Shocker! We ended up with $200 in Mets tickets for free! (And we can print them at home if we want to!)

Remember how Squawker Jon and I waited in the cold for two hours on Presidents' Day to get free Mets tickets? And how I almost froze my tuchis off, the day after running a 10-mile race in single-degree weather and getting hypothermia? Anyhow, you may remember that the Mets ended up giving us a better deal on free tickets than we expected. And today was the first day we could redeem our free ticket vouchers.

We had a choice of field-level box seats in the outfield area for most Monday to Thursday Mets games from April through June. So Jon and I chose two games: Tuesday, May 17, Mets vs. Nationals (Daniel Murphy's first game back at Citi Field!) and Thursday, June 30, Mets vs. Cubs (only time Cubs come to town this year.) The Nationals tix are in Section 130 and retail for $37 each. The Cubs tix are in Section 131 and retail for $63 each. So, yes, we ended up with $200 in tickets for waiting in the cold that day. Not too shabby!

Anyhow, there is something else I noticed about the Mets' ticket policies. You can either print the tickets at home, or add them to Apple Wallet so you can show them on your mobile phone! Imagine that! Also, we don't have to worry that we'll get kicked out of our field-level seats, or that somebody will wonder if we really belong there. Amazing.

Funny that the Mets don't seem to be worried about that massive ticket fraud problem that the Yankees are so concerned about. Or, maybe it's that there is no problem at all in the first place! Gee, ya think?

Shocker! Yankees new ticket policy causes a disaster for Stadium soccer game

I was looking at SportsSpyder.com, one of my go-to sites (if you want to see the latest articles on whatever team you follow, go there!) to see the latest on the Yankees. And I just saw this article from Deadspin, about the repercussions of the Yankees' new ticket policy.

The New York City Football Club (NYCFC), who plays at Yankee Stadium, decided to change their ticket policy two days ago, before today's season opener, to ban print-at-home tickets. This, after they had told fans previously that this would be a Yankee-only policy. My guess is that Lonn Trost and Randy Levine pressured them to do so and they had to listen, given that the Yankees are part-owners of the team.

And guess what? Hilarity did not ensue! Instead, a disaster ensued. It was a hot mess.

Thanks to member [Albany] for the pic. 8 minutes out! pic.twitter.com/wqaKJ9UmQ2

— NYCFC Forums (@NYCFCForums) March 13, 2016

@StraightRedPod @NYCFC machines that scan tickets stopped working and they're not letting anybody into the stadium pic.twitter.com/VppM31IW8x

— James Coker (@JamesWCoker) March 13, 2016

Yankee Stadium doesn't care about its customers, the ticket-holders. overtly disrespects them. @Yankees @NYCFC pic.twitter.com/pQOCmT0Jud

— Daniel Roberts (@readDanwrite) March 13, 2016

Roberts is a writer for Yahoo! Finance. He said in another tweet that it took him 49 minutes to get into the ballpark after getting on the security line. He and others also said that the game had started, with much of the crowd still outside. Yikes!

I went to an NYCFC game last summer and had a great time. But if I were on a line like that, and missed some of the game, it wouldn't exactly make me want to come back.

I wonder if this is a harbinger of things to come when the Yankees' season starts. One thing they have not thought out is what it's going to be like when many tens of thousands of people all try to use the Internet on their phones at the same time to pull up their tickets. Last week, I was at Staten Island's St. Patrick's Day Parade, and my phone's Internet was extremely slow. And this was only with a few thousand people, if that. Imagine what it will be like with many more folks.

Things are not going to end well for the Yankees, if this becomes the scene at every game! Good grief.

Message to Randy Levine and Lonn Trost: When you're in a hole, quit digging!

I really was going to write today about something else in Yankeeland besides the team's ticket debacle. Honest. But as long as team president Randy Levine and COO Lonn Trost keep on saying and doing dopey things about it, I've got to keep Squawking about it!

The gruesome twosome have said even more ridiculous things in the last two days to extend this story into even more news cycles. This, at the very same time the team is attempting to sell individual tickets for the 2016 season. Unbelievable.

I woke up this morning to see that Levine had run his mouth about Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. because Diaz is taking the fans' -- and StubHub's -- side in this ticket issue. Diaz's spokesman, John Desio, told the New York Daily News:

“The borough president is a lifelong Yankee fan. The borough president’s favorite player was Graig Nettles. He lives and dies by the Yankees as do many people in the borough, the city and the world. This new policy on tickets combined with their COO’s elitist comments are not very fan friendly for the borough president or anyone else who loves the Yankees.” 

So how did Levine respond? In a mature, adult fashion befitting his reputation. By which I mean, he lashed out like a frat boy with anger management issues, the way he usually does. (How is this guy in a position of authority, anyway? I wouldn't trust him to run the fry station at McDonald's without spilling grease on himself when flying off the handle!)

Levine told ESPN's Darren Rovell, who first reported on Diaz' stance:

“It doesn’t surprise me given that we’ve stopped his endless funding requests. It does surprise me because the only time he showed up to Yankee Stadium was when he was on official business when he was comped. I guess there are no greater problems in the Bronx, that he needs to spend time on, than ticketing.” 

How is this comment possibly productive? It doesn't even make any sense. What, exactly, would be the "endless funding requests" a Bronx borough president would ask the Yankees for? Wouldn't it be the other way around?

And you can't complain that Diaz rarely shows up at Yankee games, and then whine that "I guess there are no greater problems in the Bronx, that he needs to spend time on, than ticketing." Well, most of us would think that enabling his constituents in the poorest borough in the city to get decently priced tickets is kind of important.

UPDATE: Shortly after writing this Squawk, I received an email from Diaz's office containing a copy of a letter the borough president sent to Levine, criticizing the policy. It's a pretty strongly worded missive! Read it here. 

That isn't the only time in recent days that Levine has flapped his gums. He and Trost recently talked to Bloomberg View sports columnist -- and Yankee fan -- Kavitha A. Davidson about the ticket policy. She writes about a less-discussed aspect of using mobile tickets. Fans will have to sign up at Ticketmaster, give the company personal information, and download an app in order to use the Yankees' mobile ticket feature. (I wrote about this last week, but she went to much greater detail on the new system and tried it out herself. "It seems there are still a few bugs to work out," she wrote.)

Anyhow, both Levine and Trost dismissed any concerns over the new policy. Levine insisted to the writer that third-party ticket brokers and StubHub are, Davidson writes, as "the source of much of the backlash against the new mobile system." Um, no, dude. Your team's fans are the main source of the backlash. Remember them?

In addition, according to the article, "Levine said Trost's comments were taken out of context and stressed that the Yankees' position is 'if you buy a legitimate ticket you're welcome to sit at Yankee Stadium,' whether or not you paid full price." Well, isn't that nice of them! And at any rate, we didn't take Trost's comments out of context. We took them in context. That's the problem!

