The Daily Newarker

This weekend, Diesa Siedel’s organization, United Initiatives for Peace, will be hosting an open 3-on-3 girls basketball tournament called Scholars for Ballers to promote athletics and education. The tournament will take place Saturday at 10:00 AM at St. Peter’s Recreational Center on Lyons Ave (map below) and is open to the public. Girls interested in competing must be high-school students or 2008 graduates.

Players will be competing for scholarships and other prizes to be presented at the awards ceremony on Sunday. On the podcast, we discuss eligibility for competing in the tournament, what brought UIP to Newark for this event, and how a high school girl might potentially get a shot to challenge Mayor Booker to a little 1-on-1.

The podcast is about 15 minutes. Click the play button below to listen.

[audio:http://dailynewarker.com/w/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/080828-tdn-interview-siedel.mp3]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

“Schollars for Ballers”:http://unitedinitiatives.blogspot.com/2008/04/scholars-for-ballers.html

“United Initiatives for Peace”:http://unitedinitiatives.org, a non-profit organization that “collaborates with a variety of institutions (charitable, governmental, religious, educational, medical, corporate) to establish philanthropic and humanitarian service projects” is hosting a 3-on-3 girls’ basketball tourny in Newark.

The tournament will provide opportunities to earn college scholarships. Registration is open for the event: “click here to download the registration form”:http://www.unitedinitiatives.org/S4Bregistrationform.doc (doc).

CITY OF NEWARK OPENS REGISTRATION FOR 3-ON-3 GIRLS’ HOOPS TOURNAMENT TO RAISE FUNDS FOR COLLEGE SCHOLARSHIPS

Mayor Cory A. Booker announced today that the City of Newark is supporting a 3-on-3 girls’ basketball tournament, Scholars for Ballers, for Essex County high school females, to be held at St. Peter’s Recreation Center, on Saturday, August 30th. Registration/check in is at 9 a.m., and games begin at 10 a.m.

Scholars for Ballers is sponsored by United Initiatives for Peace in partnership with the Newark Department of Neighborhood and Recreational Services’ Division of Recreation/Cultural Affairs.

The purpose of this tournament is to provide a safe and positive environment for inner city high school girls, while encouraging higher education by providing an alternative means to earn college scholarship funds.

An Awards Reception is scheduled at the John F. Kennedy Recreation Center on Sunday, August 31st at 2:00 p.m. to honor all participants, volunteers, and sponsors.

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“Nets Arena May Not Be Finished Until 2011, Ratner Says”:http://www.observer.com/2008/real-estate/nets-arena-now-may-not-be-finished-until-2011-ratner-says

This in from a tipster: the New Jersey Nets arena planned for Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards will not be completed now until 2011 — three long years from now.

Seriously, Nets? Newark can get this done for you by next season. The arena is here and ready for you. Do New Jersey proud and stay here, do something good for a city that will welcome you here, and maintain your current fans.

Newark is a win-win for everyone except Forest City Ratner, who is just totally screwing with you guys.

The planned new Brooklyn basketball arena for the Nets now may not be ready until 2011, according to developer Forest City Ratner, as the company acknowledges that the time to build the structure may take it past its current completion goal of calendar year 2010.

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Breaking racial barriers on radio (Oct 15, 1998)

Newark native sportscaster, Sherman “Jocko” Maxwell, passed away this morning. He leaves the legacy of his coverage as the first black sportscaster, reporting on the Negro League Newark Eagles. His radio career lasted thirty-eight years.

But Maxwell did more than announce. Perhaps his greatest contribution to sports was his almost-religious devotion to black baseball. He covered the Newark Eagles and gave stories to The Star-Ledger, which published them at a time when most major newspapers ignored the Negro leagues.

Without Maxwell, much of the history of the Negro Leagues and black baseball would have been lost, said Jerry Izenberg, longtime sports columnist at The Star-Ledger. “He got the scores out to people. He was one of the few people who kept records.”

In recognition of Maxwell’s efforts, Izenberg supported the sportscaster’s 1994 induction into the Newark Athletic Hall of Fame.

