Face of the race
Miss Sprint Cup a star at Pocono
Monica Palumbo will be in overdrive today at the NASCAR Pocono Sprint Cup race.
“The job of Miss Sprint Cup is to be the fans’ friend on the inside,” she tells The Rumble. “To bring the inside scoop of what is happening in the garage and around the track each and every weekend.”
Miss Sprint Cup has spent the weekend being the liaison between the fans and the sport she has grown to love over the past four years both at the track and through social media. She will cap it off today with a celebratory interview with the winning driver in Victory Lane.
“I want people to feel like they can gravitate toward me,” said Palumbo, who was Miss Congeniality in the 2001 Miss USA pageant. “I don’t want to be one of those television personalities that’s like a big shot.”
Palumbo was recognized in 2008 and ’09 on NASCAR’s 50 Most Beautiful People list by the Sporting News, and has filled in for Kelly Ripa as co-host on the ABC morning show “Live with Regis and Kelly.”
“I want people to think of Monica Palumbo with respect and a smile,” she says. “I don’t take myself too seriously. In fact, I enjoy pointing out my bad habits and faults . . . it makes life more entertaining. I want race fans to feel as though they can connect with me and get good information, but also have a good laugh.”
Her pick to win the race is Carl Edwards.
“I just feel like it’s his time to win,” Monica says.
Mook with the pick
The memories will come flashing back for Mookie Wilson tomorrow night when he represents the Mets at the 2010 First-Year Player Draft. The Mets will have their highest selection, seventh overall, since they picked pitcher Philip Humber No. 3 in 2004.
Wilson, the Mets’ roving minor league base-running and outfield instructor, will announce the pick some time after 6 p.m. at the MLB Network’s studio in Secaucus. What Mookie will remember is that he never thought the Mets would make him their second choice in the June, 1977 Draft.
“Honestly, no one from the Mets ever contacted me before the draft,” recalled Wilson, a 10-year Met who is in the team’s Hall of Fame. “I never expected to go that high and I certainly never expected the Mets to take me.”
Wilson played four seasons in the minors before he made it to Shea in September, 1980.
“This is more of a sense of urgency to get higher picks to the big leagues quicker than when I was picked,” he said. “ I played A ball, Double-A and Triple-A. You don’t have to make every stop now. You can jump a classification.”
Cheesy Lindsay
Women’s Olympic downhill gold medallist Lindsey Vonn talks about her unorthodox healing methods Wednesday night on the YES Network’s “CenterStage”: “So it’s a kind of cheese that they only have in Europe. It’s kind of like a ricotta. So, it’s like a really like creamy cheese, Topfen. I slapped it on my shin and I put plastic wrap around it and I slept in it overnight. It has a lot of anti-inflammatory properties to it. It took the swelling down. It kept it cool obviously because you keep it in the fridge. It worked really well. . . . I used it all throughout the Olympics.”
Linked by Lombardi
Tommy Kail has been an accomplished Broadway director for “In The Heights,” and Tom Massella has earned his stripes as Fordham head football coach. They found an interesting common ground at the unveiling of the marquee Thursday for the new play “Lombardi,” and spent time chatting about the ups and downs of coaching and motivating a team — on field or stage. They will keep trading notes as Fordham prepares for 2010 and Kail works to bring the play on Fordham’s legend to life on Oct, 21 at Circle In The Square.
Mac book party
The USTA holds its kickoff event and taking over Times Square tomorrow to announce sales of tickets for this year’s Open, and Patrick McEnroe will sign advance copies of his book, “Hardcourt Confidential: Tales from Twenty Years in the Pro Tennis Trenches.”
It comes out on Tuesday, and there will be no charge for the books he signs and gives away during the event.
Simon says thanks, Dolan
James Dolan was honored at the Children’s Health Fund dinner on Wednesday for his work in support of the organization’s post-Hurricane Katrina efforts. Notable guests on hand included Sean Avery, Adam Graves, Chris Duhon, Allan Houston, musician Robert Randolph and actors Matthew Modine and Steve Schirripa. CHF co-founder Paul Simon belted out “Mrs. Robinson” and other standards, and his rendition of the Beatles’ “Here Comes the Sun” was said to be the highlight of the night.
Baby Bombers
Hank Steinbrenner and several Yankees including A.J. Burnett, CC Sabathia and Alex Rodriguez are sponsoring a team of inner city kids from the New York area to play at the exclusive Baseball Heaven Summer league in Yaphank, Long Island.
Robinson Cano and Kevin Russo got Spalding to supply batting-practice jerseys to give the kids a true feel for the big leagues. The boys were guests of the players for batting practice and received advice about life and baseball.
Earlier in the week, Sabathia and teammates gave free haircuts to neighborhood youth at Jordan’s Barbershop in The Bronx. Sabathia is not exactly the Yankee Clipper.
“That kid,” Sabathia told The Post’s George King, “was scared to death. It was the second time ever. I did the same deal last year. We used clippers. It was crazy.”
Ray Day in New Rock
Saturday is Ray Rice Day at New Rochelle High School. Children in grades 3-8 can play on McKenna Field from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. with pros including Rice’s Ravens teammates Joe Flacco and Michael Oher, former Rutgers twins Devin and Jason McCourty, and the Jets’ James Ihedigbo, among others. In conjunction, Steiner Sports will conduct an online auction to benefit the Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital at Westchester Medical Center, featuring a Rice-signed football and an Eli Manning-autographed helmet.
Knock, knock . . .
Jets offensive tackle Damien Woody hosted his Sirius NFL Radio show live from Giants defensive end Justin Tuck’s charity billiards tournament at Slate NYC on Thursday night. Jets running back Shonn Greene joined him to discuss the team’s starring role on HBO’s “Hard Knocks” this summer.
Greene: “I think we’ve got a lot of egos on the team so I actually think this’ll probably be the best ‘Hard Knocks’ there is ever gonna be.”
Greene predicted Bart Scott would be loudest Jet on screen.