After two devastating losses earlier this week to the Orioles under the pitching leadership of Rasner and Hawkins, Pettitte and Mussina redeemed their team, inspiring hope to their New York ticket buying fans. Pettitte led the Yankees to a a 4-2 win over the Orioles on Wednesday. And Mussina helped boost the Yankees into a 6-5 win over the Twins on Friday.

Pettitte was well matched against the Baltimore. He has a 23-6 career record against the Orioles, which turned out to be exactly what the Yankees needed in a series that left them down 2 games. He only allowed two runs through his six innings.

Pettitte made a game winning play against Brian Roberts. After his third hit of the night, a one-out double, Roberts was eying third base. While pitching to Melvin Mora, Pettitte shot the ball to second, catching the runner off base and out.

Mussina is proving himself a valuable starter this year with 8 wins. What’s impressive about Mussina is his ability to not get rattled by early errors. Everyone makes mistakes. But great players learn to shake it off and come back tough.

He showed this skill Friday against the Twin.  Allowing a major rally by Minnesota in the beginning of the game, he changed up his strategy and held the Twins scoreless for 5 innings.  This allowed his teammates, led by Bobby Abreu to score 6 runs, winning the game.

Pop star and Broadway star, Clay Aiken is going to be a father. The mother of the child is his best friend and producer, Jaymes Foster. The 50-year-old woman was artificially inseminated.

A report at TMZ.com suggest that he’ll be very active in the child’s life. Foster was divorced several years ago. Since that time, she and Aiken have become extremely close. He lives in her home whenever he’s in Los Angeles.

Fans of the singer can see him perform by buying Broadway tickets for the New York production of Spamalot. He’s been a part of the production since January of this year, playing the part of Sir Robin.

He’s the third most successful contestant from American Idol, right behind Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood. He’s the most successful male contestant. And he’s the most successful contestant to win second place.

I was glad to see Aiken finding a place on the stage in New York. Although I think he’s got a great voice, he doesn’t have the typical persona of a pop star. Judging by a performance I saw of his on “Scrubs,” I think he’s got talent as a character actor. I see a bright future for him acting and singing, and there’s no better place for that than Broadway.

Willie Randolph may still be on the hot seat, but that seat got a little less warm Wednesday night with his Mets team’s triumphant win against the Marlins. And fans can feel a little more hope that those Mets tickets they bought later in the season could be worth the price.

Randolph’s got to give thanks to his bullpen. They all contributed to the final stages of a 12 inning battle, a war which led to victory. Scott Scheoneweis, Aaron Hellman, Billy Wagner, and Duaner Sanchez all combined to provide the Mets with six innings with only one hit and one-run.

Olivier Perez started, but ended the sixth with a three-run homer by Cody Ross. This put the Marlins up 5-4. Perez managed to regroup and kept them scoreless for the rest of the inning. Then the relief came into play, and they delivered big. Fernando Tatis hit a two-run-double in the 12th inning making their win assured.

Quoted in the Daily News, Willie Randolph commented on the win:

“This is a game that can really get us rolling. We were talking the other day about comeback victories, and how lately we haven’t been that good at it.”

Let’s hope they can keep up the momentum. The Mets are a talented team, but winning takes more than talent. It takes heart and tenacity, getting those hard wins whenever they become available.

The Yankees are in last place in the American League East. That’s right. The once indestructible team is not doing well this season. This position landed on them after a disappointing loss to the Baltimore Orioles yesterday.

You can’t blame the Yankees for not scoring. They had 9 runs. But the Orioles just happened to score one more than them, handing them a 10-9 close call.

Hawkins had a tough night against his former teammates. He gave up two runs in the bottom of the 11th inning, allowing the loss. He’s quoted in the Daily News as saying:

“The guys played their butts off tonight. I came in and let it go just like that. I usually don’t get too upset, but a game like this, you want to come in after we score and shut them down from scoring. I didn’t do that.”

Kennedy started strong, and then allowed a four-run second inning. He then received an injured right lat muscle, throwing him onto the disabled list.

The Yankees seem capable of winning, even with the messy playing. But they just haven’t been able to pull them out this season, turning a growing year into a disappointment.

But maybe Yankees ticket buyers won’t lose heart. There’s still quite a bit of season left. But they’ve got to get it together. New York will not settle for a last place team.

Broadway touring groups have been concerned about their effect on the environment. They emit thousands of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere through the large trucks that transport all of the stage equipment from one city to the next.

Unfortunately, there aren’t alternative technologies available that will allow these touring companies to still get where they need to go, without contributing greatly to the environmental problem. So what do they do to “go green?”

The solution is to fund short- and long-term projects that offset the impact of the emissions. This is accomplished through NativeEnergy, inc., one of the leaders in high quality carbon offsets. These offsets will be created by new wind turbines, methane digesters on American family farms, and landfill gas projects.

When you consider that the Broadway League brings Broadway to 30 million people in New York and more than 240 cities across North America, the effect on the environment from their touring can be very large. Being ever mindful of the needs of the environment, the industry has responded appropriately to help offset their energy usage.

