This week’s Sports Illustrated pays homage to The Stadium, The Cathedral In The Bronx, The House That Ruth Built. Tom Verducci, writing as Yankee Stadium itself, recounts some of the things that took place inside the stadium walls - a place that has seen so much history in its 85 years that it truly is an iconic location. From the “Gipper Speech” uttered by Knute Rockne, to Lou Gehrig’s “Luckiest Man” speech. The first overtime......

For those of you that still collect baseball cards (are there any left), be on the lookout for a joke card from Topps. The card manufacturer of our childhood, Topps is sneaking in a card with the former mayor and Yankees fan as a member of the Red Sox. You ask, "'But that's just nuts! He's a Yankees fan through and through! Why would Topps do such a thing?'" Well, because Rudy said in......

Yankees 16, Royals 8: It was bound to happen and it took a little while, but Alex Rodriguez became the 22nd player in Major League history to hit 500 career home runs and the youngest player to reach that mark. A-Rod got it done early in the game, hitting a three-run shot in the 1st inning of yesterday's win against the Royals, which is the same team he hit #499 off of on July......

The Copacabana, perhaps best known as the muse for Barry Manilow's song of the same name, is closing this weekend (the papers are reporting last night, however their website has a flyer for a Last Dance, tonight). The club has been around since WWII, and was at one point a staple stop in New York's nightlife circuit. Having already had to move three times, finding a new home isn't something new for owner (since 1976)......

- If you're still buying baseball cards, you may have noticed that there are a couple of mistakes on the latest Derek Jeter card from Topps (full card pictured at left). The baseball card pictures President Bush waiving in the stands and Mickey Mantle in the dugout. Problem is that Bush wasn't at the game that day. Plus, everyone knows Bush is a Rangers fan and he would be flanked by tons of Secret......

Mets fans, your wait is finally over. No, not because it's Spring Training, and not because of a World Championship, but because one member of the New York Mets will finally be enshrined in...Madame Tussauds. The 204-figure museum, which bills itself as "New York's most famous tourist attraction" (get it? famous), will unveil its first wax Mets figure on April 2. The house of wax already has five Yankees figures - Derek Jeter, Babe......

HarperCollins president and CEO Jane Friedman fired editor Judith Regan late-yesterday. The dismissal, which was announced while most employees were at the company Christmas party, comes after last month's O.J. Simpson book and Fox TV interview fiasco. Regan was the driving force behind the project, in which Simpson described how he might have hypothetically killed his wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. After the project came under intense criticism, Rupert Murdoch, HarperCollins......

Derek Jeter didn’t win the MVP award yesterday. That isn’t a huge surprise because there was another worthy candidate, David Ortiz. The problem is, he didn’t win it either, Justin Morneau did and once again the baseball writers have messed up. They do this a lot. Pedro Martinez didn’t get the MVP award once because some writers didn’t include him on their ballots since they felt pitchers shouldn’t be able to win the MVP. Same......

The NYPD and FBI shut down a $3.3 billion Internet gambling ring, arresting 27 people and seizing $7 million in cash and assets worth $500 million, including four Manhattan condos. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly called shutting down website Playwithal.com "the largest illegal gambling operation this department has ever encountered." Here's how it worked, according to the Daily News:Traditional bookies would give bettors a secret code to use the Internet gambling site, authorities said. Bets......

He has been called “overrated,” “phony” and “not clutch” yet he is the best player to wear a Yankee uniform since Mickey Mantle retired. Will Alex Rodriguez ever be appreciated in this town? Yesterday, A-Rod delivered the game-winning single in the 10th inning to propel the Yankees to a 4-2 victory over Tampa Bay. A-Rod will always be the easy mark because he makes the most money and will never be Derek Jeter, but what......

Seventh! Not even the top five! The Anholt-GMI City Brands Index was released yesterday, and NYC ranks seventh out of thirty cities surveyed. Clearly, something must be amiss. We're trying to get our hands on the actual survey, but let's talk about what we do know. The components of the survey included: Presence (contribution to culture/science), Place (physical aspects), Potential (job/education opportunities), Pulse (urban lifestyle), People (welcome/diversity), and Prerequisites (basic qualities). Well, there you go:......

Is it just Gothamist, or do you too, after looking at the practically sepia-toned artist's renderings of the new Yankee Stadium, imagine that if the architects, Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum, and Yankees could have, they would put drawings of Mickey Mantle, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Joe DiMaggio as pedestrian and passerbys? Clearly, the drawings are meant to be nostalgic, a reclamation of their storied past, but they are also super nostalgic. Versus the......

It's the second day of Yankee premature-post-season depression, and the local press is taking note. The Yankees went to the Bronx to clear out their lockers while Joe Torre and George Steinbrenner claimed they'd get back to work. Get back to work throwing money at players! There are legions of stunned Yankees fans in the city and all over the country; NY1 headed to Boston Market on 23rd Street and heard from one fan who......

Nicole Beland, Writer/Girl Next Door...

In yesterday's 10-4 Yankee victory (box score), Bernie Williams picked up his 2,000th career hit. Williams is only the seventh Yankee to reach the 2,000 mark. Others include Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio, Don Mattingly, and Yogi Berra. All of Bernie Baseball's 2,000 hits have come as a Yankee. Williams even remembers the first hit, "Off Gregg Olson. Infield hit, right here at Yankee Stadium. A long time ago, in 1991." Trivia......