July 4, 2008

Game 86: Mets at Phillies

The Mets, who are 4½ games behind the Phillies, open a pivotal four-game road series with their NL East rivals tonight at Citizens Bank Park when Johan Santana takes on...

CHRIS DUHON AGREES TO DEAL WITH KNICKS

Chris Duhon celebrated his July 4th by verbally committing to the Knicks, agreeing to terms on a two-year, roughly $6.5 million contract, his agent Kevin Bradbury told The Post today....

Duhon a Knick

By MARC BERMANChris Duhon celebrated his July 4th today by committing to the Knicks , agreeing to terms on a two-year, roughly $6.5 million contract, his agent Kevin Bradbury told...

Coverage in today's Post

Sources told The Post in an exclusive, back-page report that Jose Reyes (pictured) and Keith Hernandez had quite the showdown Sunday night on the Mets' charter flight to St. Louis...

ON DECK: METS AT PHILLIES

After losing the NL East by one game last year, the Mets know every game counts the same. Despite the fact they don't even have a .500 record (42-43), Mets...

CHESTNUT WINS HOT DOG CONTEST AFTER EAT-OFF

NEW YORK -- Joey Chestnut has reclaimed the top spot as winner of the annual hot dog eating contest in Coney Island after first tying with archrival Takeru Kobayashi in...

Box Office: 'Hancock' Eyeing $100M Over 5 Days -- Is that Super Or Not?

"Hancock'' will land in just north of $100 million for the 5 1/2 days ending Sunday night, predictsSteve Mason at Fantasy Moguls, based on early numbers for Thursday. He says...

Kennedy has rough outing

It won't show up on Ian Kennedy's stat sheet, but he had a rough outing last night for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes Barre.Kennedy allowed a run on two hits (a double and...

Jones has All-Star Outing

Trenton starting pitcher proved why he is a Double-A All-Star last night, when he threw seven shutout innings to help the Thunder knock off Portland, 4-0.Jones gave up two hits,...

Reviewing Movie Ads: Disney Embraces the M-Word, Sony Edits Denby's Rave

We were really starting to think the double-truck movie ad in the New York Times was a victim of the economy -- formerly free-spending Paramount wouldn't spring for one for...

New 'Metropolis' Due in '09

Missing footage from "Metropolis'' recently discovered in Buenos Aires will be included in a new DVD version being released next year on Blu-ray and standard DVD, Digital Bits reports. Fritz...

The REAL Delilah

The Real Delilah By BRIAN LEWISDelilah DiCrescenzo finished dead last in the U.S. Olympic Trials women's steeplechase in 10:04.70. Normally dead last-place finishes aren’t noteworthy, but this one is. See,...

GIRARDI 'NOT HAPPY' AS YANKS BLANKED

Sick of watching his team embarrass the most prestigious uniform in sports, manager Joe Girardi blistered the Yankees' ears last night. "He laid the hammer down," somebody with knowledge of...

OFFENSIVE LOSS

WHEN the doors to the Yankee clubhouse finally opened last night after a searing 32-minute meeting held by Joe Girardi, the clock on the wall read 10:26. The Yankees know...

JETER 'E' LEADS TO A BIG 'L'

Derek Jeter has had more than a few highlights throughout his career against the Red Sox. There were the six homers he had against Boston last season, good for half...

DAMON: IT'S GUT-CHECK TIME

Following Joe Girardi's postgame team meeting last night, Johnny Damon admitted that the Yankees are underachieving and that Girardi has every right to be angry. "We're not playing up to...

MATSUI LIKELY OUT UNTIL AFTER ALL-STAR BREAK

If the left knee surgery general manager Brian Cashman says Hideki Matsui eventually will require is done soon, Matsui said he believes his season would be over. "I would assume...

DISGRUNTLED JOE HAS A LOT TO FIX

IN A little more than a week, Terry Francona will be back at Yankee Stadium. To sit in the home manager's office. To work the home dugout. To have many...

LEFTY GIVES SAWX SHOT IN THE ARM

Jon Lester thought he made some good pitches early. But all the Red Sox lefty had to show for his labor was two Yanks on via walks in the first...

BOSS PLANS ALL-STAR VISIT

George Steinbrenner will make a rare visit to Yankee Stadium for the July 15 All-Star Game. "I am looking forward to it," Steinbrenner told the Associated Press yesterday at the...

'GOLDEN' DREAMS

EUGENE, Ore - A year ago, an ailing Sanya Richards had finished a heartbreaking fourth in the U.S. Championships, losing a shot at 400-meter gold in the World Championships. Despondent...

