Cheap$kate: FREE events in NYC this week

Book signing

Ira Berkow
Calling all Mets fans: Don your best Mets gear and head down to Bergino Baseball Clubhouse tonight for your chance to meet Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Ira Berkow. The former New York Times columnist will be signing copies of his new book, "Summers at Shea: Tom Seaver Loses His Overcoat and Other Mets Stories," a compilation of almost 50 years worth of Berkow's columns. (Thursday Night, 7 p.m., FREE, Bergino Baseball Clubhouse, Landmark Cast Iron Building, 67 E. 11th St., 212-226-7150, bergino.com)

Dance

'The Beauty of Ballet'
Ever wonder how ballerinas stay on their toes like that? Or how dancers can spin around seemingly forever and not get dizzy? Learn the answers to those questions and discover "The Beauty of Ballet" with this FREE lecture demonstration put on by the School of American Ballet on Sunday afternoon. The 45-minute demo will showcase examples of advanced classroom training exercises and performance of excerpts from well-known ballets such as "The Sleeping Beauty," "The Nutcracker" and "Swan Lake." (Sunday, 2 p.m., FREE, Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts, Walt Whitman Theatre at Brooklyn College, 2900 Campus Rd., sab.org, brooklyncenteronline.org)