The Yankees: Thanks to Joan Jett and Kenny Laguna

Late in the summer of 1980 I was playing guitar in this band with this girl and her manager suggested that it would be a smart move for us all to move to New York so we did.



The first week we were here we played a gig at the Ritz (now known by it's original name Webster Hall) that was filmed for the movie "Urgh-A Music War"). That was quite an event but another event from the end of that summer stuck with me in a bigger way.




When I first got to NYC Joan Jett's manager Kenny Laguna was quick to ask me about my team. "Who's your favorite baseball team?". I had to admit that my punk rock circumstances had taken me away from the act of enjoying baseball but as a kid in Batavia, IL I had followed the Cubs. Wrigley Field was the first place I ever saw a Major League game on great afternoon field trip with a bunch of kids on a yellow school bus. Ernie Banks, Ron Santo and the great broadcaster Jack Brickhouse kept me dialed into the Cubs. I followed the Cubs coverage in the Chicago Tribune, saved the Trib that celebrated Erinie's 500th home run, but when my folks gave up the Trib in favor of the more local Aurora Beacon News whose sports coverage consisted of less than exciting AP wire crap I drifted away from baseball.

So when I told Kenny Laguna that I used to follow the Cubs he replied "You are in New York now. There art 2 teams and you have to decide." Kenny quickly took us all to 2 games. Out to Shea to see the Mets and then to the Bronx to see the Yankees. The decision wasn't really that hard for me.
I felt it was better to move to the American League so I wouldn't end up rooting against the Cubs. Also, in the trips to the 2 NY Stadiums I found everything about the Yankees to be rather stunning. The team, the history, the uniforms and the food at Yankee Stadium were really amazing. I'll always remember going to the bathroom at Shea and teetering on the heels of my cowboy boots through the standing, uh, water. That and the Navy Blue pinstripes. Joan, of course, stuck with her beloved Baltimore Orioles.
And that was always good for continuing banter between Joan and Kenny (which I'm sure continues to this day)

So seeing the Yanks play in the Bronx with Reggie and all sealed the deal. Followed the team on broadcast TV. The Scooter & Bill White years being some of the most entertaining.

The end of this summer of my cycling buddies hooked my lovely wife and I up with some tickets to see the Yanks at their new stadium which really brought me back. We had a fantastic time up there
and it drew me into the post season.


iPhone Pano pic i took at the new Yankee Stadium

I had heard a lot about the new stadium, some good some bad, but I thought it was a fantastic place. The Yankees beat Toronto and I came home with 40 bucks more than I thought I would so it
didn't seem as crazy expensive as it had been described.

Fast forward to the Series. Watched every minute of every game. Was on the road with another band of Yankee fans last weekend and watched last thursday's game in the bar we were playing in DC. We had to go on during the 6th inning but I had downloaded MLB.com's "At Bat Lite" iPhone application which I fired up and set to 15 second refresh on top of my amp. It was exciting to keep track of the game from that angle too. I saw them "win" on my phone. 2 days later we were driving back from Knoxville, TN and listened to the whole game on Sirius Satellite Radio. We'd done that before on the Steve Earle tour due to a hiccup in the TV setup on the tour bus. Still exciting as hell.

The Yanks won their 27th Title. Everybody knows that. The Phillies played a great series.
It was all great baseball.

Yesterday as I was doing some errands on my Cannondale Track bike, not so affectionately named "The Murderburger", I realized I had some free time so I snuck downtown to the vicinity of the Yankees Parade.


"Murderburger"

I really couldn't get too close but it was a blast just being in a huge, positive crowd.



When I was riding back to the East Village on "Murderburger" I remembered going to my first Yankee
game and wanted to thank Kenny Laguna and Joan Jett for taking me there.

Eric Ambel
11-7-2009

Sure, go ahead and ride it.

Earlier this week my friends at Sid's Bikes in NYC snuck me into the industry only Interbike East Outdoor Demo
in Providence, RI. I got to ride a whole bunch of really fantastic 2010 model bikes around Roger Williams Park.
I snapped an iPhone pic of each bike that I rode.

The road loop was around 2 miles in a park and it had some hills, couple tight corners and one rough patch of road.
Great place to compare bikes. They had a Mountain Bike loop and Cyclocross loop also. Cyclocross race was held yesterday on that loop.





Moots RSL Titanium


Rocky Mountain Solo Team


BMC Pro Machine SLC01


Cannondale Six 105 bike


Cannondale Super Six Dura-Ace


Felt F-1


Rocky Mountain's new Buroughs unicrown track/fixed gear fork


Ridley carbon Cyclocross bike


Chris King's Handmade Steel road bike


Felt Z-2 with the new D2 Dura-Ace electronic shifting


Close up on the D2 Electronics


Fuji's '10 Team bike

All the vendors and mechanics were very cool. I brought my own pedals and knowing your seat height was handy for super quick setup.

The Moots was fantastic. It was my first time using SRAM which took all of 5 seconds to get completely used to.
It was probably a mistake to ride the Moots first cause it was incredible but there was nobody at their booth
and the bike beckoned.

DA D-2 electric was nuts. It just shifts immediately. Since it is almost a direct linkage to the derailleur I can't imagine it
going out of adjustment. You can hear the front derailleur mechanisim. The back just moves with the lightest tap.

I'd have to say the Cannondale Six was the nicest 105 level bike (Shimano's mid/low road component group) I've ever been on.

The Felts were mighty good too. F1 is their race bike. The Z2 has more of an 'all day' position but it still had plenty of pop.

The King bike was a blast to ride. It had the steel feel but it was not noodle-ey at all. It was a cool combo of the steel frame with modern stuff like threadless and outboard bearings. Also had 28's on it.

The BMC I rode was not the lightest bike but once you were on it the weight didn't seem to matter at all. It tracked really well.

I rode the Fuji to check out the seatmast thing. Seatmast has its problems. 1 is the difficulty in shipping the bike and the other
is selling it after you have cut the post. But the feel of a seatmast bike is completely different right away. It is definately a more
direct connection to the bike. Traditional clamp/seatpost setup has a lot of the engineering in making the clamp area
strong enough to work with the seatpost. Seatmast can be designed almost solely to work with the ride of the bike.
I didn't get any pics but BMC has a new concept that uses a quill like setup on the bottom of their new seatpost.
The lock is near the saddle and it is just one click turn to lock the post. The seatube has no clamp at all.

I'd never been on a Cyclocross bike before. Cyclocross is a wild thing. Read the Cyclocross Wiki. They had a great course set up for a race that was held there on Saturday.
The 'cross thing was ridiculously fun. Had a smile nailed across my face the whole time. I thought somebodys parents were gonna yell "Hey you god damn kids get offa my lawn"
I can see how a lot of people do Cyclocross single speed. A lot of short blasts of energy. Really cool.

I didn't ride a single mountain bike 'cause I don't want to like Mountain Biking and end up having to buy 3 more bikes.

Now I gotta get my head back into recording and ride up to the Javitz Center to the 2010 AES Show The Auto Show of Pro Recording.