Mets notes: Parnell to have neck surgery

Mets closer Bobby Parnell will need neck surgery to repair a herniated disk, according to Mets manager Terry Collins, who had said Sunday Parnell had planned to wait until mid-September to make the decision.

Last month, Parnell had said if he had to undergo surgery, he expected to be ready for spring training. Monday, Collins tentatively agreed with that timeline.

"I'm not doing the surgery,'' Collins hedged, adding, "He should, probably, but I'm not going to [promise that].''

Parnell, who had 22 saves with a 2.16 ERA this season, has been on the disabled list since Aug. 6.

The Mets added veteran right-handed pitcher Aaron Harang, outfielder Mike Baxter and catcher Juan Centeno to the major league roster Monday, and they're expected to add the 35-year-old Harang to their starting rotation on Thursday against the Nationals.

"They told me I'd slide in there and pitch on Thursday," Harang said. "I came in, got a bullpen [session] in today. It fits me right into [the rotation] schedule-wise when I was throwing down in Las Vegas.

"The biggest thing was to be in the rotation and hopefully be the veteran that can help answer questions for the younger guys, and just finish out my season on a strong note was the biggest thing. Here it was getting a chance to finish out the season in the rotation."

The Mets will push Jon Niese back a day, having him start Friday against the Marlins.

"Zack [Wheeler], even though he didn't throw a lot of pitches, said he wanted to come back on regular rest, he feels comfortable doing that,'' Collins said. "Jon said, 'I don't care what you do.' So we'll have Jon pitch Friday night to open the Miami series. Nobody's hurt, everybody's fine.''

If he gets in a game, Centeno would be making his major league debut.

The Mets reportedly are set to play two exhibition games against the Blue Jays at Montreal's Olympic Stadium near the end of next spring training, an agreement first reported by Sportsnet.ca. The Mets haven't played there since Sept. 23, 2004.

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Injury makes victory sweeter for Nadal

There is a shelf life for greatness in every sport. The best never last forever — even those who spend the longest time in the rarified air dominating their sport.

So even at the age of 27, an age when many of us are merely just beginning to find our way in our professional lives, Rafael Nadal is slowly approaching that end line in his already-brilliant career right now, with his professional mortality tested by another knee injury from which he came back only seven months ago.

That made Nadal's 6-2, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 victory over Novak Djokovic for his second career U.S. Open title and second Grand Slam of the year Monday night at Arthur Ashe Stadium that much more important for the Spaniard, who captured his 13th career Grand Slam with the win.

Further adding to the sweet taste of victory for Nadal was how remarkable it was he was even in the final, considering he was sidelined with that partially torn patella tendon last year, which had many — including Nadal and his inner circle — wondering if he would ever return to his world-class form.

Much like Vikings running back Adrian Peterson returned from a torn ACL suffered in 2011 and nearly broke the NFL single-season rushing record last season, Nadal looks as if he has returned from his latest knee injury an even better player.

Given the circumstances it took to get to his lucky 13th Slam, Nadal called the win "probably the most emotional one in my career.''

It showed when the match ended, and after a warm embrace with Djokovic at the net, Nadal tumbled to the court face down and wept.

"I felt that I did everything right to have my chance here,'' he said. "You play one match against one of the best players of the history like this … Novak … No. 1 in the world … on his favorite surface … I [had] to be almost perfect to win. This is a really special moment for me.''

Nadal, only one Grand Slam title short of Pete Sampras' 14 and four away from tying the all-time record of 17 held by Roger Federer, is already one of the all-time greats, and he's not nearly finished yet.

"Well, 13 Grand Slams for a guy who is 27 years old is incredible,'' Djokovic said. "He's definitely one of the best tennis players ever to play the game and, looking at his achievements and his age, he still has a lot of years to play.''

The reality of Nadal's latest knee injury, coupled with the violent way in which he has always moved around the tennis court and played, is that there was always a possibility he might never get back to center court at Ashe to play in a U.S. Open final.

But a remarkable run of hardcourt play in the last few months has boosted not only Nadal's confidence but his chances of possibly overtaking Federer.

Nadal, who also won the U.S. Open in 2010, is now 22-0 on hardcourts this year — noteworthy not only for its perfection, but because Nadal's best surface has always been clay, where he famously wears his opponents down to the dust they're playing on. Hardcourts, in fact, are his least favorite surface.

Adding to his greatness is the fact Nadal — like a Hall of Fame pitcher who used to strike out 10 batters a game with 100 mph heat but had to become more of a finesse pitcher after having arm trouble — has altered his game to ease the strain on his body by playing more aggressively to shorten points and protect his knees.

Two hours after the match, as he sat and answered questions in a press conference, a reporter asked Nadal about the possibilities ahead of him — like overtaking Sampras and chasing down Federer. He smiled and said, "Let me enjoy today.''

If he is able to match Federer's Grand Slam record, though, Nadal might not even need to win an 18th to be considered the greatest of all time, because he has a 21-10 career record against the Swiss star.

This is what lies ahead of the Spaniard for as long as that shelf-life window remains open. He should enjoy the ride, and you should enjoy the show.

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Indian court convicts 4 in fatal gang rape case

NEW DELHI — An Indian court convicted four men Tuesday in the fatal gang rape of a young woman on a moving New Delhi bus, an attack that set off waves of protests and gave voice to years of anger over the treatment of women.

The men, convicted on all the counts against them, including rape and murder, now face the possibility of hanging. The sentences are expected to be handed down Wednesday.

Reading out his verdict, Judge Yogesh Khanna said the men had committed "murder of a helpless person."

The parents of the rape victim, who cannot be identified under Indian law, had tears in their eyes as the verdicts were read. The mother, wearing a pink sari, sat just a few feet from the convicted men in a tiny courtroom jammed with lawyers, police and reporters.

Outside the courthouse, where dozens of protesters had gathered, a chant began quickly after the verdict: "Hang Them! Hang Them! Hang Them!"

Protesters called the case a wake-up call for India.

"Every girl at any age experiences this — harassment or rape. We don't feel safe," said law school graduate Rapia Pathania. "That's why we're here. We want this case to be an example for every other case that has been filed and will be filed."

A.P. Singh, a lawyer for the men, said all were innocent.

"These accused have been framed simply to please the public," he told reporters. "This is not a fair trial."

The four men, along with another suspect who hanged himself in prison and a juvenile convicted in August, were riding through the city on an off-duty bus in December when they tricked the 23-year-old woman and a male friend into boarding.

They beat the friend into submission, held down the woman and repeatedly raped her. They also penetrated the woman repeatedly with an iron rod, causing severe internal injuries that led to her death two weeks later.

Facing public protests and political pressure, the government reformed some of its antiquated laws on sexual violence, creating fast-track courts to avoid the painfully long rape trials that can easily last over a decade. The trial of the four men, which took about seven months, was astonishingly fast by Indian standards.

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Egyptian troops pound Islamic extremists near Gaza

EL-ARISH, Egypt — Egyptian troops and tanks backed by helicopter gunships swept through villages in the northern Sinai Peninsula near the border with the Palestinian Gaza Strip on Monday, the third day of a major offensive against Islamic extremists, a military official said. So far, some 20 suspected militants have been killed and 20 captured in the operation, he added.

Explosions rocked el-Mahdiya and Naga Shabana, two of several villages south of the town of Rafah, the official said, where the military hit targets and shelters used by militants wanted for the killing and abduction of Egyptian soldiers over the past year.

A day earlier, an al-Qaida-inspired militant group based in the area claimed responsibility for last week's failed assassination attempt on Egypt's interior minister, describing the Cairo attack as a "suicide" car bomb.

The claim could not be independently verified but it appeared on militant websites that regularly distribute statements from al-Qaida-linked groups. If true, it would mark the first time Sinai militants took their fight to the heart of the Egyptian capital with a suicide attack.

Tourist resorts along the southern coast of the rocky, desert region saw a string of suicide bombings in the mid-2000s that left at least 125 people dead and triggered mass arrests and detentions of thousands of Bedouin tribesman. The crackdown soured relations between locals and the central government, intensifying the Bedouins' feelings of mistreatment and turning the northern end of the peninsula into an incubator for Islamic extremism.

Like Ansar Jerusalem, other Sinai-based al-Qaida inspired groups have been blamed for a spike of attacks against military and police in northern Sinai since the military ousted former Islamist President Mohammed Morsi on July 3.

The increase in violence has raised suspicions of links between Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic militant groups. Military officials have accused Morsi of handling the groups too leniently and striking a truce with them to halt their attacks in return for suspending military operations against them during his year in office. This truce, they say, gave militants free reign to stockpile weapons, evidenced by the large caches of anti-aircraft missiles, mortars, and RPGs and other weapons seized by the army since Saturday.

Mustafa Hegazy, the interim president's political adviser, told Egyptian TV station Al-Hayat that under Morsi's rule, the number of militants in Sinai jumped to 7,000 or more from 1,000.

"It is graver than what we thought," he said in a late Sunday interview. He said the attempt on the interior minister did not signal a broader deterioration of Egypt's security, which was being "restored" across the country.

In the Ansar Jerusalem statement posted late Sunday, the group said it carried out the attack on Interior Minister Gen. Mohammed Ibrahim's motorcade to avenge Muslims killed by security forces during their violent Aug. 14 dismantlement of two sprawling encampments set up in Cairo by pro-Morsi supporters demanding his reinstatement. The day left hundreds dead in what was an unprecedented bloodbath. It also sparked a wave of unrest across the country where pro-Morsi supporters attacked churches and police stations.

