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New York Post
28-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Post
Kids, grandkids of NYPD and FDNY heroes lost in line-of-duty throw first pitch at Mets game
Four children and grandchildren of heroes threw out the first pitch at Wednesday's Mets game — a feat one described as a 'once in a lifetime opportunity.' Hannah Cristiano, 7, Charli Scalf, 11 and siblings Jackson, 7, and Stella Abear, 5 — descendants of FDNY and NYPD members who laid out their lives for others — braved the rain and stormed the mound with Answer The Call associate committee members in celebration of the charity's 40th anniversary 'It was so exciting to throw out that ball. I really couldn't sleep last night, I was so excited,' said Jackson Abear, who boasted he needed no practice to be the only one of the four to 'throw it perfectly to my guy.' 4 Four children and grandchildren of FDNY and NYPD heroes threw out the first pitch at Wednesday's Mets game. JASON SZENES/NY POST The opportunity was much more emotional for Catherine Abear, who lost her husband, NYPD Detective Raymond Abear, five years ago after he contracted Covid while visiting crime victims in hospitals during the early days of the pandemic. 'It's bittersweet. It was really emotional and cool at the same time — Ray and I were both big Mets fans, so it's quite cool to see them on the field. I'm raising them Mets fans!' said Abear, adding that she had to wipe away tears as she watched the pair relish in the moment. The trio was among hundreds of other Answer The Call families who attended the foundation's 40th anniversary of providing financial and community support to families whose loved ones gave their lives in service of the FDNY and NYPD. More than 1,200 were originally slated to attend the annual event before it was moved up several hours to account for the poor weather sweeping the Big Apple. 4 Charli Scalf, left, Stella and Jackson Abear, and Hannah Cristiano simultaneously threw out the first pitch to Answer The Call committee members. JASON SZENES/NY POST But the rain couldn't keep away Charli Scalf, who, along with her mother Taina, was honoring the memory of her father Detective Jeffrey Scalf. Like Abear, the 14-year NYPD veteran died from the 'invisible bullet' of the coronavirus as he worked through the early and uncertain days of the pandemic. 'It was really fun and exciting because I feel like it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,' Charli, who said her favorite part was meeting starting pitchers Clay Holmes and David Peterson — despite being a self-professed Yankee fan. Taina Scalf said she went through multiple emotions throughout the day's festivities, ranging from elation at watching her daughter to sadness that her husband was missing it, but was overall content that she was surrounded by other families who had gone through the same struggles. 4 The kids met with New York Mets bench coach John Gibbons ahead of the game, as well as starting pitchers Clay Holmes and David Peterson. JASON SZENES/NY POST 'Answer The Call really cares, even though it's five years later. It was five years ago, but it still feels like today to us,' she explained. Little Hannah Cristiano donned a Mets dress and hair bows in honor of her mega Mets fan grandfather, Tommy Farino, who was one of the 343 FDNY members lost on 9/11. Kieran Bellew, 20, and his mom Eileen sat below the massive scoreboard to watch the four kids storm the mound — a place he'd been before. Kieran was just 4 years old when he threw out the first pitch in 2009, five years after his dad, FDNY Lt. John Bellow, was killed when he jumped out of a burning building in Brooklyn on Black Sunday. 4 Detective Raymond Abear died in 2020 after contracting Covid. Detectives' Endowment Association 'It's funny because if they have the same perspective I did, it's as though they're players for the Mets, not just kids throwing out the first pitch,' said Kieran, adding that his father was a huge Mets fan. 'It's very cool. It's just like creating a whole new generation of fans … It's like passing the torch.' Missing the annual event was not an option for the Bellow family, according to Eileen: 'Now that my kids are older, it's on their calendar. They make sure that they come together and go.' The organization, officially known as the New York Police and Fire Widows' and Children's Benefit Fund, was established in 1985 by Mets legend Daniel 'Rusty' Staub, who was inspired after reading about a young NYPD who left his widow and three children behind after he was killed in the line of duty. Since then, Answer The Call has provided over $180 million directly to more than 1,000 families. This year alone, the charity has distributed over $5.5 million to more than 500 families, with widows ranging in age from their 20s to their 90s. Each family is provided with $50,000 typically within the first 24 hours of the tragedy, followed by an annual stipend of $11,000.
