The Final Score

(Videos shot by Newsday's Adam Abramson.)

Here's a close-up view of Dave Blaney's pit crew in action.

And here's a look inside Dave Blaney's pit crew's strategy session before the race followed by Jim Baumbach at work waving the flag.

I spoke to so many people about Michael Iavarone yesterday - himself, his mother, two college coaches, three former teammates, his old athletic director - and I just now see that Mike Jarvis works for him.

Yes, that Mike Jarvis.

According to Iavarone's racing company Web site, Jarvis is a VP of public relations. (Feel free to laugh out loud.) Here's his bio on the site. It says nothing about how he ran St. John's into the ground.

I covered St. John's for three-plus months in '03-04, and in that time a player was arrested with a former player for marijuana possession, Jarvis was fired, the team never won and there was a sex scandal.

Jarvis was a jerk to me at first, but warmed up to me in our short time together and he always answered my calls in the weeks after he got fired. So I appreciated that.

He did once mistakenly call me one random morning.

This was how I recall our conversation going:

JB: "Hello."
MJ: "Hi."
JB: "How are you?"
MJ: "Good. What's happening?"
JB: "Uh, nothing. What about you?"
MJ: "So what's the plan?"
JB: "Plan? I don't know what you're talking about."
MJ: "What time are we going to meet?"
JB: "Mike, you called me. I don't know what you're talking about."
MJ: "Who is this?"
JB: "Jim Baumbach"
MJ: "Oh, I thought I was calling Jim so-and-so."

We laughed and went on our merry ways.

I spent all day yesterday reporting on the pro baseball dreams of Michael Iavarone, the soon-to-be famous Long Islander (if not already) who owns Big Brown.

You'll be reading a lot about him, especially if his horse wins Saturday, as it is expected to do.

What I found interesting about his background is that he was a stellar athlete growing up in Bethpage, specifically in baseball. He was a pitcher, and scouts from at least two major league teams contacted him during his senior year.

(His mother also is a cousin of Phil Rizzuto, and he has a bat Scooter used in the '56 series.)

So what happened to his baseball dreams? Find out here.

Okay, okay, I'll tell you. He tore his labrum and needed surgery. Twice. So he became a banker, made a ton of money, bought a horse and now is even richer than before.

Chicago Norm suggested this one...

Here's Romo...

And here's Haynes...

You make the call...

When I was in high school I was busy trying to think of ways to finagle my way into the school record books. (And I did just that by competing in the 1600m racewalk, a race that did not run in Nassau County. So I went to a track meet in Suffolk, did the walk in pathetic time, had my coach call it in to Newsday and - tada! - my name was in Newsday's weekly best-of-the-season-in-track as the fastest (and only) racewalk in Nassau. And I think it still stands on the high school wall as the school record. But I digress...)

Two guys from Jericho are spending their high school time by talking sports on the radio, thanks to the Internet. They do a show called "Sports Heaven with Mark and Evan" on blogtalkradio.com, and last night their guest was Darrelle Revis of the Jets. Wow. You can hear the interview here.

Surely many readers opened Newsday the last two days, read about how Cablevision is buying the paper and wondered, "How does this affect The Final Score?!?!"

Don't worry, people. Give it time, give it time.

This thought hit me over breakfast: if they're going to be into synergy, putting News12 video on Newsday.com, using Newsday journalists on News12, etc., then maybe they'll let me do the weather report.

Or, even better - News12 needs a helicopter for traffic updates. I'll do that, too.

... for his usage of the word 'heavens' in this post.

This isn't a debate. It's just a link to Baumbach's web col today.

Read it, and then you can debate him.

Imagine if horse racing never existed and somebody just came up with the novel idea for a new sport right now, here in 2008. "Hey, you know horses look pretty athletic. Why don't we race them around a track and let people bet millions and millions on them?"

Think it would get passed? I doubt it.

I have a lot of friends who like horse racing, and I mean no disrespect. But, seriously, were horses placed on earth to race for humans' enjoyment (and monetary gain)?

Obviously, I ask in light of watching the horse Eight Belles get put to death after breaking her ankles on national television. I'm not a fan of boxing, either, but at least the humans who step in the ring know they run the risk of permanent brain damage. Did Eight Belles have any idea she was running for her life?

Oh, right, she's just a horse.