"The Interior Ministry, the slaughterer, has seen death with its own eyes from a martyrdom operation carried out by a lion of Egypt's lions," the statement said. "What is coming will be worse," it added.

"We pledge to God the Almighty to seek revenge for Muslims on all those who contributed to their killings and assaulting their honor, above all el-Sissi and Mohammed Ibrahim," it said, also referring to Egypt's Military Chief Gen. Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi who led the coup against Morsi after millions took to the streets demanding his resignation for abuse of power.

The statement urged Muslims to stay away from the ministries of interior and defense, indicating that these two institutions will be targeted.

It also showed an ideological proximity to al-Qaida, citing an Aug. 3 statement by the group's leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, that mocked the democratic process and called upon "soldiers of the Quran to wage the war for the Quran," the Muslim holy book.

An Egyptian security official said authorities are still studying the statement, but confirmed that human remains suspected to belong to the suicide bomber were found inside the car used in the bombing. The Health Ministry said that one person died a day later of wounds sustained during the attack, and more than 20 were injured.

Ansar Jerusalem does not have a proven record of carrying out attacks outside of Sinai. It has previously claimed responsibility for attacks on gas pipelines to Israel, rockets targeting Israel and a 2012 shootout along the Israeli-Egyptian border in which three militants and an Israeli soldier were killed.

The army however has targeted it along with several other Islamic militant groups in its current operation.

In northern Sinai, mobile phone networks, landlines and the Internet were down early Monday as the military resumed its strikes on alleged militant hideouts in the southern town of Rafah, according to the military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

Besides those killed and captured in the operation, a number of suspects have fled to coastal villages or tried to enter Gaza through underground tunnels.

Witnesses said that they saw soldiers leaving troop carriers and firing in the air in celebration at sunset as they returned from the town of Rafah to their base in the city of el-Arish. Behind them, columns of smoke rose in the sky from where strikes were concentrated just south of Rafah, they added.

In the area lies the village of el-Mahdiya, believed to be the home of militant leader Shadi el-Manaei, a suspected mastermind of the abduction of seven Egyptian soldiers in May.

An official said the military seized weapons and ammunition there. There was no report on causalities or arrests.

In what appeared to be retaliatory attacks, suspected Islamic militants fired an RPG at a checkpoint in el-Arish, killing one soldier and injuring two others, the military official said. He added that in two other separate incidents, one army officer was shot in the head and two soldiers injured in attacks on check points in central Sinai.

On Monday, fear of new attacks in Cairo prompted authorities to beef up security, especially in stations and trains of the subway network, where men guards patrolled with sniffer dogs and searched passengers. Millions of commuters use the subway daily.

On Saturday, three mortar rounds were removed from railway tracks in the eastern city of Suez. Passenger trains in Egypt have been stopped since Aug. 14.

On Sunday, Ibrahim, the interior minister, ordered a tightening of security at the main bridges and highway crossings from Sinai to the mainland, the official news agency reported. He said the move was to prevent the "infiltration of terrorist elements escaping the security crackdown in Sinai into the provinces."

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Slain tot’s dad: I’ll talk to press – for a price

He won't lift a finger to help cops nail the low-life who gunned down his baby boy, but the father who was the likely target of the shooting doesn't mind profiting from his son's murder.

A man claiming to be Anthony Hennis, tragic Antiq Hennis' gangbanger dad, called The Post yesterday trying to solicit blood money to tell his side of the story.

"It doesn't have to be like you're paying me to talk," said the man, who insisted he was fielding offers from other media outlets, including one he said came from the Daily News for $15,000.

"You could be donating to help my family," the caller said. "I just got to take care of my family, the ones I do have left."

When asked how his family is holding up, the man said, "They're not doing good at all. They don't feel safe."

The caller left a number and cut the call short, saying he believed he was "being recorded." Before he hung up, he said he was staying with his grandmother and could be reached there.

Antiq Hennis

A cross-reference check of the number showed it is, in fact, associated with Hennis' grandmother, the woman he and Antiq were on their way to see when shots rang out Sept. 1 on a Brownsville street corner.

Several friends of Hennis, whose family members held him back last week from attacking members of the media outside his home, confirmed he was soliciting money from news outlets, although Hennis himself was later unavailable for comment at his home.

The Post did not comply with his request.

Spokesman Ken Frydman said the Daily News didn't cough up the cash, either.

"The answer is no," Frydman said. "He did ask for money, but the paper didn't pay him."

Sources said Hennis, 21, was the intended target when bullets ripped through the 16-month-old boy's stroller during their early-evening walk.

But cops said Hennis, who has a criminal record that includes 23 arrests, refuses to identify the killer or provide any details about the shooting or the beef that resulted in the innocent toddler's death.

"He's an active gang member," a law-enforcement source said. "They rarely talk to us."

"They don't snitch." another source said. "Snitching is a big no-no with them. And he probably wants to handle it himself, which will make more work for us."

Police have arrested a suspect, Daquan Breland, 23, but Hennis' stonewalling "could seriously affect the case," according to one source who described the testimony of a material witness and intended target as "important."

Another source suggested that investigators could seek a court order compelling Hennis to testify.

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Beatles fan-club secretary breaks silence

Do you want to know a secret?

Then you're out of luck, because for nearly 50 years, Freda Kelly has kept her mouth shut.

The quiet office worker from Liverpool served as The Beatles' fan-club secretary throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, watching their meteoric rise, getting to know their families and spending many a wild night out with the lads in the most famous band of all time.

Kelly, 26, The Beatles Official Fan Club Secretary, pictured at her Liverpool office, in 1971.

Now, Kelly's omerta has finally cracked, and she's telling her story for the first time in the new documentary "Good Ol' Freda," available on demand and hitting the Sunshine Cinema on East Houston Street this Friday.

Kelly is so private that even her family and friends didn't know much about her previous life with the Fab Four — including the movie's director, Ryan White, a family friend.

"I've known Freda for years," says White, an American whose uncle is Billy Kinsley of Liverpool's The Merseybeats. "I had no idea she was the Beatles' secretary. I just thought she was a secretary that worked at a law firm."

Kelly, now in her late 60s, finally warmed to the idea of speaking publicly after her first grandchild was born, and she realized she wanted to leave a legacy for her family. She approached White about making the movie.

"There are certain things I knew she wouldn't entertain. When we began the conversation, she said she didn't want to make anything scandalous or gossipy," White says.

"She hasn't sold out The Beatles. She could have made millions over her life, but she hasn't done it. She made this film on her own terms."
One subject she won't discuss is the rumor that she dated a Beatle. In the film, White presses her, but Kelly refuses to budge.

What you will hear about is how Kelly was a teenage fan of the band, seeing many of their early shows at The Cavern Club. She got to know John, Paul, George and Ringo, as well as their manager, Brian Epstein. As the band got more popular, Epstein offered the 17-year-old Kelly a job in his office, running the fan club.

She would answer the flood of letters, as well as field strange requests from diehards. In one instance, she received a stick of gum from a fan. She had one of the boys chew it, then sent it back. In another, Kelly asked Ringo to sleep on a pillowcase, then mailed it to an admirer.

"Those are things I don't think Justin Bieber fans are getting these days that Beatles fans got back then because a Beatles fan was running the operation," White says.

Ringo Starr, left, Freda Kelly, center, and George Harrison, right, in 1967.

Kelly would stick with the group — albeit in Liverpool, because her parents refused to let her move to London — until the very end. She penned the letter announcing the band's breakup that was mailed to fan-club members.
White says that despite her avoidance of the spotlight for so many years, Kelly is actually enjoying the attention.

"She told me the other day that this is like a second youth for her," the director says. "She had that crazy decade, then she went into hiding. But now with this film, she's re-engaging with that world."

Kelly is no richer, however.

She still works six days a week in a law office and lives in a modest house in Liverpool. She gave away much of her valuable memorabilia to distraught fans in the mid-1970s, but she still has numerous boxes stashed in her attic. While looking through them for the documentary, White foolishly suggested that Kelly could be sitting on millions.

"She looked at me disgusted, and I kind of wilted," he says.

Good ol' Freda.
Freda's Fab 4 fortune
The Post asked two memorabilia dealers to roughly estimate the value of some items glimpsed in "Good Ol' Freda," the new documentary about former Beatles fan-club secretary Freda Kelly — even if she doesn't want to sell any of it.

1. Complete set of fan mag The Beatles Book

The monthly fan magazine (inset) ran for 77 issues, starting in 1963. Rick Rann, a Beatles memorabilia dealer for 35 years, estimates a complete set to be worth $750 to $1,000, though Kelly's personal set would command a premium.

2. Early band photos

Kelly has a fascinating collection of personal snapshots, including some of the earliest-known photos of The Beatles in their Cavern Club days. Rann estimates that each unpublished photo could be worth thousands.

3. A lock of George Harrison's hair

A single strand from the guitarist's head sold for $2,500 in 2011, so a whole lock could be worth thousands, Rann says.

4. Beatles autographs

Kelly has an autograph book in which all four Beatles signed their names and wrote personal messages to her. Getting all four autographs together is rare and raises the value of an item considerably. "With provenance, I would think it is worth anywhere between $8,500 and $12,500," says Jason Cornthwaite of Beatles memorabilia dealer Tracks.

