Sports, Recreation & Sex >>

• Best Sports Figure on Twitter
  Nick Swisher
  Even those who have dedicated their lives to loathing the Yankees (ahem) occasionally find a dude on the roster to grudgingly tolerate, even admire, even (gasp!) root for, like, hmm, let's see, uh . . . well, at least they've got one now. Nick Swisher just seems a bit more volatile, excitable,... More >>
• Best Rookie
  New Jersey Nets' Brook Lopez
  New Jersey Nets seven-footer Brook Lopez was the team's first-round pick last year, but the mastodon from Stanford still exceeded expectations. Do the numbers: He played in all 82 games, averaging a solid 13 points and eight rebounds in only 30 minutes a game. Not a great athlete, he still... More >>
• Best New Coach in Town
  Rex Ryan
  Is that a cannonball in Rex Ryan's stomach, or is he just glad to be a head coach in New York? Everyone loves a fat man (except for the blubbery but tightly wound former Jets head coach Eric Mangini, who was fired). Now you've got to give it up to Tom Coughlin, who won a Super Bowl with the... More >>
• Best Impersonation of Brett Favre
  Mark Sanchez
  A thrill one minute and a heartbreak every other—that's veteran football QB Brett Favre's operatic career in a nutshell. And when Favre abandoned New York after only one year, the Jets found the perfect successor: Mark Sanchez. Giving away the farm for the right to draft the USC... More >>
• Best Giant
  Chris Snee
  It's difficult to make a statistical case for an offensive lineman, but every yardstick points to right guard Chris Snee as the best at perhaps pro football's toughest position (almost certainly the one that takes the most intelligence to play). Snee, a Boston College grad, was the Giants only... More >>
• Best Mini-Golf in Bushwick
  Putting Lot
  Scratch that—it was definitely the only mini-golf in Bushwick, but it's the best thing to have happened to an empty lot this year. This summer, the collective of artists behind the Putting Lot turned a desolate stretch of Wyckoff into a full-fledged sculptural installation and game site.... More >>
• Best Acquisition
  Mark Teixeira
  A power-hitter who is also a Gold Glove first baseman, Mark Teixeira has been a star wherever he's played—Georgia Tech, Texas Rangers, Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Angels. No surprise that the Yanks gave the 29-year-old $180 million over the next eight years. Earlier this year, he was named... More >>
• Best Jet
  Leon Washington
  Versatility in pro football doesn't seem to count much in an age when rosters allow for so many specialists, but Leon Washington is an extra-specialist. Last year, he was second on the Jets in yards rushing with 448, but was the team leader in yards per rush, 5.9, and scored six TDs in just 76... More >>
• Best Way to Watch Smutty Movies
  CineKink NYC
  If you're wary of catching an Xtube virus and are looking for cleaner digs than whatever's left of Times Square's naughty picture joints, CineKink NYC is there for you. Each February, this festival provides the means for you to ditch the laptop and the privacy of your own home, and enjoy kinky... More >>
• Best Erotic Bloodletting (1 Comment)
  Lesbian Sex Mafia
  They host classes on spanking, master/slave relationships, and mummification, but one of Lesbian Sex Mafia's most intriguing workshops to date was on temporary piercing. Workshop leader Xray Aims was drawn to the craft by "the fight between beauty and pain," a concept that seems to guide much of... More >>
• Best Met
  In bad seasons, Mets fans like to pick an underachieving player and ride him mercilessly, but the team's lineup suffered so brutally from injuries this year that it was hard to find anyone to ride. So a cry went up to fire sophomore manager Jerry Manuel. Some said he overworked the bullpen;... More >>
• Best Knick
  David Lee
  The Knicks have been a cruel joke for longer than anyone—Spike Lee, especially—is willing to admit: an endless procession of anti-charismatic, poorly motivated, underachieving me-first yahoos stumbling all over themselves while the Madison Square Garden faithful look on in abject... More >>
• Best Yankee (2 Comments)
  Mariano Rivera
  We all know who the best Yankee is, and has been, since 1996. Mariano Rivera is the greatest closer in the history of the game, the best pitcher in baseball over this career span, and the most valuable Yankee in that period—Derek Jeter not excepted. The Yankees' fortunes since 1997 (when... More >>
• Best Net
  Devin Harris
  It's hard to make an impression on a 34-48 team, but 26-year-old point guard Devin Harris, despite two shoulder injuries which kept him out of 13 games, became the New Jersey Nets' only All-Star, leading the team in points per game, assists, and steals. If a team with a .414 win-loss percentage... More >>
• Best Ranger
  Sean Avery
