Final Blog — Vacation is drawing to an end and I will be back in Arizona Saturday night and looking forward to getting back. Did I mention my mother-in-law’s house has no air conditioning?

Those Damn Yankees did it to me again today. I go to two Yankee games this week and the Bronx Bombless lose two games — this one today hurt as it was to the hated Boston Red Sox. Some guy named Darrell Rasner pitched so I wasn’t expecting a good outcome. Travel to the Stadium was much different today as I went with friends and instead of training it we drove by car. Ed is a NYPD and Timmy is a NYFD. So needless to say getting a prime parking spot right in front of the Stadium in a NO PARKING ZONE was no problem at all. The perks to having a badge in this city are ridiculous. Back in 1989 I was hired by the NYPD and accepted the job after scoring a 301 on a list of over 30,000 and passing all my exams. The same day I took that job I got a call from Newsday and was hired as a sportswriter. I had to call the NYPD back and say I would not be reporting to Hunter College for the Police Academy that Monday.

It took us about an hour to drive into the Bronx. We took the LIE to the Cross Island to the Throgs Neck Bridge to the Major Degan and we were there. I used to think the Throgs Neck was called the Frogs Neck when I was a kid. Not used to bridges after 12 years in Arizona. But here in this city they are a part of life. Everyone has an EZ pass now, which charges your credit card when you use the bridge but helps you avoid having to stop and pay.

Unlike Arizona you can bring food into the Stadium, which is why there are a few dozen street vendors selling everything from hot dogs, to pretzels, to nuts on the sidewalks outside the Stadium. We stopped at a place Ed likes and picked up a bucket of 21 pieces of fried chicken for $24 dollars. And boy was it good. We ate that whole bucket while sitting in the right-field bleachers watching batting practice. The most famous shirts for sale outside the stadium were:

1) Bahston Sawks Cack

2) Hey Idiots there was never a curse. Boston just sucked for 86 years.

There were a few others that I can’t put in the blog because they are not appropriate.

The game got off to a good start as the Yanks put up a 3-spot on Josh Beckett in the first inning. I could have left then as that was the only highlight for the Yankees the whole game. We even had to wait through a rain delay — something we don’t have to ever worry about in Arizona.

My buddy has good seats, about 25 rows behind home plate, first base side — He pay’s $120 per ticket for four tickets. He will not be keeping them next year. He just got a letter from the Yankee’s stating that the price of his tickets for the new stadium next season will rise to $300 per ticket. No, that is not a misprint, from $480 for four tickets per game to $1,200 per game. I’m sorry but with the price of tickets here, the $8.50 beers, $4.75 bottles of Poland Springs waters and everything else I really have no sympathy for those fans in Arizona that complain about prices that are actually very, very reasonable. And to boot, today was hot, muggy and overcast. While I love the Stadium, I’ll take that AC at Chase Field any day of the week.

Two games in Yankee Stadium and I didn’t see a Wave — Thank God. No ushers telling you to sit down. No fans telling you to sit down. No scoreboard needing to tell you when to cheer. No mascot. No throwing out tee shirts. No races between a burrito, a chalupa and a Pepsi. No kids announcing the lineup with “Now batting, Derek Jeta.” No kids on the dugout for a hot dog race. And no boy/girl in-game hosts having to tell you what’s going on.

In this town baseball is really all that is needed. It helps that the Yankees make a gazillion dollars and don’t need to do as much as Arizona. Not to say I fault the D-Backs for the in-game promotions. You do what you need to do to stay competitive financially. If I could be Derek Hall for a day I would eliminate the ushers telling fans to sit down. And I would tell fans complaining about other fans standing up to go suck an egg. If someone in front of you is standing up and cheering while the D-Backs are threatening to score some runs and you want to see the action then stand up. Same thing for when a D-Backs pitcher gets two strikes on a batter. Stand up and cheer him on for the strikeout.

Kids went to the beach yesterday and found a bunch of horseshoe crabs, one was even tagged by the Maryland wildlife… A fan at the game today had a #13 Yankee jersey with Madonna on the back, very funny. The Daily News reported that if A-Rod gets divorced C-Rod gets more than half — he is estimated to make $445 million over the course of his career. Former Met Keith Hernandez now a broadcaster for the Mets criticized Jose Reyes for slamming his glove down and the two apparently got into a tussle on the team plane in St. Louis.

Went to Friendly’s ice cream last night and had a Jim Dandy — five scoops of ice cream with whipped cream, hot fudge, nuts, strawberries, bananas and more. I had three scoops of Pistachio, one chocolate and one Reeses’ Peanut Butter. Needless to say I hit the gym for a run this morning before going to the game. Part of the problem with coming home for just a week is that you can’t tell a lot of people you are coming. There is no way to see all your family and friends in one week so it’s better to not let everyone know you are coming. Had pizza for dinner again tonight. I wonder if I can have a pie frozen and shipped to my house

I still can’t believe that this no name Peter Cook could cheat on Christie Brinkley, their divorce has been front page news for three days in a row now. I mean you are married to Christie Brinkley, you really can’t do any better.