Trost made let yet another elitist remark in insisting: "In today's world of millennials, I can't imagine anyone who's not smartphone savvy who wants to come to the ballpark," he said. "But when they do, they can get a hard-stock ticket." Oy. He needs to get out more.

Remember how Trost talked about Yankee fan ticket buyers who spent "a buck and a half" for premium tickets? I wrote that there was no way people were paying $1.50 a ticket for the fancy seats. But I missed an even more elitist remark that Trost was making with that. I have a friend who is a ticket broker. And he said that "a buck and a half" is a term in the business meaning $150. So Trost is looking down at fans who "only" spend $150 per Yankee ticket. For the rest of us, that sort of money for a three-hour regular season game is a splurge for a milestone birthday or something. In Trost's world, these people are the riff raff!

My friend Jason Keidel, who writes about sports for CBS New York, interviewed me this week about how a decision by the Yankees on February 15 to ban print-at-home tickets has morphed into a PR disaster for the team that is like the Energizer Bunny. It just keeps on going, and going, and going.

I talked about my part in that -- Squawking the next day about how the decision was about smashing StubHub and taking away fans' ability to buy tickets on the secondary market. Then I was interviewed for the New York Post the following day, and showed how Yankee fans were unhappy about this, at the very same time the team's spokesperson claimed that fans were thrilled over it. The very next morning, Yankees COO Lonn Trost popped up on WFAN to defend the policy, and blurted out his elitist opinion about Yankee ticket buyers.

This story has gone about as disastrously for the Yankees as anybody with a brain and common sense could have predicted. It's been raging for 10 days now, and shows no sign of abating. Are there any grownups in Yankeeland who will step in and stop this? Where is Hal Steinbrenner? What could possibly be more important for him to be doing than stopping this PR disaster? Good grief.

Yankee press office tells players to be more like Russell Wilson than Cam Newton. But what about Yankee brass?

Isn't it ironic? (Cue Alanis Morrissette song!) The Yankees' PR/media team recently held their annual training sessions advising players how to act in front of the press. In the very same week that the biggest story in Yankeeland is how team COO Lonn Trost made elitist remarks that alienated most of the fan base, and then team president Randy Levine insulted fans' intelligence with his comments about StubHub. Seems like the execs need that training more than the players! Not to mention the fact that this story is still percolating among Yankee fans this week, while nobody from the front office has stepped in to clarify the remarks or apologize for Trost. Talk about bad PR!

Anyhow, Ryan Hatch of NJ.com got the inside scoop on the players' training from media relations director Jason Zillo. Yankees saw videos featuring clips featuring ESPN's Britt McHenry's infamous argument trashing a tow truck employee, as well as Lawrence Taylor's media meltdown back in the day. Derek Jeter pops up on the video to advise the ballplayers that everything in their lives is fair game these days. And A-Rod (!) is actually cited as a positive example of how to handle the press, when he deflected talk of his home run numbers.

The players saw clips of Cam Newton's and Russell Wilson's respective post-Super Bowl press conferences, with the idea that Newton's behavior was bad, and Wilson's was good. But I kind of agree with Big League Stew's Mike Oz, and his take on this:

Cam's presser you know well by now: He grumbled and sulked, giving abrupt answers before walking out. It's almost like he felt emotion after losing the big game of his life. Imagine that....And Wilson's presser from a year earlier was pretty much the opposite....

It was textbook, so the Yankees are right wanting their players to be like Wilson — if you want players to say the predictable thing and not show a lot of emotion. And, let's be real about what the Newton/Wilson dichotomy is really implying these days: We want you to be safe and dull, not polarizing, not making yourself an enemy of Middle America. 

He then writes about how it applies to the Yankees:

They have one player, C.C. Sabathia, who is coming back this season after admitting he had a problem with alcohol and seeking help. He has a story that's worth telling, emotion and all. They have another player, Alex Rodriguez, whose image is as far from clean-cut as possible and has been criticized most of his career for being too robotic. Considering, his against-the-odds comeback from a year ago, he has a reason to finally open up. Is it the worst thing to let them and their teammates be real people with real emotions? 

You're right. Considering this is baseball, where you can't celebrate a home run for more than a split second or risk breaking the unwritten rules, the answer is probably, "Yes. We don't want real emotions. Just say the boring stuff that everyone wants you to say."

Oz then brings up Lonn Trost and suggests, like I just did, that he is the one who needs the media training.

I get the Yankees' point on the media training. I do. But I also get Oz's point. There's something to be said for genuine emotion. While Newton should have stayed longer at the presser so all the reporters could have gotten their questions in (they're funny that way), I cannot fault him for looking as devastated as he did. Isn't that what you want as a fan? For your team's players to care? To be as upset as you are over losing the big game?

You also want your team's front office to care. Not just about the team winning and losing. But about the fans. And Trost's and Levine's remarks have emphasized an "us vs. them" mentality instead of a "we're all Yankee fans together" attitude. I have seen so many fans online over the past few days wonder why they should even bother going to games at all any more, given the contempt the front office has for them.

It's now been five days since Trost's elitist remark. Still no apology, or statement from the team, or olive branch to the fans. Meanwhile, individual tickets have gone on sale. Way to sell the brand, Yanks!

Shocker: Randy Levine reveals the Yankee Ticket Exchange is a huge failure

Would you buy Yankee tickets
from this man?

Both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times have interviews this weekend with New York Yankees president Randy Levine. He's doing damage control for Lonn Trost's elitist comments when the COO tried to do damage control over the team's ticket kerfuffle. This is like Yasiel Puig advising Jonathan Papelbon how to be a good teammate. Like David Ortiz telling Jose Bautista to tone down his home run celebrations. You catch my drift. 

When are the Yankees going to learn the first rule of holes? When you're in a hole, QUIT DIGGING!

Instead, Levine is out there, shovel in hand, still trying to justify the Yankees' new policy as protecting the fans against fraud. But, just as Trost's damage control went awry, so did Levine's, as he inadvertently confirmed the real reasons for the new policy -- that the team doesn't believe in the free market when it comes to showing the true value of tickets. And that the Yankees Ticket Exchange is a big fat flop.

He told Billy Witz of the Times: “We strongly believe that we have the right to maintain control over our inventory as long as the market provides ample opportunity to have choice in other ways.”

Levine told Jared Diamond of the Journal: “This is our product and our inventory. We have the ultimate right to protect the value of our inventory as long as it’s done in the free-market society.” 

He also admitted to the Journal that only fewer than 10% of the tickets sold on the resale market go through the Yankees Ticket Exchange. And the Journal's story also revealed that, according to StubHub, 40% of their Yankee ticket sales occur in the 72 hours before the event. Which this new ticket policy would not-so-coincidentally negatively affect.

Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner!

Levine is confirming what Yankee fans like myself have been saying all week. This is all about increasing the resale value of Yankees tickets, and nothing about protecting fans from alleged "fraud."

