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U.S. Open
racket-eers
laying low
BYMIKEJACCARINO
DAILYNEWSSTAFFWRITER
DARIUS WAS RIGHT. It is easy to steal a
bus.
Just four days after mass-transit menace
Darius McCollum swiped a Trailways bus
from a Hoboken depot and drove it through
Manhattan to Kennedy Airport, I nearly re-
peatedtheact.
In broad daylight yesterday, I returned to
the same depot and retraced his footsteps.
Only good sense — not guards — kept me from
drivingoff.
Motor coaches from numerous bus lines
sat in the sun, some of them with their doors
wide open. They were almost crying out to be
taken. A fence topped with barbed wire cir-
cled the bus depot, but it might as well have
notbeenthere.Theyleftthegateopen.Ididn’t
see any security guards — only a few drivers
andmechanics.
I walked the 15
yards from the side-
walk to the bus with
my heart furiously
pumping and nerves
on edge. I boarded an
empty Trailways bus —
oneoffourinthelot.
Amazingly, Trail-
ways had left the keys
in the ignition again. I
got behind the wheel
and started the engine,
heard its growl and felt
its rumble. I resisted
thetemptationtodrive
off, turned off the bus and slowly walked out
asifnothinghappened.
It was equal parts Ralph Kramden and
WillieSutton—but undeniablyMcCollum.
Now I can relate to McCollum. In an exclu-
sive jailhouse interview last week, he told the
Daily News why he preferred stealing buses
rather than working as a legit driver. “It’s the
thrill of taking it,” he said. “It’s an adrenaline
rush.”
I got a small taste of that rush, and can only
imagine what he felt last Tuesday as he drove
the Trailways coach during rush hour into
Manhattan. Once there, McCollum, 45,
picked up a group of unsuspecting flight atten-
dants at the Hotel Pennsylvania on 33rd St.,
telling them, “I’m a bus driver,” and ferrying
themtoKennedyAirportfreeofcharge.
Trailways officials didn’treturn calls yester-
day.
McCollum, who has Asperger syndrome, a
form of autism, said he has swiped 150 buses
overthelastdecade.Copshavebustedhim27
timesoverthelast29years.
Authorities charged McCollum with grand
larceny auto and possession of stolen proper-
ty for his latest heist. He faces 15 years in pris-
on, and is awaiting his fate in a floating jail in
the Bronx. When he was caught in Queens —
ontheVanWyckExpresswayonhiswayback
from Kennedy — McCollum told the arresting
officer,“I’llbettheywon’tleavethekeysinthe
ignition.I’llbetthey’llbemorecarefulnow.”
Notyet. mjaccarino@nydailynews.com
THERE WON’T BE a second exit
forStevenSlateratjetBlue.
The airline yesterday canned
the flight attendant who slid into
folk-hero status last month when
he jumped down a plane’s emer-
gency chute with beers in hand af-
ter telling off passengers at
Kennedy
Airport.
Spokes-
womanJen-
ny Dervin
said yester-
day that
Slater, 38,
of Queens,
is no longer
employed
by the air-
line. She said the airline won’t re-
leasefurtherdetails.
Slater’s lawyer had said his
“takethisjobandshoveit”heroics
prompted tens of thousands of on-
line fans to urge the airline to keep
himon.
Slater, who had been suspend-
ed by the airline, still faces crimi-
nal mischief, reckless endanger-
mentandtrespassingcharges.
The Associated Press
HOWICOULD’VE
SWIPED THIS BUS
Daily News reporter Mike Jaccarino had little trouble hopping on and starting up a bus at the
same depot where famed bus-stealer Darius McCollum boosted a bus on Tuesday.
“It’s an adrenaline
rush,” says bus thief
Darius McCollum.
NOLOVEMATCH:Seethevideo
NYDailyNews.com
jetBlue shows
Slater exit door
THE THREE tennis fans whose
heated brawl caused a racket at
the U.S. Open took a much mel-
lower approach yesterday, keep-
ing quiet and maintaining a low-
profile.