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Brooklyn artist rents out grungy trailers to tourists

Tourists can live like the city's starving artists — for just $80 a night!

A Crown Heights woodworker is marketing the back of his warehouse as an offbeat trailer park where tourists slum it in three campers surrounded by a chain-link fence.

Vacationers can choose from a 1954 Shasta trailer with a twin bed, a 1968 four-bed Shasta or a four-person Avion trailer. There are also three rooms for rent in the warehouse.

The antique trailers lock only from the inside and are stocked with cans of tuna and brandy bottles filled with water.
Each additional guest costs an extra $25.

Kellam Clark, who has advertised the campers on the Web site Airbnb.com since May, said he created the kooky caravans to stay in business in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood.

"After a few months, it became clear this is an experience people really enjoy," Clark told The Post. "They enjoy being close to and being a part of what New York is in their mind."

It's "the real Brooklyn experience," one reviewer on the website wrote. "Even if the area and the first glance may give you a wrong impression, it is a great place to stay."

Another traveler called it the worst night of her life.

"We flew in terror after the first night," a Berlin tourist wrote. "In the handout we received at the beginning we were asked not to open the door for the police — no matter what they say and how they would try to get in."

Guests enter through a metal door in the yard after calling a number listed on a mail slot. The trailers are parked amid a fire pit and bevy of sculptures and other oddities.

Stocked with clean sheets, blankets, towels and dishes, the trailers have a refrigerator and stove — though neither work. There's just one bathroom for all guests and it's inside the warehouse.

A shower and toilet are separated by a wall — with a peephole behind a mirror allowing public view.

"I would also suggest taking a towel into the shower area to cover the fisheye lens . . . unless having someone watching you take a shower is your thing," one reviewer said.

The Dean Street campground is one of thousands of city residences on Airbnb.com. In May, an administrative law judge ruled site users are violating a state law prohibiting landlords from renting out apartments for fewer than 30 days. But tenants are likely to face the city's wrath only if neighbors file complaints against them.

That's why the trailer park and warehouse — not a legal residence under current zoning — come with hard rules.
If asked, hipster hillbillies must say they are working on a project, the website instructs.

Visitors must also adhere to the junkyard Jellystone's freewheeling ways: Clark and his fellow artists, for instance, "reserve the right to be nude when it is not inappropriate," according to the listing.

"It is not okay to watch normal TV programming in any of the common spaces," Clark wrote on Airbnb. "Advertisements are like acid on the brain and are banished from this space."

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RFK Jr.’s secret diary of adultery

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. grappled with what he called his biggest defect — "my lust demons" — while keeping a scorecard of more than two dozen conquests, according to his secret diary.

The thick, red journal was found in their home by his wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy, who, distraught over their impending divorce and Kennedy's serial philandering, committed suicide last year.

A copy of the 398 pages, reviewed by The Post, details RFK Jr.'s daily activities, speeches, political activism and the lives of his six children in the year 2001. But they also record the names of women — with numbers from 1 to 10 next to each entry.

RFK's dirty diary

The codes corresponded to sexual acts, with 10 meaning intercourse, Mary told a confidant. There are 37 women named in the ledger, 16 of whom get 10s.

On Nov. 13, 2001, RFK Jr. records a triple play. The separate encounters — coded 10, 3 and 2 — occur the same day he attended a black-tie fund-raiser at the Waldorf-Astoria for Christopher Reeve's charity, where he sat next to the paralyzed "Superman" star, magician David Blaine and comic Richard Belzer.

It was a hectic month for Kennedy, who traveled to ­Toronto, Louisiana and Washington, DC — and listed at least one woman's name on 22 different dates, including 13 consecutive days.

Most women are identified only by first name in the ledger. They include a lawyer, an environmental activist, a doctor and at least one woman married to a famous actor.

A Post reporter who questioned Kennedy Friday about the diary was first met with six seconds of stunned silence.

"I don't think there is any way you could have a diary or journal of mine from 2001," Kennedy then said. "I don't have any comment on it. I have no diary from 2001."

The diary is laced with Kennedy's Catholic guilt over his infidelities, which follow the same pattern of affairs pursued by his uncles, John F. Kennedy and Ted Kennedy, as well as his own father.

On days without a woman's name, Kennedy would often write "victory." This meant he'd triumphantly resisted sexual temptation, according to a source close to Richardson.

Victory!

"Despite the terrible things happening in the world, my life is . . . great," he wrote on Nov. 5, 2001. "So I've been looking for ways to screw it up. I'm like Adam and live in Eden, and I can have everything but the fruit. But the fruit is all I want."

The 59-year-old son of the assassinated US senator was so tortured by his desire that spending a month in jail in Puerto Rico was a welcome respite.

"I'm so content here," he writes during his July 2001 incarceration for taking part in protests of the US Navy's bombing exercises in Vieques. "I have to say it. There's no women. I'm happy! Everybody here seems happy. It's not ­misogyny. It's the opposite! I love them too much."

Yet Kennedy adds, "I love my wife and I tell it to her every day, and I never tire of it and write her tender letters."

Nine years later, Kennedy and his wife separated when he filed for divorce. And on May 16, 2012, Richardson, 52, committed suicide by hanging herself in an outbuilding on the couple's Bedford ­estate.

Kennedy's cheating had become a huge issue in the marriage.

Richardson told a friend that her husband noted the names of his romantic conquests on pages in the back of his journal under the preprinted heading "cash accounts."

The journal begins with word that Richardson is pregnant with the couple's fourth child.

The couple had known each other since Richardson was 14 and a boarding-school roommate of Kennedy's younger sister, Kerry. They married in 1994, weeks after Kennedy divorced his first wife, Emily Black, with whom he had two children.

Richardson was pregnant with their first child, Conor, when they married. They moved into the 1920 clapboard house in Westchester County.

Kennedy, an environmental lawyer and board president of the nonprofit Waterkeeper Alliance, spent much of his time traveling to give speeches, according to his diary.

He had recently been weighing a possible Senate run for New York, before Hillary Rodham Clinton stepped into the race. Richardson stayed home with the children.

The beautiful brunette struggled with depression and alcoholism. Her husband described her at her funeral as "fighting demons."

The couple was not yet divorced when she died and were bitterly arguing over issues involving custody and finances. Kennedy had temporary custody of the four children and was dating actress Cheryl Hines.

A sealed document in which Kennedy portrayed his wife as an abusive alcoholic who beat him up and threatened suicide in front of the children was leaked to the press.

Kennedy said in the affidavit that by 2001 he had "lost hope" in his marriage and was "committing numerous infidelities to keep my sanity," according to a published report.

Mary Richardson Kennedy committed suicide in 2012.

But his journal paints a different picture. He barely mentions his wife's emotional problems, making just a passing reference to her struggles with depression.

When he is jailed in Puerto Rico, he writes on July 8 that "I finally spoke to my wonderful wife and that was a joy. She is very strong and cheerful."

The couple's son, Aiden, was born just days later. He writes: "I'm so proud of my Mary. She has become the woman I fell in love with — through hard work. She has overcome her fears, enshrined her faith, abandoned self-pity and blame and immersed herself in gratitude and God gave her a baby . . . a beautiful and serene and happy soul. I am so happy. I couldn't be happier or more grateful for the life and the wife God has given me."

He also found time to muse on his own weakness.

"After daddy died I struggled to be a grown-up . . . I felt he was watching me from heaven. Every time I was afflicted with sexual thoughts, I felt a failure. I hated myself. I began to lie — to make up a character who was the hero and leader that I wished I was," he writes on July 25.

Kennedy writes near the end of his jail sentence that he has a "three-point plan" for "fixing my greatest defect . . . my lust demons." He doesn't write down the plan, leaving the subsequent days of the diary blank.

An entry five days later reads "Drove to Cape with Mary and all the kids." By mid-August, he again records women's names in the back of his journal.

Robert Kennedy Jr.'s diary sheds light on his infidelities.

Kennedy holds back on any detailed description of his conquests and bizarrely portrays himself as a kind of victim. He uses the word "mugged" as shorthand for being seduced.

"I narrowly escaped being mugged by a double team of [two women]. It was tempting but I prayed and God gave me the strength to say no," he writes on Feb. 6. A few days later, on Valentine's Day, he gives his pregnant wife orchids, he notes.

On May 21, he writes about hosting dinner for Leonardo DiCaprio, driving the actor to the city and then meeting someone else in Manhattan. He notes he "got mugged on my way home," recording a 10 with the name of a woman next to it.

"I've got to do better," he adds.

In another entry, he tells himself to "avoid the company of women. You have not the strength to resist their charms" and to "be humble like a monk. Keep your hands to yourself. Avert your eyes."

In summer 2001, Kennedy writes that "I have been given everything that I coveted — a beautiful wife and kids and loving family, wealth, education, good health and a job I love yet always on the lookout for something I can't have. I want it all," he writes. "No matter how much I have — I want more."

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Owners keep pups from putting on pounds

For some fitness obsessed New Yorkers, the battle of the bulge includes Fido

The women who attend Lisa Hartman's roving yoga sessions aren't your typical New York yoginis working to stay sample size. They come to class with a yoga mat in one arm and a pampered pooch in the other, and their canine companions lie on the floor and exercise with them.