New York Post
28-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Post
Griffin Canning's struggles doom Mets' win streak in loss to lowly White Sox
Access the Mets beat like never before Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Mike Puma about the inside buzz on the Mets. Try it free The Mets moved up Wednesday's start time to avoid the oncoming weather, but even so Griffin Canning rained on the parade. The right-hander has been a success story in this early part of this season but lately walks have sabotaged him. And on this day two errors behind him only exacerbated matters. So much for the sweep against an American League patsy: the Mets lost 9-4 to the White Sox at Citi Field to snap a four-game winning streak. The nine runs allowed were a season-high by the Mets. It was a lost opportunity for the Mets (34-22), who will be visited for three games beginning Friday by a Rockies team on pace to eclipse the modern record for losses in a season that was established last year by the White Sox. 6 Mets pitcher Griffin Canning reacts as he walks off the mound after ending the third inning. JASON SZENES/NY POST This version of the White Sox isn't much better, with 38 losses in 56 games. About the only positive development for the Mets was lefty reliever Brandon Waddell absorbed five innings, allowing manager Carlos Mendoza to rest a bullpen that has received plenty of high-leverage work. Thursday's off day will provide a further break for that group. In his shortest non-weather affected start of the season, Canning lasted only three innings and allowed five runs, two of which were unearned, on four hits and four walks with three strikeouts. In his previous start, last Friday, the right-hander pitched only 2 2/3 innings but was removed following a lengthy rain delay. 6 Mets third baseman Mark Vientos watches his three run home run during the third inning. JASON SZENES/NY POST But Canning also struggled that night, walking four batters and allowing three earned runs against the Dodgers. Andrew Benintendi stroked a two-run single in the first inning to begin Canning's rough afternoon. Mike Tauchman's walk started the rally and Miguel Vargas doubled Tauchman to third before Benintendi delivered. Consecutive errors to begin the third helped sink the Mets further. Brett Baty committed a throwing error before Jeff McNeil booted a grounder, giving the White Sox runners on first and second. 6 White Sox Mike Tauchman hits a two-run RBI double in the second inning. JASON SZENES/NY POST 6 White Sox Korey Lee is safe at second base on a fielders choice beating the tag by New York Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor in the second inning. JASON SZENES/NY POST Tauchman unleashed a two-out double that scored both runners to widen the Mets' deficit to 4-0. Canning's troubles worsened in the third, when he surrendered a leadoff double to Lenyn Sosa. After Edgar Quero walked and an ensuing sacrifice bunt, Josh Rojas gave the White Sox a 5-0 lead with an RBI ground out. 6 Mets outfielder Juan Soto grounds out to third base in the first inning. JASON SZENES/NY POST Canning issued another walk in the inning, to No. 9 hitter Michael A. Taylor, before escaping. Mark Vientos' three-run homer against Shane Smith in the third got the Mets back into the game. Brandon Nimmo and Juan Soto drew consecutive walks to begin the inning before Vientos, with two outs, cleared the right-field fence for his sixth homer of the season. 6 White Sox Josh Rojas beats the ball to the plate scoring on Mike Tauchman's two-run RBI double in the second inning. JASON SZENES/NY POST The White Sox scored twice in the sixth against Waddell in extending their lead to 7-3. Benintendi stroked an RBI triple to right field and scored on Sosa's single. Tauchman doubled to start the rally. Rojas' double in the seventh gave the White Sox runners on second and third before Taylor's sacrifice fly pushed the Mets into an 8-3 hole. Benintendi homered in the eighth, leaving him a double short of the cycle.
New York Post
18-05-2025
- Business
- New York Post
NYC leads the pack in post-pandemic return to office
Five years on, New York City office building foot traffic has all but recovered from the 'work from home' losses caused by the pandemic — and here's the proof. Visits to office buildings in April were a mere 5.5% below April 2019 levels, authoritative platform found, making the Big Apple the nation's clear leader in back-to-office trends. Although office visits were also up in most other major US cities compared with the previous month, their average April attendance was 30.7% below 2019's average, according to Advertisement 3 Visits to NYC office buildings last month were just 5.5% below April 2019 levels, platform found, making the Big Apple the nation's clear leader in back-to-office trends. Christopher Sadowski Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco brought up the rear, with April office visits 42% to 44% below 2019 levels. analyzes cell phone data to determine foot traffic. It covers 1,000 buildings nationwide but doesn't say how many are in each city. The data confirm the larger trend that Realty Check has long observed. It's great news for developers and landlords still beleaugered by reduced property values and high interest rates. Advertisement But while Manhattan office attendance is clearly surging, is it truly back