Joey Pedevill, 27, whose drunk-
en f-bomb tirade in the stands on
Thursday night sparked the fight
with Tracey Falco and her dad,
Lawrence Burnett, never set foot
outofhisMurrayHillapartment.
Meanwhile, Falco, 49, came
and went from her Long Island
home, but didn’t comment on the
volley of words exchanged with
Pedevill.
Video footage of the fight
shows Falco at one point smack-
ing Pedevill. Later Burnett tries to
choke him, leading to an all-out
brawl.
Burnett, 75, said nothing yes-
terdayashelefthissprawlingEast
Stroudsburg,Pa.,estate.
A neighbor who did not give
her name was shocked that Bur-
nett, a stroke survivor, was in-
volvedinthescrape.
“It is so out of character for
him,” the neighbor said. “Every
time I’ve talked to Larry, he’s Mr.
NiceGuy.”
All three have been banned
from the Queens tennis major
throughSept.30,2012.
Joe Jackson, Irving DeJohn,
Henrick Karoliszyn
and James Fanelli
DAILY NEWSNYDailyNews.com Sunday, September 5, 2010 3
mI
END ZONE
CAPTAIN
TWILIGHTQuestions abound about Derek Jeter’s
slumping bat, his contract situation and
possibility of future position change
BY ANTHONY MCCARRON
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
O
ne of Derek Jeter’s great
strengths throughout his
career has been his ability
to hit with an uncluttered
mind. While some play-
ers come to the plate with a men-
tal checklist to flip through
− Where are my hands?
Where is the pitcher’s re-
lease point? − Jeter has a
simple prime directive:
See the ball, swing, hit
it hard.
Lately, though, as
Jeter has struggled in what
by several statistical mea-
sures is his worst season,
it’s easy to wonder if other
thoughts have started crowd-
ing his head. The slender,
handsome Yankee icon, who
once seemed forever young,
is now a seemingly-aging 36-
year-old shortstop in the last
year of his contract who has
just four hits in his last 38 at-
bats and is batting only .266,
48 points below his career
mark of .314.
Is it simply a slump, an off-year
or the start of the inevitable twilight
of his career? Questions swirl about
his production, his contract and whether
he may have to change positions at some
point during his career.
Jeter’s defenders note that he had a su-
perlative 2009 season in which he remade
himself as a shortstop and that he’s on pace
to score 114 runs this year. His critics say
2008 was a sub-par season, too, and that
he should be moved down in the Yankee
lineup because his batting average, on-base
percentage (.332) and slugging percentage
(.374) would be career lows if the season
ended today.
“I think Derek is struggling and it’s a
classic case of late on the fastball and early
on the off-speed pitches,” says YES analyst
John Flaherty, Jeter’s former teammate.
“One thing you never really see from Derek
is that he’s hitting a lot of weak ground balls
to short and third. When Derek is right, he’s
hitting everything the other way, the fast-
ball especially, and then if you throw him
a breaking ball, that’s what he’d pull and
drive. Right now, it looks like he’s trying to
get out early and get the baseball − cheating
is what they call it.
“I don’t think it’s because he’s 36. I think
he’s going through a rough stretch,” Fla-
herty continues. “That said, Derek is also
one of the streakiest hitters we’ve seen
and he could go 10-for-15 and then no one
would be talking about this.”
n n n
But the talk is likely to continue into the
winter, regardless of how the rest of the sea-
son goes for the Yankees and Jeter − some
predict a September surge in the cooler
weather followed by his typical strong Oc-
tober play, which would save his season. His
10-year, $189 million contract expires after
the season and, while both sides have said
they want to work out a new deal, the reso-
lution of Jeter’s contract could be a signifi-
GAMES
158
152
AT-BATS
668
615
Runs
114
112
Hits
177
195
2B
3031
3B
44
HRs
12
16
STATS INCREDIBLE
86 Sunday, September 5, 2010 DAILY NEWSNYDailyNews.com
Im