WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER SETS RECORD VISITS FOR YEAR 7,017,658 VISITS! 2,098,003 VISITORS MADE 6 VISITS A DAY EVERY DAY. 63,330 UNIQUE VISITORS MADE 133,730 VISITS IN DECEMBER. WPCNR AVERAGED 17,284 VISITORS A WEEK, VISITING 31,270 TIMES.

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WPCNR VIEW FROM THE UPPER DECK. By Bull Allen. September 27, 2010. UPDATED September 29, 2010:

 

And now for something that really matters.

 

In a little itsy bitsy smidge of a squib  column last week, Commissioner of Baseball Bud Selig said he was interested in expanding the baseball playoffs by adding more teams. Selig uses the analysis that only 8 of 30  Major League Baseball Teams now qualify for the Champion Series which begin next week, while far more teams make the playoffs in the other professional sports.

 

 

Yankee Stadium 1956

 

Now what are we seeing happening year after year?

 

We see false pennant races being created with a real question mark created around the motivation of teams going down the stretch.

 

This year it is more obvious than ever the Yankees are doing all they can to avoid Cliff Lee and the Texas Rangers in the first round of the AL playoffs.

 

Tampa Bay is a half game ahead of  Bronx Bucks going into tonight’s action, if Tampa  wins the rest of their games against Baltimore and Kansas City would face the redoubtable Mr. Lee. The Yankees went into a strange slump the last two weeks when it became obvious the Texas Rangers would be the Yanks’ opponent if the Yankees  finished off  the Rays.

 

 

 

The Yankees would prefer the banged up Minnesota Twins, winners of the Central Division. Now this jockeying to pick your opponent is quite possible in baseball because its playoff format is smaller. In the NFL, the wild cards play each other in the first round. Byes are given to first place clubs.

 

As I have written in the past, you get nothing for finishing first except an extra home game.

 

Meanwhile the team that is chasing has the conflict of interest such as exists in the American League this year. Should I try to finish first when I am going to get a Texas team playing great ball with the American League’s best pitcher (Cliff Lee, who by the way mows down the Yankees), or should I pull back on the reins and take on the nicked up Twins?

 

 Ideally had the Red Sox beaten New York last night they would have been 4-1/2 games behind the Bombers…with a chance of beating New York out for the Wild Card.

 

No one in sports was even talking about that “race” over the weekend whether the Saux could overtake New York. 

 

Now the Scarlet Hose are 6-1/2 games behind NY with 7 to play.

 

If the Wild Card is that important, why weren’t the sports “reporters” in the Yankee Stadium press box and in the sports departments of the sports sections and the babbleheads of sportstalk radio talking that up?

 

Now if the Toronto Blue Jays really want to make things interesting they sweep the Yankees the next three, play them as if it was the World Series, and give Boston the opportunity to sweep the Yankees out of the Wild Card next weekend in Fenway? Interesting thought isn’t it? Boston has to win out the rest of the way and the Torontos have to play over their heads. Well, as we know, this morning on Wednesday, the Torontos did not play tough Tuesday night and the Yanks have clinched the wild card.

 

Honestly, the reason the Yankees slipped out of First is because that “gamer” Alex Rodriguez had a tweak in his thigh for a month and was on the disabled list? How could this guy have hurt himself anyway? He never dives for a ball. Never reaches anything in the shortstop hole, and likes to keep himself pretty for whatever celebrity he is dating. Rodriguez never gets his uniform dirty. I remember when Mickey Mantle played with shinsplints because the team needed him.

 

Without A-Rod the Yankees fell into a little hitting slump. It would be a collapse of Metsian proportions if the Yankees lost their last six games, and Boston won their last 7 to get the Beaneaters into the wild card slot.

 

But the Philadelphia Phillies of 1964 lost 10 straight losing a 6-1/2 game with 2 weeks to go. (We remember you Johnny Callison, Tony Gonzalez, Dick Allen, Bobby Wine and Tony Taylor, Chris Short, Art Mahaffey, Jim Bunning, and Manager Gene Mauch. And we are to this day, sorry.)

 

Meanwhile over in the National League you have the San Diegos and the Friscos and the Colorados battling for 1^st, and the Bravos (Atlanta) trying to win enough to nose out  the Diegos and the Friscos and Colorados whoever finishes second in the Wild NL West for the Wild Card and give the best manager in baseball for the last 20 years, Bobby Cox, one more great achievement. But Atlanta has been hurt seriously by losing the great Chipper Jones, the best third baseman in baseball for the last 15 years or so. This is the first time Chipper has ever been hurt. (And Chipper gets dirty.) I hope Chipper comes back. I want to see him play one more time.