"One of my clients is a beautiful blonde, married to a powerful man,'' Hartman says. "She doesn't work; she works out, and is obsessed with her weight. She power walks three to four miles every morning with her poodle-mix, who is allowed only organic foods and no cookies whatsoever. If she thinks it has gained a pound, she makes it wears these Spanx under its outfits that she creates by cutting down her own pantyhose.''

In New York, where a day without a visit to Equinox or Crunch can cause fitness freaks major anxiety, the obsession with staying trim and toned is being carried over to our dogs. At Best Pet Rx on the Upper East Side, manager Trish Welke says low-calorie dog food and treats are becoming increasingly popular, as is doggy exercise equipment.

"Customers are asking for new products like resistance bands that you put on dogs so that when they are walking they develop muscles,'' she says.

And, there's extra pressure on a dog to keep her puppyish figure when she has a luxurious wardrobe.

"My client Cathy just picked up two Italian harnesses for her Bijan, Coco, and she put her on a strict diet to make sure she doesn't outgrow them,'' says Edward Alava, owner of the Dog Store on East 61st Street. "Some of my clients spend $400 to $700 on a cashmere coat, and if a spaniel gains 5 pounds or a Yorkie gains 2, they have to get a whole new wardrobe … Nobody wants a fat pet."

Dr. Debra Jaliman, a 57-year-old dermatologist who lives and practices on Fifth Avenue, keeps her Havanese, Truffles, on a strict regimen to make sure he doesn't get chubby. "I want him to look the best he can. I don't want him waddling around," she says. "Even when it was over 100 degrees, we got up at 5:30 to walk" and "I am obsessed with measuring his food."

Veterinarian Dr. Cindy Bressler warns that dog owner's obsessions with diet and exercise can go too far.

"One woman in the fashion industry was on Atkins, and she wouldn't give her dog carbs, so he was upset and always barking," she recalls. "And some people run with puppies before [the dogs'] bones are formed, which can give them problems, or push their dogs to run farther because they want them to be in better shape, which can actually make them overheat and send them into organ failure."

And when a fit-focused dog owner is forced to take a workout break, it can be a problem for both the person and her pet. Elizabeth Frank, 36, who lives in the West Village and owns a special event and marketing agency, not only felt unhappy about her own weight when a sports injury prevented her from running on the West Side highway with her two pit-bull-mixes, Charlotte and Mr. Bones – she was also bummed about her dogs' declining fitness.

"I didn't feel great when I got stuck wearing my fat jeans on a regular basis, but some of my friends were making jokes about my dogs; they said Charlotte was getting hippy," she sighs. "I felt terrible that they were teasing her, and I think she was getting depressed. I'm also a firm believer that my butt grows in proportion to my dog's butt."

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Fashion Week has the munchies

Eat your hearts out, fashionistas — it's very on trend.

During the nonstop triathlon that is Fashion Week (show/party/presentation/repeat), the style-savvy often survive on sticks of gum clinging to the bottom of their Céline bags. But this season, fashion's biggest event is turning into a food lover's paradise. From designer cookies on the runway to gourmet juice outside the tents, the well-heeled are sitting pretty at fashion's table. Even models allergic to calories are in luck: There's a swanky Sweet 'N Low display at Lincoln Center, perfect for throwing back a few sugar-free pink packets between shows. (Low-cal cocktails are also on hand for those who prefer sipping in their stilettos.) Here are some of the notable sartorial snacks on offer this week:

Couture cronuts?
Waifs beware! To celebrate their first full-length runway show, Opening Ceremony designers Carol Lim and Humberto Leon are curating a pop-up food haven through Wednesday on Pier 57, just a quick hop from Milk Studios. Asiadog is serving up hearty specials like the Carol hot dog (with spicy Korean cucumber salad and kimchi aioli) and the Humberto dog (with pickled Chinese broccoli). Scharf & Zoyer, a global Jewish sandwich shop, has tuna melts and Korean lox spread on bialys. Perhaps most in vogue, cronut craze-maker Dominique Ansel Bakery is set to make a top-secret appearance. "All the food is really creative, and the smell's so good, they won't be able to resist," raves Nicole Lindner, who typically works at Opening Ceremony's Howard Street store, but was so excited by the foodie pop-up, she volunteered to work there on her day off.

Green is your color
The only position more coveted than front row at Marc Jacobs is front of the line for a free green juice. Juice Generation's Front Row Refresh truck at Lincoln Center, sponsored by Marie Claire, has been giving away 500 spinach and kale creations each day to thirsty fans. "The fashion world has been on a kind of collective healthy kick," said Marie Claire beauty and health director Erin Flaherty, who dreamed up the idea. "Fashion Week is a marathon. You're running around, uptown and downtown. Nobody sits for lunch," she said. "And it wouldn't be very chic to bring a brown bag, would it?"

Cookie model
"My biggest frustration at Fashion Week shows is the lack of healthy snacks for the models backstage between shows and events," runway star Karlie Kloss tells The Post. Which is why she's passing out 500 of her gluten- and dairy-free Karlie's Kookies, made in collaboration with Momfuku Milk Bar, to the models walking at Milk Studios. (Ah, models helping models.) The "Perfect 10" and "5Boro" cookies will also be passed out at DKNY's 25th anniversary show today. Band of Outsiders devotees can rejoice, too: The designers will hand out a custom "Cookie Noir" (also from Milk Bar) at their presentation today.

Coco chic
Fashion's gone crazy for coco — but this time, it's not Chanel or Rocha. Vita Coco delivered its Fashion Week-inspired silver coconut water cartons via a Volkswagen camper to the offices of Vogue, GQ, Harper's Bazaar and Elle, and models sipped the limited-edition water backstage at Alexander Wang's show yesterday. The truck will hydrate the masses around Lincoln Center through Wednesday, and even stop by some after-parties. Fashion partiers, take note: Coconut water is excellent for warding off hangovers.

Macaron boom
At Proenza Schouler and The Row, the treat of choice will be Maison Ladurée macarons. The French bakery unleashed two new flavors for their Fashion Week exclusive (also available at their Madison Avenue store): coconut and gingerbread, nestled in a chic leopard-print box that can double as a mini clutch. "We want to keep models and teams energized, one macaron at a time," says Elisabeth Raberin Holder. Talk about eye candy.

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Chappelle mired in heckle debacle

Dave Chappelle took the stage last night to an adoring audience in Camden, NJ, where he co-headlined the Oddball Comedy and Curiosity Festival with the Flight of the Conchords.

But while his body might have been in Camden, his thoughts remained in Hartford.

Last week, Chappelle, for whom this tour marks something of a return to the public eye, had a disastrous show there when the audience reportedly became so out of control that he gave up in mid-set, sitting on stage, reading a book, and insulting the crowd.

Taking the stage, he greeted a ferocious audience reception with, "Welcome to the Dave Chappelle 'meltdown' " — the quotes were his — and spent the next few minutes trashing Hartford and its mayor, who reacted with anger when Chappelle said the other night that he wouldn't be upset if the city fell victim to a nuclear attack.

The veteran comic got off some good lines — he remarked that the feud felt like he was having "a rap battle with an entire city" — but the whole thing felt a bit petty.

Chappelle has experienced — or precipitated — a number of similarly bad gigs over the past few years, all of which found him giving up in the middle and smoking cigarettes on stage while ignoring the crowd. At a certain point, given his vast experience — Chappelle, 40, has been a stand-up comedian since he was 14 years old — it's hard to accept that these awful gigs are completely out of his control.

That said, once he finally got off the topic of Hartford — he even brought out two models who wore T-shirts he had made that read, "F–k Hartford" — the show became much stronger.

His prepared material included riffs on Dennis Rodman's trip to North Korea, including an imitation of the president saying to Kim Jong Un, "Don't you hurt one pink or yellow hair on his head"; a joke comparing his return to show business with "a real boy who wants to be a puppet"; and a hilarious and unprintable bit that played off a common slang word for female genitalia, including how gynecology is affected by doctors not being able to say the word, and a riff about the many ways the word might be used by rapper Lil Wayne, including on a cooking show.

Best of all, Chappelle showed far more patience with the audience than he has at certain other shows. In the middle of his set, a woman in the crowd screamed out that she wanted a hug. Chappelle turned the interruption into a warm, nurturing, and, most important, funny bit, including bringing her on stage for a lengthy embrace, then telling her husband, "Don't worry. I'm gonna send her back in better condition than when I found her."

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Depeche Mode at its best when blasting from the past

There is a theory that after three decades of electronic experiments, Depeche Mode have become relevant again due to the recent rise of EDM. But last night at Barclays Center, it didn't seem to ring true. There were no day-glo-wearing teenage ravers in attendance. Instead the crowd was almost entirely made up of people over 35, many of whom looked liked they'd be starving themselves for weeks to get into old pairs of leather pants that haven't seen the light of day since the mid-1990s.

The oldies they were hoping — maybe even expecting — were not quickly forthcoming. Arriving onstage at just before 9 p.m., the British outfit launched into an early slew of material from their last (and probably least) album "Delta Machine." Singer Dave Gahan must have initially wondered if anyone was in the arena at all, such was the muted response to "Welcome To My World" and the bland blues of "Angel." Luckily, the 51-year-old (who now calls Manhattan home) still has a gamut of nifty dance moves to call on when things need livening up. Judging by the screams of both men and women in the arena, the "you want this, don't you?" booty shake proved to be a particular favorite.

