Attendance is down, interest is down, and so are the Yankee back pages

Old George used to rule the NYC tabloids. When it came to the back pages, between April and October, other teams in Gotham fought for table scraps. They were the only game in town.

But yesterday's NY Times devoted a considerable amount of ink to the staggering drop in Yankee attendance over the last eight years.

The financial figures, from the public filings the Yankees are required to make on their stadium bonds, represent a 42 percent loss in ticket and suite revenues over the last seven seasons. And despite the team’s compelling play this season, attendance through the first quarter of their home schedule is down from the same point last year.

To anyone who roots for the Yankees, this should come as no surprise. The Yankees charge way too much and offer way too little. We have no Reggie and Thurman, no Jeter and Mariano. The last four years have brought us sleep-inducing mediocrity - sad, boring lineups that could not climb out of a fourth-inning 2-0 hole, much less generate hope during the month of September.

But the Times overlooked another indicator of the malaise:

This season, the Yankees are not converting wins into tabloid back pages. 

Thus far in the month of May - a month when the Yankees have played as well as anyone in baseball - the Mets still lead with 30.5 front and back covers. The Yankees have only 19. 

Part of this is that the tabloid back pages are no longer manifestations of success. In fact, the Knicks, Mets, Giants and Jets have received extensive coverage for horrible play - from Carmelo to Geno - often as a form of mockery and disgust. (See Charles Oakley.) Nevertheless, ink is ink, and the Yankees simply are not dominating the zeitgeist of New York. 

This should change if the 2017 team wins the AL East. But I believe the fans of New York know a scam when they see one - and the one-game Wild Card race is nothing more than fake news.