to 94.5% of pre-pandemic averages, as says? It sure looks that way on Park and Sixth avenues in Midtown, at Hudson Yards and Manhattan West, and at or near the World Trade Center. Office tower lobbies and sidewalks are busy as they haven't been since before March 2019. The large new leases and expansions we've reported since Jan. 1 — by Amazon, Aquarian Holdings, Amalgamated Bank and several law firms — testify to an appetite for space undeterred by 'hybrid' trends. Advertisement 3 Large new leases and expansions this year, including deals by by Amazon, Aquarian Holdings, Amalgamated Bank, and several law firms testify to an appetite for space undeterred by 'hybrid' trends. JASON SZENES FOR THE NEW YORK POST We've written repeatedly that large-scale office returns were taking place even before JPMorgan Chase, Apple, Alphabet and other major companies dragged employees kicking and whining to their desks this year. Even so, let's raise a few polite qualifiers about report. Ongoing conversions of scores of obsolete office towers to apartments removed a significant number of sparsely-populated office buildings from the inventory over the past three years — and, presumably, from analysis. Advertisement And we wish would share at least some of the locations it monitors — a lack of transparency that also afflicts the notoriously opaque, widely discredited Kastle Back-to-Work Barometer. 3 JPMorgan Chase, Apple, Alphabet, and other major companies this year ordered employees back to their desks. Christopher Sadowski But even after nitpickings, it's obvious that is immeasurably more accurate than Kastle's survey, which was mainly a marketing gimmick for the company's security services. The 'barometer' counts card-swipes only in mostly Class-B buildings where Kastle provides the services. Executives of the largest real estate companies, such as publicly-traded SL Green and privately-held Related Companies — neither of whose buildings are monitored by Kastle — have told us since mid-2024 that WFH was in the rear-view mirror and no longer a factor in decision-making by landlords or tenants. Even so, many media accounts continued to cite Kastle's lowball claims of 55% office occupancy as recently as last summer — until the preponderance of evidence made it wiser to ignore.
New York Post
12-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Post
Nets hoping to beat NBA draft lottery odds, change franchise — like they did 25 years ago
All of the Nets tanking and retooling was about Monday, about getting to the 2025 NBA Draft Lottery and, hopefully, winning it as they did a quarter century ago. That started their turnaround from also-rans to conference champs. Can it happen again? Advertisement The Nets head to Chicago with the sixth-best odds to win the lottery — a 9 percent chance of winning the right to select Cooper Flagg. Coach Jordi Fernández will be their representative on the dais — and hopefully bring them good fortune. 'We're just ready to be lucky,' Fernández said recently. Right before the Knicks will tip off their huge Game 4 playoff tilt against Boston in the Eastern Conference semifinals, the Nets will face a defining moment of their own, hoping to see deputy commissioner Mark Tatum reveal their logo for the first pick. Advertisement 4 Jordi Fernandez will represent the Nets at the NBA Draft Lottery on Monday. JASON SZENES/ NY POST The Nets can end up almost anywhere from first to 10th, with seventh or eighth likelier than all other spots combined. Their odds of each spot are as follows: No. 1: 9 percent No. 2: 9.2 percent No. 3: 9.4 percent No. 4: 9.6 percent No. 5: zero percent No. 6: 8.6 percent No. 7: 29.7 percent No. 8: 20.6 percent No. 9: 3.7 percent No. 10: 0.6 percent Advertisement This will be the first lottery pick they've possessed since 2010. Where it lands Monday will go a long way toward determining their future. Winning could be franchise-altering — as it was when they beat even worse odds back in 2000. Playing in New Jersey then, the Nets went into the lottery with the seventh seed and just a 4.4 percent chance of winning. Tucked away in the NBA's Secaucus, N.J., offices just four miles from the Meadowlands, they got lucky when one of their 44 number combinations — 6-8-9-14 — was drawn in the pingpong ball lottery. 4 Sean Marks addresses the media at the Brooklyn Nets HSS Training Center in Brooklyn, New York, USA, Monday, April 14, 2025. JASON SZENES/ NY POST Advertisement 'Being in the room as deputy commissioner Russ Granik started pulling them out … I shouted 'bingo' as they fell our way,' then-Nets co-chairman Finn Wentworth recalled to The Post. But Wentworth, locked away in a secure location with the other team representatives, couldn't share the news with the rest of the Nets brass. In another room on another floor, they didn't find out until the envelopes were opened and principal owner Lewis Katz started joyously pumping his fist in the air. 'I was sequestered in the secure room upstairs in Secaucus NBA offices,' Wentworth said. '[I] had to wait approximately two hours after pulling 'bingo,' until halftime of [the] Knicks-Houston playoff game, for envelopes to be opened downstairs … and Russ Granik finally releasing me and other team reps to share the Nets joy downstairs.' Unlike this loaded class — with Flagg backed up by the likes of Dylan Harper, Ace Bailey and VJ Edgecombe — that group 25 years ago was notably weak. Still, the Nets' lottery luck let them not only draft their top prospect, but land somebody even more important. 