Forget their supposed influence on current dance music, or their lackluster run of recent albums, or even Gahan's exquisitely chiseled backside. The only thing truly relevant about Depeche Mode in 2013 is the timeless brilliance of the songs they wrote in their heyday, many of which emerged slowly but surely during the set. Both "Barrel Of A Gun" and "A Question Of Time" tingled the spine with their eternally sinister spirit and it only took the sound of guitarist Martin Gore's distinctive riff at the start of both "Enjoy The Silence" and "Personal Jesus" to give their unwaveringly loyal fans more joy in 10 seconds than they'd felt in the previous hour.

Having made much harder work of the night than was strictly necessary, the band hit high gear with an encore that featured strutting and sexy takes on "I Feel You" and "Never Let Me Down Again," both of which were belted out with impressive clarity by a still-energetic Gahan. Even with years of mileage behind them, these songs continue to weather incredibly well and ensure that there will always be a space for Depeche Mode in modern music.

Opening for the band on this tour is Natasha Khan in her guise of Bat for Lashes. The Londoner had a scant crowd, but her dark and stormy chamber pop sounded beautiful nonetheless. Clad in a striking turquoise outfit and wielding the kind of mystique that Kate Bush once had, Khan loaded "A Wall" and "Daniel" with so much drama that it was frequently impossible to look away.

Khan will be opening for Depeche Mode again on Sunday at Jones Beach Theater on Long Island, and if you have a ticket, arrive early at all costs.

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Thompson ‘retro pay’ teach twist

The United Federation of Teachers is telling its members to come out in droves to vote for mayoral candidate Bill Thompson because he will give them back pay — even though he insists he didn't promise fat raises to win union support.

The UFT, which endorsed Thompson in the hotly contested Democratic primary, sent tens of thousands of fliers to its members reading, "Bill Thompson Stands With Us," followed by a checklist of issues he supposedly supports.

But sandwiched between promises he has actually made — to appoint an educator as chancellor and limit standardized testing of kids — is one he hasn't: "Retro-active pay."

The retroactive pay issue has become a flash point in the race because Mayor Bloomberg is set to leave office in January with every municipal labor contract long expired.

Officials have projected that providing back pay could clobber the city with nearly $8 billion in additional expenses.

Despite the mass mailing, Thompson spokesman John Collins reiterated that the candidate has not promised the UFT retroactive pay — either publicly or in private.

All of the leading Dems — seeking to win support of union workers — have hedged on providing retro pay.

The $69,705 mailer was funded by the UFT's political action committee, United for the ­Future, which has spent nearly $3.3 million on the race so far.

A spokeswoman for the union declined to comment.

Earlier Friday, Democratic front-runner Bill de Blasio, the public advocate, actually praised much of Mayor Bloomberg's legacy despite his anti-Bloomberg rhetoric.

"I think [Bloomberg's] been exemplary on public-health and environmental matters. I think he was right to achieve mayoral control of education, although I think he applied it in a way that was really insensitive to parents and could've been done in a much more consultative, open way," de Blasio said.

"I also think the mayor did a good job of diversifying our economy."

Meanwhile, Council Speaker Christine Quinn's campaign jabbed de Blasio after a video surfaced of de Blasio back-slapping a member of an anti-Quinn group funded by independent expenditures.

"You're doing a great job," de Blasio can be heard telling the unidentified man, who is wearing an orange shirt that reads "Don't Vote for Quinn."

Candidates are barred from coordinating with groups that do independent expenditures.

"Bill de Blasio's doublespeak has reached new heights," said Quinn campaign spokesman Mike Morey. "After creating a group called the 'Coalition for Accountability in Political Spending' — which was a failure — Bill de Blasio now celebrates and cheers on a group that has shown an utter lack of accountability in political spending."

A spokesman for de Blasio shot back: "Quinn's campaign is so desperate they are now attacking the T-shirts of people who greet Bill de Blasio on the street."

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Sleazy legal loophole to duck 911-death suit

A Manhattan judge exposed a little-known loophole clearing the city from liability for a delay in emergency care if the 911 call is not placed by a victim or an "immediate family member."

City lawyers used that technicality to wriggle out of a lawsuit filed by the family of a woman who died during a 2010 blizzard after waiting more than two hours for an ambulance.

Kathleen Thomas, 51, suffered cardiac arrest after slipping in the snow outside her boyfriend's apartment during the Dec. 27 storm. Alan Taylor, Thomas' boyfriend, called 911 and an operator told him help would be there as soon as possible.

Thomas' sister, Simone Pascal, filed a lawsuit against the city last year for the tragic delay.

But Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Margaret Chan agreed with the city's claims that the case had no legal basis because the 911 call was placed by Thomas' boyfriend, Alan
Taylor.

Taylor didn't qualify as a "family member," Chan said Wednesday in dismissing the suit, even though the two were together for 25 years.

"Mr. Taylor is not a family member, he was the decedent's longtime boyfriend," Chan wrote in her decision.

"Therefore plaintiff cannot satisfy the . . . elements of a special relationship and plaintiff's claim against the municipality and its employees must fail."

Pascal, 61, slammed the judge's decision.

"If the 911 call came from a stranger or a crackhead on the street or even a dog, it shouldn't matter," she said. "I'm upset with the city and with Mayor Bloomberg. I feel betrayed. This is a cop-out, simply because they are looking for any excuse to defend themselves.

"My sister was hanging on as long as she was because the boyfriend was there. He is closer to her than just about any family."

A Department of Law spokeswoman declined to comment.

The 2010 blizzard dumped 20 inches of snow and paralyzed the city. Abandoned cars and buses clogged up the roads — and ambulances couldn't make it out to calls that at one point backed up past 1,000.

The family of a Queens grandmother who died of a heart attack during the blizzard also sued the city last year for failing to clear the streets. That case is still pending.

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Yankees season in danger of going up in smoke

How can one baseball team withstand? When does resilience devolve into sheer exhaustion?

The Yankees seem determined to find out.

Joe Girardi's group followed its Worst Loss of the Season on Thursday night with … the Even Worse Worst Loss of the Season on Friday night. A seemingly comfortable lead intersected with a battered bullpen at Yankee Stadium, and the result couldn't have been any uglier: 12-8 Red Sox at Yankee Stadium, dropping the Yankees (75-66) behind both Baltimore (75-65) and Cleveland (75-65) — with all of them trailing Tampa Bay (77-63 ) — in the American League wild-card race.

"They're all tough right now. What are you going to do?" asked Andy Pettitte, whose quality start went for naught. "It was a tough loss, that's for sure."

The Yankees' immune system is turning upon itself. The bullpen, a season-long strength — multiple seasons, really — is a mess; adding injury to, well, injury. Before Friday's game, the Yankees diagnosed David Robertson with right shoulder tendinitis and shut him down for a few days. During the game, Boone Logan departed with left elbow tightness, although not before he gave up a game-tying grand slam to Yankees nemesis Mike Napoli.

Moreover, the short right-field porch, an ally since the Yankees opened this new place, became a momentary enemy when Napoli's poke to right hit the top of the wall and bounced into the stands.

Oh, and on Saturday, the Yankees need lefty David Huff to shine in his first start for the club. And if the offense could put up another eight runs, maybe the pitching could actually make that stand up, unlike these past two nights.

Asked if he thought his team was reaching critical mass, Girardi responded, with a smile, "As long as we're breathing and we can wake up in the morning and show up at the ballpark, no. It's when we can't do that, that I lose a little faith."

With Mariano Rivera out for the night due to excessive recent work, and with Shawn Kelley also out of commission due to a right triceps problem, Girardi had to get creative when Pettitte reached his 100-pitch limit upon completing six innings with an 8-3 advantage. The key clearly was for Phil Hughes to eat up some outs, and once that bridge collapsed, with Hughes getting just one out, allowing one run and leaving the bases loaded, the domino effect went into place. While the southpaw Logan has enjoyed success against righty hitters this season, you'd still rather go with a right-hander against the ultra-dangerous Napoli, who tied the score with one swing.

"It exploded on us, you know?" Pettitte said.

While rookie Preston Claiborne picked up the last out in the seventh to preserve the tie, he allowed a Will Middlebrooks single and Shane Victorino homer with one out in the eighth, giving Boston its first lead of the night. Later, the fallen phenom Joba Chamberlain allowed a couple of runs to come home on his watch, putting the reborn Yankees offense into a hole from which it couldn't escape.

This Yankees season has been one we won't soon forget. From their injury-plagued spring training to their defying of expectations for the first two months, from the multiple players suffering second ailments to Alex Rodriguez's epic battle with team management to Alfonso Soriano's return, they kept us vastly entertained, and they seemed poised to add a September rally, too.

We've left them for dead several times, so we're reluctant to do so again. But gosh, how much more can the Yankees overcome?

"It's going to be fine," Pettitte said. "Obviously, you hate to struggle. The guys in the pen have been great all year. But we've had two bad games. You've got to love the way the guys are swinging the bat. The offense is playing great. We're not going to pitch like that. We're just not."

Remember the 1990 movie "Flatliners," when Kevin Bacon, Julia Roberts, Kiefer Sutherland and others flirted with death? The posters read, "Some lines shouldn't be crossed."