“Booker attempts to woo new-look Nets”:http://ny.metro.us/metro/sports/article/Booker_attempts_to_woo_newlook_Nets/12802.html

After some “initial jousting”:http://dailynewarker.com/2008/05/01/star-ledger-booker-to-brooklyn-lets-settle-nets-matter-on-basketball-court/, it appears that Mayor Booker is getting more aggressive about keeping the New Jersey Nets in the garden state — and bringing some more nightlife to downtown Newark.

“I’m going to work very hard to make it happen,” Booker says. If the deal were to go through, the team would play at the Prudential Center, the newly built Devils’ home arena. Both teams played at the Izod Center, the former Continental Arena, in East Rutherford, N.J., before the Devils moved to the new facility in Newark last season.

“I don’t think there’s going to be a fight,” Mr. Booker said. “I think it’s going to be settled in an amicable way.”

He sees the Nets as a centerpiece to the continued revitalization of the city.

“The Nets were made for Newark,” he said. “It’s the comeback city. And I think the Nets will be the comeback team in the NBA, and they should do it here.”

We would “love to see”:http://dailynewarker.com/2008/05/06/theories-abound-on-the-newark-nets/ the Nets play in downtown Newark. It seems that it would be win-win for just about everyone. Except for maybe Ratner’s pride.

“An even playing field for Newark”:http://www.nj.com/starledger/stories/index.ssf?/base/news-5/1214455076124660.xml&coll=1

A new $24 million sports complex will be built to replace the crumbling and partially condemned Schools Stadium, which has sat along Bloomfield Avenue since the early 1900s. Two baseball/softball fields, concession stands, locker rooms, and a football/soccer turf field will be built.

The project will be paid for with money from a $64 million bond, which was first approved by the Newark City Council in 2006. Thus far the bond has paid for recreational improvements at a number of city schools. The sports complex should be completed by early 2010.

“City of Newark Launches Brick City Bike Tour”:http://ci.newark.nj.us/press/press_releases/city_of_newark_launches_brick_city_bike_tour_saturday_june_28_2008_from_city_hall.php

Time to dust off that 18-speed and fish your helmet out of the closet! The city is sponsoring a bike tour this Saturday that tours through most of its scenic neighborhoods this Saturday.

Mayor Cory A. Booker announced today that the City of Newark is launching “Team Newark,” a city bicycle team that will compete in next year’s national Race Across America. To raise awareness and support for the June 2009 race, the City of Newark is sponsoring a non-competitive bike tour of the city on Saturday, June 28th at 9 AM.

The Bicycle Tour of Newark is free and open to the public. The first 100 children and 100 adults to register will get a free bike helmet, and the first 500 registrants will get a free t-shirt. Rest stops, food, and beverages, and full police escort will be provided along the route.

The ride consists of a 5-mile and a 15-mile “Family Fun Ride,” as well as a 25-mile ride for skilled cyclists. Both rides will start on Broad Street in front of City Hall, and finish up with a health fair, live entertainment, and food at the John F. Kennedy Recreation Center, located at 211 West Kinney Street.

“Official Portugal Day 2008 Program”:http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/IronboundNewarkBlog/~3/303252775/

Ironman at the Ironbound Blog has posted the schedule of events leading up to this weekend’s Portugal Day parade and festival. Judging by the discussion in our “2008 Festival Survival Guide”:http://dailynewarker.com/2008/05/13/portugal-day-festival-2008/, if you _really_ want to experience Portuguese culture, a good bet would be to check out a mid-week art exhibit or the soccer tournament going on in the Ironbound.

“Entrepreneur’s Act of Faith Bred on the Gridiron”:http://mobile.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/01colnj.xml

Profile of a local sports hero-turned-businessman, Altarik White.

When Mayor Cory A. Booker gave his State of the City speech in February, some of the loudest applause came when he announced something far less dramatic than the drop in the number of murders: a loan to Mr. White from the Brick City Development Corporation that would allow him to open the Subway he had long been planning. Not downtown, where there were already several others, but in a neighborhood where national chains, and foods that haven’t been fried, were in short supply. Mr. White’s Subway opened in April, an act of faith in his city as much as of entrepreneurship.

