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Monday, July 12, 2021

Fire Sale

 

Back in the early part of the century, fans would routinely pay top prices for tickets to a weekend Yankees / Red Sox series.  My throat still hurts from yelling at some of those games.  The passion was unbridled and the action was non-stop.


It seems times have changed.  I received the email below from the Group Sales Department of the New York Yankees just a few minutes ago:

From: [Yankee Employee's name]
Sent: Monday, July 12, 2021 1:42 PM
To: 'localbargainjerk@gmail.com' <localbargainjerk@gmail.com>
Subject: Yankees vs Red Sox - Exclusive Group Tickets 


Hi LBJ,

Hope you’re doing well!  As a benefit of being a past Group buyer, we recently put together a link to purchase groups of 8+ tickets for the upcoming Red Sox series next weekend! See info below: 

Very simple for you to grab a group of friends and enjoy the best rivalry in sports at a discounted rate. Tickets start at just $50!

Best,

[Yankee Employee's name]
Account Executive
New York Yankees

P.S.  No plans this weekend?  We just added some brand-new seat locations to this offer! Tickets start at just $50 and are going quickly!  


Could it be that the NYY are trying to avoid the embarrassment of a sea of empty seats for what was once the season's guaranteed biggest sell-out?  

This organization  with its sky-high prices, mediocre on-field product, uninspired players, sleepwalking manager, etc.  has clearly alienated its fan base.  An offer like this is the tip of the iceberg.  There had been some discussion on this blog about holding a 2021 IIHIIFIIc Meet-up at a non-stadium location as a form of protest against Hal and the putrid product he's trying to put over on us.  The email above perhaps underscores why such a move might not be a bad idea.

When the host team of the game's marquee rivalry needs to give away cheap wieners to entice indifferent fans, the game itself is in trouble.  The owners' television-fueled greed of the 1980s and 1990s has finally caught up with them: Year after year of post-season games ending after midnight all but eliminated the possibility of any child back then being able to watch the games.  Well, guess what: All those children who never got to see a World Series game have grown up and are now busy NOT buying THEIR children tickets to games.  Games which, by the way, are so riddled with ads they invariably last 4+ hours.  I won't even mention the "modern" preoccupation with statistics.  The game's current overarching focus on sterile concepts such as "exit velocity"  versus the simple approach of putting men on base and making things happen  has robbed us of some of the game's traditional pleasures.  You know, things like "action".

I'll leave the discerning fans of this blog with a Zen question:

Q: Does an offer of a discount to what should be one of the biggest series of the season mean the Yankees are in trouble OR does it mean the game of baseball is in trouble?

A: Yes. 

 

19 comments:

HoraceClarke66 said...

Amen, LBJ! Brilliantly put!

Anonymous said...

I got the same email as I noted this morning.
They will inflate the attendance, but revenue will be down.

DON'T BE DUPED.
DIVEST-BOYCOTT
VIVA LA-REVOLUTION

The Archangel

ranger_lp said...

LBJ...you should add that there are millions of people still out of work and there are still people out there who are scared of getting COVID.

13bit said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Great post LBJ. And yes to both questions. It's bad enough that the game itself is in trouble but with this suckfest ... ha ha ... this team will be bleeding fans like flies coming out of a rotted corpse.

The Hammer of God

13bit said...

Spot on, LBJ. I made a mistake, dictating another post. No matter.

I liked your theory on why parents now are not sending their kids to games.

The national pastime has become a drag.

Ken of Brooklyn said...

And EXCELLENT post LBJ, Bravo!

RE The Meet Up.
I would really like to figure out how we could have another IIHIIFIIC gathering somewhere, maybe at a dependable sports bar in mid-town Manhattan?, to say hi to old friends, and put faces to names to the awesome new friends on this site.
Dearest Moderators, maybe we could create a separate Meet Up post that we can keep updating to fine tune the plan, if it's better for folks in mid or late August, or early September???, whenever we can maximize the amount of people in attendance.

LONG LIVE IIHIIFIIC!!!!!!!

FuuuuUUUUuuuuck you Hal!

Local Bargain Jerk said...


dependable sports bar in mid-town Manhattan?

KOB:

You mentioned this before....

While I am a fierce advocate of the place in which we met last time (mostly because I think it's one of the best bars on this planet), I am flexible enough to consider a bar in mid-town, readily accessible, as you pointed out, to Penn Station.  Have you ever been to the Molly Wee?  It's at approximately 30th and 8th.  I would look it up but this is a comment intended to further the conversation, not do detailed logistics.  Yet.

Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside said...

Hal can take his free hot dog and fuck himself with it.

Ken of Brooklyn said...

Hi LBJ,
Re. >dependable sport bars in Manhattan,,,

I'm not familiar to the Molly Wee, though I can certainly do some reconnaissance and check it out in person since I'm local. When I did a search for sports bars that would absolutely be playing the Yankees game, there were several that I found, then I Yelped for reviews. The one that stood out was the District tap House on W 38th, there are 20 televisions to choose from so the Yankees would definitely be playing, and they seem to have an infinite selection of craft beers, LOL. Though I also loved the vibe of the bar that we met at before, so I'm more than happy to go anywhere that seemed to fit that bill. I'm in deep Brooklyn, so my idea for choosing a bar in midtown was to try and make it as easy as possible for those traveling distances to reach the city, usually through Penn Station or Grand Central, since I remember many/most of you had commuted from out of the city to get here before.

Crossing fingers we can make this happen again,,,,,

Anonymous said...

Most of the best sports bars are not in midtown, with the exception of Foley's.

https://www.thrillist.com/drink/new-york/best-sports-bars-nyc

JM said...

I think it has to be in Manhattan, for one. And if we choose Standings, I can walk from my apartment in about five minutes. Maybe less.

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Local Bargain Jerk said...


Standings looks like a fine venue.

Local Bargain Jerk said...


If Dr. Believe is in, I'm in.

TheWinWarblist said...

The only questions are which bar and will Dr Believe be there too?

TheWinWarblist said...

Location
The Molly Wee is perfectly situated in the heart of mid-town west,
we are only one block from Penn Station, Madison Square Garden, and The Main Post Offices which is opened 24 hours a day,
and 3 blocks from Macys and 2 blocks from Manhattan Mall.

Address:
402 8th Avenue
New York, NY 10001

TheWinWarblist said...

Standings looks goo too.

I'll go anywhere as long as I'm not on call.

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