The Yankees are dancing on that line. They're taunting baseball death. We'll learn soon enough whether they've gone too far this time.

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Best teachers in America

Doc finds four leaders for change at nation's schools

'Most of the people I make movies with are so excited to be making a movie with me," says director Davis Guggenheim, with a laugh. "These teachers cared more about their students. We were not their first priority."

Guggenheim, who won an Oscar for "An Inconvenient Truth" and made waves with "Waiting for Superman," tackles what it's like to be a teacher at a district school in the new TV documentary, "Teach," which airs tonight at 8 p.m. on CBS.

Queen Latifah, whose mother is a former teacher, hosts the special, which also features bites from Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Anna Faris, Jon Cryer, Jerry O'Connell, Paul George, Allison Janney, and Rashida Jones.

Despite having covered the subject of public education before in his work, Guggenheim says "Teach" is not a rehash. Whereas "Waiting for Superman" exposed the system's flaws, "Teach" focuses on teachers finding solutions.

"But at the core, they're about a similar thing which is: why can't we do better for our kids?" says Guggenheim. "What is a teacher? What is a great teacher? We all know that that's important, but it's amazing how few of us know what it actually that means."

Guggenheim started production on the film by following more than 50 teachers. Ultimately, he focused on four and filmed them throughout one school year, clocking in about 100 days of shooting among two schools in Denver, one in Idaho and another in LA.

"I really wanted to find those teachers that were becoming great," says Guggenheim. "It's interesting because some people think they're very deft teachers and some people think they're teachers that aren't quite there yet. I don't think they're the perfect model of teaching. I think they're teachers that are becoming great and becoming the perfect model."

In the film, each of the four teachers — Matt Johnson, Shelby Harris, Joel Laguna and Lindsay Chinn — struggles to overcome common problems in the education system, such as teaching classes of mixed-level students and catching up students who are already testing below grade level.

"The phenomenon is that most people feel like our schools are failing, but they think their schools are fine. So there's a block," says Guggenheim. "Now people realize our schools are in trouble, [but] they feel like it's just too complex, too confusing and they don't know how to solve it. The reason why I made this movie is we can all agree that great teachers are at the heart of great schools.

"On the surface, it seems like a s—-y job," he adds. "But what you get from [the teachers] at the end of the year is an incredible satisfaction when they reach these kids."

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This Yankees loss feels like it should count as two

This is the problem with perfection, see.

This is the fix you find yourself in when the final month of the season feels less like a series of baseball games and more a daily dance with elimination. This is what it feels like when you have less margin for error than a man juggling six chainsaws on a wire above Niagara Falls.

This is how baseball can chew you the hell up.

"I like how our guys came back tonight," Joe Girardi whispered when it was over, after the Yankees had risen from the dust and then fallen back into the dirt, after the Red Sox had stolen a 9-8 victory away from them Thursday night, an hour or so after it seemed the Yankees would be the ones to get away with thievery.

"But you have to be able to overcome things."

Mostly, the Yankees are trying to overcome a 4 ½-months start to the season that left them buried behind a pile of wild-card hopefuls. So much of that time it seemed the Yankees would treat the scoreboard like a gas-rationing line, only touching the plate on alternating days.

Now, they score runs in wonderful, gluttonous bunches.

But they have to. That's the rub. That's the problem. The days dwindle down and so do the Yankees' opportunities, and they know as well as anyone — and say it often — that they don't simply have to win, cannot merely take series, they have to win — quite literally — every day.

And when that's the mission, days like this, losses like this, almost feel like they count for two. When Mariano Rivera has two outs, nobody on, two strikes on Mike Napoli, that's an invitation to stream for the exits. Except when it isn't. Except when you remember the Red Sox aren't the White Sox, aren't the Blue Jays, aren't even the kid-brother Orioles, that they play varsity ball for 27 outs. And beyond, when necessary.

And can steal one right out of you front pocket after you'd done the same to their back pocket a few innings before.

"They never give up," Alfonso Soriano said. "They're like us."

That is a fair analogy, with one caveat: the Red Sox beat the Yankees here on Opening Day and they've never stopped running, never stopped rushing for the top of the division and the best record in the sport. The Yankees kept up for a while, fell back, then way back. They buried themselves, and have spent the better part of a month with a shovel in their hands.

There are times this mission not only seems doable, but inevitable. That was the bottom of the seventh last night, Lyle Overbay at the plate for the Yankees, Junichi Tazawa on the mound for the Red Sox, the count 1-2, the score 7-6, Red Sox, after it had been 7-2, Red Sox only minutes before.

Overbay swung, scorched a ground ball toward second. Dustin Pedroia started to his right before realizing the ball was skipping by him to his left.

Base hit. Joy. Valhalla. Yankees 8. Red Sox 7.

"We were flying," Soriano would say later. "And it seemed like everyone was in it together."

There is no doubting their common interest, no escaping the fact the Yankees we've seen the past three weeks are a 95-win monster if they'd been given six months together; they're getting six weeks. They clobber bad teams and hang in there against good ones, and they are hanging around, and they have accepted the chore that lies before them.

Win. Every day. Every game.

"We know what's in front of us," Austin Romine said, in the quiet of a beaten clubhouse. "We know what we have to do."

It was Romine's poor throw that allowed Quintin Berry — running for Napoli, channeling Dave Roberts — to not only steal second but skip to third when the ball bounced away, and then score on Stephen Drew's broken-bat single. It was the kind of imperfect play the Yankees can't afford, the way they couldn't afford the artistic baserunning stylings of Soriano in the bottom of the ninth when he was, in essence, picked off twice as the winning run.

"I made a mistake," Soriano said, "and it cost."

Such is the price — and the problem — of perfection.

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Joba can’t be trusted in big games

The Promise that once was Joba Chamberlain continues to be a dead end for the Yankees.

These days, even when Chamberlain appears to strike out a batter, he doesn't get the benefit of the call.

Baseball remains a game all about overcoming obstacles, though, and Chamberlain can't manage to win for losing anymore and for manager Joe Girardi to continue to run Chamberlain out there in big games is a losing proposition.

Joba was not alone Thursday night in the mistake department as the Yankees found so many ways to lose to the Red Sox, 9-8 in 10 innings at Yankee Stadium in a game that lasted 4 hours and 32 minutes.

What could have been a tremendous 8-7 win for the Yankees disintegrated into the ugliest of defeats, and it was Chamberlain who was the losing pitcher.

With one in the 10th of an 8-8 game, Jacoby Ellsbury singled to right off Chamberlain. He stole second on a terrible throw from Austin Romine. Ellsbury came around to score the go-ahead run on Shane Victorino's single to right off a high fastball from Chamberlain, but not before a Chamberlain slider appeared to strike out Victorino on a not-so checked swing.

First base umpire Joe West would have none of it and signaled Victorino did not go around. In Chamberlain's pitching world, there are no happy endings anymore, and Victorino got the big hit of the night in a game that featured 26 hits.

"You've got to compose yourself and get it going and get it back and make a pitch and we didn't make the pitch,'' said Chamberlain, who was ejected by West after he was taken out of the game by Girardi.

Chamberlain, Romine and Girardi all said they thought Victorino was struck out, but the call did not go the Yankees' way.

"You all saw the replay,'' Chamberlain said. "That kind of speaks for itself.''

Chamberlain was in the game because Shawn Kelley was unavailable with a "triceps issue,'' Girardi said. The manager elected not to use lefty Boone Logan because the Red Sox had "three out of four right-handers.'' He also elected not to use Phil Hughes in that spot.

"It's frustrating,'' Girardi said of the call. "But you have to be able to overcome.''

Chamberlain tried but could not overcome. He tried to get Victorino on a high fastball and Victorino pounced on the pitch, driving it to right.

Asked what he said to West, Chamberlain said, "Enough to get me ejected.''

On the throw home from Ichiro Suzuki, Romine could not catch the short hop and apply the tag as Ellsbury scored, adding just a little more salt to the wound for the Yankees. Catching has been an issue for most of the season for the Yankees as they have never really recovered from losing free agent Russell Martin to the Pirates.

Along the way to this loss, Alfonso Soriano managed to get caught in a rundown after taking off at second base, a caught-stealing that sabotaged the Yankees' chance to win the game in the bottom of the ninth.

In the top of the ninth, the Red Sox tied it with two outs against Mariano Rivera when pinch-runner Quintin Berry — hello, Dave Roberts — stole second and advanced to third on Romine's bad throw. He came home on Stephen Drew's single to right, giving Rivera the blown save.

It was that kind of night as the Yankees dropped a full nine games behind the Red Sox. The Yankees scored six runs in the seventh to take the lead.

"We battled back, we did everything we needed to do to get it,'' Chamberlain said. "We've got to come out [Friday], we've got three games left and continue from Pitch 1 to get after it.''

On this long night, Chamberlain was given another chance where he so badly wanted to succeed.

"Of course, huge,'' he said. "You execute the way you want it and it doesn't go your way so it's extremely frustrating.''

In many ways with Joba Chamberlain, the promise is broken.

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New Rolling Stone publisher

By Keith J. Kelly

September 6, 2013 | 1:56am

More than two months after the mercurial Jann Wenner fired 13-year veteran Matt Mastrangelo as publisher of Rolling Stone, he has turned to its sister title, Men's Journal, for a replacement.