Like all too many people in Yankeeland, Levine is living in the past. He wants a monopoly on ticket sales, at the very same time he's claiming he's all about the free market. Child, please.

Fans understand economics better than Levine does. The tickets are overpriced, and the free market, as evidenced by the secondary market, is showing that. The proof is in the pudding. The one secondary ticket venue with a price floor is the Yankees Ticket Exchange. And even though they are the easiest for season ticket holders to use, with integration with the team's ticket system, and even though they are integrated into Yankees.com, the exchange, by Levine's own admission, has only captured under 10% of the secondary market. That is an amazingly bad number.

This is why Levine and Trost are pushing this ban on print-at-home tickets and trying to stop fans from using StubHub for these last-second ticket sales. Because three years ago, they sold team owner Hal Steinbrenner on the idea that StubHub needed to be smashed. And they had the Yankees spend the money on this rival ticket exchange, figuring fans were so stupid, they would go to it because it was the official one. 

Yet it is a colossal failure. So now, the Yankees are trying to smash StubHub in another way -- by preventing their own fans from getting good deals on tickets.  They love the free market when it comes to corporations spending big bucks for boxes, but not so much when it shows that their ticket prices are too high.

That's not all that Levine said about the ticket brouhaha. From the Times:

After Lonn Trost, the Yankees’ chief operating officer, was lambasted as elitist for suggesting in a Thursday radio interview that some fans do not belong in premium seats, the team president, Randy Levine, in an interview Saturday, said StubHub had stoked the controversy, accusing it of putting out a narrative “that’s completely fraudulent and completely false.” 

1. What did StubHub have to do with Trost insulting the Yankee fan base? (Incidentally, it's been 72 hours and counting, and the Yankees still haven't apologized for what Trost said. Shows how much the front office cares about the fans.)

2. What part of the narrative, exactly, of what the Yankees are doing by banning print-at-home tickets is “completely fraudulent and completely false”?  That the Yankees has been on a vendetta against StubHub for the last three years? That the Yankees sued to force StubHub to move their Last-Minute Ticket Center from 68 East 161st Street, across the street from the Stadium, to the Bronx Terminal Market at 651 River Avenue and 151st Street? That despite the narrative that Lonn Trost pushed, that StubHub is not the entity holding up them being able to access mobile tickets -- the Yankees are? (And Levine even admits that the Yankees are holding this up, but still blames StubHub for it.)

Individual Yankee ticket sales for 2016 start tomorrow. But the team's brass has spent the last week doing the worst PR you could imagine for selling their own product. Good grief.

I am quoted in the New York Post about the Yankees' new fan-UNfriendly ticket policy

What would Judge Judy say
about the Yankees' new ticket policy?

I am in today's New York Post! Click here to read the article, and read on to see how this happened.

I was sitting at my desk in my office in the big city yesterday afternoon when my cell phone rang with "Unknown" on the Caller ID. I very cautiously answered the phone. It turns out that David K. Li of the New York Post wanted to talk to me. My very first, totally primal, reaction when he introduced himself was to think, What the heck did I do to get the Post's attention? Did I do something wacky after my 10-mile race in single-degree weather that warranted a Post story?

The reporter then explained the purpose of his call. He had seen my Squawk about the Yankees' new ticket policy, which is being spun as helping fans against fraud (even though hard-stock tickets can also be counterfeit), when it's really about increasing the Yankees' bottom line by killing the use of StubHub. In fact, the initial stories in the mainstream media spun the team's pablum about this ticket fraud non-issue. (Incidentally, I saw somebody say on Twitter yesterday afternoon: "Amazing how the Yankees are experiencing so much fraud with print at home tickets, but no other franchises are." Exactly!)

So I gave Li my spiel against the new policy: how the team likes the free market, until fans use the free market to get cheap tickets. Then all of a sudden, the team wants price floors so that the ticket prices don't go below a certain level.  I talked about how I never had a problem with free agents and even teams making money, per se, but that the flip side was that fans should be able to use that same free market to buy and sell tickets at whatever prices the market will bear. And at any rate, the Yankees already made money the first time they sold the tickets. Why did they insist on getting a cut with the second time the tickets were sold, especially when it would hurt their own fan base?

I also pointed out that it will also hurt fans' flexibility in buying tickets. No longer will they be able to go to StubHub and get a deal on the day of the game. And how the team was so shortsighted on this decision. Because not only will they not get those fans into the ballpark, but that they will not get those fans' money from them buying food, drinks, and souvenirs. We also talked about how this new policy would hurt ticket sellers, too. Most of whom are season ticket holders just looking to get some of their money back for games they can't attend.

Anyhow, Li wrote up a great story that made the Post's website last night, and that will be in Thursday's paper. The article correctly points out how much this will negatively affect the average fan. I am quoted several times in the piece, including the kicker at the end. Which, if you know anything about journalism, is a great place to be!

But the Yankees are still trying to spin this as somehow helping the fans. From the article (emphasis added):

“Mobile is the most convenient, accessible, efficient and safe way to provide tickets,” said Yankees spokeswoman Alice McGillion. “Yankees fans are extremely happy, this is what they wanted. The only unhappy people are the ticket brokers and ticket speculators.”

Listen up, Alice McGillion. If you honestly think that Yankee fans "are extremely happy" over this new policy, you need to get your head out of your you know what. As I always say, don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining!

While some Yankee fans may have welcomed the mobile option, nobody was saying to themselves, "Gee, what I really want is for the team to take away my flexbility in being able to buy a cheap ticket at the last minute." Or "Gee, I really want to help the Yankees and Ticketmaster make even more money." And, Ms. McGillion, most of the people selling tickets -- and buying tickets -- are your most dedicated, hardcore fans. How do you think this move is going to sell in your fan base?

This is one of the many things odious about the Hal Steinbrenner regime. Since he was born on third base, but thinks he hit a triple, he doesn't have a clue how bad these quotes sound from the team's PR person (!), especially when they are sandwiched next to quotes from actual fans. And because Prince Hal is so worried about looking like his father, he does the opposite of George in so many ways, including never seeming to fire anybody nor wanting accountability in anything. Then again, I guess the front office is doing his bidding in squeezing every last drop out of the fans, the way his big innovation for this winter was to have the Yankees be the only team not to sign a free agent. At least it used to be that we knew the high ticket prices were going to getting the best players. Not anymore.

And, as I wrote in the blog the other day (also, thanks to Mets Police for highlighting it in their blog), and also told the Post reporter, the Mets' Spring Training Sendoff that Squawker Jon and I attended on Monday was very disorganized. But I appreciated that they tried to do something nice for their fans. (Incidentally, Jon and I each got an emailed apology from the Mets yesterday for the logistical problems at the event -- and a voucher for two free field-level tickets for Monday-Thursday games through June of this year. Can you imagine the Yankees ever doing that?)