“In our community, there’s not a lot of healthy places to go — no Whole Foods, no Stop & Shop, just a bunch of Chinese stores, hamburger joints and fried chicken places,” said Mr. White, whose Subway is on the other side of Weequahic Park from the school where he coaches and works as a substance awareness counselor. Next door is Seth Boyden Terrace, a public housing project where a triple shooting took place last year.

“Who’s to say that people, because they live in Seth Boyden, that they don’t deserve good food at an affordable price,” he said. “What I say to people who say, ‘That’s a tough place,’ is, ‘Yeah, well, guess what – it’s a tough world we live in.’”

“Mayor Booker to Commemorate NFL Great Andre Tippett’s Return Home to Newark”:http://www.ci.newark.nj.us/press/press_releases/press_releasemayor_booker_to_commemorate_.php

NFL Hall of Fame Inductee Andre Tippett will lead this year’s African American Heritage Parade.

His induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in August will make Tippett the first athlete ever from the City of Newark to receive such an accolade. He is the Patriots’ second player to be inducted into this national shrine.

“Andre is a pioneer, a leader and a role model for young people across our great city,” said Mayor Booker. “His stirring manifestation of personal excellence on and off the field is truly an inspiration for future generations, and we are proud to join him in celebrating his triumphant return home to Newark.”

“We are so proud to have Andre come home to celebrate his Hall of Fame honor with us”, stated Newark Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Marion A. Bolden. “We are even more delighted that he is a product of Newark Public Schools and chose to celebrate this milestone with our students and this great city.”

“Nets say showroom is proof of move”:http://www.nj.com/newark/index.ssf/2008/05/newarks_next_school_chief.html

The Nets CEO delivers a total buzzkill to the possibility of bringing the team to the Prudential Center.

The Nets Thursday showed off a full-size replica of the luxury suites they expect to feature in their $950 million Brooklyn arena, in yet another push to demonstrate they are serious about leaving New Jersey in 2010.

The opening of the Barclays Center’s midtown Manhattan showroom kicks off the Nets’ public effort to market 130 suites with an average price tag of $300,000, as well as 3,200 premium seats, said Brett Yormark, the team’s chief executive.

“We would just love to have the Nets here in Newark,” said Joseph DiVincenzo, the Essex County executive who is involved in the effort. “I strongly believe that it would be good for them and for us economically.”

Yormark dismissed that as a possibility, saying sharing the Prudential Center with the Devils “is of no interest to us.”

Developer Bruce Ratner published a column in the Sunday New York Daily News that the Atlantic Yards project is moving forward at a steady — if not rapid — pace. Is it a timely public relations message? Or a sign that Ratner is on the ropes?

Rumors of Atlantic Yards’ demise, stirred by opponents, have been greatly exaggerated. The project is moving forward in its entirety, and in the coming years it will bring jobs, housing and an improved quality of life to Brooklyn.

It looks as though things are going swimmingly in court — Ratner cites 18 favorable court decisions out of 18 cases so far — and that deals are getting done. But in the whole piece, Ratner mentions the New Jersey Nets exactly once.

Meanwhile, Jersey officials are sharing their opinions freely in the media.

“Four years later, we’re getting a rendering?” Codey said yesterday. “It’s becoming ridiculous. They’re not going to be playing in Brooklyn in 2010.”

“Instead of him fighting with the constituents there in Brooklyn we would welcome him here in Newark,” DiVincenzo said.

Esmeralda Diaz Cameron, a city spokeswoman, said Newark “would love to have the New Jersey Nets call the city of Newark home.”

Sure, some of it is just that good, old-fashioned brand of trash talk that only you only find in New Jersey. But, I particularly love the “on message” feel of Ms. Cameron’s statement: it’s wonderfully positive and polished without revealing any information that isn’t meant to be public — I hope they pay her well.

While light on inside information (the title is pure speculation), a Jersey Journal piece also published today would throw water on Ratner’s column: The Nets may stay in Jersey after all.

Ratner had hoped to move the team into the New York home for the 2009-2010 season, but there is no way the arena will be ready. In fact, the entire Atlantic Yards project is progressing very slowly.

