GOOD SEATS STILL AVAILABLE Like NY counterparts, Baltimore fans not fooled by Selig's fake playoff

Last night, the Yankees and Orioles started their most important series of the season, a virtual, loser-goes-home, four-game set. In such events, Game One is critical.

Baltimore's official attendance: 17,456.

No lie, either. Everywhere you looked, empty green seats.

This followed a weekend of well-exploited Yankee mediocrity against Boston, in which the blue seat backdrop casts doubts on NY's official attendance numbers - (40,481, 44,117, 49,046, 43,078; yeesh, the Yankees must have been counting eyes) -  likely jacked up by corporate and bigwig season ticket holders, those novelty fans for which the old Yankee Stadium was sacrificed.

Seventeen thousand fans in Camden Yards - that's 12,000 below Baltimore's 2013 per game average - for a must-win series against the hated Yankees. Wow.

Well, surely the crowds were dense in Cleveland, where the Indians are chasing the one-game playoff in Texas against Yu Darvish.  Surely, that great baseball city is entranced by the Selig Snatch and Grab, and when the Indians last night hosted the Royals, the fans turned out in droves, right? Droves!

Nine thousand, seven hundred, ninety four.  You'd see more people at a Star Trek convention.

Listen: I am a pathetic Yankee captive, a follower of the team, no matter what.  If Cashman signed George Zimmerman and Vladimir Putin, I'd somehow rationalize rooting for them, as long as they hit against John Lackey. But we must never forget the fake post-season being cynically dangled in front of our eyes like a zirconium broach  by MLB's marketing department. Fortunately, most fans are seeing through it.

For this season, the Yankees - (still in the hunt! they say on YES) - are just a few games above .500 - with a pitching staff in ruins and a middle of the order - Cano, Soriano & Granderson - comprised of streak hitters with zero reputations for rising to an occasion. If they're hot, whoopie; if they're cold, forget it. This month we have been chasing a mirage - a fairy tale notion that somehow, everything would change, and the gods would deliver us a miracle.

Well, we have lost four out of five. Ouch. It's killing me. But dammit, now and then I see those empty seats and smile. Most people have tuned it out. How 'bout them Jersey Giants!