'Fortunately, the best player was Kenyon Martin, and we got him,' Wentworth said. 'Not only did we get Kenyon, but with the No. 1 draft [pick], I was able to attract Rod Thorn out of [the] NBA [league office] where he was 'Dean of Discipline' to become the president of Nets before the actual NBA draft.' Thorn coming aboard was the jumping off point for consecutive NBA Finals berths. 'With Kenyon onboard, it was Rod who truly turned around the Nets with his trade to acquire Jason Kidd for Stephon Marbury the following year,' Wentworth told the Post. 'Next stop, golden era of Nets basketball.' Advertisement 4 New Jersey Nets to introduce number one draft pick Kenyon Martin. ( L-R ) Rod Thorn, Nets President, Kenyon Martin, and Byron Scott, Head Coach. New York Post 4 Devils forward Cooper Flagg (2) shoots over Alabama Crimson Tide forward Mouhamed Dioubate (10) in the second half of the NCAA Division I East Regional Final at the Prudential Center, Saturday, March 29, 2025, in Newark, NJ. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST These Nets are further along the path already. Fernández earned high marks in his first season. And general manager Sean Marks has amassed the most draft capital in the league and finished eighth in NBA Executive of the Year balloting. Advertisement Monday will decide what kind of star they get to build around. 'The Nets beat the lottery odds before,' Wentworth said. 'And it could happen again.' If the 76ers finish outside the top six, their pick conveys to Oklahoma City, and the Nets get their first-rounder next year. But if Philadelphia lands inside the top six, the selection coming to Brooklyn will be pushed back to 2028.
New York Post
07-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Post
Yankees explode for 10-run inning in rout of Padres
Access the Yankees beat like never before Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Greg Joyce about the inside buzz on the Yankees. Try it free A pitchers' duel between the pitcher the Yankees kept (Clarke Schmidt) and the one the Padres insisted upon (the aptly named Michael King) played to a stalemate. A tie game after six innings, it was the San Diego bullpen that resigned. The Yankees exploded for a 10-run seventh inning in which rocket after rocket turned a good game into an unexpected demolition in a 12-3 Yankees win in front of 38,090 in The Bronx on a foggy Tuesday. The Yankees (20-16) halted a three-game skid and will look to take the series behind Max Fried on Wednesday, when they will hope to take some of the momentum from their biggest inning of the season. 4 Austin Wells watches his grand slam during the seventh inning of the Yankees' 12-3 blowout home win over the Padres on May 6, 2025. JASON SZENES/NY POST Tim Hill and Fernando Cruz combined to allow one run in the top of the seventh before the Yankees onslaught began. Once King exited, the Yankees sent 13 batters to the plate in a seven-hit, three-walk, one-grand-slam bottom of the seventh that never seemed to end. Against Adrian Morejon and former Yankee Wandy Peralta, the Yankees teed off: 4 Wandy Peralta reacts after the Padres gave up 10 seventh-inning runs to the Yankees, which included a grand slam to catcher Austin Wells. JASON SZENES/NY POST A Jasson Domínguez double, and singles from Anthony Volpe and Austin Wells scored the game-tying run. Oswaldo Cabrera's attempted bunt resulted in a foul out, but pinch hitter Paul Goldschmidt walked to load the bases, and Trent Grisham walked for the go-ahead run. Ben Rice's two-run double provided distance. As did an intentional walk to Aaron Judge and an RBI single by Cody Bellinger. After a Domínguez fly out, Volpe drove in one with an infield single that loaded the bases for … a pulled grand slam from Wells, the first slam of his career and his second hit of the inning. The onslaught took attention away from King — a piece San Diego insisted upon in the Juan Soto trade — who was solid through six innings of two-run, three-hit pitching. Schmidt — who the Yankees managed to keep in a swap in which four arms went to San Diego — matched him through six perhaps less dominant but still effective innings in which he also let up two runs. 4 Cody Bellinger salutes Aaron Judge (left) after the Yankees star's solo home run in the fourth inning of the Bombers' blowout win over the Padres. JASON SZENES/NY POST 4 Clarke Schmidt and Aaron Boone talke with the umpire after Schmidt was called for a bases-loaded balk during the fourth inning of the Yankees' blowout win over the Padres. Robert Sabo for NY Post Both were excellent until the fourth. The Padres first grabbed the lead, scoring two through some hard contact (a Manny Machado single into left), some soft contact (a shift-enabled chopped single through the left side by Jackson Merrill) and some good fortune (Schmidt balked with the bases loaded before a Jason Heyward sacrifice fly provided a second run). The Yankees responded in the bottom of the inning when Aaron Judge drilled his 12th homer of the season, and they manufactured a run. Bellinger walked and Domínguez singled, and Bellinger's aggressiveness prompted a wayward throw to third from Fernando Tatis Jr., the throw bouncing out of play as Bellinger scored.