U.S. OLYMPIC TRACK TRIALS RESULTS

Yesterday At Hayward Field, Eugene, Ore.(All race distances in meters; x-qualified for Olympics)Men 4001, x-LeShawn Merrit, Nike, 44.0 seconds. 2, x-Jeremy Wariner, adidas, 44.2. 3, x- David Neville, Nike, 44.61....

CRISP SHINES IN RETURN

Before the game, Terry Francona was asked if the return of Coco Crisp from a five-game suspension could ease the missing power from disabled-list resident David Ortiz. "If Coco gets...

TOUGH TEST FOR DRAGONS

The New York Dragons snuck into the AFL playoffs with an 8-8 record but validated their standing among the final eight by scoring a 77-63 victory in their wild-card game...

5 QUESTIONS FOR...

IT was a first half to forget for the Yankees and Mets, but SNY baseball analyst Harold Reynolds sees hope for both clubs. Reynolds shared his thoughts on the second...

HONDO SWEEPS!!

Hondo bounced back beautifully from his two-game losing streak, cashing with the Giants and A's last night to expand his retirement fund to 620 righettis. Today, on the silver anniversary...

HOLT READY FOR REMATCH

According to Kendall Holt, what happens in Colombia stays in Colombia. And what happens in Las Vegas could be his first major world title. Ten months after a controversial loss...

SPORTS SHORTS

GOLF: Marino shots 65 at CongressionalSteve Marino shot a 5-under-par 65 to take the lead after the first round of the AT&T National at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md....

JAGR GONE

Jaromir Jagr will never have his number retired in a ceremony at the Garden. But make no mistake. No. 68 was one of the most significant players to ever wear...

RANGERS ACQUIRE NASLUND

This is about tomorrow and this is about yesterday - not only Jaromir Jagr - being gone. This is about the Rangers believing that losing in the second round of...

RED BULLS HANG TOUGH

When the Red Bulls started a brutal stretch - eight games in a month, seven on the road and most without Juan Pablo Angel and Claudio Reyna - the goal...

KNICKS WAITING ON DUHON

The Chris Duhon Watch continued into the Fourth of July holiday weekend as the Bulls backcourt point guard apparently doesn't have a formal offer from Orlando yet and isn't thrilled...

SKIDDING METS A REAL FIGHT CLUB

ST. LOUIS - Jose Reyes and Keith Hernandez had to be separated on the Mets' charter plane Sunday night after a tense confrontation over Hernandez's critical comments about the All-Star...

TIME TO DUKE IT OUT WITH PHILS, NOT SELVES

PHILADELPHIA - This is what happens when you have a history as shallow and abbreviated as the Mets' history: It is possible that two of the five most popular Mets...

PRESSURE-PHILLED

It's time for the Mets to start putting up or shutting up. If interim manager Jerry Manuel's inconsistent crew wants to be taken seriously in the season's second half, a...

SNY POSITIVELY STUPID ON AMAZIN' LOSS

MEMO to SNY: Cut it out, cut it out, now. We're not that stupid. The Mets blew another one, Wednesday night in St. Louis. They had a 7-5 lead in...

'O' YEA! METS ROLL

ST. LOUIS - The Mets rested cleanup hitter Carlos Beltran, littered their lineup with reserves and had their No. 5 starter on the mound last night. So, naturally, they went...

CASTILLO HEADED FOR DL

ST. LOUIS -- The Mets decided yesterday that Luis Castillo's health was too much of a distraction, finally placing the gimpy second baseman on the DL with a strained left...

NETS' LOPEZ GETS PHYSICAL

Brook Lopez figured the speed and the physical nature of the NBA game would represent the biggest adjustment from college. Judging on just three workout sessions at the Nets' summer...

COURT-ING A DISASTER

THE ISSUE: The unpredictable voting record of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. In his article, "The High Court's Supreme Clown," (PostOpinion, July 1) Rich Lowry exposes Supreme Court Justice Anthony...

OBAMA'S GEN. CALAMITY: SLURRING MCCAIN

THE ISSUE: Gen. Wesley Clark's praise of Sen. Barack Obama's 'superior judgment.' Gen. Wesley Clark is the new attack dog for the Democrats and the lead canine in Sen. Barack...

FIXING THE NATION'S SACRED MOMENT

MECKLENBURG COUNTY, N.C. THE impatient patriots here had splen didly short fuses in 1775. Those who tilled the startlingly red clay or who lived in the town named for George...

PRICE OF FREEDOM

TODAY, the 232nd anniversary of the day our Declaration of Independence rang out in Philadelphia, we rightly honor the men who debated and signed the document: Jefferson, Adams, Franklin and...