Some good stuff on our site, including a story advancing the weekend races (there's a 5k, 10k, half marathon and full marathon), tips for your pre-marathon routine, photos from last year's race and there's a map of the course found here.

As loyal FS readers already know, I won't be running in the half marathon even though I registered for it. A left foot injury forced me out. I haven't felt any discomfort since last Sunday, and I've flirted with the idea of running the race even though I haven't hit the streets in two weeks ... but I've since thought better of it. I'm bummed, but on the bright side at least I scored a shot of steroids and lidocaine out of it. But no HGH.

Anyway, I go back to the foot specialist next week to get cleared to run again.

If you're running this weekend's race, good luck!

Some guys get on your nerves. Bob Costas does that for me. Don't worry, not like what Will Leitch does to Buzz Bissinger. It's just the way he carries himself, he just rubs me the wrong way.

For example, every year at the Joe Torre Safe at Home Foundation dinner, the reporters stand in this pen as the celebrities walk on the other side of the rope and give interviews.

And every year Bob Costas shows up, walks on the other side of the rope and gives interviews. What could reporters be interested in asking Costas?

I'm surprised his HBO show is still running. I remember watching it when it first aired and thinking this is bad. I recall one segment had a special surprise guest come out to ask Costas questions. Why? Maybe others feel differently, but I thought that show was almost as bad as Magic Johnson's attempt at a late night television show a decade ago.

Almost.

Okay, I'm done. From now on I'll leave Costas bashing to Neil Best.

I don't really like deadspin.com much. I lost interest in that site after they redesigned it a while back (though I still take delight that they did a post on my Tyler Clippard's MySpace page column). I'm more of a thebiglead.com type of reader.

Anyway, I just watched the YouTube video of the Will Leitch-Buzz Bissinger steel caged match on Bob Costas' show and all I have to say is Wow. I wonder how Bissinger reacts when a waiter or waitress screws up his order. Settle down, man.

Note to self: don't cut off Buzz Bissinger in traffic.

Neil Best has been blogging about this showdown, so you can get much more there. I'm still stunned by all the angst and animosity that Bissinger carries around. Man, you're taking years off your life. It's only a Web site. If you don't like it, don't click on it.

I've done it once, against Cablevision, and within days one of their executive reps called to offer a settlement. I felt like Scott Boras. Anyway, I'm about to do it again, this time against a local tree cutting business for messing up another tree in my backyard, promising to fix it and then failing to answer my calls for the past two weeks.

(The daily voicemail I leave reminds me of trying to get a hold of B.J. Ryan's agent a few winters ago. It became apparent early that winter that he wouldn't talk, but I still left a message on his cell every day. I think I just wanted the satisfaction of knowing he had to go through the process of deleting the message every day. Anyway...)

So I realize you probably don't care about my weeping tree. But I do want to say the BBB is good people. Maybe if Knicks fans would have complained to them about Isiah Thomas, something would have been done earlier. Just saying. Okay, carry on.

I hope you're interested in what sports figures give money to presidential campaigns, because I wrote about that in today's newspaper. Among the coaches, players, general managers and owners I found on the Federal Election Committee's database are:

George Steinbrenner
Theo Epstein
Brian Cashman
Allan Houston
James Dolan
Hank Aaron

Extra, extra, read all about it right here.
(The list of everyone I found is at the bottom of the story.)

Well, I'm not sure if *almost* is accurate. But here goes:

At the end of my junior year of college, I decided to forgo my final year of eligibility and apply for the NBA Draft.

My goal was to get my name in the NBA Draft media guide along with the other early entries. And why couldn't I? I was a college junior who was forgoing my final year of eligibility.

So I called the NBA offices and asked how I should go about entering the draft. They sent me an application, which I filled out and mailed back. I even called a few days before the draft to make sure I was on their list. They said I was. Great!

Unfortunately, when the media guide came out, I was not listed.

Nor was I drafted.

Oh well.

So I just visited my doctor, who believes the tendons and nerves on the left side of my foot are inflamed from the constant banging of running. I am scheduled for an x-ray tomorrow to determine whether there is a stress fracture in there, but he suspects not.

Here's the best part: he injected a small dosage of a steroid into my left foot along with some lidocaine. But no B-12.

Unfortunately, the Long Island Marathon seems doubtful at this point.

Unless...

HGH anyone?

(I'm kidding.)

