Yanks Blame StubHub For Attendance Drop

From Josh Kosman:

Yankee Stadium attendance is down 3.6 percent so far this year — greater than the 3 percent drop last season — and the team is blaming StubHub for its gate woes.

“We believe there are serious issues with the StubHub relationship,” team president Randy Levine told The Post yesterday. “We are actively reviewing more fan-friendly alternatives for next year.”

The Bronx Bombers and other Major League Baseball teams have bellyached about StubHub for a couple of years — as more fans turn to the low-priced online reseller for tickets instead of buying directly from the team.

The Yanks and other teams claim tickets are priced too low on StubHub.

...

Compared with last season’s total average attendance, the Yanks’ 25-game average is off 9 percent.

Overall, MLB attendance is up 7 percent. Much of that is due to the Miami Marlins moving into a new stadium.

Plus, the Yanks had been the first or second best-selling MLB team through their first three seasons in the new stadium. This year they are only the fifth best-selling team.

To me, having plenty of affordable tickets is as "fan-friendly" as it gets, but I guess "fan-friendly" was a euphemism for something else.

The Yankees shouldn't blame StubHub for their problems drawing fans and then take it out on those fans by ridding the market of those affordable tickets. There are reasons the fans no longer want to go to games, but StubHub is not one of them. Maybe knocking down a piece of American history to put up a billion-and-a-half dollar knock-off wasn't necessary. Maybe steadily pricing the average fan out of most of the good seats was also mistake. And maybe combining those things with a new penny-pinching approach to free agency was the worst move of all, if of course selling tickets was the goal.

Yanks Fan vs. Sox Fan @ Yanks-Tigers

Here's a couple videos of a recent brawl at the stadium that's been going around the interwebs today. The fight was between a few female Yankees & Red Sox fans (Why were they at Yanks-Tigers?).

Part One Part Two

Ain't that a kick in the head?

Discounted Tickets For Rutgers-Army at The Stadium

College football returns to The Bronx next weekend as Army takes on Rutgers. TiqIQ has a special time sensitive deal for fans: $35 for a $50 face value ticket. Given the prices for tickets (as shown below), this discount is big, but it's only available today and tomorrow. If you'd like to get in on this deal, click here on on the image below.

 

2011 Old-Timers' Day Roster

This is the group who will be in the Bronx today:
(*Denotes First-Time Old-Timer)

Luis Arroyo
Jesse Barfield
Clay Bellinger*
Yogi Berra
Ron Blomberg
Brian Boehringer*
Dr. Bobby Brown
Homer Bush
Jose Cardenal*
Rick Cerone
Jerry Coleman
David Cone
Al Downing
Brian Doyle
Cecil Fielder
Whitey Ford
George Frazier*
Oscar Gamble
Joe Girardi
Dwight Gooden
Rich "Goose" Gossage
Ron Guidry
Charlie Hayes
Arlene Howard
Helen Hunter
Reggie Jackson
Pat Kelly
Don Larsen
Graeme Lloyd
Hector Lopez
Kevin Maas
Jill Martin
Lee Mazzilli
Ramiro Mendoza
Gene "Stick" Michael
Diana Munson
Kay Murcer
Jeff Nelson
Graig Nettles
Joe Pepitone
Lou Piniella* (Welcome back!)
Mickey Rivers
Charlie Silvera
Bill "Moose" Skowron
Aaron Small
Mike Stanley
Mel Stottlemyre
Darryl Strawberry
Joe Torre* (Welcome back!)
David Wells
Roy White
Bernie Williams*

The Great City Subway Race is Back to Normal

If you haven't already heard, for the first five games this season the 4, B and D trains had been replaced in the Great City Subway Race at Yankee Stadium by the "Road Gray," "Midnight Blue" and "Pinstripes" trains. Here's the reason for the change and the good news that the 4, B, and D trains are back via Mark Feinsand:

Following a Daily News report Wednesday about a misunderstanding between the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Yankees over a sponsorship arrangement, the MTA and the Yankees have agreed to return the subway lines to the popular animated scoreboard segment.

...

The MTA, which had lent the use of the subway lines to the Yankees for years at no cost, was not looking to cash in on the Yankees' sponsorship deal with Subway restaurants, according to the authority. Instead, the MTA asked for a tagline urging fans to use mass transit to travel to and from games.