The Nets owner is facing a very tough credit market that is getting tighter every week. A bleak economy will only continue to hurt the prospects of the Brooklyn development. It is the perfect time for New Jersey interests to put on a full-court press and have the NBA squad become the second tenant in Newark.

So, stacking up against the arena in Brooklyn are local opposition, tight credit markets, and increasing construction costs — and legal battles only add to the costs as deal maker Goldman Slacks can’t find funding until Forest City Ratner can close the books on their court cases. But, according to this New York Sun piece, moving to Newark might not be a slam-dunk either:

Getting the Nets into Vanderbeek’s building is simple on paper, but it is also extremely complicated, because of how revenues generated inside his building are distributed. Ratner would need access to monies from luxury boxes, club seats, and in-arena concession areas.

Vanderbeek would theoretically have to give up lucrative revenue streams from NBA games that he would normally keep from non-Devils events in the building. But Ratner could not financially survive without getting the lion’s share of those revenues.

As I read it, Ratner purchased the Nets for the purpose of getting leverage to begin a building project in Brooklyn, the centerpiece of which would be the Barclay’s Center arena. Due to legal delays and increased costs, the developer has scaled the project back to phases — the first of which will be the arena planned to begin later this year, and the last of which will be completed in 2018.

Booker and Vanderbeek are reportedly hoping to find investors to bring the Nets to Newark, which would be fantastic for the city, for fans, the team, and its investors. But, in order to do that, Ratner has to be selling.

The question really lies in whether the Atlantic Yards project can move forward without the Nets. Nobody’s going to build an arena without a team to play there, and it’s unclear what would be left of the project without the arena. In his column, Ratner highlights more than a dozen residential buildings and a Frank Gehry-designed commercial tower.

What do you think? Could Atlantic Yards move forward without the Nets or the arena? Do you think Vanderbeek and Booker have a card or two up their sleeve to entice Forest City Ratner to sell the team?

“Booker to Brooklyn: Let’s settle Nets matter on basketball court”:http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/05/if_left_up_to_brooklyn.html

“After years of obscurity mired in the Meadowlands, the Nets are ready for a slam dunk in the Brooklyn big leagues. Who knows, maybe the Devils want to lace up and come here too! If my esteemed colleague Cory Booker in Brooklyn’s ‘western suburb,’ a.k.a. Newark, New Jersey, is looking for a professional basketball team, maybe he should ask the Knicks,” Markowitz said in a statement.

Booker responded by saying he would continue to pursue his “personal dream” of bringing the Nets to the $375 million Prudential Center “no matter how unrealistic.”

“I yield to…Marty Markowitz, my esteemed colleague in the “eastern suburb” of Newark a.k.a Brooklyn, and would like to officially challenge him with the remaining shreds of my athletic pride to a one and one basketball game to battle for the Nets!”

Looks like our Rhodes scholar mayor can trash-talk with the best of them. Seriously, Booker, I hope there’s more to this plan to bring the Nets to Newark than your jab step and jump shot.

“Effort under way to bring Nets to Newark’s Prudential Center”:http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/04/booker_devils_owner_seek_to_br.html

The owner of the Devils hockey team and Newark Mayor Cory Booker are seeking to assemble a group of investors to buy the Nets and move the basketball team to Newark, people familiar with the effort said.

In recent weeks, Devils owner Jeffrey Vanderbeek has met with Nets owner Bruce Ratner, while Booker has spoken to an official at Ratner’s development company, Forest City Ratner Cos., according to three people with direct knowledge of the discussions. The outcome of each talk was characterized as “open-ended.” The parties spoke on the condition they not be identified.

The effort to bring the Nets to Newark, where they would play at the Prudential Center along with the Devils, comes amid growing speculation on whether Ratner can complete a $4 billion retail and residential development in Brooklyn, given the deepening crisis in the credit markets.

To date, there is no indication the Nets are for sale, and Ratner repeatedly has said he is happy owning the team and looks forward to moving to a new arena in Brooklyn.

“The team is absolutely not for sale,” Ratner said through his spokesman, Howard Rubenstein. “We’re inches away from completing the deal in Brooklyn.”