 

Expansion of Wild Card Key to Integrity?

 

However, given the new mood of the Commissioner to expand the playoffs — this could lift the cloud of suspicion around Wild Card jockeying.

 

Since the hawks of the sports press row did not ask how many teams Commissioner of Baseball Selig wants to add to the playoffs or how many games he wants to add to the series…let’s see what would happen.

 

Say he adds the three second place teams:

 

This year you would have the Chicago White Sox, and the Oakland A’s joining the mix. Oakland is one game under .500. The Rangers have left them in the dust. The Pale Hose have had a miserable September allowing the Minnesotas to run away from them with a strong Twins stretch drive despite injuries.

 

If you threw in the second place teams you’d have Chicago at 11 over .500 and Oakland 1 game under .500 with a shot to win the whole thing. Is that good? We’re talking NBA playoff quality here. In baseball you need one stud pitcher to get hot, and one or two unlikely heroes to pull off a series win.

 

If you make the opening rounds best 2 of 3 the 2^nd place teams have a great shot at disposing of the better club. Would Mr. Selig have each second place team play each other with the second place team with the best record meeting the winner of the match between the other two second place teams.

 

If you took the present AL standings, the Yankees would get a bye, and Oakland and Chicago would play each other with the winner of that playing the Yankees. But what about length of this semi-final round—would the Commissioner like a best 2 of 3 (no team wants a 2 of 3), or a 3 of 5, (the present number of games in the divisional series),

 

 That means you add a week and a half onto the playoff season, with the first place teams getting a week off. That to me would make sense because the wild card teams would have to emerge it out before getting a crack at knocking off a team that finished ahead of them in the season.

 

First Place teams would get a week off to rest pitching staffs and making the wild card teams go through a grueling week. Adding the extra week with two more teams in in each league would give Major League Baseball another series of 20 more games to sell to the networks.

 

I’d have the wild card team which emerges  from disposing of the winner of the series between the two worst record second place teams, play the first place team with the best regular season record. In the AL for example that would be either the Tampa Bay Rays or the Twins. That’s the rational way of doing it.

 

If the Bud (Selig) man and his competition committee just put the wildcards in a mix with the first place teams, you get no reward for finishing first, Say AL East first plays AL West Second, AL Central First Plays AL EAST Second, and AL West First Plays AL CENTRAL Second in best 3 of 5 series. Then you’d have 3 winners with 2 winners playing each other for a right to meet the team with the best record for the League Championship….again making the record count for something.

 

Adding that extra round would extend the baseball season to November 15.

 

Let’s take it the other way:  Say we take the teams with the 8 best records in each of the leagues into the playoffs, throwing out the second place teams and just basing it on record.

 

That would INCLUDE this year in the AL the Yankees, the Rays, the Twins, the Red Sox, the White Sox, the Tigers,The Blue Jays, and the Oakland A’s—they get matched up 1 (team with best record) plays 8, 2 (team with second best record) plays 7, 3 plays 6, and 4 plays 5.

 

Over in the NL that would INCLUDE – The Phils, the Braves, the Cincinnatis, the Florida Marlins(currently 1 under .500), San Diego, San Francisco, Colorado  and St. Louis.

 

NBA, HOCKEY SYSTEMS?

 

 With best record playing worst record, using the NBA (National Basketball Association) and NHL (National Hockey League) systems, you’d have 4 Divisional Series,(2 of 3 games), 2 Semi Finals of 5 games (3 of 5) and 1 League Championship (7 games), followed by the World Series. A team would have to win 11 games to win the World Series.  

 

Frankly, though I hate to say it that is the fairest way of preserving integrity. It is not to any team advantage to tank games to jockey to play somebody. But of course the first year the first place team loses to the 8^th place team in the first round, you will change that, because let’s face it you need the Yankees in the World Series or else the television ratings tank.

 

Those are the possibilities as I see it, at first glance.

 

Since Selig was quoted last week in Chicago saying everyone likes the wild card. You know this is going to happen.

 

Expanding the playoffs and adding a seeding system by record will restore integrity to the season and make September baseball even more interesting.

