How much would you pay for free Jon Bon Jovi tickets? This much? As the big Bon Jovi concert approaches tickets to the free show are going for as much as $1500/pair, The NY Post reports. The show is going down this Saturday on the Great Lawn in Central Park, and an additional lot of tickets will be released at the Javits Center this Friday (more details at MLB.com). Hardcore fans of Jon Bon......

Photos by Seth Wenig/AP. Yesterday came the announcement of a free concert that would be held on Central Park's Great Lawn this month featuring Mr. Jon Bon Jersey himself (now a Manhattanite). Today more details about the July 12th show and how to procure your golden tickets are unveiled via Bon Jovi's official website. Essentially, tickets will be made available at every major, and some minor baseball stadiums beginning July 2nd. Starting at 9......

The Yankees and Mets head into today’s trade deadline with similar objectives, upgrading their bullpens, but the Mets have already strengthened their team. Yesterday, the Mets acquired Luis Castillo from the Minnesota Twins for AA catcher Drew Butera and Class A outfielder Dustin Martin. Martin had a .779 OPS for St. Lucie while Butera, considered more of a defensive player, had struggled in AA hitting only .188. In Castillo, a three-time All Star and former......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: American Body Shop (Sunday, 10:00 p.m., Comedy Central) A spoof of the fakeality vehicle tweaking genre with former NYC Transit cop John DiResta as part of the ensemble cast. World Series of Pop Culture (Monday, 9:00 p.m. VH1) NY1's Pat Kieran hosts this trivia battle royal show starting its second season. The Bronx is Burning (Monday, 10:00 p.m., ESPN) The first part of an eight part miniseries......

The first release numbers for All-Star Game balloting was released yesterday for the National League and four Mets are leading in the yearly popularity contest. Jose Reyes, David Wright, Paul Lo Duca, and Carlos Beltran lead at their respective positions, with Beltran as the leading vote-getter in the National League across all positions. Reyes and Wright made their first appearances at the "Midsummer Classic" last season, while Lo Duca is a four-time All Star and......

Sixty years today at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, Jackie Robinson made his debut for the Brooklyn Dodgers. When Robinson took the field to play first base against the Boston Braves, he became the first African-American player in modern era of Major League Baseball. Despite enduring constant harassment by fans and other players during his first year, Robinson won Rookie of the Year honors from the Sporting News and Major League Baseball. In what would......

For Yankee Stadium's last year - before a new park - Major League Baseball will be having the 2008 All Star Game in The House that Babe Built. MLB Commissioner Bud Selig said, "One of the biggest factors was George Steinbrenner. He has made wonderful contributions to this city and to the Yankees. Clearly one of the primary factors was to honor the city, the franchise and George Steinbrenner." Man, Selig makes it sound......

Okay, David Wright is only relatively new, but we do think that the Post's cover story from a few days ago about Wright becoming the city's most popular baseball figure had something to it. The Post decided David Wright was "Mr. Wright" based on this summer's jersey and t-shirt sales, but maybe it's time for Derek Jeter to hand over the pretty boy reins to Wright - DJ is 32 and Wright is a baby......

After Wired ran a story documenting the GoogleCenter of the United States a bunch of ists jumped on the opportunity to figure out their own middle. Gothamist, Chicagoist, Bostonist and Seattlest all zoomed in on their creamy GoogleCenters. A crack cartography team is hard at work determining the GoogleCenter of the Ist-a-verse as you read this... Austinist read a book about Olympian Bode Miller and liked it. They also took a few pictures of the......

The Brooklyn teen who was found with a fatal stab wound in a Crown Heights elevator turns out to have been stabbed by his best friend. And it was all over the NBA All Star Game. Naquan Butts turned himself into the police yesterday, saying that he and Michael Bethune had argued over their All Star Game bets (they were watching the game with friends at Butts's apartment) when, somehow, the "trash talk turned physical"......

With plenty of time left before the holidays and the start of next year's baseball season, Omar Minaya has checked off his major tasks for the off-season. First baseman, done. Closer, signed. Catcher, officially finished yesterday when the Mets traded for Paul Lo Duca from the Marlins as Florida continued their fire sale. Minaya acquired Lo Duca from the Marlins for 21 year-old pitching prospect Gaby Hernandez and another minor league player to be named......

It's Yankee against Yankee in the last stages of Major League Baseball All-Star voting! Derek Jeter and Hideki Matsui are vying for the final position on the American League's All Star team. Jeter and Matsui are up against Scott Podsednik of the Chicago White Sox, Torii Hunter from the Minnesota Twins, and Carl Crawford of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays; MLB.com says Jeter is leading Podsednik after one day of voting. You can vote right......

Late Friday, the Nets and Toronto Raptors agreed to a trade that brings Vince Carter to the Nets and ships Alonzo Mourning, Eric Williams, Aaron Williams and two first-round draft picks north of the border. Carter has been out with an injured achilles since early December, but the Nets anticipate his return this week. In a question that Gothamist seems to be asking too often these days, did the Nets (in this case) give up......

The Mets were poised to claim a tie for first place in the NL East, but John Franco gave up the game winning home run in the 9th inning of last night's game. Bobby Abreu, a fan selection to the All-Star game, smacked the home run, his 18th to hand the Mets the 5-4 loss (box score). Now, the Mets are two games out of first place and tied for second place with the hated......

Find out what it means to Tha D. Red Auerbach is safe. Coming into the NBA Finals the old Celtics codger and the Zen Master both had coached their teams to nine championships and the general consensus was that the Lakers would give Phil Jackson number 10. That however was not to be as the Pistons thoroughly dominated the Lakers, winning this year’s NBA Finals in five games. Instead of focusing on where the Lakers......

Last week former Nets coach Byron Scott landed on his feet as the new head coach of the New Orleans Hornets. While doing some research on an upcoming story, Gothamist ran across this cloumn from the always knowledgeable John Hollinger on why Scott shouldn't expect his stay in the Big Easy to be very long. Hollinger cites the Hornets move from the Eastern Conference to the superior West as a major reason that Scott is......

Almost three months after un-retiring and joining the Astros, Roger Clemens is living it up in Texas. In his seven starts, Clemens is 7-0, has a scant 1.99 ERA, and has only given up 11 runs on 29 hits. That's an average of 4 hits an appearance! Gothamist is sitting at our desk marveling at what this 41 year-old is doing. Sure, he's in a new league, facing hitters that have never seen his stuff......

Kurt Wenzel, Novelist...