A source said the agreement was reached on Wednesday morning. The B, D and 4 markings are expected to return for Wednesday night's game.

The segment runs in the middle of the fourth inning during every Yankees home game.

This Week in Yankees History (11/28-12/4)

This Week in Yankees History 

November 28th - December 4th

November 28th

1884 - Former Yankees INF/OF Wilbur “Roxy” Roach (1910-1911) was born. In August of 1909, the New York Yankees purchased Roxy Roach from Lancaster (Tri-State) for $2,500. He appeared in 83 games for the Yankees hitting just .219. On June 15, 1911, he was purchased by Jersey City (Eastern) from the Yankees.

1927 - The New York Yankees released veteran pitchers Bob Shawkey and Dutch Ruether, who both have retired from MLB. Bob Shawkey finished his New York Yankees pitching career with a record of 168-131. He was a 4-time, 20 game winner (1915-1927) after being obtained from the Philadelphia A’s for $85,000 in 1915. Bob will manage the Yankees in 1930 to an 86-68 record, before being replaced by veteran NL manager Joe McCarthy. Dutch Ruether finished out his long MLB career by going 12-6 in 1927 after being obtained from the Washington Senators.

1958 - Former Yankees P Dave “Rags” Righetti (1979-1990) was born. On January 11, 1977, Dave was drafted by the Texas Rangers in the 1st round (10th pick) of the 1977 MLB amateur player draft (January). On November 10, 1978, Dave was traded by the Rangers along with Greg Jemison (minors), OF Juan Beniquez, P Mike Griffin and P Paul Mirabella to the Yankees for C Mike Heath, pitchers Sparky Lyle, Larry McCall, Dave Rajsich, INF Domingo Ramos and cash. Dave won the American League Rookie Of Year award in 1981. The highlight of his efforts as a starting pitcher occurred on the Fourth of July, 1983, when he threw a 4-0 no-hitter against the Boston Red Sox. It was the 1st Yankee no-hitter since Don Larsen's perfect game in the 1956 World Series, and the 1st by a Yankee left-hander since 1917. In 1984, Dave was converted from a starter to a closer by the Yankees, replacing closer Rich Gossage, who left the Yankees for MLB free agency.

Read more »

Time-Lapse Video: Yankee Stadium Turns into a Football Field

Breaking sports news video. MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL highlights and more.

Rangers CEO Blasts Yankees Fans

From Wallace Matthews:

The CEO of the Texas Rangers called New York Yankees fans "violent," "apathetic" and "an embarrassment" for their behavior during the American League Championship Series in an interview on Monday with ESPN Radio in Dallas.

Responding to a question about Rangers fans' demeanor during the postseason, Chuck Greenberg digressed into a critique of Yankees fans which included an unflattering characterization.

"I think our fans have been great," Greenberg said on the "Ben and Skin Show" on 103.3 KESN. "I think particularly in Game 3 of the World Series they just blew away anything I've seen in any venue during the postseason. I thought Yankee fans, frankly, were awful. They were either violent or apathetic, neither of which is good. So I thought Yankee fans were by far the worst of any I've seen in the postseason. I thought they were an embarrassment."

I'm not going to pretend that I really care what this putz has to say because I don't. And thanks to a call from Bud Selig, he's already apologized anyway.

Did Yankees fans hurt Yanks chances of landing Lee?

From Bob Nightengale:

Perhaps the Rangers' greatest sales pitch simply was having Kristen sit in the visiting family section at Yankee Stadium during the playoffs. She says there were ugly taunts. Obscenities. Cups of beer thrown. Even fans spitting from the section above.

"The fans did not do good things in my heart," Kristen says.

"When people are staring at you, and saying horrible things, it's hard not to take it personal."

It's bad enough that the fans at the stadium this October were a quiet embarrassment, but now we find out that a few morons may have actually hurt the Yankees chances of landing Cliff Lee.

If you want to make light of this that's fine. There is a good chance this will all come down to money anyway. But remember how important CC's wife was in his decision making process, and then imagine a few months earlier a New Yorker, and better yet, a Yankees fan, spit and threw beer on her?

RIP Freddy

Another sad day in Yankeeland......