 

Now — here’s a thought — do away with league playoffs. Have INTERLEAGUE PLAYOFF MIXES…man that would be great…16 teams matched up by record in a win or go home, with tiebreakers decided by interleague records.

 

The Last Hurrah.

 

By the way, just as an afterthought:Yankee fans should enjoy these playoffs while they can because the Yankees need a new catcher, Petitte is through, Jeter had his worst year and A-Rod is too fragile. They are not making the playoffs next year as presently constituted. They are getting old.

 

Brian Cashman, the Yank GM was helped out considerably by the rest of the league trading key role players to NY, and pickups no one else wanted. (How could Detroit trade Granderson to the Yankees? How could they?Trading Granderson cost the Taggahs the Central Division.)

 

It has always amazed me how faltering Yankee teams have traditionally been helped out by other teams relinquishing good players to them down the “stretch.” This season reminds me a lot of the 1964 season of the Yankees, when an aging team pulled out a pennant with late season acquisitions, then finished last the next year.

 

On second thought, the Red Sox are in the same position as the Yankees: aging out, as evidenced by all their injuries this year.

 

But,never fear Yankee fans, if Selig expands the playoffs, that assures New York teams of getting in next year.

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WPCNR WHITE PLAINS WEEK NEWS. SEPTEMBER 27, 2010:

  In February, 2001, WHITE PLAINS WEEK, the original local news roundup public access television program began on White Plains television.  Friday the program produced its 500th half hour newscast.

When it begain, the show was anchored by  then Westchester County Business Journal Editor, Alex Philippidis of White Plains, John Bailey, The CitizeNetReporter, and Jim Benerofe of  Suburban Street. Alex was with the show for three years then Peter Katz joined the program.

Friday, Mr. Philippidis returned to the show to chat with Bailey, Katz and Benerofe about how White Plains has changed and where it is now.

ALEX PHILIPPIDIS CELEBRATES THE 500TH WHITE PLAINS WEEK NEWSCAST!

ALEX PHILIPPIDIS speaks ON THE ECONOMY, WHITE PLAINS BUSINESS, THE STATE OF LOCAL NEWS COVERAGE…PLUS THE BRADLEY STORY, THE SHOCKER OF THE WEEK AS THE CITY NEWS ROUNDUP SHOW PRESENTED ITS 500TH WEEKLY NEWSCAST. Mr. Philippidis is third from the right, shown with John Bailey and Peter Katz and Jim Benerofe. Photo, Gary Stukes, White Plains Public Access

Mr. Philippidis, now the Editor, Research Institute Operations for Genomeweb.com, returned to celebrate the 500th edition of the weekly news program with Mr. Bailey, Peter Katz and Jim Benerofe.

White Plains Week is the only news round-up show covering White Plains and how it is affected by the county, the school district, the state legislature, and it is viewed around the world on the internet, giving the world a close-up and sometimes ugly view of how democracy is working on the local level in America, covering unique, revealing facts about the news, not reported by other media.

The historic 500th show may be seen right now around the world on the internet at www.whiteplainsweek.com.

The show will celebrate its tenth year on the air in Februay, 2011.

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WPCNR WHITE PLAINS LAW JOURNAL. By John F. Bailey. September 23,2010: 

 

Mayor Adam Bradley of White Plains appeared in domestic violence court this morning, to face 9 charges relating to alleged domestic violence charges filed against him by his wife, Fumiko Bradley. He strode up the aisle into court before Judge Susan Capeci at 10:17 A.M. with his attorney, Luis Penichet.

 

Mr. Penichet and prosecutor Audrey Stone were summoned before Judge Capeci for a conference.

 

After a 7-minute conversation before Judge Capeci, with Audrey Stone, the prosecutor for the Westchester District Attorney, the judge after a dramatic 20 second pause writing on the manila case file in front of her, announced a trial date for the Mayor of  November 8  (the day after Election Day), and a pre-trial conference date of Friday, November 5.

 

The judge then surprised the media in attendance by asking the Mayor if it was  his intention to waive a jury trial (which in previous appearances the Mayor had always insisted upon all along). The Mayor said ‘Yes, I am.”   

 

Holding the Waiver of Jury Trial aloft in her hand, Judge Capeci asked again if it was his intention, having signed the waiver. Mr. Bradley nodded.