  Technically, we suppose, Henrik Lundqvist should be considered the Rangers' best player—the Swedish goaltender has had more to do with the team's improved fortunes in recent years than anyone else on the squad. Ah, but what a narrow definition of "best" that would be! No, our version of... More >>
• Best Make-Out Spot
  Doyers Street
  What's in a kiss? Location, location, location! A wonderful thing about living in New York is the magical quality that kisses take on with the cinematic city backdrop. But for the best setting for smooching, look beyond the landmarks in every tourist guide: For our money, no really good macking... More >>
• Best 24-Hour Pool Hall
  Space Billiards
  Why do some of the best things in the city often involve the possibility of dying on a sketchy elevator ride? Tucked away on the 12th floor of a nondescript Koreatown building, Space Billiards is your prize for braving such an elevator (do you feel it tilting to the side?). Here is a clean,... More >>
• Best Place to Get Your Goat
  Staten Island Zoo
  In 1776, a British soldier wrote of Staten Island: "Surely this country is the Paradise of the world. . . . The inhabitants of this Island are tall, thin, narrow shouldered people, very simple in their manners, and each house has a good farm." Alas, the fifth borough's farmland has long since... More >>
• Best Creepy Stroll
  Green-Wood Cemetery
  In the late 19th century, Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery rivaled Niagara Falls as a popular tourist attraction: Families arrived in throngs to enjoy picnics, carriage rides, and the multiple statuaries. These days, the graveyard is no longer such a fashionable destination, but it still offers... More >>
• Best Sports Book
  The Complete Game
  When most former major leaguers write memoirs, you wonder why they bother; with Ron Darling—Yale graduate, former New York Mets and Oakland A's pitcher, and current Mets broadcaster—you wonder why it took him so long. The Complete Game is the best first-person ex-athlete autobio... More >>
• Best Place to Watch Wildlife (1 Comment)
  Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge
  An hour-and-a-half-long nature walk that's almost entirely in nature—and in city limits. Yes, it exists. On a crisp Sunday morning this fall, take the A train to Broad Channel (or rent a Zipcar—it's much faster) to the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. Commissioned by highway-loving... More >>
• Best Coaching Export
  Steve Spagnuolo
  Steve Spagnuolo isn't the best coach in New York, but he was the best coach in New York sports until January 17 when he took the head coaching job for the St. Louis Rams. The former Giants defensive coordinator was regarded by his contemporaries as the most imaginative coach in the league. He... More >>
• Best Way to Reincarnate Your Two-Wheeler
  Recycle-a-Bicycle
  Before green initiatives and riding lanes, NYC bikes had a second-class reputation and were left in building hallways or on the street to rot. Fifteen years ago, nonprofit organization Recycle-a-Bicycle was born, partly to address this sanitation problem, but also to get New Yorkers biking. As... More >>
• Best Corporate-Sponsored Beach
  Water Taxi Beach
  We already thought the Water Taxi Beach in Long Island City was cool—who doesn't love an excuse to lounge with a cocktail under the sun and feel like you actually made it out of the city for once, even if you didn't? But let's face it, Queens can be a schlep. So to further simplify New... More >>
• Best City Stroll
  Riverside Park
  There are plenty of great walks in this bustling town, but take our word for it and start your next trek in Riverside Park at 123rd Street, where General Ulysses S. Grant is entombed (not buried!) next to his wife, Julia. Across the street is the beautiful Sakura Park. Named for its cherry trees... More >>
• Best Place for a Picnic
  Gantry Plaza State Park
  We see squatters claiming just about any patch of green grass in this town for picnicking, and we really can't blame them. But for a better and more scenic experience, head to the Gantry Plaza State Park in Long Island City. Plan for an evening feast so you can take in a luminous sunset and... More >>
• Best Bridge to Bike Over (1 Comment)
  Williamsburg Bridge
  There's almost no contest here—the Williamsburg Bridge is the clear winner. The Brooklyn Bridge is way too crowded; all attempts to bike across it are certain to be thwarted by foreign tourists, who stop anyone in their path and demand that you take their picture against the Manhattan... More >>
• Best Campsite in City Limits
  Floyd Bennett Field Campgrounds
  Tucked alongside Jamaica Bay and hard up against an abandoned military airplane hangar and a baseball diamond lies the Floyd Bennett Field Campgrounds. This little-known spot—built on the site of New York City's first municipal airport—is a winner by default: It happens to be the... More >>
