SB Nation User Blog: SportsLifer

Giants Giving Loyal Fans The Sack

SportsLifer — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 20:19:28 -0000

Posted on July 25, 2008 by sportslifer |

The New York Giants are Super Bowl winners, world champions.

But they are nothing but world chumps when it comes to treating their loyal fan base.

Several weeks back, the Giants announced that they would impose one-time, personal seat license fees on all ticket-holders to help raise revenue for their new stadium, below, scheduled to open in time for the 2010 season.

All current season ticket-holders are being hit with fees ranging from $1,000 to $20,000, depending upon seat location, for the right to buy tickets for the new Giants Stadium.

That amounts to a write-off for corporations and tip money for the rich and famous. But it’s a steep price for the average fan, the working-class hero, with a mortgage, bills and kids in school.

My friend Rich and his family have been Giants’ season-ticket holders for nearly 50 years, since 1960, before Y.A. Tittle, when the team played in Yankee Stadium. The tickets originally belonged to my buddy’s father, then were passed down to his sons.

They’re great seats, field level, around the 45-yard-line, 20 rows behind the Giants bench. Now Rich and his brother are facing a PSL of $10,000 for each seat, along with a rise in ticket prices from $90 to $140 per game.

They’re debating whether they to keep their seats, downgrade location, or give up the tickets entirely.

“We are not interested in getting new blood,” said Giants chief executive John Mara when asked if the PSL concept might result in the loss of present season ticket holders. “We have a very loyal fan base who have been there for a long time, and we want to keep them in the building.”

Although Mara said all the right worlds, the truth is some of those loyal fans will no longer be able to see their beloved Giants.

Get a life. Read the SportsLifer.

Bernie Goes Boom — Out of Yankee Stadium

SportsLifer — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 01:55:43 -0000

Posted on July 24, 2008 by sportslifer

According to legend, no player has ever hit a fair ball out of Yankee Stadium

Well, not exactly.

More than seven years ago, July 22, 2001, Yankees outfielder Bernie Williams hit a ball that left the stadium, over the old Yankee bullpen in right field and onto the elevated tracks of the 4 line.

I was at the ballpark with my family that day, a hot summer Sunday afternoon. We were sitting on the third base side, box seats. My son Dan, a teen-ager at the time, swears he saw the ball go out

“I saw it,” he said. “It went out in that little gap, over the wall and right onto the railroad tracks. “People noticed it, they were clapping. You didn’t believe me.”

Well, it was hard to believe.

“I didn’t see it,” Williams told the New York Post. “But I noticed that it never came back, so that should have been some indication it was out. Batting practice is a great relief and release of tension for me. I’ve had a lot of tension this year, so it’s kind of like hitting a punching bag. I always try to hit the ball hard, but that’s as hard as I’ve ever hit one. That’s a long way.”

It’s a feat that no Yankee slugger had ever accomplished before — not Babe Ruth, not Mickey Mantle, not Reggie Jackson.

Twice, Mantle came within several feet of hitting one out of Yankee Stadium, off Pete Ramos of the Washington Senators on Memorial Day, 1956, right, and against Bill Fischer of the Kansas City A’s on May 22, 1963. Both times the ball was still rising when it struck the facade in right field.

Josh Gibson and Frank Howard, among others, were reputed to have gone out of the Stadium, though neither has ever been proven.

But Bernie Williams did it for real. He even hit a home run in the game, a solo shot in the first inning, to help lift the Yankees to a 7-3 win over the Toronto Blue Jays.

Bernie finished his career with 287 home runs, 22 more in the playoffs. And one that didn’t count but went out of Yankee Stadium

Bernie goes Boom!

Get a life. Read the Sportslifer.

Yankee Numbers Don’t Add Up

SportsLifer — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 23:32:25 -0000

Entering the second half of the season, the numbers don’t add up for the New York Yankees. At the All-Star break, the Yankees were mired in third place, trailing both the Red Sox and the Devil Rays in the AL East..