 

 

 

Mr. Bradley’s attorney, Mr.Penichet, asked when Mr. Bradley had decided to waive his right to a jury trial, Mr. Penichet said, “today.” Asked if he was following Mr. Penichet’s advice, Penichet said, “Hopefully.”

 

Asked if Mr. Penichet knew how many witnesses would be appearing to testify against Mr. Bradley, Penichet said he had no idea but would learn who would be testifying November 1.

 

Lucien Chalfen, spokesperson for the District Attorney, speaking to WPCNR just prior to the appearance today, asked if Mrs. Bradley’s mother-in-law,Kane Machinaga  (presently in Japan), was expected to return, said that Mrs. Machinaga had assured the district attorney she would return when the trial date was set.

 

The mother-in-law had assured the district attorney she would do this when the District Attorney’s Office allowed her to return to Japan because her allotted time in this country was ending and her husband needed care. Based on Mrs. Bradley’ mother’s  assurances she would return, the district attorney’s office did not video tape her testimony or cross-examination by tape in June, as had been planned.

 

An attorney familiar with defense attorney strategies told WPCNR today that when a defense attorney waives a jury trial, it is usually, but not always a signal that the defense has learned witnesses are not going to testify and it is done as a courtesy to avoid “clogging” the court system.

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WPCNR INTERNET AGE. By John F. Bailey. September 22, 2010:

The White Plains Community Public Access Commission  meeting at the WPPAC studios, last night approved by consensus to continue internetcasts of Common Council meetings begun in July by a company providing the service to the television station at less than the cost it would take for the station to execute the internetcasts itself. The decision on the internet casts would be reviewed after viewing statistics and analysis. (One hundred persons saw the first Council internetcast in July when it was not publicised extensively.)

(Common Council telecasts of the July August and September meetings are currenlty archived on the City website www.cityofwhiteplains.com, and each month  the public council meeting  is viewable live on the internet while in progress. )

The commission members also expressed hope, and Executive Director Kenny agreed that depending on increased costs which Kenny would obtain from the company now providing the Commoun Council meeting feature, that the television station would like  to mount all their government and public access programming and make it available on the city website,( just as WHITE PLAINS WEEK is now available).

The internet community television service envisioned would include all programming on both the government (Cablevision 75 and Verizon Channel  44), and public access channels (Cablevision Channel 76 and Verizon Channel 45)

The Cable Commission also discussed and agreed for the need  to conduct a “Needs Assessment” of what the television station requires for the future. Community Television Executive Director, Jim Kenny was authorized to recommend consultants to conduct such an assessment. Funding for such an assessment will be provided by the Community Access Television undesignated fund balance (approximately $200,000).

The Commission agreed to meet October 6 to consider further  the creation of a Strategic Plan for the television operation that would involve further outreach of the television programming to government and school district buildings and other points and buildings in the city.

The commission agreed to send a letter to the Mayor requesting the remaining three empty seats on the 8-member commission be filled as soon as possible. It was also observed by Executive Director Kenny, commission member Bice Wilson and commission member John Vorperian that the city needed to conclude a new agreement with Cablevision that would include retroactive capital payments back to January 1, 2006, as well as new equipment. Cablevision and the city have been without a contract since that time.

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WPCNR THE WORD. September 22, 2010 UPDATED 10:45 P.M. E.D.T.: 

 Authentic Church will open its doors at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday, October 3, 2010 a t the Post Road Elementary School in White Plains, NY.

The first service will be  OCTOBER 3^rd from 10:00 a.m.– 11:15 a.m. at the Post Road School, 175 W Post Road, White Plains, NY 10606.  All community members are welcome to be guests at the event, spend some time getting to know our staff, and to learn about Authentic Church vision for serving White Plains in a culturally relevant, practical, and spiritual way.  All are also invited to stay for the meet and greet reception following the service.

 

Subsequent services will be held Sunday, November 14 and December 5.  Weekly services will begin in January 2011.

 

The Board of Education approved the rental in June, 2010, said Peter Bassano, member of the Board of Education, and there was public discussion of the matter, contrary to what WPCNR reported previously. Bassano said the church use of the facility was only temporary until the church built its own headquarters. He added that the church was also paying the district market rate for the use of Post Road School.

 

Under two recent 2nd Circuit of the Court of Appeals, and the U.S. Supreme Court decisions in 2003 and , religious organizations are premitted use of school facilities only if their use of the facility extends to community services and does not use the facility for religious services only.