Friday’s Game Was A Rain Out

It was a dark and nasty day on Friday and my entertainment event was the 7:05pm Yankee/Tampa Bay game at The House That Ruth Built. I have tickets to 6 of the remaining 10 home games, all bought early in the season in anticipation and expectation that the games would be meaningful in the pennant race. Well, I was wrong, dead wrong. Yes, I know, the Yankees are still technically in the wild-card race but everyone, including the team, knows that they are out of it. I mean, get real people, the season is fucking over.

Well, after about a two hour rain delay the game was postponed and was rescheduled today as the night game of a day/night doubleheader. I will be there, of course. That will make my total for the season - 33 games.

I don’t intend to spend a lot of time trying to figure out what went wrong, but I sensed something wasn’t right with these guys early on in the season. The following is an extract from a posting way back on May 1st:

“I didn’t go out to Yankee stadium last night for the second game against Detroit - I just didn’t feel like it. Actually, not a bad thing because once again the Yankees sucked. Even worse news - Jorge Posada, Alex Rodriguez and Phil Hughes are all on the Disabled List. Not good. I know it is early in the season but I just don’t see any fire in the team and they appear to me to be lethargic and lackadaisical, almost as if they were sending a message to Ownership that Joe Torre should never have been let-go, fired, whatever. Maybe that is overly dramatic but it is how I honestly feel at this point.”

It will be interesting to see what changes will be made in the off-season.

Speaking of next season - I finally got the information package for season tickets for next year and it is called the “Relocation Program Guide For The New Yankee Stadium.” It is huge - 45 pages with a CD. “Relocation Plan” - doesn’t that sound scary? Yes, it does, but the real scary part is the draconian language in the “Plan” as they attempt to describe the changes, which are many. I had only 5 days to decided what I wanted to do for next year.

For me, the biggest change is the elimination of the 20-game Flex Plan that I have purchased each year since 1999. This plan included the Opening Game and then your choice of dates for the remaining 19 games. Of course, I also bought extra tickets. For next year it is replaced with a 20-game plan that begins with the second home game and includes every 4th game thereafter. Damn!

There are other options for lesser game packages, including Friday, Saturday or Sunday games. None of them interested me, so I opted for, gasp, the 41-game package - every other game, beginning with Opening Day. The program does permit ticket exchange but the details are not spelled-out. I opted for a seat location in the area which appears to be similar to the Loge section in the old stadium.

Having made these decisions I then had to go online and fill out The Relocation Program Questionnaire, about plan type and seat location preferences. The completion of the questionnaire placed me in a “Relocation Pool” and, I think, the seat assignments will be based on prior season ticket history.

Once I receive my notification of seat assignment I will have only 72 hours to make a down payment or I get tossed out of the “Relocation Program” and lose my seniority. Only thing, no info about when the notifications will go out.

Thank you Yankee ownership, thank you so much. You really care about your loyal fans.

Damn, as I am writing this I am watching the first game of the Yankees/Tampa Bay doubleheader and it is the top of the 6th inning and the Yankees have been playing their usual lackluster game and they are losing 0-7. They suck!!!

Have things to do, so I will post this.

Go Gators!!

Billi Pod
wanjr@aol.com