LOTTERY

NEW YORK Midday Nos. Thu.: 098; Lucky Sum: 17 / Midday Win-4 Thu.: 0034; Lucky Sum: 7 / Evening Nos. Thu: 098; Lucky Sum: 17 / Evening Win-4 Thu.: 3050;...

SCAMMER CAN'T EVEN KILL HIMSELF RIGHT

He failed in life, and then he failed at death. Fugitive financial fraudster Samuel Israel III claimed yesterday that he swallowed 175 morphine tablets, then ate a pile of fentanyl...

OBAMA PULLS ABOUT-FACE

Barack Obama, who ran hard during the Democratic primaries on an anti-Iraq-war message, yesterday left the door open to "refining" his 16-month troop-withdrawal plan as he prepares for a Mideast...

MAC'S NEW CAMPAIGN BOSS TAKES 'HIRE' ROAD

John McCain's new political general took charge yesterday, telling Republican troops that he was hiring more operatives and dispatching hundreds of additional staffers into the field to prepare for the...

'DELIVERY' MAN

It's a girl! - for the boy who used to be a girl. The healthy baby girl born to Thomas Beatie, 34, was delivered the "natural" way Monday at a...

NYPD DAILY BLOTTER

Manhattan Armed with a metal bat, James Willis, 41, attacked an unidentified 37-year-old man shortly after 8:30 a.m. on June 24 at 132nd Street near Madison Avenue. "Yo, I hate...

'MY PERFECT LIFE WAS SHATTERED'

Christie Brinkley thought she had the "perfect life" - a faithful marriage and dream home with a white picket fence - but that all changed the moment a stranger walked...

GOP BOSS FIRES BACK AT BLOOMY

State Republican Chairman Joseph Mondello blasted Mayor Bloomberg and Deputy Mayor Kevin Sheekey with both barrels yesterday for seeking his ouster in order to "use the Republican Party to run...

QUINN PORKS A WALLOP

Speaker Christine Quinn's friends on the City Council brought pounds of pork home to their districts - while neighborhoods represented by members on her enemies list often get beans, a...

HERO NANNY DROWNS ON LI

A selfless nanny jumped into a suburban backyard pool yesterday and drowned in a desperate attempt to save the 3-year-old boy she was watching. The child, plucked from the water...

CRANE-CASE PLEA

A former city inspector yesterday pleaded not guilty to multiple charges that he falsely claimed to have checked construction cranes - one of which later fell and killed seven people...

CITY FIRED UP FOR HOLIDAY

Tonight's July 4th fireworks display will be even more spectacular now that it's been moved 12 blocks south to show off the New York City skyline, Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday....

SCANDAL GETS RISE OUT OF STAR'S BAT

A-Rod's scandalous behavior might be bad for his marriage, but it doesn't hurt his stats - unless his wife Cynthia is the one in the spotlight. In the three games...

CABBY 'SMASHED'

Call it di-vine intervention. A taxi smashed into a Midtown wine store yesterday - just missing a wheelchair-bound man, police and stunned witnesses said. The cab was headed north on...

ANOREXIC GUY OUT-RAY-GED

How bad is that? An anorexic man says he was discriminated against while working on TV chef Rachael Ray's talk show. In papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, Aaron Ferguson...

IMMI-GREAT DAY TO BECOME A CITIZEN

They were born in 39 different countries - from Afghanistan to Jamaica to Guyana - but yesterday, they stood side by side in Manhattan and became Americans together. Surrounded by...

SAMARITAN THIEF ALERTS COPS TO 'TERROR' VAN

He's a criminal, but he "did the right thing" when it mattered - alerting cops to what he feared was a terror plot the day before the Fourth of July....

AIR-CRASH SUIT BACK TO BRAZIL

The wrongful-death suits brought by family members over a 2006 plane collision in Brazil ended yesterday when a judge dismissed the cases from Brooklyn federal court. Judge Brian Cogan ordered...

STOLEN SKULL IN GHOULISH RITUAL

A human skull that may have been used in a bizarre ritual was found on a Bronx beach flanked by multicolored necklaces and with a jar of mercury embedded inside...

UPPER W. SIDER MUGGER

This vicious mugger has attacked six women and one man since April on the Upper West Side and West Harlem, police said yesterday. The thug targets his victims randomly and...

TIP-SUIT 'REVENGE'

A group of waiters at the Old Homestead Steakhouse claim they've been getting stuck with the worst tables at the Meatpacking District eatery - loaded with tip-averse foreigners and non-famished...