Fourth of July fireworks are starting to go off, need to go. Looking forward to being back on the air Monday and to sleeping in my own bed tomorrow night. And of course I can’t wait to feel the air conditioning.

Update to blog – Thursday, July 3rd –

Baseball in New York is a religion. All you hear all day long is Yankee/Mets especially with a four-game series in the Bronx opening up tonight against the hated Red Sox.

With so much going on in the city including Christie Brinkley’s nasty divorce from low-life cheater Peter Cook (You’re married to Christie Freakin’ Brinkley, how in the world could you want any other woman. She may be 54 but she is still hotter than any 20-year old) baseball still takes center stage.

The pitching matchups this weekend are Pettitte vs. Lester, Rasner vs. Beckett, Mussina vs. Masterson and Chamberlain vs. Wakefield.

Guess which game I got tickets for?…Yes, Game two tomorrow July 4th with Rasner facing Beckett. UGH. Of all the games I get to see Rasner get whacked. This may not be fun.

I am curious to see how much bigger the rivalry has become since my last Yankee-Red Sox game at the Stadium about 13 years ago. Things may be different now that the Red Sox have claimed two championships.

I have a friend who will remain nameless that is working the new Yankee Stadium and he is working on getting us a tour before the game. Remember the David Ortiz jersey that was uncovered at the new Yankee Stadium and sold for like 40 grand for charity? My buddy who works there says there is more Red Sox stuff buried at the new Stadium than anyone could imagine. The Yanks know it but obviously can’t do anything about it.

You think the D-Backs have trouble hitting. The Yankees are 13th in the AL in hitting with runners in scoring position. Their .250 average is better than only Toronto and Seattle. Hank Steinbrenner is pissed and he is all over the papers today calling out the Yankees and threatening benching. Can you imagine Ken Kendrick coming out and saying that underperforming players will be sent to Triple-A and that nobody is safe? The Yankees did score 18 runs last night after Hanks tirade, so maybe Kendrick should take note.

If the Yankees go 0-2 in the two games I go to this week I may jump off the Brooklyn Bridge.

There is a feeling that this will not be the Yankees year, too many injuries. So needless to say fans here are thrilled that the Rays just swept the Sox, even though it pushed New York further back in the standings.

Took the kids to Modell’s yesterday “Gotta go to Mo’s” and let them stock up on all their New York sports stuff, including, yes, Yankee flip flops. Much cheaper to buy at Mo’s then at the Stadium. Unfortunately, I had to buy at both.

My mother-in-law’s house is killing me. No air conditioning. And it’s hot.

There are lots of rumors in the papers. Lebron will either play in New York or Brooklyn is a big one. No rumor here but a big topic, Alex Rodriguez will not participate in the home run derby at the All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium. Says it messes up his swing. Another topic is how bad Johan Santana has been. Mets fans were expecting much more from him for the amount of money he got and are disappointed he is basically a six-inning pitcher.

That’s it for now. Kids want to go pick seashells at the beach and tonight walk down Port Jefferson. Starting to wear out a little. Looking forward to getting back to Arizona where my house has AC.

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Wednesday morning – July 2nd –

I’m halfway through the vacation in New York so I figured I’d write my first blog for Sports 620 KTAR.

The trip got off to a rough start when I flew into JFK on Saturday morning and my rental car – a Lincoln Town Car – had Massachusetts plates on it with city of origin being Boston. Not good when I have plans to go to two Yankee games at the Stadium.

You see, the chances of me actually seeing that car in one piece again if I drove to the Bronx and parked it there, were slim to none.

So last night my family and I trained it to the Bronx. From Long Island you take the Long Island Rail Road to Penn Station. We got on the 1:11 scheduled to arrive in Manhattan at 2:35. Only problem was that a small brushfire on the tracks in Wyandanch held us up for an hour and a half and we got into Penn Station at 4:05.

From there we had to hop on the D train (subway) to 161st Street in the Bronx. The plan was to get there early enough to show my girls the monuments, but because of the holdup we arrived too late and they closed it down as we were walking in.

The seats to the game that I paid for weren’t bad - about 35 rows behind home plate, but under the overhang which I don’t like because I like being out in the open and able to see the entire crowd. It was good to be back at the Stadium for the first time since the 2000 World Series.

Patti, my wife, bought a Joba Chamberlain shirt, Kaylee a Jeter, Ally a Jeter and Gabriella an A-Rod. Plus, I got an old-time Yankee shirt and a yearbook.