I've officially returned home after a weekend getaway in New Hampshire, and I see Anthony has more than carried the blog in my absence. But a best of Baumbach? Yeesh. Must have been slow...

I'm just catching up on my New York sports news right now, but I do have some news of myself - my status for the Long Island (half) Marathon is questionable because of a left foot injury. I suspect it happened during a seven-mile jog Thursday. I didn't feel anything until Saturday morning, and yet I stupidly still jogged four miles that day. Not good. I've been limping ever since.

If I feel like this tomorrow, hello, podiatrist!

Since Jim is away and not blogging this weekend, I've been running the Best of Baumbach since Friday.
What collection of Baumbach's Greatest Hits would be complete without his famous (and infamous) Al Arbour column from Nov. 5? The phrase "who the hell is Jim Baumbach to say this about our beloved ex-coach??" has never been used so often by angry commenters. Some of whom were even coherent!
Enjoy. Jim will be back tomorrow. You can yell at him again then if you like.

Poor Red Schoendienst.
Red's managerial career with the St. Louis Cardinals ended many years ago at 1,999 games, and the last time I checked the current manager Tony La Russa isn't about to step aside for a day just so Red could reach No. 2000.
Imagine what Red's reaction was on Saturday night if he just so happened to stumble on the Islanders game and saw a man nine years his younger "coaching" the first time in more than a decade just to reach No. 1,500.

Who can forget this one? Jim does a Seinfeld-themed "Where-Are-They-Now" with Ken Phelps.

Jim is off to New Hampshire this weekend, leaving me to fend for myself on the blog until Monday.
Since he's not around, I thought I would link to some of my favorite Baumbach moments from the first five months of "The Final Score"
Enjoy.
-- JIM FILMS HIMSELF RIDING IN A BLIMP AT THE SUPER BOWL
-- JIM LIVE BLOGS FROM THE ISLANDERS BLOG BOX
And two of my favorite Baumbach columns:
-- JIM WORKS WITH THE CHAIN GANG AT THE DRAGONS GAME
-- JIM STANDS OUTSIDE STEINBRENNER'S HOUSE IN TAMPA

Jim Baumbach. He's a national treasure.

T.J. Simers of the Los Angeles Times had a conversation with Andruw Jones Saturday about the centerfielder's weight.

He said he's 240 pounds, and I said no way, and so he said, "Do you want me to go weigh myself?"

And, what do you know, Jones got on the scale and Simers was right there with him.

A great column worth reading.

My Newsday teammate Ken Davidoff joined me for a morning 5k road race on the campus of Boston College - here's the race Web site - and the proceeds of the event went to Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation for Autism.

Flutie spoke to us runners before the race in the campus gymnasium lobby.

I wanted to ask Doug about the rumor that's made its way around the Internet that he was a witness to Spygate -- here's a somewhat recent blog post by The Big Lead -- but I chickened out.

But, hey, I finished the race in 25 minutes and change! I'll take it.

(This photo, which I found on this site, was not taken today. In fact, I don't think Flutie ran the race. Too bad, because maybe then I could have asked him what he knows about SpyGate as we ran up that killer hill at the end of the race.)

I had family in town for the weekend so the Internet at home wasn't turned on for two days straight. Hey, you know, a first for everything, right? Anyway, I'm back, and, wow, it appears Rieber was really into blogging on Friday. Sorry I missed it.

I'm here at Yankee Stadium now getting ready for what will certainly be an empty Yankees clubhouse to open to the few of us reporters who are here. Also today, Rieber and I are shooting another video installment of Ask Anthony, and we promise to make it more entertaining than the last. At the very least, the backdrop will be better.

Now that every baseball team has suffered at least one loss, we move to the next question: When will the Tigers finally win a game? And once that happens, we'll start to track to the players on Opening Day roster who haven't gotten a hit yet. Fun stuff.

Just read this story about how the brakes on Jerry Seinfeld's 1967 Fiat gave out and he flipped his car (but was not injured). Reminds me of my own Jerry Seinfeld driving story.

I was driving home with a classmate from St. John's in 1999. We were on the Grand Central Parkway in traffic, just past the Cross Island. We were in the third lane, inching along, when I noticed the guy in the Camaro to my right looked just like ... wait, is it? ... yes, it is ... that's Jerry Seinfeld.