ESMIN'S FUNERAL TO BE ON THE CITY

The helping hand Esmin Green didn't get in life from New York City, she'll be getting in death. Mayor Bloomberg announced yesterday that the city would pick up the funeral...

GOTTI BRO A COURT JESTER

He may be losing his health, but not his sense of humor. Jailed Gambino crime-family boss Peter Gotti, 68 - whose list of ailments is almost as long as his...

GANG-SLAY GUILT

The getaway driver in the fatal shootings of two Brooklyn men was convicted yesterday of murder and racketeering. Abubakr Raheem, 48, was found guilty in Brooklyn federal court of the...

MERRILL-GO-ROUND

Merrill Lynch is inching closer to offloading its stake in financial information giant Bloomberg LP, and a blind trust run by Mayor Bloomberg is emerging as the probable buyer, sources...

YOUTUBE HANDS PROFILES TO VIACOM

If you've ever watched a video on YouTube, Viacom now has access to your personal user data and viewing habits. Google has been ordered by a New York federal judge...

EU TIPTOES AROUND INFLATION

Europe took cautious steps to lead a global fight on inflation with an expected hike yesterday in interest rates - leaving the US to stand pat with a weak dollar...

BETS ARE OFF ON CASINO BUYOUT

The final days are closing in on Wall Street's once golden buyout era with the scrapping of another big deal - the $6.1 billion buyout of casino and racing giant...

SALUTE TO OLD GLORY 10 LINES LONG

On July 4, the nation's thoughts traditionally turn to the hopes and virtues that the Stars and Stripes represent - thoughts that have inspired America's poets since the Republic's early...

PETE'S IN PITS AFTER CHRISTIE'S KO PUNCH

THINGS went from rotten to rock bottom yesterday for Christie Brinkley's horny hubby, the demented leech called Peter Cook. The demure supermodel took the witness stand on Day Two of...

WEIRD BUT TRUE

This is a job most people would kill for. The state of Maryland's Family Health Administration accidentally put a phone-sex number in an ad for a job listing, As a...

PARIS TO PALS: GET REAL

SHE'S lived anything but the simple life and now Paris Hilton wants you to know all about it. And she hopes to bring her celebrity friends along for the ride....

YOU'VE GOT JAIL

NOT since the HBO se ries "Oz" have prison inmates behaved so badly. The difference is: That was fiction. The prison hijinks (if you can call murder and assaults "hijinks")...

IMPERIOLI TO 'MARS'

EX-"Sopranos" wiseguy Michael Imperioli is re turning to TV, as a cop. Imperioli, who won an Emmy playing Tony Soprano's off-the-rails nephew, Christopher, has joined ABC's troubled time-traveling police show,...

GO FOURTH AND FIND BARGAINS

Many NYC stores are slashing prices this Fourth of July weekend on summer favorites by top designers. Oh, say can you shop?ARMANI EXCHANGE 645 Fifth Ave., at 51st Street; (212)...

CENTRAL SPARK

WATERFALLS are nice and all, but a free Bon Jovi concert in Central Park? That rocks. And we do mean literally. The show, sponsored by Major League Baseball, will take...

VERY YOUNG GIRLS

TWO of the most despicable people you'll ever meet are brothers Anthony and Chris Griffith, New York pimps whose sordid story unfolds in the documentary "Very Young Girls." They turn...

FRENCH TWISTS UNDO MYSTERY

'TELL No One," the second feature by director Guil laume Canet, is a thriller based on an American novel of the same name, but with the story moved to France....

HE'S GONZO BUT NOT FORGOTTEN

IT may be impossible to make an uninteresting documen tary about Hunter S. Thomp son, but is it unfair to ask "Gonzo" for more Hunter and less Jimmy Carter? And...

MASCOT NAPPING

STRANGE and quirky doesn't begin to do justice to Scott Prendergast's "Kab luey," in which he also stars as Salman, a man-boy trapped for hours every day in a giant...

MEMORABLE STARS IN TALE OF FORGETFULNESS

THE smart indie comedy "Diminished Capacity" deals with three kinds of dementia: those relating to aging, concussions and being a Chicago Cubs fan. Tying those three things together is a...

Intertoto Cup Opens European Season

With Euro '08 barely a week old, the European club season officially opens this weekend with the Intertoto Cup.The competition, a qualifying tournament for the UEFA Cup, starts on Saturday...

A-NGUISH OF A-ROD WIFE

Cynthia Rodriguez bolted to Paris because she was convinced her Yankee hubby, A-Rod, was playing the field and making sweet music with Madonna, sources said yesterday. C-Rod has taken refuge...