José Reyes Keeps a Real Estate Toe in New York

BUYER: José Reyes
LOCATION: Old Brookville, NY
PRICE: $4,578,000 (list)
SIZE: 7,669 square feet, 6 bedrooms, 6 full and 2 half bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Just because Dominican Republic-born professional baseballer José Reyes now plays for the Toronto Blue Jays* doesn't mean the former New York Met doesn't plan to keep a significant real estate toe hold in the New York area.

In 2007 Mister Reyes and his wife, Katherine, shelled out $3.25 million for an approximately 5,000 square foot house in a gated enclave in the affluent Long Island community of Manhasset and now, thanks to a real estate canary we'll call Harry Hasthedish, we've learned that the deadlocked four-time All Star shortstop is about to buy a bigger house in the wealthier (and more waspy) Long Island village of Old Brookville where the (2010) median household income surged above $245,000 per year. As of this morning property records don't yet reflect a transfer of ownership so we can't say how much Mister Reyes agreed to pay for the place but our brief research shows the the estate-sized spread was originally listed in mid-2011 at $4,999,000 and last listed with an asking price of $4,578,000.

Of course, Your Mama don't know a thing about professional baseball so we had to consult the internets and our boozy, ball crazy b.f.f. Fiona Trambeau for a little background on Mister Reyes who, turns out, really knows how to hit the damn ball and steal bases. He hit more triples than anyone else in the major leagues in 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2011 and he stole more bases than any of the other professional baseball jocks in 2005, 2006, and 2007. In late 2011, after eight seasons with the New York Mets, Mister Reyes signed on for a six year stint with the Miami Marlins in a package deal worth $106 million. Just a year later, in an effort to decrease their overall payroll, the Marlins traded Mister Reyes to the Toronto Blue Jays who assumed the same pay package as he had in Miami.

Listing details for Mister Reyes' new residence in Old Brookville that Your Mama teased out of the interweb clearly show the red brick and cedar shingled quasi-colonial was built in 2006 on just over 3.5 acres but it does not indicate the square footage, which the Nassau County Tax Man puts it at 7,669 square feet. Listing details do show, however, that the two (or more) story house has six bedrooms and six full and two half bathrooms as well as 10-foot ceilings, extensive mill work, custom wood floors throughout, and a fully finished basement.

Formal living and dining rooms open directly off the double-height foyer and adjoining stair hall, the former with a fireplace and French doors and the latter with flesh-toned walls above a waist-high chair rail and a glimmery, palace-worthy crystal chandelier. Also in the general vicinity of the front door are a den with fireplace surmounted by a flat screen t.v. and a dark paneled library with another fireplace surmounted by a flat screen television.

The nearby kitchen is certainly large and well equipped with a Subaru-sized center island, granite counter tops, two-tone distressed raised panel cabinetry, and top-quality appliances but—frankly—it looks like the high-end kitchen of about 400 million other high-end kitchens in upscale suburban mansions and macmansions across the country. An adjoining breakfast room is wrapped on three sides by large windows and looks out over the flat (and featureless) football field-sized backyard.

The master suite has a private sitting room with fireplace, roomy bedroom and a very beige bathroom with twin pedestal sinks, a glassed in steam shower and a free-standing soaking tub set below a strange and unnecessary raised fireplace. Think about that fireplace, children, who wants to flip that thing on and sit in the tub where you can't even see it? Pleeze.

A finished basement, which probably adds a couple thousand more square feet to the total size of the house, includes a wine cellar, a small (carpeted) room the sellers used as a fitness suite, and a gigantic (barely furnished) game room with a carved wood bar that looks like an expensive (but boring) replica of a bar in an Old Timey saloon.

listing photos: Shawn Elliott Luxury Homes and Estates

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