Why The New Corporate Yankees Are Doing Everything Wrong

By Jason M. Williams

Ever since George Steinbrenner faded away from atop the organization, the Yankees have thrown tradition out the window.

Gone is The House That Ruth Built.  Gone are the common blue collar fans.  And now?  Gone are the rights afforded to former all-time Yankee greats.

Don’t let the Yankees fool you by tuning into the YES Network and watching hour after hour of pinstripe pride, tradition, and a family feel among the city, its fans, and current and former greats. Wrong. Nowadays, season ticket holders have taken a back seat to corporate money with the absurdly inflated ticket prices.  The Stadium itself looks like every other new stadium in the league, and all of the best and most unique parts of the Real Yankee Stadium have been thrown in the garbage.  Thousands of empty seats are visible on every national telecast.

And even worse, recent hero and current broadcaster Paul O’Neill was kicked out of the Yankee batting cages because security deemed he was ‘loitering.’  Give me a break.  Shameful.

The intimidating and looming upper deck.  The black center field seats.  The short porch in right.  The awkwardly long backstop area behind the plate.  The isolated bleacher sections.  The continual war between the bleacher creatures and those in the neighboring box seats. The gardens out in the bullpen.  The distinct light blue coloring on the walls, seats, and facades of the stadium.  All gone.

And now, O’Neill’s wife is no longer allowed to enter the team’s “wife’s room,” despite the fact that her husband helped resurrect this floundering franchise in the early nineties and was the fire and soul of four World Series championship teams.  And he is still on their payroll as a broadcaster?!  Disgraceful.

While all of these porous public relations have done nothing but tarnish a once-proud franchise and make the front office look like a collection of clowns, it is becoming more evident that they are more interested in the bottom line than they are with maintaining a level of loyalty with the fans and the community.

Who knows what’s next for this organization?  Maybe even a 36-year-old Derek Jeter in a different uniform once his contract runs out after next season.