And it doesn’t get any easier. Consider these numbers:

67: Games remaining for Yankees after All-Star break (considerably less than half)

43: Of the Yankees remaining 67 games are against teams currently above .500

7: Of the Yankees next 8 series are against teams currently above .500

10: Games remaining against traditional nemesis Angels

7: Yankees on opening day roster currently on the disabled list.

0: Number of wins by Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy (and Carl Pavano too

.713: Yankees OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging percentage) with RISP (runners in scoring position)

26: Yankee rank in the above category out of 30 teams

.238: Alex Rodriguez batting average with runners-in-scoring-position

32: Of the Yankees final 51 games are away from Yankee Stadium

4.59: Runs per game Yankees are averaging in 2008

5.98: Runs per game Yankees averaged in 2007

1993: Last year the Yankees failed to make the playoffs

Get a life. Read the SportsLifer

Say Hey Kid: Willie Mays Is The Greatest

SportsLifer — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 22:24:47 -0000

Say Hey Kid: Willie Mays Is The Greatest

Posted on July 18, 2008 by SportsLifer

Several years ago, my son, who is as big a baseball fan as I am, asked me who was the greatest ballplayer I ever saw….in person?

Willie Mays I replied without hesitation. It wasn’t even close.

Saw Williams and Musial, Mantle and Aaron, Ripken and Gwynn, and Bonds too.

Willie Mays, the Say Hey Kid, was the best.

As a kid in 1962, I saw Mays hit a grand slam at Candlestick Park against the Cubs. Later on, I saw him against the Mets at Shea Stadium.

And in 1972, I saw Mays, then with the Mets, and Henry Aaron at Shea. They both went hitless and wound up the evening still tied at 648 home runs apiece, trailing another pretty famous ballplayer name of Babe Ruth at that point in time.

Willie Mays would go on to hit 660 home runs, behind only his godson Barry Bonds, Aaron and Ruth. A four-time National League home run champion, Willie once hit four home runs in a single game, against the Braves in 1961. Not even Ruth, Aaron or Bonds ever did that.

He was Rookie of the Year in 1951 with the New York Giants, MVP in 1954 and 1965. He led the NL in stolen bases four times, and in triples three times. He won the batting title in 1954 with a .345 average, and finished .302 lifetime with 3,283 hits.

“I would love,” comedian and Giants fan Rob Schneider told Sports Illustrated recently, “to be the Willie Mays of anything.”

And he was equally as brilliant as a fielder. Mays won 12 straight Gold Gloves, and is perhaps best known for the most famous catch in baseball history, against Vic Wertz and the Cleveland Indians in deepest center field in the Polo Grounds, a catch that turned the 1954 World Series.

‘Where Triples Go to Die’
“Willie Mays and his glove,” Dodgers executive Fresco Thompson once said. “Where triples go to die.”

Two years ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Willie Mays on a flight from San Francisco to JFK. We didn’t talk during the flight, but when we got on the ground in New York I caught up with Willie and we walked together to baggage claim.

I told him about the conversation with my son. He smiled, and asked me which team I rooted for. I told him I was a Yankee fan.

“Well, why aren’t you a Mickey Mantle guy?” Willie asked.

“I loved Mickey, but I always thought you were the best,” I replied. “You were a better center fielder, and you hit more home runs. And you were faster than Mickey,”

“Not always,” said Willie. “”When Mickey came up, he was faster than any of us.”

Willie, Mickey and Joltin’ Joe
The discussion then turned to the 1951 World Series between the Giants and Yankees, and Willie asked me if I remembered the play where Mantle got hurt.

“I was still in the cradle when they played that World Series,” I said.

But I do remember reading about the play, how Joe DiMaggio called off Mickey for the ball at Yankee Stadium, and how Mantle stopped short, got his foot caught in a drainage cover and tore up his knee.”

“Do you know who hit the ball?” said Willie. He quickly added. “I did.”

Think of the convergence of great center-fielders on that one play — Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle (who was playing right tfield hat day) and Willie Mays.

That one play epitomized three Hall of Fame careers. Mantle, the legendary but oft-injured slugger. DiMaggio, the one-time greatest living ballplayer. Mays, the current greatest living ballplayer.

Say Hey!

Get a life. Read the SportsLifer.