So what?

 

Couldn't help but feel the pulsations of John Coltrane and Miles Davis' "So What" after learning of last night's outstanding effort against the team once known as the Cleveland Napoleons.

4-0, with all of four scattered singles and a solitary double...against a journeyman busher with a lifetime record of 14-19 and a 4.40 ERA going into the game.

Wow.

I also noticed that the gate was 36,759. Not bad for a weeknight against Cleveland. Though as Casey Stengel liked to say, "The attendance was robbed."

For that matter, just before the Yanks went off on their recent road trip, they cleared over 1 million fans for the season—what used to be the gold standard for the majors.  Of course, that benchmark has long been exceeded. 

In fact, since the end of World War II, the Bombers have never drawn fewer than 1 million fans in a season that was not shortened by work stoppages. Even in most of those years—1981, 1994, and 1995—the Yanks drew over a mill. 

Only in 1972, when an early stoppage cost them Opening Day and three other games, did they fall just 34,000 short of that magic mark.  

So...1946-2025, or 78 seasons, not counting that blighted 1972 season or the Covid non-attendance year of 2020, the Yanks drew at least a million fans. Save for the shaky, 2021 Year-After-Covid, they've drawn over 2 million since the mid-1990s, over 3 million every year starting with 1999, and over 4 million—including the second-largest seasonal draw, ever—from 2005-2008.  

After which, the Yanks' insistence on yet another, heavily subsidized ballpark designed more than ever to serve the very rich, made it literally impossible to draw over 4 million. 

(All in all, since the Stadium held up to 82,000 in the 1930s, the Yanks have eliminated some 36,000 seats for the regular customers, or about an entire Fenway.)

In those 78 seasons since WW II, the Yankees also led the AL in attendance 41 separate times, while finishing second 11 times, and third, 9 times. Win, place, or show, 61 seasons out of 78. 

Not bad.

But that hasn't stopped the Yanks from accepting two free or almost free new stadiums—even at the expense of destroying a neighborhood park. It hasn't, since the rise of HAL, led them to go all out to win a World Series again. 

It has led to far too many June (and October) swoons in the last 20 years. Too many nights like last night, when the rhythms of "So What" seemed louder and louder as the Yanks mailed it in.

Hey, I know: these things happen. It's a long season. Every team says "So what" from time to time. But when you start charging Broadway prices for the experience...it's not that great an experience.

As noted in my recent discussion with Doug, we're a better city than the Yankees or all these goniff sports owners deserve. But they're not going to stop ripping us off until we get wise.