Great job by the Ledger on breaking this story. I sincerely hope it has legs: bringing the Nets to Newark would not only help keep a great New Jersey team in Jersey, but would be a boon to Newarkers in the “virtuous circle”:http://dailynewarker.com/2008/04/21/new-york-times-for-devils-fans-trains-seem-to-work-fine/ that the Prudential Arena brings to the teams, the city, and fans at large.

Plus, this could _totally_ get me watching basketball again.

The New Jersey all-girl roller derby league, the Garden State RollerGirls, are recruiting this weekend at the Ironbound bar, Hell’s Kitchen.

The RollerGirls’ all-star team is represented by the Ironbound Maidens and they frequently hold public games in Branch Brook Park.

Judging by the website, if you’ve got an affinity for fishnet, are comfortable on eight wheels, and like to crush those that oppose you, you might want to check out RollerGirls. Oh, and if you do, _please_ write in and let us know!

New Jersey’s baddest girls on eight-wheels –- The Garden State Rollergirls — are looking for a few good women to join the ranks of the hottest growing sport in America -– women’s flat-track roller derby.

Come hang out with the Garden State Rollergirls, May 3 at Hell’s Kitchen Lounge at 150 Lafayette St. in Newark, N.J. Learn the derby lowdown: Ask any questions, talk to the all-star derby girls, and learn what makes the game tick. You just might be the next rising star on the derby circuit in New Jersey.

Talk to star jammer Jenna Von Fury of the Northern Nightmares and the indomitable Lady Vengeance of the Jersey City Bridge and Pummel. Learn what it takes to rack up the points in the pack and bring home the glory.

Tryouts will be held June 2 and 4. To sign up for practice sessions and tryouts, email GardenStateRollergirls@gmail.com or visit www.GardenStateRollergirls.com.

Rollergirls must:

* Be 21 years of age or over
* Have basic skating skills and an interest in derby
* Can attend at least 2 practices each week
* Have quad roller skates and all protective gear
* Can pay monthly dues of $35
* AREN’T AFRAID TO RAISE HELL AND HAVE SOME FUN!

Rental skates are available for use during the first practice.

Referees DO NOT have to pay monthly dues and may use inline skates

??Star Ledger??: “Newark hoop dreams”:http://blog.nj.com/njv_editorial_page/2008/04/newark_hoop_dreams.html

Apart from whatever Ratner may be dreaming, there is the stumbling block of a clause in the Nets’ contract with the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, which owns the Izod Center. If the Nets leave to play anywhere other than Brooklyn, the team must pay the authority a penalty that starts out at $12 million a year.

That clause was generally considered to be anti-Newark.

Something has happened. The hateful clause is being explained as a nonhostile means of preventing the Nets from pitting the Meadowlands against Newark. It was meant to avoid a bidding war for a short-term contract while the Brooklyn arena was built.

In fact, sources have told The Star-Ledger editorial board that if the Nets sign a long-term deal to play in Newark, the sports authority would waive that clause and happily cooperate with the Prudential Center for the greater glory and profit of both New Jersey venues.

It’s amazing how much Newark can benefit from clearheaded common sense. Having another sports team come to Newark would be huge for the virtuous circle I blogged about yesterday: Newark clearly has the infrastructure to bring another pro team to the city.

But will sanity and cooler heads prevail?

We’re just days away from Bon Jovi;s opening night at the Rock, and Devils owner and Pru Center dealmaker Jeff Vanderbeek is gladly showing the press through the arena in this piece by the ??New York Times??: “Devils Win the Race to be First”:http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/20/sports/hockey/20sandomir.html.

It was Jeffrey Vanderbeek, the Devils’ owner, who was giving a tour yesterday of the $375-million Prudential Center, nicknamed the Rock, in Newark six days before its opening Thursday with a Bon Jovi concert. The arena includes an austere and capacious white concourse; slick $222,000 to $285,000 luxury suites; restaurants and club lounges that overlook the ice; intimate seating (17,625 for hockey, 18,500 for Seton Hall basketball and 19,500-plus for concerts); displays of New Jersey high school hockey jerseys; hockey-themed artwork; and an enormous outdoor L.E.D. screen that will emit high definition images allegedly visible in Manhattan.