I don’t know why the Diamondbacks don’t do yearbooks. I paid $25 for mine and it has a ton of advertising in it, they could make some good $$$ from doing them.

Memo to Derek Hall - Next year do a Yearbook.

The game itself sucked. The Yankees are having problems scoring runs and last night was no different as they lost to Texas 3-2. Derek Jeter sat this one out, so that sucked. Mariano Rivera gave up a run in the ninth to take the loss, which is something that never happens. I mean for goodness sake you’re the best closer in the history of the game, only he wasn’t closing as the game was tied.

While I love Yankee Stadium for its history and tradition I understand why they are building a new ballpark. Chase Field is so much better for the fans, the D-Backs scoreboard makes the Yankee scoreboard look like a 12-inch black and white TV.

There are no true luxury suites, no cup holders on the seats, the sound system is not good, and the out of town scoreboard can only do a few games at a time.

Take out the history and tradition and Chase Field blows the Stadium away.

The fans are what make the difference at the games. Arizona has some good baseball fans; don’t get me wrong, but not enough.

In New York the Yankee fans do a roll call from the right-field bleachers in which they call out every starting players name starting from the top of the first inning and ending after each player acknowledges them. It’s pretty cool. When an opposing hitter has two strikes on him the fans start clapping for the strikeout. Every time! No flashing scoreboard is needed to tell the fans to start a “Let’s go Yankees” chant.
What was remarkable is that the section I was sitting in had three separate families from Arizona - Gilbert, Chandler and Phoenix. I found that amazing.

We’ll be heading back to the Bronx on Friday for Yankees-Red Sox with some friends, let’s hope for a better outcome.

The weather here is hot and muggy, and my mother-in-laws house, where we are staying, has no AC. UGH.

Many of the houses here have no air conditioning as the summer months are short and the houses that were built 30 plus years ago were built without air.

I’ve been to the gym each morning for a run - I have to with all the pizza, calzones, white castle, good steer, Friendly’s, Chinese food I have been eating.

And while the more things change the more they actually stay the same. The same faces that I saw at the Bally’s in Lake Grove when I lived here 12 years ago are the same faces I saw at the gym now. Amazing.

Unlike Arizona most people who are born here, grow up here and die here. Just read the obituaries. Four newspapers to choose from - The New York Times, The Daily News, The Post and Newsday. And the paper only cost a buck on Sunday.

The things I miss the most about New York are bakeries and Deli’s. It was fun to go to the Benkert’s bakery on Sunday morning and pick up some crumb buns and pastries. A bakery is also the place where you go for loafs of bread. You get your sliced break at a supermarket but you get your daily bread at a bakery. Many families have bread with every meal - especially Italian families - the bakery is where you go each day to pick up your bread for that day’s meal.

A deli is where you go for breakfast and lunch. You get your ham, egg and cheese sandwich on a roll or bagel in the morning and you get your hero with boars head meat and a side of macaroni, cucumber, and potato salad for lunch.

My kids are amazed at how many hot dog trucks and coffee trucks are on the road. I told them those people make bank, and they can’t believe it but its true. With everyone in a major rush to get where they are going, a lot of people eat in their cars. Thus the hot dog trucks and coffee trucks are extremely popular and always busy.

Typically three hot dogs, with kraut and a soda will costs around $6 bucks. The hot dogs are Sabrett and they are good.

You pull off the road, get your hot dogs and go. I knew a few guys who had trucks years ago and back then they were making well over six figures. The Coffee truck guys make even more, those trucks are extremely busy from 4 am to 9 am and are usually parked right on the ramps going on to the freeways.

You stop to get your morning paper, coffee, bagel, roll, gum, mints, donuts, juice, milk etc.

Highlight of the trip so far was seeing my 94-year old grandfather and 90-year old grandmother on my mother’s side that still live in the same house in Massapequa. My kids love going there. They have a Philco refrigerator from the 1950’s, a General Electric oven that was installed in the house in 1959. The two phones they have in the house are both rotary and they have a television with 13 channels on it that you have to change by hand. Needless to say they haven’t advanced with technology.

We took them to dinner at Mary’s Italian Restaurant and pizza in Massapequa. It was great to get them out of the house as they are house locked. They don’t drive anymore - haven’t in last 10 years - so they are stuck in the house all day and dependent on neighbors to take them to the doctors and grocery store. My grandfather can still play the piano and broke out some “Volare” and “That’s Amore” for the kids.

They don’t move around well and their minds are starting to go. I always think that every time we see them it could be the last. The kids enjoy having great grandparents.

Time to go, the thunder and lightning is starting to hit, rain can’t be too far away, and the kids are hungry. Time to go to the deli.

PS - Randy Johnson sucks, he needs to announce that this will be his last year and get it over with.