Yanks ticketholders getting shafted

Here's yet another great "tribute" to the Yanks and their remarkable ability to keep their elbow firmly on the pulse of their most ardent fans:

Still, even if one could block that all out and simply focus on the relationship between one customer's wallet and his ability to put his butt in a seat at this new park, the bottom line is that this is an outrage, a disgrace, a catastrophe on the level of Joe Torre summoning Jeff Weaver from the bullpen in Game Four, a Bambino-rolling-in-his-grave nightmare over the successor to the House that Ruth Built. A chorus four million fans strong should be shouting four- and twelve-letter words at Yankee president Randy Levine and every incompetent front-office numbskull who played a role in this fiasco. A pox on the House that George Built.

The Yankees deserve every pixel of bad publicity they receive over this, every blankety-blank karmic quantum of bad yankety-blank karma. My friends and I are hardly the only customers wronged in such a fashion; an informal discussion with a few other longtime Yankees ticket holders who write for various sites (including this one) reveals similarly shoddy treatment. Indeed, all of us who have something at stake short of a full-season ticket package are being screwed because the Yankees have bungled this so badly that they can't possibly fulfill the demand. So naturally, their impulse is to trample the loyal customers who helped carry them past the three million and four million attendance milestones over the past decade. This is a story worth illuminating, not only to fellow Yankee fans who may commiserate about finding themselves up the same fetid creek, but to baseball fans everywhere.

I've long made my feelings and intentions known about this new ballpark. It will be gorgeous. It will be impressive and leading edge. It will be a showcase. It will NOT be something I get to see in person very often (unless a friend with corporate access can weasel me some tickets).

I haven't been in the waiting line to fork over money for tickets so I haven't been privy to these sorts of ugly tactics and it's so painful to hear about it. Yet again, I look squarely at Randy Levine, the Master of all that is Evil in the Evil Empire. I hope Randy, Hank and Hal catch all the crap they deserve for this. It's a shame on so many levels.

Yankee haters, feel free to pile on. After all, we're just fans, like you. We're used to being dumped on. Just remember, your team could also do this to you.

But just remember that if this is happening here, it can happen in your city as well. Even the green cathedrals of Wrigley Field and Fenway Park will someday fall to the wrecking ball, and when you emerge from the rubble with a lesser opportunity to visit your new ballpark, you'll have plenty of company.

thanks to Pete Toms for the heads up!