I have written in this blog about how the Yankees' ticket sales are declining, while the Mets are increasing. So does the Yankee organization think that screwing over their own fans is the way to arrest this trend? And it's one thing for the team to have the arrogance of doing whatever it wants when they were winning world championship after world championship, and were the top team in town. But, unfortunately, the team's front office still has that arrogance, even in a time when their crosstown rivals are actually putting a better product on -- and off -- the field. This is the time people in Yankeeland ought to be looking long and hard at innovative ways to get their fans to keep on coming to games. Not alienating them yet again.

You know, I've been a Yankee fan since I was 10 years old. I will remain a Yankees fan for the rest of my life. But gee, it would be nice if some of this passion was reciprocated. Or at least if the organization didn't pee on me and my fellow Yankee fans' legs and tell us it's raining!

Yankees screw over fans -- again -- with new ticket policy

One of my favorite sayings in real life is "Don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining." (I have been known to use the more profane version of this expression as well!) I stole it from Judge Judy. In case you don't know what the expression means, it is basically saying, "Don't screw me over and then act like you had nothing to do with it."

I couldn't help but think of that expression when I heard about the Yankees' new ticket policy. The team announced in a press release this week that they were finally going to accept mobile tickets. But the real story is that they're no longer accepting PDFs or printouts of online game tickets. Here is how the organization spun this news:

As the Yankees are continuously striving to implement technological advances to provide our fans with a ticketing experience that is unparalleled, convenient, safe and secure, the Yankees are excited to announce, as a complement to traditional hard stock paper tickets, the availability of mobile ticketing for the 2016 baseball season. Print-at-home paper tickets (PDFs) are being discontinued so as to further combat fraud and counterfeiting of tickets associated with print-at-home paper tickets (PDFs). In addition to traditional hard stock paper tickets, the Yankees will be offering the opportunity for fans to receive mobile tickets on a fan's Smartphone. For more information on mobile ticketing, visit yankees.com/mobile.

Mobile ticketing is an advance that is long past due. But the team discontinuing print-at-home paper tickets has very little to do with combatting fraud and counterfeiting and everything to do with yet another money grab. Because guess what? Hard stock paper tickets can be counterfeited as well.

The counterfeit tickets Michael Kay
had purchased for "Hamilton." Photo
courtesy of @RealMichaelKay

And how do I know this? Because I heard Yankees TV broadcaster Michael Kay tell his ESPN Radio listeners on the very same day as this ticket announcement about his disastrous Valentine's Day, in which he tried to use tickets to the very popular Broadway show Hamilton that were purchased on Craigslist, only to discover that the ducats were counterfeit. And, as you can see from the picture Kay posted on Twitter, these were traditional tickets, not PDFs of etickets!

No, the real reason the Yankees are eliminating print-at-home tickets is to put StubHub and other secondary ticket markets out of the business of selling Yankee tickets, and to move such sales to the Yankees Ticket Exchange, where the Yanks make money on every resale. (It wasn't enough that they make money on the initial sale of the tix; they have to make money on the resale as well!) And where the site has a ticket floor on prices, so that they don't get too low. (Savvy fans know that StubHub can have great deals on Yankee tickets, especially when it gets close to the day of the game, due to fans wanting to sell their tickets quickly.)

Funny how big businesses like the Yankees praise the free market -- until it can negatively affect them, and then they put in artificial measures to protect their businesses!

Incidentally, New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced a few weeks ago that he was looking into the Yankees Ticket Exchange, as well as the NFL's secondary ticket market program, because of that very reason -- the price floor being an anti-competitive measure. I will be curious to see what happens with that.

Anyhow, there are going to be several repercussions to the Yankees' new policy. Forget about buying tickets on StubHub on the day of a game. If you want to get tickets, you will have to go to the Yankees' own site to do so. This also means that they will gather your personal info when you sign up at yankees.com for an account in order to download the tickets. 

In addition, you'd better make sure your smartphone is fully charged when you get to the ballpark, or you won't be able to use your e-ticket. And given how quickly iPhones run out of juice -- I have gone from 100% to zero power on my phone just going from Staten Island to Manhattan! -- this can be a real problem.

And finally, the team doesn't seem to be aware -- or to care -- that not everybody has a smartphone these days, for various reasons: cost, fear of technology, etc. And that they are essentially shutting those fans out from being able to buy tickets online. 

You know, given the uninspiring product the Yankees are planning on putting on the field this year, the team ought to be looking for more fan-friendly ways to get people into games, not looking for ways to shut them out. This new policy is really shortsighted, and sounds like something Randy Levine and Lonn Trost cooked up to increase the team's bottom line -- and screw over their own fanbase.

The irony is, though, that it will mean fewer people will buy Yankee tickets online at StubHub at the last minute. Which means fewer people going through the door and buying food and drinks and souvenirs. Does anybody ever think things out in Yankeeland? 

These sorts of shenanigans are why I could at least appreciate the gesture the Mets made with their Spring Training Sendoff event that Jon and I attended this week. While the day was a hot mess, I can see the team was trying to give their fans something for free to show some appreciation for their loyalty. The last time I can remember the Yankees doing something similar to show appreciation for their fans was in 2009, when they opened up the ballpark for fans to watch Game 4 of the 2009 World Series in. And that was a long time ago indeed. Oy.

Review: Using ScoreBig to score tickets

Squawker Jon and I are going to see the Mets take on the Los Angeles Dodgers next month, and we'll hopefully see Yasiel Puig at CitiField (as long as he hasn't gotten benched for being a knucklehead, that is!) We have pretty good seats -- field level silver box tickets along the left field side, not just with a good view of the action, but a close proximity to Shake Shack!

We got the tickets courtesy of a new ticket company called ScoreBig, who asked us to test out their services. If you have ever used Priceline, you may have a sense of how ScoreBig works. The company offers sporting events, concerts, and theater seats with its service. Seats for an event are ranked by starred levels -- one-star seats will be the cheapest, and with the fewest amenities, while five-star seats will be the top seats. Depending upon the event, there may also be specific listings for suites and other specific areas. While you do not get to pick the actual seats or section you are in, you get to see a map for each starred level which lets you know where your seats may be located.

And much like Priceline, you make a bid on how much you are willing to spend, and learn instantly whether your bid will be accepted or not. You don't want to bid too high, or too low, on your tickets. Think about what you are willing to spend on the tickets, and what you think would be a good deal for the type of seats.

Needless to say, the more popular the events, the more you might potentially have to pay -- Subway Series tickets are at a premium. But there are plenty of tickets available for those on a budget as well.

Jon and I put in a bid for $50 a ticket for 3-star seats at CitiField, and got the field level seats. What's more, we instantly got a rebate on the tickets after our offer was accepted, which means that the tickets actually cost under $45! Sweet!

Anyhow, if you want to check out ScoreBig for yourself, click here.