Chris McLaughlin will be the new RS publisher, moving over from the same job at Men's Journal, where he's been since February 2012.

Gals gone wild after bust

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Tour Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen's $20…

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Jack Nicholson's career, as retirement rumors swirl

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Robin Thicke's blonde hookup

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Cameron Diaz's West Village apartment

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Robin Thicke did a lot more than…

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Scenes from Fashion Week: Sept. 4, 2013

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No relief in sight for Yankees without Kelley

With the Yankees attempting to catch the Rays for the second AL wild-card ticket, one of their key relievers is on the shelf.

Shawn Kelley wasn't available Thursday night when manager Joe Girardi called for Joba Chamberlain in the 10th inning of a crushing 9-8 loss to the Red Sox.

"He hasn't been available for the last few days and he won't be available for a while,'' Girardi said of the valuable right-hander who is saddled with a triceps problem. "I am not sure exactly when we will get him back.''

Kelley, who hasn't pitched since Sunday when he helped flush a lead, has appeared in 52 games, is 4-2 with a 3.96 ERA and fanned 66 in 50 innings.

According to Girardi tests uncovered "a little inflammation and he is just sore.''

Girardi had Phil Hughes to use instead of the struggling Chamberlain but with Hughes moving to the bullpen Tuesday, Girardi didn't think that was the right move.

"It's pretty tough to put him in a spot like that when he hasn't pitched in that situation,'' Girardi said of the former starter who hasn't worked in relief this season.

Though the Red Sox haven't clinched anything yet Girardi viewed the four-game series against the AL East leaders that opened Thursday night as more important to the hosts than visitors.

"I think it probably means more to us because of where we are in the standings,'' said Girardi, whose club fell nine games behind the Red Sox. "They have a little bit of a cushion. It means a lot to us. But if you are in their shoes you are fighting for home-field advantage [in the playoffs].''

The 85-57 Red Sox have the best record in the AL.

The Rays, who remain 2 ¹/₂ games ahead of the Yankees in the wild-card race after their 6-2 loss to the Angels Thursday night, aren't keeping Girardi up until the early morning hours while playing late games on the West Coast.

"Not to completion,'' Girardi said when asked if he watched the Rays' games. "I check scores. That's way too late. We can't get too caught up in what they are doing because there are other teams that are around us as well.''

The Yankees are attempting to get some of their D'led players back before the season ends. Listening to Girardi, the most likely one is switch-hitting outfielder Zoilo Almonte (sprained left ankle).

"He will play seven innings [for Double-A Trenton] in the playoff game [Thursday night],'' Girardi said of Almonte, who has been out since July 20.

As for the rest of the group that includes Travis Hafner (rotator cuff strain), Kevin Youkilis (back surgery) and David Phelps (strained right forearm), Girardi wasn't high on getting them back.

"Haf has done one simulated game and is not quite ready to go yet. Youk has done some dry swings. Youk is probably the least probable of the three and Almonte is the furthest ahead,'' Girardi said. "[Phelps] will throw a bullpen [session] in the next few days. Maybe you get him back at the end of the year as relief but I am not sure about that either.''

The Yankees would have to reach the World Series in order for Jayson Nix (fractured left hand) to be eligible.

Red Sox catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia hasn't played since Monday because of a back problem. He could return Saturday.

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Prosecutor slams Castro after fiend’s suicide

A day after the monster who held three women as sex slaves for over a decade hanged himself in prison, the prosecutor in charge of the case blasted the fiend as a coward.

"This man couldn't take, for even a month, a small portion of what he had dished out for more than a decade," Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty said of Ariel Castro, who killed himself in his cell in a prison near Columbus yesterday.

Castro, 53, was a month into his life sentence when he managed to hang himself with a bedsheet while in protective custody.

He abducted and then imprisoned three women — Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight — in his Cleveleland house, keeping them chained to a wall and raping them repeatedly in the years before their rescued May 6.

While those in the community said Castro "took the coward's way out," his psychologist told a local news station Castro didn't appear suicidal when they last spoke.

It was "Possible that he had suicidal thoughts before and just covered them.  I would think it's more likely this was triggered by some stressful events," Dr. Phillip Resnick told Action 19 News. Resnick interviewed Castro before he pleaded guilty to guilty to 937 counts, including kidnapping and rape, in a deal to avoid the death penalty.

"I'm not a monster. I'm sick," Castro told the judge at sentencing.

Ohio's prison system is reviewing how Castro managed to kill himself in protective custody, which is supposed to involve checks every 30 minutes.

One review will look at the suicide — normal in such cases — while the other is an examination of Castro'scircumstances, and whether he received the proper medical and mental health care leading up to his suicide.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio called for an investigation into Castro's death as well as the question of whether all inmates are getting the mental health treatment they need.

"As horrifying as Mr. Castro's crimes may be, the state has a responsibility to ensure his safety from himself and others," ACLU of Ohio Executive Director Christine Link said in a statement.

was a month into his life sentence for holding three women captive in his home for a decade when he committed suicide Tuesday night. Protective custody involves checks every 30 minutes.

Residents in the westside Cleveland neighborhood where three women were secretly imprisoned reacted with scorn and grim satisfaction Wednesday to Castro's death.

"He took the coward's way out," said Elsie Cintron, who lived up the street from the former school bus driver. "We're sad to hear that he's dead, but at the same time, we're happy he's gone, and now we know he can't ask for an appeal or try for one if he's acting like he's crazy."

Castro's lawyers tried unsuccessfully to have a psychological examination of Castro done in jail before he was turned over to state authorities, his attorney, Jaye Schlachet, said Wednesday.

Michael Casey, director of the Suburban Law Enforcement Academy outside Chicago, said a notorious figure like Castro would have been more apt to be harmed by other inmates, citing the case of Jeffrey Dahmer, the Milwaukee cannibal who was slain behind bars in 1994.

He said that given the way Castro managed to hide his crimes for so long, he probably would have been able to conceal any suicidal tendencies from his jailers.

The prison where Castro hanged himself, a so-called reception center for newly arrived inmates, is crowded with nearly twice the 900 prisoners it was meant to hold, according to state figures.

Stress is high and assaults are up at the prison, said Tim Shafer, an official with the guards' union, who added: "Just like out in the public, suicides happen, and you just can't prevent every one of them."

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Sliver of Hamptons beach sells for $120G

A 1-foot-wide sliver of Hamptons waterfront property was sold for $120,000, after two Manhattan financiers got into a territorial bidding war over the tiny ribbon of beachfront property, according to a report.

The narrow strip of land, which stretches 1,800 feet from the beach to the highway in the Town of East Hampton, was originally on sale for $10 — until the two homeowners got into the fierce war, according to Newsday.

Marc Helie and Kyle N. Cruz were so obsessed with the thin parcel that Suffolk County set up a face-to-face auction in May so the moneymen could settle it once and for all.

"I gathered one guy really did not want the other one walking over his property to the water," a staffer who witnessed the auction told the paper.

After 34 back-and-forth bids, Helie finally topped Cruz's $115,000 offer with the winning bid of $120,000, the paper said.

The bitter bidding showdown was revealed yesterday by the Suffolk County Legislature's finance committee after it voted to approve the puzzling purchase.

The land, which runs alongside both men's beach homes, appears to give Helie pieces of land on three sides of Cruz's property, effectively blocking off his access to the beach, the report shows.

County officials speculated that the winning bidder did not want anyone traipsing by their yard on the way to the water.

"You know what water's worth," county property manager Wayne R. Thompson told Newsday. "You can say, 'Oh, yes, I have a right of way to the water.'"

The paper reported that there may be a beach-access easement, however.

A local politician told the paper that a tiny strip of land in that area could actually be very useful.

"That makes a lot 1,800 square feet wider, and lot area matters," said Suffolk County legislator Jay Schneiderman.

The land was acquired by the county in 2003 for nonpayment of taxes.

It was offered to the six landowners whose property abuts the path, but only Helie and Cruz were pining for the property, the report said.

The hamlet where the property dispute took place is just west of Montauk. The area is described as a small enclave of million-dollar waterfront homes.

Cruz is a managing director of Centerbridge Partners in Manhattan.

Helie once worked as a trader in emerging markets at Merrill Lynch.

Neither man could be reached for comment last night.

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US spies missed signs of Syrian gas attack

WASHINGTON — US intelligence agencies did not detect the Syrian regime readying a massive chemical weapons attack in the days ahead of the strike, only piecing together what had happened after the fact, US officials say.

One of the key pieces of intelligence that Secretary of State John Kerry later used to link the attack to the Syrian government — intercepts of communications telling Syrian military units to prepare for the strikes — was in the hands of US intelligence agencies but had not yet been "processed," according to senior US officials.

That explains why the White House did not warn either the regime or the rebels who might be targeted as it had done when detecting previous preparations for chemical strikes.

"We know that for three days before the attack the Syrian regime's chemical weapons personnel were on the ground in the area making preparations," Kerry said as he presented the evidence in a State Department speech last week. "We know that the Syrian regime elements were told to prepare for the attack by putting on gas masks and taking precautions associated with chemical weapons."

But the Obama administration only uncovered the evidence after Syrians started posting reports of the strike from the scene of the attack, leading US spies and analysts to focus on satellite and other evidence showing a Syrian chemical weapons unit was preparing chemical munitions before the strike, according to two current US officials and two former senior intelligence officials.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the intelligence publicly.