His window was open, so I did what any sane human being would do. I rolled down my passenger window and yelled out, "Jerrr-eeeee!" I recall calling out to him twice. And I think it sounded just like Elaine's yell for Jerry in the parking lot episode.

Anyway, Jerry heard me on the second yell, turned left, made eye contact, then raised his left hand, showed me his index finger and promptly raised his window.

Ouch.

If Billy Crystal can get an at-bat for the Yankees in spring training, then I can carry the chains at a Dragons game! Yeah, that sounds about right... LOL.

Anyway... I asked the Dragons if I could be a part of the chain crew for a story and they obliged. But never did I imagine how much work it would be.

You can read about it here or watch this video of me trying not to trip.

Everyone, please say hello to Anthony Rieber.

We here at Newsday -- well, Anthony and I -- decided that The Final Score was such a great, great blog, but I was kinda doing a disservice to you guys. Some days I'd post several times; other days I wouldn't post at all because of assignments. So we decided to team up so we can bring you sports observations more often.

We also have some other neat ideas for the blog. We're going to do a weekly debate, and I'm going to start to post a daily morning wakeup call -- a roundup of stuff the sports fan needs to know in the morning. Stuff like that.

So keep coming back. Please.

Just a programming note: I'm going to try to keep the blog going over the next few days, but I'm here in Florida giving our beat writers some time to work on their special section stuff (which benefits you, the reader!). So I may not continue to blog at my usual pace, I'll still be checking in with observations, and I hope you do the same...

Okay, Yankee clubhouse is about to open. Today's a day game in Dunedin. It's rainy here. But I can't complain. It was 66 degrees. Not bad, eh? BTW, I'll post something on the Yankees in a bit. But after only one day, yes only one day, I sensed a very positive vibe among the players. Joe Girardi seems to be the perfect guy to follow Joe Torre.

(Of course they haven't played a game that matters yet...)

Took a long weekend off from blogging, but it was no vacation. Had to get ready for a trip to spring training (I'm in St. Pete right now) and then work out with none other than Brian McNamee. Here's my first-person story and here are some photos from the workout.

It was definitely neat to try, but, man, was it tough. I only completed about 25 percent of the drills. And I had a bigtime brain cramp and forgot to bring water. So after sprints I thought I was going to pass out. Those power abs I described in the story - they're the real deal.

Yes, I'm very sore today.

I'll leave the PED jokes to you guys.

So during my train ride in to Madison Square Garden this morning I read the second-day coverage of Eliot Spitzer's fall from grace ... and then it suddenly hit me -- I was in Washington, D.C. on the same day as his latest tryst with a prostitute. Yuck!

It was Feb. 13. Spitzer was in town to for a congressional hearing. I was there with many other reporters to cover the McNamee-Clemens congressional hearing. Good thing I stayed at a Courtyard, not the Renaissance Mayflower. That would have been creepy.

The live blog for the Big East Tournament will start shortly...

Just wanted to explain my sudden absence -- and that's absence, not abscess -- I'm taking a brief break to recharge after working several weeks without a day off.

Yes, I know, it's tough work going to the Super Bowl, the parade and then covering the Roger Clemens vs Brian McNamee no-holds-barred steel-cage match...

Nevertheless, I'll be back soon.

At the end of every month we'll update our New York Sports Figures Power Rankings. We were planning to unveil it at the end of January, but so much has happened this month why not kick it off today? (We'll still do one at the end of January.)

Anyway, here's what the list looks like for January, so far:

1. Roger Clemens
2. Brian McNamee
3. Rusty Hardin
4. Eli Manning
5. Isiah Thomas
6. Goose Gossage
7. Jessica Simpson
8. Zach Randolph
9. Jason Kidd
10. David Segui

Honorable mention:
Michael Strahan, Ronde Barber, Tom Coughlin, Stephon Marbury.

(Also, no one has correctly guessed this week's where-are-they-now subject. Hints: former NY football player with a five-letter first name that includes consecutive 'T's.)

But I'm not going to reveal the state or my plans, so I don't jinx it. It'll be No. 33.

In the meantime, I posted my list of various New York stadiums I've visited in the comments section of Neil Best's blog. I don't want to offend my two readers - Hi, Norm! - so I figured I'll post it here, as well.

(This all stems from this post on my blog.)

My list, along with more links, comes after the jump.