Baseball Fans Helping Other Baseball Fans

You will wonder what this has to do with baseball as you read, but I have to tell the whole story. It begins as such:

There was an accident on the NJ Garden State Parkway Wednesday that shut the southbound road 8 miles above Exit 74. The accident was at Exit 74, A truck hit the exit overpass. http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080605/NEWS/806050571

It took me 3 hours, 47 minutes to get from the Toms River Tolls to my house last night' a distance of 9.7 miles. the overpass road is shut indefinitely for repairs, cutting 80% of my town off from a direct route into the town center, and isolating the people who live west of the Garden State Parkway from shopping, schools and gasoline.

I was stuck in traffic at ~6:30 PM. I would have been home in time to see last night's Yankee Game. I sale the 9th inning, that's all. I was trapped in the car and in my area of NJ the radio broadcast did not reach. I also left he XM radio home that day by accident. No baseball.

Fortunately I got some game updates from my friend Mike, (Check out -New York Yankee Update). Proving that true Yankee fans will always help other Yankee fans. Mike by the way was stuck in the same traffic mess hours earlier. Today's blog isn't so much about baseball but baseball friendships.

I met Mike online through Myspace. From time to time I have actually socialized with Mike and his wife; we like the same local band. Mike is one of the many NYY fans I have met online and a decent egg.

Mike provided me with a few game updates by testing my PDA. Mike knows the feeling of desperation and suicide when you are trapped in your car for hours. The game updates helped me forget about committing suicide. After an hour in car you become suicidal when the car has only gone 1 mile and there is no place to go. Mike is a true Yankee fan and a source of volumes of Yankee history.

If you have not read the New York Yankke Update, you should, especially the archives.

MLB Opening Day

With a new full slate completed, MLB can chalk up the success of completing games to Mother Nature. Only the Yankee Home Opener was delayed, and having lived and breathed at in and in the rainless 6 hours after the game was called; postponing the Yankee game tonight is classified as a big mistake. Hopefully it will be the only mistake the Yankees make this year. Glamourbee and I will return to the Bronx tonight and hopefully not freeze.

For the last 2 years MLB has made the master schedule. This is done so that there are no conflicting big games in prime time MLB revenue slots. There is no consideration for the fans.

The desire for $$$ by Selig and MLB leads to weekend home games being scheduled in odd afternoon times. I guess Bud forgets ballparks sell out on weekend as it becomes a family affair. The traditional after lunch ball game is few and far between, so as not to tick off ESPN, FOX and other networks. Forcing baseball to 4 and 7PM on the weekends for east coast games. Explain that to your your little leaguer.

Baseball on March 31 is crap shoot. Even Vegas won't give odds on getting a better than 50% completion in. Worse yet many games of snow city teams are scheduled in the snow cities, instead of sending the northern climate affected teams to play in warmer or enclosed fields.

This year MLB is off the hook, because Mother Nature sent a warm front through Wisconsin, and Illinois in time to allow those games to be played in Florida evening like conditions, as opposed to freezer like conditions; which will be the case about the 4th inning of tonight's Yankee Home Opener, Part II. And God forbid we schedule a day night doubleheader.

Baseball is going the wayside of a family sport. The sport is under the under influences of the greedy money hungry commissioner's office and the greedy owners. It's time for Selig to go. As for the owners, the should all be ashamed. They will eventually price themselves out of fans; and even the Yankees, the most expensive ticket in baseball have stopped catering to the average Joe.

In the zeal to sell seats in the new digs in the Bronx, ~800 seats are being priced between $500-$2500 dollars, So far 200 seats have sold. In addition fan ticket prices were raised again this year. Contracts should be lower so that ticket prices can come down and all who want to can afford a nice seat. This is forcing many to minor league baseball, part of the overall success of the minor expansion of the last few years. It remains the most affordable professional sporting event for families.

MLB games are rapidly becoming a tax write off for uberpaid executives and businesses; most of whom don't really follow the game. They attend to have status, not to watch and spend more time talking business the the game.

My Yankee tickets are the one extravagance I give myself. I use some myself and give some away for business and family, and the rest sell off to fans what I can't use. However I always make sure the person is a fan of the game; an absolute must.

I am hoping Mother Nature pounds some sense into the owners, before they price themselves out of the game and a fan base.

Its time for some common sense to come to baseball management. You can't always count of Mother Nature being kind and the fans being there.

Crown Prince Hank

Just when we Yankee fans had gotten use to a little subdued activity from the owner, he, George turns the team over to his sons. After a six month honeymoon, Hank Steinbrenner has emerged as the new "Voice of the Yankees".

While promoting the team, he has also taken up where dear old George left off shooting off his mouth. Unlike his father the most controversial things so far as been to support the team and say that suspension for the Spring Trainings brawl are uncalled for and he will appeal.

Hank it appears is a chip off the old block, and while George rides off into the sunset, son Hank is going full blast into the spotlight.

For fans like me and many of my friends it is a sign of good things to come. George is the ultimate owner, a fan with money to spend to give his team the best. I have been a bit apprehensive of the future of my beloved Yankees with the hands of leadership changing this past year. However out of all the things that have come out of Spring Training, one thing is certain, the new commitment and support of the team by the owner is still there; as echoed in the statements made this spring by Hank Steinbrenner.

With 13 days till Opening Day, something else to look forward to, a committed energetic owner.

(Hank Steinbrenner photo from the NY Daily News)

The Beginning of the End

Although there has been no firm statement as such, the last season of Yankee baseball is about to begin at The House that Ruth Built.

The Cathedral of Baseball as many call it was built for $2.5 million dollars and opened it's gates on April 18, 1923. The under construction stadium was originally priced at ~$800,000,000. However the latest figures put final costs at $1.3 billion, just a little bit over budget roughly 39%. That seems just about right since the cost of gasoline has risen about the same since 2006 when construction began.

With the changing of the playing field has come the changing of the Steinbrenner management. Younger sons have taken the reins from George Steinbrenner. Rumors fly about George's health. However even for all his faults and follies, you do have to hope that if the rumors are true, and his health is failing, that George gets to see the first pitch tossed in the the new Yankee digs next year; after all he paid for most of it; and among fanatical sports owner-fans, George will always rein at the top.

There are 31 days till first pitch of the NY Yankee's Opening Day is tossed in the old stadium. I will be there as always, but this year, I am wondering if it will be the last time I feel that energy I get when I look at the playing field. My awe is based on the history that has been made in the Bronx in that old stadium; the many baseball hosts who must be walking the concourses and sitting next to the current crop of Yankees.

You have to wonder if that feeling will continue in the new stadium. Surely the baseball ghosts can walk across the street, but the new stadium is just that, brand spanking new. No history will have been made in it when it opens in 2009. Well I just guess I will have to wait and see if that occurs next year.