The spokesman for the director of national intelligence confirmed that US intelligence did not detect the massive chemical weapons attack beforehand.

"Let's be clear, the United States did not watch, in real-time, as this horrible attack took place," Shawn Turner said in a statement to The Associated Press on Wednesday. "The intelligence community was able to gather and analyze information after the fact and determine that elements of the Assad regime had in fact taken steps to prepare prior to using chemical weapons," Turner said.

Turner offered no reason for the delay in processing the intelligence, but current and former intelligence officials said analysts were stretched too thin with the multiple streams of intelligence coming out of multiple conflict zones, from Syria to Libya to Yemen.

In December, US intelligence detected Syria's military was readying chemical weapons for use, and President Barack Obama warned the Syrian government publicly that such use was "totally unacceptable" and that the country's leaders would be held accountable.

The White House is now asking Congress to approve a punitive strike against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, which the administration blames for an Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack in a rebel-held suburb of Damascus.

The administration says 1,429 died in the attack. Casualty estimates by other groups are far lower.

Kerry and other officials are laying out the intelligence in open and closed sessions with lawmakers, explaining why the U.S. intelligence community last week issued a "high confidence" report implicating the Syrian regime — a conclusion echoed by British and French intelligence in similar reports made public since the attack.

Senior administration officials explained last week that the US intelligence community had reconstructed a picture of the attack, from satellite and signals intercepts that indicated to them that troops from Syria's military unit that handles chemical weapons, the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center, were readying such weapons. That conclusion was backed up, however, by a carefully written sentence that indicated the intelligence was somewhat circumstantial: "Syrian chemical weapons personnel were operating … near an area that the regime uses to mix chemical weapons, including sarin."

The report says US intelligence intercepted communications after the attack by a "senior official intimately familiar with the offensive" who confirmed that chemical weapons were used by the Syrian government, and was concerned that the UN inspectors might find evidence of the attack. The report also says the U.S. has intelligence that Syrian chemical weapons personnel were directed to "cease operations" on the afternoon of Aug. 21, several hours after the attack.

The US officials briefed on the intelligence say such intercepts were in hand but waiting to be processed among hours of intercepted military communications.

The CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency have dozens officers on the ground in countries neighboring Syria, relying on a network of rebels and local agents to provide human intelligence on the goings on of both the regime and its opponents. The Pentagon also has satellites focused on the area, capturing images of the regime and rebel maneuvers, while various types of airborne platforms collect electronic transmissions such as military radio traffic or cellphone calls.

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Katie Beers’ captor dies at Sing Sing

John Esposito, who kidnapped 9-year-old Katie Beers in 1992 and abused her in a Long Island basement dungeon, was found dead yesterday in his cell at Sing Sing, according to a report.

Esposito, 64, apparently died of natural causes, and his body was found at the Westchester prison shortly after a parole hearing, WCBS reported early today.

Beers, now 30, was held for 16 days by Esposito in a case that made headlines more than 20 years ago.

Esposito pleaded guilty to the kidnapping in 1994 and was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.

Beers released a statement to the TV station that said, "I'm saddened at the loss of a life, but at the same time, I'm happy that John Esposito will never be granted parole or have the opportunity to hurt anyone ever again."

Esposito had lured Katie to a bunker under a Bay Shore garage by promising her gifts.

At his sentencing, an 11-year-old Katie said she wanted Esposito to "go to jail for as long as he can."

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Cops hunt foot-sniffing sex fiend

By Dana Sauchelli

September 5, 2013 | 3:27am

A foot-sniffing sex fiend is on the loose after attacking two women in The Bronx, cops said.

The man assaulted the first victim at 1:10 a.m. Friday in University Heights before removing her shoes and smelling her feet, according to police.

Twenty minutes later, he attacked a women outside 2816 Park View Place and tried to open her pants.

Blonde lays tale on Thicke

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Indecent X-posure

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Plenty to criticize about Rex, but not for putting family first

Ask Rex Ryan his biggest regret in football and he won't mention a fourth-down call, mismanaging the clock or losing in the AFC Championship Game.

He'll tell you about a day in 1994 when he was in his first season as the Cardinals' defensive line coach and he was on the practice field instead of with his wife, Michelle, who was giving birth to their second son, Seth, hundreds of miles away. Ryan was coaching for his father, Buddy, and did not want to be accused of receiving preferential treatment.

"That was probably my biggest regret in coaching, that I missed my second kid being born," Ryan said a few years ago. "It was a stupid decision, a 'young coach' move."

FAMILY MATTERS: Rex Ryan's son, Seth, was in uniform for his first Clemson game and then tweeted out a photo of himself with his father and mother, Michelle. Rex Ryan has taken heat for leaving the Jets to see his son play his first game.

That "kid" is now 19 and a freshman walk-on wide receiver at Clemson. Ryan saw a hole in the Jets schedule Saturday and decided to fly to South Carolina to watch his son dress for his first college game, and now people in this town are attacking him as if he turned his back on the Jets.

This was Ryan's only chance to see one of Seth's games this season. The Tigers do not have a game the weekend after the Jets play on Thursday night this month or during their bye week in November. So Ryan saw an opening last weekend. It happened to coincide with the day the Jets cut their roster to 53, which has led critics to say he was ignoring his duties or showing a detachment from his job.

This is laughable.

Ryan, general manager John Idzik and the team's personnel and coaching staff met Friday to decide the cuts, none of which were surprising. Ryan contacted many of the players by phone and let Idzik handle the rest.

He went home late Friday night and flew to Clemson early Saturday. He spent the day talking to Idzik about last-minute decisions and possible waiver claims they would put in Sunday morning.

So he basically missed nothing. By the way, Texans coach Gary Kubiak did the same thing, attending his sons' game on Saturday between Rice and Texas A&M, but you won't hear much about that because it's not Ryan.

If you have children and a job, it's hard not to empathize with Ryan. This has nothing to do with the mythology of being an NFL coach. It is the same whether you're coaching football, working on Wall Street or selling vacuum cleaners. The 40-hour work week has vanished and everyone with a job and a family walks that line every day trying to balance the two.

It's easy to criticize Ryan if you've never had to choose who to let down — your boss or your wife. It's easy to criticize Ryan if you've never had to tell you kids "good night" over the phone while away on business. It's easy to criticize Ryan if you've never had to explain to your son or daughter why you have to miss their game or play or dance recital.

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Sanchez won’t be ready until at least Week 3 vs. Bills

It could be a while before Mark Sanchez is capable of even throwing a football again.

The Jets quarterback's shoulder injury is significant enough he is expected to miss the first two weeks of the regular season and may be out longer, according to a source.

Sanchez injured his right shoulder on Aug. 24 in a preseason game against the Giants. The Jets have said he is "day-to-day," but Sanchez has not thrown a football yet, according to a source and may not until the week after the team faces the Patriots on Sept. 12.

According to a source, the doctors don't want Sanchez to try to throw too soon and make his

AP

TWO DOWN: Mark Sanchez grimaces after injuring his shoulder against the Giants on Aug. 24. He will miss the first two games and be out until at least the Jets' Sept. 22 game against the Bills.

injury worse. There is a fear he could do further damage to the shoulder and possibly miss the rest of the season. At the moment, the Jets do not think Sanchez will need to be placed on injured reserve.

On Monday, Sanchez refused to admit he was not playing this week, saying he still was working to be ready.

"I'm trying, I'm trying," he said. "We'll make a good push this week and see where I'm at. You just want to take this thing slow, take it the right way, make the right progression without reinjuring yourself."

Sanchez's injury leaves rookie Geno Smith as the starter against the Buccaneers Sunday and likely against the Patriots a week from tomorrow. That will be a tough turnaround for the second-round pick from West Virginia.

The Jets then have 10 days off before playing host to the Bills in Week 3.

There have been questions whether the Jets will release Sanchez or put him on IR. If they chose to release him, they would still owe him $8.25 million guaranteed and he'd count $12.8 million against the salary cap this year and $4.8 million next season.

There is a chance the Jets wait until after the trade deadline to release Sanchez, because he would then be subject to waivers and it is possible a desperate team would claim him.

One of Sanchez's former teammates does not believe he ever will be a starting quarterback in the NFL again.

"I don't think Mark will be a starter again in the NFL," running back LaDainian Tomlinson said on "Mad Dog Radio" on SiriusXM. "I think there's certainly potential for him to be a backup and then get a starting job for half the year or what have you that way. But I think his days as a full-time starter are pretty much over. Because you've got to realize in football, for a quarterback, you're going to get 3 to 5 years in an organization to prove that you're the franchise guy. I mean that's just what it is. And if you don't do it in that time frame then they're going to move on to somebody else and then your position now will become a backup."

Sanchez sounded frustrated Monday when he spoke to the media. He kept repeating lines from the script the team clearly gave him. He would not reveal any details of his rehab and barely would answer any questions.

Sanchez has done his best to hide any frustration he feels about losing the starting job to Smith because of his injury.

"There's nothing I can do about it," Sanchez said. "I just got to keep rehabbing and try to come back as soon as possible."

➤ The Jets signed LB Danny Lansanah and DT Junior Aumavae to the practice squad. They released OT J.B. Shugarts from the practice squad.

brian.costello@nypost.com

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