I think that this action represents the future of modern environmentalism. It doesn’t require huge sacrifices. We can still enjoy touring groups for our entertainment. But these groups, which generate large amounts of capital in their industry, have to take appropriate actions to make up for their large carbon footprint. You can continue to buy tickets to Broadway shows with a clean conscience.

Welcome back from the long weekend! Here’s another installment of the weekly top tickets found on SelectATicket.com by our visitors.

South Pacific
New York Yankees
Kenny Chesney
Gypsy
New York Red Bulls Vs. Los Angeles Galaxy

Two Broadway shows, the NY Yankees, a country music star and David Beckham’s visit to New York…. not a bad choice in the group!

Don’t forget to come back every week for ticket information regarding the top events found at www.SelectATicket.com.

Will the Mets have a new manager? That’s the latest question to be considered by New York sports fans and the Mets Ownership. Why is this a question? They’ve got a $140 million dollar payroll, and not even a .50 record to show for it.

In addition to a less than awesome season with the Mets, Willie Randolph is taking heat for some comments about race. He suggested several days ago that his skin color might be a factor in the way the public and the media perceives his ability to run the team.

Ian O’Connor from The Record says that Randolph has good reason for suggesting this:

“As the de facto offensive coordinator of Joe Torre’s dynastic Yanks, Randolph was rejected as a candidate for one managerial job after another, this while every white bullpen catcher and his brother got a gig.

“Does anyone really believe that a white man who was a two-time champion Yankee as a player and a four-time champion Yankee as a coach would’ve waited as long as Randolph did before a franchise finally called his number? Especially when that man was considered a stabilizing force in those crazy George-Billy-Reggie, Bronx-is-burning days?”

Maybe Randolph has a point. Maybe if he was white, the vultures wouldn’t be circling quite so soon. But he also has to take accountability for the fact that for the last 160 games the Mets have gone 78-82. This is not good for an expensive team trying to sell Mets tickets.

Joe Girardi inadvertently won the game for the NY Yankees Thursday night. He contested a controversial call in the ninth inning. His behavior got him kicked out of the game and is being touted as the reason for the Yankees win.

Umpire Chris Guccione ruled the a ball had ticked the handle of Jason Giambi’s bat, resulting in a foul tip, giving the Baltimore team a strike three. This forced Girardi from the dugout in what was to be an extremely dramatic display of displeasure. There was even the kicking of a hat.

In being ejected, he returned to his office, with a standing ovation from the crowd. This got the entire team fired up, giving them the extra push that they needed to squeak out a tough win. The Daily News quotes Jason Giambi:

“Maybe that’s the little spark that we need to get us going. We’ve been right on the verge, playing good baseball but not great baseball. Maybe this is the thing that gets it all going.”

The drama must have gotten to pitcher Johnson, who then walked Bobby Abreu and allowed a single by Cano which won the game.

When asked later if it was worth getting ejected for the win, Girardi responded that he’d do it 162 times. Maybe the Yankees have a new winning strategy.

You don’t have to be in New York to buy Broadway tickets to “Wicked.” A current tour of North America has been an amazing success. So much so that a second tour has been announced.

The simple fact is that there’s been an overwhelming demand for tickets. To call it a smash hit would be an understatement. It’s broken house records in every single city that it’s played. Producers felt that even with a second tour, the show would continue to break records.

The tour will start in Fort Myers, Fl. It will then go to Birmingham, Jacksonville, Norfolk, Indianapolis, Memphis, with additional cities to be announced.

“Wicked” opened on Wednesday, September 27, 2006 at the Apollo Victoria Theater in London. Various language versions have been added throughout the world.

It’s based on a novel by Gregory Maguire. It has music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz. The original cast recording has been one of the fastest selling Broadway recordings, having gone platinum.

The play tells the store about two girls who come to Oz. it tells the story of how they become the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch.

Quite simply, it’s considered to be one of the greatest successes in Broadway history. It has a story that appeals to young and old. Everyone wants to see it, and you may be able to see it in your hometown soon.

So Alex Rodriguez is back. All goodness should return to the Yankee universe, right? Well, this was not the case in a 12-2 massacre by the Baltimore Orioles.

A-Rod did hit a two-run homer in the sixth inning. But that doesn’t match 12 runs scored by the other team. Yes, it’s great to have a star hitter like Rodriguez, but when all else stinks, there’s not a whole lot the guy can do.

Baseball is perhaps one of the most team centered sports. You can’t rely on a Michael Jordon night after night to bring home the wins. Even ace pitchers play every five games or so. Baseball requires depth, and perhaps this is where the Yankees are falling short.

Filip Bondy of the Daily News proclaimed:

“Lousy pitching…questionable hustle…bad karma …a hopeless, early deficit. Robinson Cano failed to cover second base on what should have been a fielder’s choice and third out . . . Mike Mussina blew apart like so many Yankee starters this season, only worse . . . Another distressing error from Johnny Damon followed in the second, [bringing] another two unearned runs.”

What’s a team to do? I do think we need to give manager Joe Girardi some time to make this team his own, but I do think the responsibility falls on him. And the expectations are huge. New York Yankee ticket buying fans expect a winning team, and 20-25 doesn’t cut it.