From the Daily News:

Freddy "Sez", a Yankee Stadium staple for the last 20 years, has died at age 82, according to friend Chuck Frantz.

At almost every Yankee game, Freddy could be seen outside Yankee Stadium with his daily message for the Yanks and a frying pan he banged like a drum. He also let other fans bang it as well.

I'd also like to quote Ben from RAB, who wrote this earlier today:

His pan and spoon are now in Cooperstown. “This is what keeps me going,” he said to Times reporter Manny Fernandez back in 2006. “This is why I’m doing it. Probably if I stopped, I’d probably be buried already.”

The 2006 piece is chock full of stories about Freddy. The Upper West Sider lost his eye in a stickball accident at age 9 and his teeth because he owned a candy store. The constant banging he endured as the holder of the pan left him hard of hearing, but he did it for love of the game. The Yanks even flew him out to Arizona for Game 7 of the 2001 World Series to serve as the team’s good luck charm. “If Freddy isn’t there with his pan,” Rudy Giuiliani once said, “it doesn’t feel right. It feels like there’s something missing.”

When I was a kid there were three sounds of the stadium that always stuck out; Bob Sheppard on the PA, Eddie Layton on the organ, and fans hitting a pan with a spoon. All of that is now gone.

Going to the game tonight? Don't drive.

If you are going to drive, things just got a litte more expensive for you:

Welcome back to the playoffs, Yankees fans - and make sure you bring some extra cash for parking.

Pinstriped boosters were outraged by word that Yankee Stadium garages will jack up prices from $23 to $40 starting with Saturday night's game against the Twins.

"It's really crap," die-hard Thomas Parker, 52, of Queens, griped about the 74% increase from regular season costs.

...

The just-boosted prices are likely a warm-up for next season, when parking fees are expected to rise sharply.

There is a cheaper option: the six-level garage at the nearby Gateway Center Mall is offering $30 parking for fans willing to make the five-block walk to the ballpark.

During the regular season, the price was as low as $10 and the garage's 2,600 spaces were about two-thirds filled by fans.

Yankee Brass Discuss The Boss's XL Monument

From the NY Daily News:

Not even the Yankees can deny the monument unveiled in honor of late owner George Steinbrenner on Monday dwarfs legends such as Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle in Monument Park.

However, they aren't about to apologize for it, either.

"We think the monument is a tribute to the man The Boss was, larger than life. His spirit is encompassed by that monument, and there was no intention to make it bigger than the others just for the sake of doing it," team president Randy Levine told the Daily News before Tuesday night's game against the Rays. "We just felt that it was The Boss, the greatest owner in sports. He built (the new) Yankee Stadium. He did so much for so many people. And he made the Yankee brand a worldwide one and took it to heights that never have been reached.

"It was not made bigger in an attempt to have it be larger than the others. We just wanted to represent the spirit of George Steinbrenner."

Steinbrenner's bust measures seven feet wide by five feet high - not including the base - and weighs 760 pounds.

Chief operating officer Lonn Trost said he and Senior VP of marketing Debbie Tymon worked with U.S. Bronze to commission the piece and that everything about the monument ultimately was approved by the Steinbrenner family.

"Mr. Steinbrenner always was so proud of Monument Park and now it's as if he's overseeing the other monuments and plaques and the tradition that reside there," Tymon said.

Is the monument too large? Yes, and it would have made more sense to me if it was like the other monuments. But at the same time, I can't say I'm upset by it. It is what it is, let's move on to things that matter.

Steinbrenner to be Honored in Monument Park

Here's a statement from the Yankees:

"We remain profoundly grateful and touched by the many expressions of sympathy and support from so many. We wish to thank everyone for their kind thoughts and prayers, which we continue to hold close. We are especially appreciative that our family's privacy was respected as we grieved the loss of George.

We know we will always share George's memory with Yankees fans everywhere, and a monument in his honor to be located in Monument Park will reflect the special connection, appreciation and responsibility that George felt for New York Yankees' fans everywhere as they were always uppermost in his mind."

The Monument Park dedication will be held in New York on Monday, September 20, 2010 at Yankee Stadium, prior to that evening's game against the Tampa Bay Rays.

Should be a nice ceremony, he certainly deserves it.