Win Tickets to Mets Home Opener

Anthony Marsala of Long Live Shea Stadium has alerted us to a chance to win tickets to the Mets home opener on Friday, April 8th, 4:10 PM, vs. the Nationals.

Jersey Shore Bracelet Company is running the contest.

Here is what you need to do:

1) “Like” the Jersey Shore Bracelet Facebook page: Facebook

2) Repost the contest information/fan page as your Facebook status

3) Fill out the form on the Jersey Shore Bracelet web site specified on the Facebook page

Another option for those of you who are on twitter:

1) Follow LongLiveSheaS and JSBracelet.

2) Re-tweet the contest information

3) Fill out the form on the Jersey Shore Bracelet web site.

Want to increase your chances of winning the tickets? For any order placed during the entry period (March 23rd- April 1), you will get an additional entry into the contest.

The winner will be announced on April 2nd.

Play Ball! Mets are back on the field and all is well, at least for one day

The Mets made it all the way to the third inning of their first exhibition game before a player limped off the field. But I am still glad I bought my first 2010 tickets today.

After last season, I did not expect to be buying tickets as soon as the single-game presale started. But now the miserable 2009 and disappointing offseason seem far away, and I can't wait to get back out to Citi Field.

Last year, plenty of tickets were available on StubHub, often at a discount. But when Squawker Lisa said she wanted to go to the Hall of Fame Induction Game in August, I decided to go ahead and get tickets now.

I am glad that Lisa wants to support all-time Mets Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden, as well as Davey Johnson and Frank Cashen. Lisa alleges that Darryl and Dwight spent some time in the Bronx, but I am going to assume that the Mets will leave those episodes out of the presentation.

(By the way, Lisa, when are the Yankees going to have a day honoring Roger Clemens?)

If you click on the promotion asterisk for the August 1 game, you see the following:

Hall of Fame Induction
First 25,000 Fans
Presented by Citi

What happens to the fans who are not in the first 25,000? Do they have to wait outside around screens showing Brooklyn Dodger highlights? Wonder if there's a cutoff for Pyrotechnics Night - you there, no looking up!

We also got tickets for a late April game against the Braves. It's Ski Cap Night, and the way the weather has been, we will probably need to wear them. The Mets are also having a Scarf Night in April - remember when these items used to be given away at the end of the season on Fan Appreciation Day?

A few hours after I bought the tickets, I received a call from someone in the Mets' ticket office who saw my purchases and decided to follow up on a call he had made a few weeks ago about buying a ticket Six-Pack. I told him not at this time, but I appreciated that the Mets are making more options available that have fewer than 15 games. He said they always enjoyed getting positive feedback.

It made me wonder how many ticket calls resulted in less-than-positive feedback, things like "You won't spend the money on starting pitching, so I won't spend the money on you." Frankly, that might have been my attitude a few weeks ago. But as the exhibition season gets underway, I am willing to grit my teeth and hope that Mike Pelfrey reaches his potential, John Maine stays healthy and Oliver Perez, well, it's a new year.

* * *
As for the first game, yes, Elmer Dessens had to leave the game after being hit in the leg by a line drive. But the Mets were being so cautious today that they benched almost the entire starting lineup because it rained earlier in the day.

I just hope the Mets' new "Prevention & Recovery" program will not require players hit with line drives to take the field wearing the 100-pound protective suit used by the bomb squad in "The Hurt Locker."

Even with a lineup filled with the likes of Mike Hessman, it was still great to see the Mets take the field for the first time in five months. It was just like old times. Along from Dessens having to leave the game, the Mets did not get a hit until the fifth inning. But then the Mets scored three runs, and later added a run on, of all things, a home run!

Granted, the homer was hit by Russ Adams, who does not figure to make the team, and it appeared to be wind-aided. But it counted just the same. Baseball is back!

How this Yankee fan became a Mets VIP

Guess what? I'm in with the in-crowd in Metsland. And it's all because I spent 97 cents on Mets tickets!

Here's the deal. Squawker Jon was all pleased last week when he got an email from the Mets saying this:

Dear Mets Ticket Buyer on StubHub:

As a Mets ticket purchaser on StubHub during the 2009 season, we are pleased to offer you an exclusive "Pre-Sale" opportunity to purchase single game tickets to 2010 Mets regular season home games (excluding only the Subway Series) in advance of our general public sales opening on Sunday, March 7.....

A limited number of tickets for Opening Day, April 5 will be available in the Pre-Sale. You may purchase a maximum of four tickets for Opening Day, subject to availability.

Little did he know that I got the very same "exclusive" letter, thanks to me digging deep last season and buying us Mets tickets for 97 cents each. We even got the same pre-sale code!

So tickets go on sale this morning at 10 a.m., and I've been furiously going through the promotion schedule, trying to figure what great giveaway day I should aim for with my pre-sale opportunity. Should I try to get the Johan Santana koozie? The Dunkin' Donuts gift card? The Jose Reyes drawstring bag? Maybe the Jason Bay bobblehead is where it's at.

What about August 1, the date for the Mets 2010 Hall of Fame Induction? Which members of the Brooklyn Dodgers will Fred Wilpon honor this time - Duke Snider? Pee Wee Reese? Oh, wait, there are actually going to be Mets honored! Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden are the two biggest names. Of course, both have more World Series rings as Yankees than as Mets, but I digress.

Maybe I should try for Mets Opening Day tickets, which are shockingly still available. When the Yankees hold their Opening Day this season, they'll hoist their 2009 World Championship flag. I hear that the Mets will put up their own flag to commemorate their 2009 season - the Red Cross flag!


What do you think? Tell us about it!

Still plenty of good tickets available for Citi Field's Subway Series

For all the hullabaloo and to-do over unsold Yankee tickets at premium games, it looks like their crosstown rivals are having similar problems. Believe it or not, the Mets still have Subway Series tickets for sale.

Here's the story. If you'll remember, for most of the season, the only way to get guaranteed Subway Series tickets for Citi Field this year was either to buy some partial season ticket plan or pack or whatever they call it in Metsland.

And a few weeks ago, Mets.com had their annual drawing for the opportunity to buy Subway Series tickets. Squawker Jon and I both registered for it, as we've done each year.

But this is the first year one of us actually got chosen. Jon's name was drawn last week, so he had the opportunity to buy four tickets. He got ducats for us for Friday and Sunday.

Jon and I were all pleased with our luck. Then a few days later, I was surprised when I got picked for the second chance ticket-buying opportunity. I passed on it, as I was out of town for the weekend. But I wondered why the tickets weren't sold.

Then this morning, I see in my email yet another ticket-buying opportunity - this one for the general public - for this weekend's series. Granted, all the cheap seats are gone. But there are still other seats available. I was offered Caesars Club Bronze tickets for each of the game. At $161 a ducat, they're too rich for my blood, but they're a bargain compared to the $900 tickets the Yanks still have available for Yankees-Red Sox.