This is clearly the Devils’ building, built by the Devils (with $210 million in Newark money) for the Devils. There is no N.B.A. team (there is an indoor soccer club, the Ironmen) to deflect attention (or to add revenues) from the Devils. As Vanderbeek skillfully gave a tour for dozens of reporters, it was difficult not to think of McMullen. He loved this team. He hated the Continental Airlines Arena (now the Izod Center) and only considered migrating to the country music capital of Nashville to make the money he couldn’t make in the state-run Meadowlands. Heck, he was an owner, but a delightfully cantankerous and bluntly candid one. He would have loved to have beaten Steinbrenner to the finish line with the first arena or stadium to open in this market since the Continental Arena in 1981.

Instead, it was Vanderbeek, the former Lehman Brothers investment banker, who opened his building before the Yankees and Mets, whose new ballparks are to open in the spring of 2009; the Giants and Jets, whose joint, $1.3-billion stadium beside Giants Stadium is scheduled to open in 2010; the Nets, who haven’t broken ground near downtown Brooklyn on a Frank Gehry-designed arena that is still expected to open in 2009; and the Red Bulls’ $140-million soccer stadium in Harrison, N.J.

“I’ve always felt it was important to be first,” Vanderbeek said, not the least because of the edge it gives him in selling luxury suites and club seats before the other teams flood the market with the elite seating from their new arenas and stadiums.

“This is different than anybody in this area is used to,” he said.

This morning, the ??New York Times?? takes a look at the local impact of the Newark Arena, set to open downtown in just over four months: “Owners Push New Arena, but Residents Fear Change”:http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/19/nyregion/19arena.html.

After all the years of hyperbolic talk, the failed promises and the false starts, the behemoth looming over downtown is a steel and glass affirmation that good things can happen to this star-crossed city.

“I never thought I’d see something like this in my lifetime,” Ada Wells, 82, said as she ambled by the hulking frame of the Prudential Center, a $375 million arena that will be home to the New Jersey Devils, Seton Hall University’s basketball team and, the arena’s owners say, boxing matches, ice-skating shows and concerts, starting with 10 nights of Bon Jovi when the arena opens in late October.

But like many residents, Ms. Wells, a retired housekeeper who has lived here most of her life, seemed stumped when asked if she would be buying tickets for an event at the arena. “Well, I’m not sure this thing is really for people like me,” she said hesitantly before continuing down Broad Street with a battered shopping cart.

The subtext of her comment was whether Newark’s largely poor and minority population will benefit from one of the most ambitious and expensive ventures in New Jersey in a generation. As King Cooley, 58, a Customs Service employee put it, “Everyone knows hockey is a white man’s sport.”

City officials and the arena’s owners speak rapturously about the building’s potential: the hundreds of food concession and maintenance jobs on the inside, the employment possibilities offered by the upscale restaurants, sports bars and hotels that are expected to take root nearby.

“I’m optimistic that the arena will create enduring opportunities for Newark residents and it will be a revenue generator for the city for years to come,” said Mayor Cory A. Booker. He was once a vociferous critic of the project’s financing, which required a $210 million investment from City Hall under the previous administration, but is now a booster.

To gain Mr. Booker’s backing last fall, the Devils’ principal owner, Jeffrey Vanderbeek, agreed to provide close to 5,000 free tickets each season for local children and $250,000 each year for youth sports and recreation. He also promised that Newark residents would get first dibs on permanent arena jobs.

As 700 construction workers raced toward an Oct. 25 deadline, Mr. Vanderbeek led visitors on a tour on Friday of the sales center of one of the nation’s most tricked-out sports arenas. There will be 750 flat-screen televisions, five ribbons of advertising zippers and a half dozen meeting rooms for community groups.

It remains unclear how well the Prudential Center’s 14,500 general admission seats will sell on game nights. But Mr. Vanderbeek said that 96 percent of the 10,000 season ticket holders at the Devils’ former home in the Meadowlands had renewed, and that 3,000 new season tickets had been sold. All of the most expensive luxury suites — $285,000 for 18-seat boxes — have been bought, as have the arena’s 2,114 “club seats,” which run along both sides of the arena’s midsection with access to a pair of private lounges.