Beware Of What You Eat (At The Stadium)

I'm not posting this because I think you should stop food eating at the ballgame. I'm also not saying that this will stop me from eating at games. (The prices already did that.) But when you combine the video with this report about 48% of vendors in the Bronx coming up with violations, it's somewhat disturbing.

New Tribute to The Boss in the Bronx

No Vvuvuzelas in the Bronx

From Jeremy Olshan:

Those vuvuzela horns may be all the rage at the World Cup in South Africa, but the Yankees won't let fans toot, toot, toot for the home team.

When "bleacher creature" Anthony Zachariadis wailed on one of the plastic horns at Tuesday night's game, Stadium security snatched it out of his hands.

"You gotta give me the horn," the guard told him, inducing a chorus of boos from the bleachers. "You can't blow it."

...

Even though the denizens of the bleachers are known for being loud using just their own voices, Zachariadis said he couldn't resist trying them out at the Stadium.

"I hid them in my shorts to get into the stadium, and when I pulled out the horns, the whole place went nuts," he said.

"Phillies fans would walk by and we would blow it in their ear," he said. "They had a laugh -- they knew we were playing with them."

...

Zachariadis finally agreed to leave the game in return for not having his horns seized.

"I have been tossed from that place hundreds of times. Many times I even deserved it," he said. "But this was ridiculous."

While the thought of a Phillies fan taking the buzz of a vuvuzela in the ear does make me smile, I'm glad they're keeping those annoying horns out of the stadium.

Guest Post: Fan Gets Hit With a Double At Yankee Stadium

This was sent to me by reader jdascole, who shares his experience from Friday night's game in the Bronx.

April showers may not have fazed C.C. but I was drenched. It's a Friday night, I'm sitting at work eagerly waiting for the day to end so I can go see the Yankees.

By the time I get to the Stadium it's 8pm. C.C. is on a tear striking out 6 in a row. The game is in the fourth, I pull into the parking garage and I'm told..."If you want there are GOOD SPOTS left, but an employee has to walk you there." I want to get into the Stadium ASAP, I'm already late and I've missed four innings. I offer the woman $5 and I'm told it's $10 for the "good spot." I hand over $10 and we rush into the Stadium.

I have season tickets, four tickets in the Grandstand and two in the Jim Beam Suite. As a season ticket holder each year my sets of tickets come with coupons, one for a Yearbook, and another for a "Commemorative Season Ticket Holder" pin. Tonight, April 16th was the first night season ticket holders were told to use them.

At 8PM, neither was available, I was told to come back next week that they were going to "RE-STOCK." Let me point out, yearbooks are available all throughout the Stadium, but apparently season ticket holders are only allowed to get them in a, "Team Shop" so if they are not available in there, I need to wait until the next game. As far as the pins, they have not received them yet. No problem, I'm always at the stadium, I'll come back next week, and we decide to go to my seats in the Jim Beam Section.

Now as a season ticket holder my tickets say face value is $65, yet if I buy a ticket in the Jim Beam Section, either through Ticketmaster or the Yankees on game day it's over $100. When people ask to use my tickets and I have to charge them over $65 I need to explain as a season ticket holder in the Jim Beam Section I am required to pay a PSL. Tonight I was using my "Jim Beam" tickets so luckily I didn't have to explain that to anyone.

It's now 8:30pm; I've already been denied "programs and pins" and told to come back next homestand, and its pouring. I never even made it to my seats. We decide to go inside the "Jim Beam Lounge" for food and drinks. We get two burgers and two fries, the charge, $36, but hey, the "Food Network" is cooking the food, it must be worth at LEAST that. We take our food to the bar, we order two "Red Bull and Vodkas," the barmaid, "K," explains, "we do not serve Red Bull we only serve AMP" and asks if that is okay? No problem we order two AMP and Vodkas. She asks, "Would you like me to make them doubles?" Why not, were already late, there are no programs, there are no pins, it's raining, it's Friday, we took her up on her offer and made them doubles."K" puts the two drinks in front of us along with a bill for $52.

