Is There A Doctor
In The House?

Both Assemblyman Mark Weprin
and State Senator Frank Padavan needed medical attention when
they realized that they were campaigning together.
photo: Dee Richard

No Joy In 'Mets'ville

With the baseball season winding down it looks like the home favorite NY Mets once again have their sights set on post-season glory. But it appears that the ball club’s ticket office hasn’t played fair with their fans — especially those who don’t have a credit card or who are part of a big family — looking to get their hands on tickets to the recent National League Division Series.

According to a press release from the Mets, tickets for the Shea games of the divisional playoffs went on sale Sept. 23 by telephone only, with a limit of four tickets to one game.

"[We] believe the telephone method of sale is the fairest and most convenient for our fans," said
Bill Ianniciello, Mets vice president of tickets sales and services.

But many fans rooting for the home team cried foul about how the ticket office handled the situation.

Since the Mets ticket office only took credit card orders, those with credit in the red didn’t get to see too much of the orange and blue out at Shea. . .greenbacks were not accepted.

Even those with sparkling credit who could afford the ducats — priced in the $30 to $40 dollar range — were snubbed by the four ticket limit placed on all orders — a limit that excluded any family with more than two kids from going.

The ticket restrictions also prohibit fans from buying tickets for both Shea games and the $6 service charge per ticket was non-refundable — meaning that if the team had not played one of the games, the ticket office would have still made money for selling unusable tickets.

BOO!

Queens Rally: Bill For Hill

President Bill Clinton is coming to Queens!

That's right, on Monday, October 23 at 5:30 p.m. the First Dem will be the star attraction at a Unity Rally to Benefit Hillary 2000. The event which will be held in the Electrical Industry Auditorium, 67-35 Parsons Blvd., is sponsored by the Queens County Dems and Chairman Tom Manton.

Tickets to see the big Kahuna are only $50 per person and can be charged by calling Dem County Hdq. at 268-5100.

Yankee Doodle

The New York Yankees’ regular season ended in a most abysmal fashion, with the Bronx Bombers limping into the playoffs after winning just three of their final 18 games.

Apparently the skid had more than just Yankee boss George Steinbrenner and skipper Joe Torre worried. Yankee’s Assistant Director of Scouting Mike Wasenda, who QConfidential spotted watching one of the Yanks last regular season games in a Floral Park bar on Sept. 29, was also visibly shaken by the club’s embarrassing outings.

The scout, whose career with the organization spans through two decades, grunted and groaned as he watched his team toil through yet another rough nine against the Baltimore Orioles.

After absorbing a few criticisms from fans, and doling out a few of his own, a tipsy Wasenda exited the bar with a bold, yet cryptic, statement.

"We play today, we win today," he said, pausing for a moment. "See you in October."

The Yankees lost that one 13-2.

Sign Of The Times For Padavan

A source close to the Tribune said State Senator Frank Padavan was harassing businesses and residents in the Bellerose and Braddock areas for putting up campaign signs for Rory Lancman, Padavan's opponent.

Lancman said that Padavan had intimidated storeowners. "Frank doesn’t want an honest election," said Lancman. "It’s completely inappropriate and not the way a campaign should be run in northeast Queens."

Padavan, who has controlled the Eleventh Senate District for the past 28 years, even attempted to guilt-trip one landlord into taking Lancman’s sign down from his building where tenants had placed it. The source said that the landlord owed Padavan a favor. For $25 the landlord had agreed that Lancman could put his sign up, but when the landlord asked to have it taken down, the tenants wouldn’t yield and the sign stayed up.

When Padavan found out he hit the ceiling, said our source. The businessman said some neighbors, who were asked by Padavan to remove Lancman’s signs, tried to remain objective by hanging both Lancman and Padavan signs in their windows.

When asked about the accusations Padavan denied them. "I don’t know what you’re talking about. I have no knowledge of that," said Queens’ senior state senator.

Queens Is Top At The Daily News

The Daily News reported that Robert Sapio, 50, has gone from being a Queens College graduate to one of the highest editors at The Daily News in over 30 years.

Sapio, who was born in Flushing, started at The Daily News in the advertising department. From there, he worked in the newsroom as an editorial typist for the journalists.

On Thursday, Oct. 5, Edward Kosner, the editor in chief at The Daily News, announced that after years as a copy editor, then assistant news editor, executive news editor, deputy managing editor, executive editor, and finally Sunday editor Sapio will be the paper’s senior managing editor and will rank third on the paper’s staff of editors.

"[Sapio’s] combination of talent and charm is all but unmatched in the room," said Kosner in The Daily News on Thursday.

Sure, he’s a Queens boy!

Rocky Road

Queens detectives are searching for a furry felon – a gray and tan squirrel who flew into the open sunroof of a car driven by a 26-year-old Queens woman on the Grand Central Parkway on Thursday, Sept. 21.

Police said the woman was traveling eastbound at about 2 p.m. near the 94th Street/LaGuardia Airport exit on the Grand Central Parkway when things got, well, squirrely. The furry felon flew into the car and plopped into the passenger seat, as the woman steered the 1999 Acura toward a shoulder in the road. As the terrified woman stopped the car and turned to exit, the squirrel looked around, sniffed, and grabbed a partially-eaten Pay Day candy bar the woman had placed on the passenger seat, then fled in an unknown direction.

The woman’s frantic call to 911 brought police and animal control officers to the scene, who searched the surrounding area for a trace of the squirrel.

Police recovered a piece of the candy wrapper, but found no trace of the woman’s uninvited passenger.

Confidentially New York . . .

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