I’m quoted a few times in Richard Sandomir’s article about the YES network’s declining ratings this season:

As a corporate progeny of the team, YES needs spectacular, star-driven winning as its business rationale. Fans have come to expect the same.

This season might have stripped YES’s Yankees viewership to its core viewers, without casual and fair-weather fans.

“It’s like the N.B.A. after Michael Jordan,” said Alex Belth, the founder of the Bronx Banter blog. He added: “There is an apathy that takes place when a team is so successful for so long. And this coincides with the end of the Jeter-Rivera era.”

Not to rub it in or nothing but it sure was nice to see ol’ Russell Martin hit two homers last night wasn’t it?

[Photo Via: The Redhead Riter]

Dig Richard Sandomir’s piece on Mr. Met in the New York Times today.

Mr. Met has always given me the willies.

While you are at it, dig Larry Granillo’s Handy Dandy Mascot Guide over at Baseball Prospectus.

[Image Credit: Uni-Watch]

Richard Sandomir on the value of Derek Jeter’s legacy.

I covered the last game at the old Yankee Stadium for SI. Spent almost the entire time trailing Ray Negron, who at one point, gave a two-hour private tour of the place to a party of four headlined by Richard Gere. The filmmaker Barbara Kopple was part of the media swarm and she followed Ray and his group with her camera crew, hoping to get some footage of Gere. For his part, Gere was gracious and allowed her to film him some.

Well, Kopple’s ESPN documentary will air soon but it seems that Yankee president Randy Levine doesn’t much care for it. Which means, it might be pretty good, after all.

Or Corner’s Keener, as it was sometimes known, is making a comeback thanks to SNY.

This is good news, indeed. According to Richard Sandomir:

“Kiner’s Korner” is getting a new life online, providing Mets fans with a chance to see Ralph Kiner in his television heyday as the host of Channel 9’s postgame (and rain delay) show from a cramped studio in Shea Stadium.

Starting Tuesday, SNY.tv. will post the first of nine weekly webisodes that combine clips from Kiner’s postgame interviews and new chats between him and the host Ted Berg for the Mets network’s dip into nostalgia.

“When I’m in town or in the car, people yell out, ‘Kiner’s Korner,’” Kiner said by telephone Friday. “I can’t tell you how many people tell me that they grew up with ‘Kiner’s Korner.’”

The footage that will be seen is about all that is known to have been rediscovered. Only some of it is usable.

Nearly all the “Korners” are gone, tossed out or taped over at a time when few local stations, networks or teams understood the value of a video archive of their history and broadcasts.