Aided by hash weather, the Yankees continue their war on fans

Yesterday, in a biting cold wind, unconnected Yankee fans had to hike across the Bronx to print out their StubHub tickets, because the franchise doesn't want them ruining the game experience for its high-roller clients, in their taxpayer-subsidized park.

The Yankees won't let fans print-out StubHub tickets at home, requiring them to get their tickets at an office several blocks from the stadium. Coupled with the distance from their parking garages, it meant some fans walked miles.

The Times got it: 

[George] Magnello was one of hundreds of Yankees fans who, having made online purchases from StubHub, were forced to walk seven-tenths of a mile south from Yankee Stadium to a StubHub outlet to pick up real tickets. No longer could they simply print their StubHub tickets at home on paper, with nothing more required to pass through the turnstile than the bar code on the printout.

This is why the HBO comedian John Oliver calls the Yankees "the biggest elitist assholes in all of sports," and why two fans dressed as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sat behind home plate yesterday. Oliver sent them to the game. (I would have dressed in money with a Hal Steinbrenner mask.)

The Yankees lost yesterday, but ownership won: It created a viable deterrent for every poor fan who turns to the secondary market, because he or she couldn't afford season tickets, or they don't have some corporate or family tie to the money machinery. If you were thinking of taking your grandfather to the game, factor in the extra two-mile walk... and then see if the Mets are playing.

The simple fact is this: For the wealthiest of the wealthy, games are more fun if nobody shows up. Shorter lines to the Hard Rock. Easier access to the steakhouse. It's a heightened experience, if the Yankees can only weed out the riffraff.

On the field, the Yankees yesterday also did their part. They offered fans a four-hour re-enactment of everything that was tiresome - if not depressing - about the 2015 team. They leaped out to a 2-0 lead, then went into hibernation, inning after inning, serving up slow-footed double-play grounders and - of course - their signature strikeouts. To top it off, they blew the game in the eighth with a disastrous fielding play, and then - (icing on the cake here) - they blamed everything on the umps.

I wonder if this will be the year it finally happens.