The Mets, of course, still have some of their most expensive tickets - the Delta Club Gold ones - available. They will set you back $525 a piece. Again, compared to Yankee tickets, they are a bargain.

Granted, the Mets are drawing just under 39,000 a game, in a 44,000 or so capacity stadium (42,000 seats plus standing room.) But, much like Yankee Stadium, they appear to also be having a problem selling the most expensive seats. No surprise there. What is surprising to me are all those $161 seats available - I found them for each day. At Yankee Stadium, those type of tickets were long gone before their own Subway Series weekend.

At any rate, Squawker Jon and I, for the first time ever, will be going to two Subway Series games in the same weekend. I'm going to be sure and cheer a lot for my man Luis Castillo!

What do you think? Leave us a comment!

A-Rod's return means A-Squawker field trip to Yankee Stadium

Quick note to our readers: Squawker Jon and I are going to tonight's Yankee game so we can see Alex Rodriguez's debut at the new Yankee Stadium. Well, I'm going for that. Jon is going to celebrate Cup Night.

I bought two "Grandstand Dugout" tickets on StubHub for $17 each, plus service fees. The face value is $30 each. The tickets appear to be pretty good - very close to home plate, albeit a little high up.

Surprisingly - or maybe not so surprisingly, given that tonight is the night A-Rod returns - tickets were going fast today, and there were only about 1500 left. Several times, I tried to buy tickets that looked like a good deal, only to have somebody else buy them up before me.

Tonight will be a big test, I think, of the new Yankee Stadium. The weather is good, and it's an "event night," with A-Rod's return. If the seats aren't close to being filled, and if the crowd is lame, that won't be a good sign for the new Stadium.

But if it is, it will show the power of Alex Rodriguez to "put fannies in the seats," as George Steinbrenner used to say.

As I wrote earlier, I'm predicting A-Rod hits a homer. I'm also hoping that Phil Hughes pitches better than the last game I saw him at, against the Red Sox. And I hope that the crowd is raucous and loud and fun!

What do you think? Leave us a comment!

Yankee front office forgets that this is a two-team town

Yankee COO Lonn Trost suggested yesterday that "what we're really talking about is memories" in the team's latest money-grab in selling off parts of the old Stadium. But maybe the team's front office ought to worry about making new memories. And maybe they also ought to worry about the the other team in town making new memories.

I watched the first half of last night's Yankee game at home, and I was amazed at how vocal the Toronto crowd was. And they even had people sitting in the good seats and everything! Too bad Roy Halladay killed the Yanks, as he always seems to do. Oh, and Derek Jeter has a sore oblique.

But I missed seeing the second half of last night's game, as I had a doctor's appointment (my MD has evening hours.) I knew the waiting room had a TV, so I rather cavalierly assumed that the people waiting there would be watching the Yankee game. Well, there was a baseball game on, alright, but it was the Mets. (I can only imagine what Squawker reader Uncle Mike's reaction would have been if he were in the waiting room!)

So while I did miss the streaker, I got to see Carlos Beltran steal third, his walkoff walk (which I did call as soon as he came up to the plate!) and the Mets' victory. The team seems to have recovered nicely from me jinxing them by showing up at Citi Field Monday night.

My point in bringing up the Mets is this: New York is a two-team town, although the Yankee front office acts like it isn't. And one of the big advantages the Yanks had over the Mets - the better stadium - is no longer there. Squawker reader Peggy may love the new Yankee Stadium, but I think Citi Field (gulp!) has a heck of a lot going for it that the new ballpark in the Bronx doesn't.

The Yanks don't want kids to mess up their precious Legends seating, while the Mets have a whole Kiddie Field/FanFest section in their ballpark. Big difference.

And the fact that the Yanks still haven't sold out a game shows that I'm not the only one who isn't feeling the new Stadium. But Lonn Trost has an explanation for that too - like Milli Vanilli, he blames it on the rain. When asked about the empty seats, he said:

"Can you really tell what's taking place in two homestands with 90 percent of them in rain? I can't.''

90% rain? Really? Ross from New Stadium Insider has been tracking the attendance - and the weather conditions - for each game. Here's the reality, from his site:

4-16-09 1:08 PM/ 48,271 / Sunny, lower 60's
4-17-09 1:05 PM/ 45,101 / Sunny, upper 60's
4-18-09 3:40 PM/45,167 / Partly Sunny, mid 70's
4-19-09 1:05 PM/ 43,068 / Mostly Cloudy, mid 60's
4-21-09 7:05 PM/ 42,065 / Cloudy/drizzle, low 50's
4-22-09 1:05 PM / 43,342 / Cloudy/drizzle, low 50's
4-30-09 7:05 PM / 43,388 / Cloudy, upper 50's
5-1-09 7:05 PM / 44,058 / Cloudy/rain showers, mid 60's
5-2-09 1:05 PM / 44,970 / Sunny mid 60's
5-4-09 7:05 PM / 46,426 / Rain, low 50's (2:16 rain delay at start)
5-5-09 7:05 PM / 46.810 / rain showers, upper 40's
5-6-09 7:05 PM / 42,585 / Cloudy/rain showers, upper 50's
5-7-09 7:05 PM / 43,769 / Partly Cloudy, lower 60's

True, the weather has been bad, but not as bad as Trost is claiming.

Aside from Trost's weather exaggeration, it appears that no matter how bad the weather, the paid attendance is going to be at least 42,000 per game. But most of these games have had a lot fewer people show up, as evidenced by all those empty seats on TV.

At any rate, what Trost and Randy Levine miss is this - there is a distinct lack of buzz surrounding the Yanks this year. And selling overpriced trinkets from the old ballpark only serves to emphasize that the front office seems more concerned with making money than giving regular fans an experience to remember. It would be nice if this team would stop living in the glory days of the past and try to focus on giving all fans - not just the ones making six figures - a great experience now.

It pains me as a Yankee fan to see the team I love run this way. Where have you gone, George Steinbrenner?

What do you think? Leave us a comment!

Lonn Trost remembers the little people - with $399 bleacher seats

Got a few thousand bucks burning a hole in your bucket? It's your lucky day! Lonn Trost, still licking his wounds from the $2600 seats debacle, and Steiner Sports announced the latest thing Yankee fans are being pushed to spend money on - overpriced seats, grass and dirt from the new Stadium.

According to USA Today:

Yankees Steiner Collectibles is "concerned" about how the economic recession will impact sales, said Brandon Steiner, chief executive of Steiner Sports. "We have to be careful on the prices. We're not going to stick some insane prices in people's faces," he said.

At the low end, there will be items under a few hundred dollars such as the Monument Park bricks, seatbacks and bleachers seats the "Average Joe" will be able to buy, he said.

