino, in the brief ceremony celebrating another culmination of a Louis Cappelli concept  that transforms a dreary corner into a crossroads of sophistication, called the White Plains “V.Q.” atmosphere one of “real hospitality.” He praised the restaurant staff for the special atmosphere they create.


Louis Cappelli gave full credit to his partner in the V.Q., Louis Ceruzzi, saying he has replaced a foot doctor, a Subway and wireless store which occupied the former ground floor of the Bar Building where V.Q. resides,  with the V.Q. Mr. Cappelli thanked Mayor Delfino for standing behind the project from the start (“The Mayor has been behind us all the way.”)  He praised Mr. Ceruzzi for his support whom he said kept telling Mr. Cappelli, “Trust me, Lou, we’ll make it work.”


The White Plains Via Quadronno joins the family of V.Q.’s  of New York City (renowned on New York’s demanding  Upper East Side), Miami, Tokyo and Hong Kong.


V.Q. is open Tuesday through Sunday for breakfast at 8 A.M., Lunch and dinner. It closes at 10:30 P.M Sundays through Thursday and is open until 11:30 P.M. Friday and Saturday. V.Q. features cappuccino, wine and V.Q. lasagna showcasing veal, beef, mozzarella cheese and special ingredients created by Chef Elio Tome. He is also an expert in creating risotto recipes at V.Q. according to the Thompson & Bender news release.



Nanny Assis with tambourine, and the Vinicius Cantauria band had the well-wishers swaying to Brazilian rhythms that got your hips moving and your fingers snapping and your merengue going. For one night, it was “Rio” at The  Ritz on “Ritz-Carlton Drive.”


 


 

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Nothing from FERC Head on Schumer Conversation. FERC Can Investigate In Secret

WPCNR THE POWER NEWS. By John F. Bailey. September 18, 2008: Chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, John Kelleher would only confirm, according to a FERC spokesperson, that he met with Senator Charles Schumer on the Lake Erie “scam” contracts (Schumer’s description of the Lake Erie circuitous routing that cost an undocumented millions in overcharges being paid by all New York residents, commercial and municipal concerns the first half of 2008. The spokesperson explained FERC has an enforcement division that investigates matters secretly in markets across the country, and does not disclose such probes.


According to FERC Press Spokesperson for electricity, Barbara Connors, speaking to WPCNR, “Mr. Kelliher was asked yesterday by members of the commission if he had met Senator Schumer, and he confirmed that he met with him but would not comment further on the meeting, so we have no additional comment. He just confirmed he met with Senator Schumer at his request.”


 


Asked if Kelliher gave Mr. Schumer any dates as to when more information might be coming out on the (Lake Erie) investigation, Ms. Connors had no information on that: “I don’t know what he told Senator Schumer. He did not say what their conversation was other than we know  what the general topic was. We have not announced any date for the completion of the on-going investigation.”


WPCNR asked if the investigation would be speeded up. Connors said she could not say. She said she would check on the duration of the meeting Schumer and Kelliher had.


Asked if the FERC investigation was looking at the possibility of similar Lake Erie  loop practices exist in other areas of the country and are being executed, Connors said: “We (FERC) have an office of enforcement as part of the agency and they are looking at all the markets all the time. This is what they do.  They can initiate a non-public investigation, not announce it at the time that they start it and therefore they may be looking at other markets that we’re not aware of at this time.”


WPCNR asked if there was any chance we could confirm that?


Connors demurred: “No, there’s nothing we could find out about that.”


Why not? WPCNR asked.  She replied, “because they’re non-public. They don’t announce them, so  they wouldn’t say oh yes we’re doing this, and no we’re not doing that or give you any information on it.”


WPCNR asked if  this is basically an undercover thing, is that what you’re saying?


Connors said:   “What I’m saying this is a non-public investigation, which under the statutes we operate under, we can go ahead and do that.”


WPCNR: “To your knowledge, we do not know if FERC is doing that (looking for similar Lake Erie loopholes nationally).”


Connors said ” There’s none announced.”


 

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