Calling Out Yankee Fans

I am not going to dedicate this post to ripping apart the underperforming Yankee stars of this postseason.

I am not going to praise the starting pitching.

I am especially not going to dedicate this post to ripping apart the umpires and plea for instant replay.

Instead, I am using this post to call out YOU, the Yankee fan.

Yes, you. The one that doesn't show up to Yankee Stadium for a playoff game.

In professional sports, there is nothing more embarrasing than a team not selling out a playoff game. It's very rare, but when it happens, it not only generates bad publicity, but it also reduces an organization's credibility.

The New Yankee Stadium holds approximately 50,000. Here is a list of the attendance figures for each postseason game thus far:

ALDS Game 3: 50,497
ALDS Game 4: 49,307
ALDS Game 5: 47,081
ALCS Game 1: 47,122
ALCS Game 2: 47,082

After the first two games sold out, attendance has steadily declined. Attendance for the deciding Game 5, a game which could have been the final game of the Yankees' season, was the lowest attended of the five!

In Game 5, the Stadium was half empty until the fourth or fifth inning. Entire sections were empty for games one and two of the ALCS.

The crowd noise in every single game, save for a few Game 5 moments and Raul Ibanez's home run heroics, was funereal. You would have thought each game was a throwaway game in May.

Why is this happening? Is it a byproduct of today's economic times, just being plain spoiled, or something else?

Well, to be fair to a vast majority of fans, ticket and parking prices are simply too exborbitant for the average fan to afford. Parking near the stadium is going for as much as $50 for postseason. Yes, fifty. You read that correctly. Also, with the economy being the way it is, it probably isn't prudent for a family of four to pay $300-400 for tickets, food, drink, and parking for a baseball game. Especially if you want to sit near home plate.

However, cheap seats sold on Stubhub for each postseason game for as low as $30, which is only $10 more than face value for a bleacher ticket for any given regular season game. No one is forcing you to pay for parking (assuming you take public transportation), food, or drink. A diehard fan like myself would be glad to gobble up that ticket if I lived close to the Stadium.

Or is the Yankee fan too fickle or spoiled to even care?

The high-octane Yankee offense has been anemic so far this postseason, and especially with runners in scoring position the entire year. If not for Raul Ibanez's heroics in Game 3 and the starting pitching, the Yankees team is playing golf instead of baseball right now. Fans that actually attended the games are displaying endless vitriol and hatred toward A-Rod and his ineptitude. And eventually, Nick Swisher, Curtis Granderson, and Robinson Cano.

Maybe the Yankee fan is bored by the constant postseason appearances, and is just waiting for a World Series game to get loud and proud. In Game 2 of the 1995 ALDS, the old Yankee Stadium shook to its core when Don Mattingly hit a home run. In Game 2 of the 2012 ALCS, Hiroki Kuroda recieved light applause for pitching 5 perfect innings. Performances like those are probably taken for granted.

Whatever the cause may be, it is an embarrassment to the Yankees franchise and Yankee fanbase to have a library-like atmosphere at its ballpark for such important games. In other words, fodder is being fed to the haters at a record rate.

Should the Yankees bring the ALCS back to Yankee Stadium for Game 6, a non-sellout would be one of the great embarrassments of all time.

Does this mean only 45,000 will show up for a Game 7?

Well, maybe if they hate A-Rod enough, 5,000 more will show up just to boo him when he strikes out in a huge spot.