The rumor of the Red Sox jersey being thrown under the concrete at the new stadium have been flying around for a few days now. The Yankees decided to investigate and some construction workers believed that it was done by some goon (hes actually been involved in some big criminal schemes) named Gino Castignoli who worked at the stadium for one day. They had a ballpark estimate of where the shirt would’ve been and with a few other workers they used jackhammers to dig in the area. Turns out there was a jersey there. I’m not really a superstitious person, so I didn’t care anyway, but for those Red Sox fans who are this is a slap in the face. They couldn’t even manage to hide a jersey under some concrete without the word spreading out.
Useless story, but we got some entertainment from it. Hank Steinbrenner, later said about Castignoli:
“I hope his coworkers kick the $hit out of him…It’s a bunch of bull$hit”
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I swear, the whole McNamee-Clemens thing keeps getting more and more like a couple breaking up. Today, Brian McNamee has put all of Clemens’ old things up for auction. Objects include a signed baseball which was going for upwards of 4k this afternoon, several hats and uniforms, and pictures of Clemens, Pettitte, and Canseco. McNamee added his own little touch by signing the memorabilia, so that all of those hardcore PED fans (because there are so many right?) can have a keepsake for the ages. Well, atleast McNamee is giving the money to charity.
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Today it was revealed that the Yankees will be putting a 5,925 square foot HD Diamond Vision scoreboard in the new stadium. It will be Major League Baseball’s first true high-definition scoreboard. The Yankees decided to go with the Diamond Vision brand due to their long relationship with Mitsubishi (which dates back to 1983, when the company installed the first Diamond Vision screen in baseball for the Yanks.) The new screen has 8,601,600 LED lamps and is almost 101 feet wide and 59 feet tall! Compare that to the current scoreboard and your jaw will really drop. The scoreboard that sits at the current Yankee Stadium has 486,400 LEDS and measures 24.9-inches X 32.8-inches. Just imagine how big the new one is compared to that. It is going to be awesome. The scoreboard will be able to simultaneously show several things including the score, videos, and different stats all in brilliant HD. The Yankees definetely went all out on this one, as this is the latest and greatest out there at the moment; I am sure it cost a pretty penny, but then again with current ticket sales they can afford it.
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Some economy experts may argue that the United States is heading towards or is already in a recession, but the Yankees are in anything but a slowdown at the moment. In fact, it is quite the opposite. Today the Yankees announced that they have already sold a record-breaking 3.8 million tickets for the 2008 season! That is 400,000 more than they had sold at this time last season. And all this with the highest ticket prices in Yankee history (they are the highest whether or not you consider inflation as well.) It is crazy, but then again it is also history. It is the last year at the great Yankee Stadium and it is something which most Yankee fans, including me, would pay a lot to be a part of. No one is really happy with the price hikes, but when it comes to the facts the truth is that baseball is a business.
I think it is pretty obvious that this will be the eighth year in a row where home attendance grows for the Yanks. At current rates this will also be the most profitable season for any baseball team ever. This will also be good for the sport, as the Yankees get more press coverage. Other teams may also benefit due to the revenue sharing agreement, so that should make some owners happy (cough -Marlins owner- cough) This season will certainly be a memorable one for everyone including fans, team owners, and the MLB.
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Yes, we’ve done it again. We broke the previous MLB payroll record (guess who that was held by?) this past season by spending a total of $218.3 million on player salaries! We weren’t expected to spend that much at the beginning of the season, but we can thank Roger Clemens for pushing us across the record-breaking mark with his $17.4 million. We are again projected to spend less this season than last and I think it is more likely to last this time around. I just don’t see another Clemens type signing coming our way; I think Cashman has learned better. We are currently under the 200 million mark, but after arbitration the payroll will probably end up somewhere between $205-210 million. The Yanks don’t really need to worry about it though because compared to how much we spend, we still make a lot more (about $415 million last year, 100 of which went to the league’s revenue sharing plan.) Our financial situation is expected to get even better in 2009 as the new stadium is expected to bring in more money as well.
It isn’t really anything to worry about, but it is really amazing when we compare our spending numbers to the rest of the league. At number two are the Red Sox who’s payroll was $155.4 million last year and third are the Dodgers with $125.6 million spent in the previous season. At the bottom end of the spectrum are the Devil Rays and Marlins, both in the low 30’s. You can expect the Marlins to go even lower this year due to their greedy owner who traded away Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis. Bottomline is, the Yankees break another spending record, but it really doesn’t matter because we make more than that anyway and thinks only look brighter towards the future as New Yankee Stadium is opened and as stupid contracts like the 20 mil to Giambi expire.
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A Yankee “fan” is suing the team for consumer fraud. He claims that the Yankees cheated fans due to what was uncovered by the Mitchell Report. That is just ridiculous! First off, if hes so concerned with this then he should just stop watching baseball (as well as many other sports) all together because each game probably has atleast one person who has or does take performance enhancing drugs. Second, even though people were using it, how is that the Yankees fault. The team didn’t say “here, take these.” It was the players that decided to use them, not the team. In no way do I consider this guy a Yankee fan if he is going to sue for this because it shows he doesn’t care about the team, especially since the sum of the tickets he bought adds up to a measly $221. Some people just like all the attention they get…
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