So it's almost 9 we haven't seen a pitch, it's raining, we paid $23 for parking, $10 to get a "GOOD SPOT," was advised that even though I'm, a season ticket holder and have spent close to $25k for my tickets my programs and pins are not available, I dropped close to $40 for two burgers and two fries in a suite where the face on my tickets says $65 even though they are $100 ea and now I'm told two drinks in the same size cup as everyone else is $52 because I said yes to a double. That was it; I asked for a manager, his name was "K" also. He explained once something is "rung up" there is no turning back. I tried to explain the situation, and I asked for a bill.

The bill states I ordered four shots of "Kettle One" and four "AMP'ed Energy." I asked why we were charged double for both the vodka and the AMP'ed, and if I received double the shots and double the soda how it fits in the same cup, I also asked why I was being served top shlef vodka when I didn't ask for it. Another bartender listening to the conversation spoke up and said, "I told you someone was going to catch on." He was told to get back to work. The manager "K" said once a drink is poured there is nothing that can be done, as far as being double charged for both the liquor and the soda he said that's just how it is.

So here is how I say it is, my two year contract is up this year in the Jim Beam Suite, would I recommend it to anyone?, ABSOLUTELY NOT! Since the Yankees have partnered with STUBHUB you can get tickets for half price the day of the game for almost any game. Is the Jim Beam Suite worth it, if you own a company maybe, it's an inexpensive way to "dazzle" clients, as a fan, no, you gain nothing, as I mentioned earlier you can get these tickets or better cheaper on STUBHUB and don't have to lay out the money nor explain the difference in price. And when someone asks if you want a double the answer is absolutely "NO!" I was already aggravated after being charged extra for parking, told programs and pins weren't available, and then the $36 burgers and fries. The $52 drinks were just the icing on the cake for an already miserable night. But hey at least the Yankees won.

After First Week Homers At Yankee Stadium Down From Last Year

OK, I know it's just five games, which is nowhere near enough time to come to any conclusions, but by this time last year people were already calling the new stadium a joke and a bandbox so we might as well check out how the first week went. Here's the report from the AP:

New Yankee Stadium no longer is playing like a bandbox.

While 21 home runs were hit in the five first games last year during the $1.5 billion ballpark's first season, just 11 balls have gone over the fence during the first five games this season.

"Early on I felt like last year obviously the ball was really, really carrying," Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte said Saturday. "But then what we noticed toward the end of the year is depending on where the wind's blowing, you can't hit it out of here sometimes. And obviously I think you've seen that already a couple times this homestand, when that wind is blowing in, that flag is blowing in from left, that ball just really, really gets held up."

Home runs were hit in 80 of 81 games at Yankees Stadium last year, the first major league stadium with home runs in all but one regular-season game. New York became the first team to go deep in 73 home games.

The only game without a home run at Yankee Stadium was on June 18, when the Washington Nationals won 3-0 after a 5-hour, 26-minute rain delay at the start.

Already this year there have been two games without a homer -- on Wednesday against the Los Angeles Angels and on Friday night against the Texas Rangers.

Let's get down to the raw numbers, shall we?

HitTracker.com plots all homers hit in each ballpark and here's their data for the first four games at the new stadium:

Date	Hitter	Pitcher	Type/ Luck	True Dist.		Std. Dist.
04/15/10	Matsui, Hideki	Kazmir, Scott	PL	410		412
04/15/10	Jeter, Derek	Kazmir, Scott	PL	353		356
04/15/10	Cano, Robinson	Kazmir, Scott	PL	375		375
04/15/10	Cano, Robinson	Kazmir Scott,	JE	385		385
04/13/10	Johnson, Nick	Santana, Ervin	ND	421		429
04/13/10	Jeter, Derek	Santana, Ervin	PL	409		410
04/13/10	Morales, Kendry	Park, Chan Ho	ND	384		385
04/13/10	Abreu, Bobby	Robertson, David	PL	390		389

If you're wondering what JE, ND and PL stand for, it's Just Enough, Plenty, and No Doubt. So, based on all of this, I'd say the only homer that wouldn't have gone out at the old place was Cano's that's highlighted above. As far as the shots from Saturday's game, I think Jeter's homer would have gone out at the old place as well, while I'm not so sure about A-Rod's and Nelson Cruz's shots.

Again, five games isn't enough of a sample size to come to any conclusions, but so far it appears that the stadium isn't playing as small as it did at the start of last season. Let's see how things go from here.

