Schadenfreude

I know I promised our faithful readers (ok, maybe faithful reader? I guess it might be presumptuous to think more than one person is paying attention) the full propaganda spiel of the People's Army for the Liberation of Nick Swisher, but I came across this photograph linked in a Rob Neyer blog post, and thought I'd use it as an opportunity to rant about something that pisses me off about the New Yankee Stadium:

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVg98i0ninpoXHMXRxhiJWOOnh34PhBdBfcplLYnUIwDrtxe_0B1KX7ttg6e2OHpiUgOOenh19Z553naxj0qT3m-D4UFIBdYrwUvheQQsW97SFlYmai2VJXLkNnHXIz7jEGlHGzdMR7mj6/s1600-h/Yanks+empty+seats1.jpg

Given that I'm a Yankees fan, you'd probably assume this would be somewhat unsettling, but this picture really warms the cockles of my heart. Why? Because those are possibly some of the seats that cost more for a game than a lot of people in this country earn in a month, and if they're not, they likely aren't that much cheaper. I have not seen the seating chart for the New Stadium, so I don't know if those are the famous $2,625 seats, and they are at the tarp, which is probably far enough down the line that they're the bargain basement seats- somewhere in the infinitely more palatable $400-1,000 range or something equally as absurd. But sweet Jesus do the Yanks' ticket prices make my blood boil.


Neyer makes the valid point that the Yanks are uniquely positioned to build a ballpark for the rich because of where they are located and who they are, and that every other organization in the majors would build a ballpark for the rich if they could. But at heart, I am still one of those sappy traditionalists who loves the history and nostalgia of the game, and stuff like this absolutely makes me livid. It, to me, absolutely nukes the idea of a ballpark experience centered around a love of the game, and represents, buck naked for the world to see, the other side of the game- the fact that it is a business, and an extraordinarily lucrative one at that. I am not denying that the game has always been a business- or at least the modern major league version- (since 1901) I'm sure the earlier leagues were, I just don't know their history as well to speak definitively. Or that the sappy nostalgic aura that is attached to baseball is in one respect nothing more than the single greatest marketing scheme in American history.


That said, even people who got violently ill while watching Field of Dreams and who cannot stand the "baseball myth" have to admit that this myth is an important part of the game. I'm sure the New Yankee Stadium absolutely wallows in the history of the Bombers, as it well should- with the exception of the Montreal Canadiens, no other sports franchise in North America has the kind of extraordinary past that the Yankees do. But as I've observed in recent years while going to the recently closed version of Old Yankee Stadium, the Yankees have an annoying way of taking their illustrious history and beating you over the head with it until you finally cave in and buy your own unique piece, serially numbered to 8,499, for the bargain price of $199.95.


In his first post, Alec mentioned that I am a Yankees, Twins, and Phillies fan, and I never elaborated on how I came to that rather odd combination of three teams. My whole family is Yankee fans, and I was raised as one. Some of the most spectacular and memorable things I have ever seen on a baseball field, I saw in Yankee Stadium. Boomer's perfect game. Tino's blast into the upper deck off Langston in the '98 Series. Roger Clemens throwing the bat at Piazza. Jeter crowning himself "Mr. November." Paul O'Neill crying in right field the next night as 57,000 adoring fans chanted his name one last time. A-Rod's 500th home run. I know how special a trip to that place can be. But in recent years, I have to confess that every time I went to the Stadium, I left feeling like I had just been hustled in the most unpleasant of ways. Violated is a strong word, but that's really what it felt like. It became so bad that I must confess to actually consciously avoiding the Stadium if I could. There were days in the summers when I'd have a chance to go to a ballgame on the spur of the moment, and I honestly would choose Shea over Yankee Stadium because of how unpleasant that place became, and in spite of Shea being a first-class dump and my hatred of the Mets. What I think happened is that at some point, Yankees baseball stopped being the purpose of Yankee Stadium- the organization began to view the ballgame as simply a marketing tool to get people in the door so they could buy Yankees shirts and Yankees food and Yankees memrobilia. Obviously each major league organization wants to make money, but the thing is, they're ALL making money- even the f***ing Pirates and Royals and Athletics and Marlins are making money. What bothers me I guess is that most major league organizations at least try to pretend to value winning almost much as making money, although I suspect this is largely because they're all making money anyway, and the Yankees don't even try to pretend that winning ballgames is anywhere near their priority. If winning games helps them sell stuff, then winning games is good. But I just don't see the organization caring much about it past that.


I know that isn't really true, but that is absolutely the impression one gets from attending a Yankees game. Sorry for the rant. But seeing that picture just made me so happy, and reminded me of how pissed off I get at the Yankees organization. There were 7,000 empty seats at the second game of the season at the New Yankee Stadium, and I hope there are at least that many for the rest of the regular season. I want to see an insanely intense Yanks-Red Sox game on TV in June or July, and every time a foul pop drifts near the dugout, have the TV camera show a half-empty section behind the dugout. I want to see the economy rebound and at the same time, see season ticket renewals for 2010 plummet because people realize how obscene those prices are. I wish no ill will on the on-field product; I will continue to root for the Yankees as I have always done, despite my sometimes extreme frustrations with the way the organization is run. But I am desperately hoping that the Yankees' management gets unbelievably, royally, completely screwed. Like I'm talking "covered in peanut butter in a room full of rabid squirrels" screwed. And that when he returns, Xavier Nady stays firmly put on the bench with the exception of DHing in place of Matsui vs. left-handers. And that the Yanks start threatening to take away Sabathia Claus's cheeseburgers if he doesn't get his shit together. That's it for bile. Up next, probably tomorrow: the previously promised statement from the propoganda minister for the People's Army for the Liberation of Nick Swisher.