Um, Brandon, charging $399 for a bleacher seat is an insane price. So is selling an inch of freeze-dried grass for $80. Not to mention that when the city had a sale a few years ago of Stadium seats, three of them went for $1500 (I remember because I ordered the seats for my brother, who was in Iraq at the time.) Now, these same seats are $750 a piece.

You can also bid on the chance to win Jeffrey Maier's seat at Yankee Stadium. This idea is just so wrong on so many levels. First off, Maier wasn't even sitting when he interfered with Tony Tarasco - remember, he ran up against the right field wall.

Second, there were six World Championships in the post-1973 Stadium, with a heck of a lot more memorable moments than the Maier oddity. Not to mention all the famous home run balls landing in those seats, and all the celebrities who watched a game at the Stadium over the years.

And the one individual seat you can buy that commemorates a specific event is where a 12-year-old kid sat in 1996 before he left his seat to interfere with a game? Good grief.

Announcing yet another money grab for the Yanks wasn't even the more odious thing Trost did today. Get this - when asked if the Yankees would change their policy of not allowing fans near field level for batting practice, the way most teams do, Trost said no:

"There's an area by the Legends Suite which is not an area that fans can get into," Trost said. "If you purchase a suite, do you want somebody in your suite? If you purchase a home, do you want somebody in your home?"

My thoughts:

* What an inadvertently telling observation on Trost's part, that no "fans" have seats in the luxury seating area.

* Since when did a seat become a suite? Last time I checked, those seats may be plush, with teak armrests and all, but they don't have walls or roofs. Thanks for playing, Lonn.

* If somebody is purchasing a home by buying Yankee tickets, do they get to do what they want with the property? Or sell their own advertising on the seats? How about sleeping there? After all, it's their home!

* How many of the rich people are actually in their seats during batting practice, anyway? Two?

* And the Yanks aren't just banning fans from the rich people's area - you can't even watch batting practice from the first row of seats in the outfield unless they're your seats. Ridiculous.

* Somehow, virtually every other team has figured out a way to let the fans be close to the field during batting practice, and still send them back to their seats before the game. And some of them even have - shocker - regular autograph sessions featuring their players. Imagine that.

Granted, even if fans were allowed to be somewhere in the field section, the chances are pretty slim that fans would actually get an autograph at a Yankee game. I've been going to games since the 1970s, and I got very few autographs of Bomber players. What I used to do instead is go to the visitors' side and ask them for autographs instead. Much better odds. At any rate, it's still fun to see the players interact. But only the rich people get to see that up close and personal now.

At any rate, it's amazing how Lonn Trost still has a job, after so mismanaging the new Stadium, on everything from the dimensions to the pricing to customer service. It's mind-boggling.

What do you think? Leave us a comment!

Are the Joba Rules ticking off the opposition?

The Yankees won yesterday's Mother's Day game, and there were plenty of pink bats, wristbands and spikes around, but the most noteworthy thing that happened was something the opposition did.

Aubrey Huff mocked Joba Chamberlain - twice - with fist pumps and what looked like roars as he rounded the bases after hitting a homer. He explained it this way:

"He's done it a couple of times to me when he's struck me out," Huff said. "For me, it's just in good fun. I always told the guys that if I get him, I'm going to give him a nice fist pump. For me, it wasn't really showing anybody up."

Chamberlain spoke about it after yesterday's game:

I'm here to win ballgames. I'm not here to make friends, to be honest with you.

He's got the reality show cliches down. What, is he auditioning for the next edition of "Survivor"?

Here's the thing - all the team-constructed nonsense in recent years about how the Yankees are so classy has hamstrung the team. And since Joba is the only Yankee pitcher in recent years to show emotion and pitch inside a lot, it's easy for other teams to single him out.

Is Chamberlain any worse than other cocky young pitchers out there? Not really. But because he's a Yankee, he's a target. It's the same reason why Jon Lester was so indignant when Chamberlain hit Jason Bay, when the Sox have been using Yankee players as target practice for half a decade. Because the Yanks are supposed to be classy, and above all that.

Maybe Joba should be all restrained, the way Jonathan Papelbon was after yesterday's Red Sox-Rays victory (click here to see what I'm talking about.)

I hope Aubrey Huff gets the chance to have some fun with mocking the Sox closer this year. Maybe Huff can imitate the whole Papelbon Riverdance thing while circling the bases. Sheesh.

* * *

In other news, it looks like the mainstream media is finally noticing what Yankee bloggers have been squawking about for weeks - that the secondary ticket market has completely collapsed. Crains New York notes that many of the prices on StubHub et al for Yankee Stadium tickets are below face value. The article also says:

And bargains are harder to find for weekend games and matches against hot teams like the world champion Philadelphia Phillies or legendary rivals like the Boston Red Sox.

That may be the case for future Red Sox games, but not for the ones from last week. Not only did I get a Yankees-Red Sox ticket for half price, but there were Yankees-Red Sox tickets for Tuesday night's game on sale Tuesday afternoon on for as little as $3 a piece!

Oh, and how about that Johnny Damon? He's very quietly hitting up a storm this year!

What do you think? Leave us a comment!

Rain delay debacle: Yankees get slammed for not allowing re-entry

There's a whole to-do today over angry Yankee fans leaving last night's game thinking that it would be called, only to be denied re-entry when they tried to go back to the Stadium. New Stadium Insider and Was Watching are some of the blogs talking about it.

Some of the security guards and the people with the "How May I Help You" signs told fans they thought the game would be canceled. So fans left, before there was an official announcement.

I have some thoughts on this because I was at the game last night, and, as I wrote earlier, it was a pretty miserable evening. I myself asked a security guard if he thought the game would be played. He gave me an honest opinion and told me, "No," saying that it was raining worse than the day before, when that game was cancelled.

But, unlike these angry fans, I didn't leave. Why? Because I was waiting to hear if there was going to be an official announcement. And I knew that if I left before the game was called, and then tried to come back in, that I would have been denied re-entry, just as these fans were.

The Yanks are in a no-win situation, though. If they had called the game after two hours of fans standing around in the rain, fans would have been furious, and some would have demanded their money back for food, parking, etc.

The best thing the Yanks could have done was have called the game in the first place - it was a miserable night from start to finish - but then some fans would have complained about that as well.

I have had a lot to gripe about regarding Yankeeland this year, but I can't blame them for the fans not waiting to hear an official announcement before leaving. They should know better.

Then again, maybe I should blame the Yanks for the fact that the game went on so late, that I didn't get home until 3:15 a.m. The front office should know that the Staten Island ferry only runs once an hour at that time of night. Waaaaahhh! Unfair!

What do you think? Leave us a comment!

A long evening waiting for - and watching - Yankees-Red Sox

Maybe I outsmarted myself after all with the whole getting StubHub tickets for half price thing. I was thinking it would be okay if Monday's game were rained out, as I'd have a decent seat for a future Yankees-Red Sox game this summer.