• Best Place to Spot Cute Nerds (2 Comments)
  Blackbird Parlour
  The Blackbird Parlour, open only about a year, filled a certain niche that was missing in the Bedford Avenue Williamsburg scene. The saloonish café has a European flair, the teas and sandwiches are ridiculously overpriced, and yet, for whatever reason, lone, attractive nerds frequent the... More >>
• Best Park for a Serious, Out-of-the-Way Waterfront Meeting
  Canarsie Pier
  Canarsie Pier, the 600-foot-long jetty that juts into the waters of Jamaica Bay just west of JFK Airport, isn't your ordinary park. For one thing, there's barely a tree on this narrow slice of the Gateway National Recreation Area, only a thin row of spindly hardwoods lining the blacktop lot... More >>
• Best Sex Tutorial
  Babeland
  Sex workshops? Color us puritan; even the more adventurous among us might prefer taking the remedial class behind closed doors to learning black-belt moves in front of smirking strangers (though they give new meaning to "getting up in front of the class"). But there are some seminars that... More >>
• Best 'Re-Creation' Recreation
  Take Me Out to the Ball Game 1864
  Interpretive history isn't just for kids sent on school trips to Colonial Williamsburg or Waterloo Village. Some serious sports fans turn out for the Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum's vintage baseball match, Take Me Out to the Ball Game 1864. In what is turning into an annual Father's Day tradition,... More >>
• Best Sportswear Soon to be a Collector's Item
  Manchester United AIG Fleece Suit
  Looking for the perfect gift for your child—and one that can only appreciate in value? Try the Manchester United AIG Fleece Suit. Only $15, and, oh, baby! What a name! And it comes only in red, perfectly matching the red ink of giant insurer AIG. Manchester United, the world's most popular... More >>
• Best Fetish Party (1 Comment)
  Fetish Retinue
  Everyone loves bubble wrap. Some people just . . . love it. It's no wonder that this was one of the most popular themes of a Fetish Retinue party in recent memory. The long-running (longest-running, according to promoter and latex fashion designer the Baroness) monthly East Village party shakes... More >>
• Best Place to Get a Spanking
  Submit
  Have you been bad? Deserve a potch in the tuchus? Don't abide by common gender constructs? Call up promoters Felice Shays and Red to find out the ultra-secret locale of their long-running monthly Submit party, and in no time, you'll be whipped right back into shape. This queer BDSM play night is... More >>
• Best Way to Fly
  Espana/Streb Trapeze Academy
  Ready, hep! That's trapeze-talk for "Let go." You'll learn that and so much more—like what it's like to have your feet flip over your head while flying through midair—at the Espana/Streb Trapeze Academy at SLAM (Streb Lab for Action Mechanics). Choreographer Elizabeth Streb joined... More >>
• Best Way to Spend Independence Day
  Invasion of the Pines
  Fire Island consists of three very different parts—the gay Pines, the more lesbian Cherry Grove, and the straight rest of it. (Although not involved in the following legend, the straights do still manage to turn out every Fourth of July for the Invasion of the Pines.) As the story goes, in... More >>
• Best Reinterpretation of an Old-Lady Activity
  Monday Night Bingo
  Ever been to bingo at a church hall with mean old ladies who bring their own ink blotters? It's intense. There are barely any voices or sounds heard—just the emotionless drone of the caller, the spinning of the ball cage, and the shuffle of tennis-ball-bottomed walkers on the wood floors.... More >>
• Best Place to Watch Straight Men Get All Homoerotic (25 Comments)
  Ring of Honor
  The legions of black-T-shirt-, black-jeans-clad wrestling fans in this world might take offense to what we're about to say, but here goes: Wrestling is gay. That's not an epithet (like we'd ever . . . ). It just is, literally, gay. When a man in ball-outlining shiny undies wraps his crotch... More >>
• Best Sexy Theater (1 Comment)
  Stage Left Studio
  The Off-Off-Broadway theater world is known for showing a little more skin than the family affairs on the Great White Way (minus the occasional disrobing of a stunt-cast celebrity), but Stage Left Studio and its director, Cheryl King, are in a class all their own. King, a former topless dancer... More >>
• Best Grope-Fest (1 Comment)
  Cuddle Party
  Not that intimate touch can't happen organically after a night of heavy drinking with friends, but organized cuddling with strangers while sober does have a nice ring to it. The founders of Cuddle Party wanted to create a "safe space for adults to explore and practice affectionate touch without... More >>