“We’ve got a waiting list of 420 names,” he said with feigned disappointment about the club seats. “I wish we had more to sell.”

??Steve Politi?? with the ??Star Ledger?? wonders aloud what would happen if the New Jersey Nets stayed in state to play in Newark: “Name of the game? NBA and Newark”:http://www.nj.com/starledger/stories/index.ssf?/base/columns-0/118119049556180.xml&coll=1.

For local fans who see the start of the NBA Finals tonight in San Antonio and hear the clock ticking on professional basketball in New Jersey, we offer some food for thought:

The Newark SuperSonics.

No, wait. Even better — the Newark Grizzlies. That could go down among the all-time most misplaced nicknames in sports history, maybe even supplanting the Utah Jazz at the top of the list.

The Nets appear to be leaving New Jersey for Brooklyn in a few years, but the state should not give up on pursuing another professional basketball team. NBA franchises have moved or threatened to move more than any other sport in recent years. Newark has a swank new arena opening in downtown this fall.

Hey, stranger things have happened.

“Honestly, right now all of my efforts are focused on getting this place ready for Bon Jovi on Oct. 25,” said Devils owner Jeff Vanderbeek, who is overseeing construction of the new arena. It’s hard to blame him. Nobody wants the first event at the Prudential Center to become “Install Your Own Seat Night!”

But Vanderbeek did acknowledge this: While he is building this arena for one professional franchise, it will have two pro locker rooms, including one designed for an NBA team.

??Star Ledger??: “East Side Story”:http://www.nj.com/starledger/stories/index.ssf?/base/sports-1/1180153835212070.xml&coll=1&thispage=1. The Ledger’s piece gives a snapshot of Newark’s boisterous and hard-working East Side High baseball team.

It begins with Gilberto and Ivan, camped on rolled-up wrestling mats, spinning beats in their heads inside a dusty old room on the fourth floor.

The sounds suddenly roar to life, a rhythmic blend of hip-hop, reggae and salsa, a creation to break up the monotonous ping of aluminum smacking a baseball.

OOOOOO — YEEEEE CHICO!!!

The others join in, bats in hand, voices rising, for an impromptu jam session during batting practice. Somebody uses the padded wall as a conga drum.

Jerry Battaglini laughs, shaking his head at these amateur deejays, soaking in the soundtrack of his Newark East Side High team. He’s been around some goofy characters in his 28 years as a high school baseball coach, but these guys, well, they’re certifiably nuts.

They sing, dance and clap when the mood strikes, a collection of city kids in the Ironbound section of Newark infusing some Latin flavor into the game. Most are second-generation Hispanic Americans, sons of baseball die-hards from Puerto Rico, Colombia and the Dominican Republic.

“Baseball’s in their blood,” says Battaglini, whose team will face juggernaut Seton Hall Prep in the Greater Newark Tournament finals at Bears & Eagles Riverfront Stadium today. “They love it. They live it. And it shows in their ebullience. They’ll chant. They’ll rock and they’ll roll. They enjoy themselves, they really do.”

Despite their character and winning streak, the East Side team stumbled in their face-off with Seton Hall last Saturday at Bears Stadium. Still, the players exhibited sportsmanship against the solid Seton Hall franchise: “Seton Hall Prep 5 (28-1), Newark East Side 1 (19-7)”:http://www.nj.com/starledger/stories/index.ssf?/base/sports-2/1180216511212680.xml&coll=1.

There was little drama in the seventh as Edwin Cruz flew out to right and Porcello struck out Brayan Jimenez and Will Campana looking at fastballs.

“My fastball had good movement, so I wasn’t going away from it, even though they are a good fastball hitting team,” Porcello said. “It was nice to be able to come back here and win after we lost here last year.

It basically come down to Porcello’s strength against East Side’s strength.

“We told our kids to hit the first fastball they saw,” East Side coach Jerry Battaglini said. “Our guys were not intimidated. They wanted to face the best and we knew we’d make them make plays.”

Not that Seton Hall Prep coach Mike Sheppard Jr. expected anything less.

“East Side is a quality program and their kids play a lot of ball,” Sheppard said. “We expected them to put the ball in play, so we knew we were going to have to play solid defense.”