So much for that clever thinking. Unfortunately, the game wasn't rained out - it just started 2 hours and 15 minutes late. And the weather was miserable. I had on my heavy winter Yankee coat, and I was still freezing and wet for most of the evening.

I ran into Freddy the Fan during the rain delay, and told him that bloggers were concerned that he wasn't getting regular game access. He said everything's been settled, and he doesn't have to worry about how he's getting into the stadium any more. Thank goodness!

And so much for the new stadium being more hospitable during rain delays. The open area on the side of the upper deck concourse means that the rain and wind whips in. The new stadium concourses get very crowded during weather delays, especially by the food lines.

At least there were not one but two Disco Stu greatest hit video montages on the big screen. The screen showed lots and lots of wet fans dancing. Me, I was too cold to do much of anything!

I'm still unimpressed with the way the interior looks. I told Baseball Honeymoon co-hosts Lisa Winston and Wayne Wilentz that I felt like I was late for class when I walking up the ramps, and I still feel that way.

As for the food, it was a mixed experience. I was only planning on having a shrimp tempura roll, which was actually pretty tasty. But it was a long evening, so I got hungry later on. I had a terrible hot dog, which I ended up throwing out most of. Later on, when I was freezing, I got a hot Italian sausage sandwich, which wasn't good, either.

Other than seeing Joe Girardi quickly thrown out, we didn't know any of the intrigue about sign-stealing or Jorge Posada getting hurt. Fans seemed to get a kick over the ball being buzzed by Dustin Pedroia, though. Incidentally, he has the absolute worst big screen picture of any Red Sox. It makes driver's license shots look like they were done by Avedon.

And thumbs down on the new Red Sox road uniforms. They look like the Yankee away uniforms - very bland and boring.

The game seemed to turn around after Girardi got tossed - I don't know if it inspired the team or what, but Johnny Damon hit a homer right after, and then Mark Teixeira did. And later on in the game, Mark sent another "Tex message," as John Sterling called it.

The hour was getting late - the game went on past one a.m. - but I didn't want to leave, even though at this time of night, the Staten Island Ferry only runs once an hour. I was hoping the Yanks would pull out a victory for the ages.

So in the ninth inning, when the Yanks got to Jonathan Papelbon, I really expected the Yanks to rally and win. I could just picture seeing Mark Teixeira hitting his third homer of the game and having his so-called "True Yankee" moment. When that didn't happen, I still expected the Yanks to win, to make the evening's misery worthwhile. Unfortunately, even though they loaded the bases, the rally fizzled, the rain drizzled, and I didn't get home until 3:15 a.m. Not exactly a game for the memory books!

What do you think? Leave us a comment!

Phil of the Future shows Yankees' future

Last night's game may only count as just one out of 162, but I still found it incredibly satisfying to watch. As Subway Squawkers reader Roger9 put it:

Finally, a night where we don't have to walk away in disgust. It all came together...young pitching, hitting...everything! Will it carry over and become infectious? Only time will tell.

Seeing Phil Hughes pitch so well was thrilling to watch. So was that 10-run inning! Loved seeing the look on Jose Molina's face after his grand slam - talk about looking happy to be there!

Finally, Phil of the Future ended up being Phil of the Present. And Mark Melancon looked pretty nifty as well. Oh, and A-Rod is getting closer to returning to the field. This is all great news for the Yankees, after a lousy week.

One question, though - what happened to Hughes' glasses? There was a whole to-do that he needed glasses last season. Is he wearing contacts now?

* * *

I was thinking some more about the Yankees lowering ticket prices. I have to say that I find it delicious to see the front office humiliated into doing this. Does that make me a bad person?

Here's the thing - Randy Levine and Lonn Trost had such hubris. They somehow thought that they could get away with charging literally thousands of dollars more for their top tickets than any other team. This, during the worst economic times since the Great Depression. Talk about out of touch.

Today's New York Times talks about why the prices were lowered:

“It was starting to hurt the overall brand,” said Donny Deutsch, chairman of Deutsch Inc., an advertising agency, when asked about the original pricing strategy. “People start asking whether you care about the fans.”

Yep. Why is it that most baseball teams, including top draws like the Red Sox, Dodgers, and Cubs, noticed the economic climate six months ago, and instituted price freezes? Some teams, like the Giants, even lowered some of their prices this year.

Yet the Yanks kept on pushing their ridiculous ticket prices, acting like they were such great businessmen. They're not. It's not exactly surprising that the same front office who had between $300 and 500 million in cost overruns on the new stadium also butchered the ticket pricing. How is it that these folks get to keep their jobs?

While the ticket prices really should be lowered so that the average person can afford more of their seats, I do enjoy seeing Trost and Levine with egg on their faces. Heh.

What do you think? Leave us a comment!

How the new Yankee Stadium is like 'Young Frankenstein' on Broadway

For the last year, we've been hearing justification for the higher Yankee Stadium ticket prices by people comparing the experience to going to a Broadway show.

One problem with that analogy, as the New York Post's Phil Mushnick notes, is that "you can't script games or pre-determine their value, not when there are blowouts, two-hour rain delays and when the raise-the-ticket-prices anabolic sluggers are intentionally walked."

Unfortunately for the Yanks, as Wallace Matthews and Richard Bradley have written, the new Stadium does resemble a Broadway show - "Young Frankenstein." And no, that's not exactly a compliment.

"The New Mel Brooks Musical Young Frankenstein" - the musical's official title - opened in November 2007. Following in the footsteps of Brooks' smash "The Producers," the show was expected to be a monster hit (no pun intended.) But it didn't quite work out that way.

A year later, when the show's producers announced it was closing, the news "an unusual guilty glee among theater people," according to the New York Times. Why such schadenfreude? From the article:

“Young Frankenstein” committed a sin that many in the theater apparently found particularly hard to forgive: arrogance.

Here's what the producers of the show did to tick off the theater community:

• Ditched the St. James Theater, where "The Producers," the show's predecessor, had run, in favor of the Hilton Theater,
• Instituted premium pricing before the show even opened, with good seats costing as much as $450,
• Limited group sales to 50 per show (most group ticket sales are above 250),
• Refused to reveal weekly box office numbers, something that is standard in the theater industry,
• And had an attitude of entitlement, and as the Times put it, "excessive hubris."

The show's producers did eventually lower ticket prices, and worked more with group sales, but by then, the damage was done, the buzz was bad among the theater community, and "Young Frankenstein" had to close.

As Don Vaccaro, chief executive of TicketNetwork.com, a ticket resale company, told the Times this:

“If they would have started off with a lower price in the beginning, the show would have had legs.

“The word of mouth wasn’t that bad, but when they hyped it up so much, everybody was disappointed. Word of mouth isn’t created by wealthy people buying $250 and $450 tickets, it is created by the theater community and other people.”

Sound familiar?

What do you think? Leave us a comment.