The circus comes to the Bronx

We have long come to associate the Bronx Zoo with the Yankees of the late 1970s. Now, I propose that we institute the term "Bronx Circus". Don't get me wrong, I love the circus, but the festivities outside of yesterday's Home Opener at Yankee Stadium had the feel of being run by PT Barnum.

I arrived as the employees were waiting to get into work. Yes, I was way too early, but that's a matter for another day. The mass of employees took up nearly all of the River Avenue side of the Stadium, all the way from A-Rod to Nick Swisher. I was shocked to learn that Yankee Stadium had that many non-playing workers.

After I took some sad pictures of the old Yankee Stadium, I waited for my friends to arrive, but in the interim, the circus acts. In fairness, some of them worked for the Yankees, but some just happened to be there.

My first encounter with the novelty acts was a team of jugglers, one of them complete with carnival barker skills, representing a local business board. They were talented, but, being from New York, I didn't bat much of an eye at street performers. When a set of identical twins arrived, I changed my tune. They were, I think, promoting a Spanish language radio station, and posing for pictures...including with a couple of gauchos. Yes, there were two Hispanic gentlemen wearing cowboy hats and other typical rancher gear. As the twins and the cowpokes took their pictures, the vibe became even more three-ring like as a couple of little women went in to their jobs in Yankee Stadium. They may have just been short, but they seemed to be a littler shorter than average, but it just added to my perception of something slightly awry. One of the more colorful Bleacher Creatures soon added to the feel by bellowing John Sterling's trademark game-ending call, all while being covered nearly head to toe in navy and white paint. Soon, my one of my compatriots arrived, but the parade of unusual characters continued, as a family walked past us, all wearing bright pink boots. A man in an ornate Yankee wheelchair showed up right near our location, right before Joba Chamberlain's dad went by us in his wheelchair. All that was missing, as I pointed out to my friend, was a stilt walker. As we met up with the rest of out group outside McDonald's, he tapped me on the shoulder and reminded me of my previous statement, before pointing to...a man on stilts, dressed like Uncle Sam. Perfect.

I also met Chris Shearn of YES, who also knew me from our Twitter conversations and my call to his podcast. All of these shenanigans took place before we entered Gate 6 and took in the classy Opening Day festivities, but I already would never forget this day.

For my pictures from the entire day, click here.

Some Thoughts on the Opener

Nobody does these things better than this organization and yesterday was just more proof.

I was sitting in some free seats I got from a buddy of mine. Not sure why someone would give away these seats, but I wasn't about to complain. We were in section 113 row 29, on the first base side of the stadium. You can check out the view below:

Yogi and Whitey handed out the rings. Gene Monahan was back in the house and on the field, so was Matsui. Bernie threw out the first pitch (poorly), and The Boss was right where he belongs, in his luxury box behind home plate. Jerry Hairston Jr. even took a red eye from San Diego to be there to receive his ring.

It was a great ceremony, highlighted by the return of Gene Monahan and Hideki Matsui. Geno, who is battling cancer, was clearly moved by the reaction of the fans.

"I looked at the players on the top step and all those people and the place felt very warm to me standing there by myself,'' Monahan said after the game.

Matsui was greeted with a huge ovation from the 50,000+ in attendance, and then mobbed by his former teammates when he reached the field.

(first two pics from Yahoo! Sport, the third is from Flickr member Amanda Rykoff)

It was really a nice moment and it continued continued when Matsui stepped to the plate for the first time in the top of the first inning, when he received another standing ovation from the fans. Matsui was a great Yankees for seven seasons and the fans in the house let him know just how much we appreciate it. Here's what Matsui said about the moment after the game:

"I was very deeply moved by that moment," .... "It's something I did not anticipate at all. It's something I'll remember forever."

Beating the Angels 7-5 was just icing on the cake. I won't get into the game too much since jgavriel already summed it up earlier, but, with the exception of David Robertson, it was a pretty impressive win for the Yanks. It was also pretty fitting that all of the Core Four played a role in the win. Andy Pettitte was great throwing six shutout innings, Jeter homered and drove in two, Posada drove in a very important insurance run, and Mo came in at the end to shut the door. All around it was a great day to be in the Bronx.