Red Sox-Yankees, where’s the love?

Frank Carpano

I had to make sure which teams were playing when the Red Sox made their first visit to Yankee Stadium. Surely a Red Sox Yankee game would produce a soldout crowd at the new stadium

However, Many of the most expensive seats again were empty. Just 54 of the 98 first-row Legends Suite seats costing $2,500 were occupied in the first inning of the final game of the series , and three of the first nine rows behind the plate were mostly vacant. Later, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, wearing a Yankees jacket, sat just to the third-base side of the plate in one of those front-row seats.

I don’t blame it on the economy, I blame it on greed. Even in the best of times, who can afford $2500 for a seat at one baseball game!

For me, it took something away from the intensity of the series. I know it usually ends up being the high rollers who get the best seats closest to the field. But shouldn’t it be the biggest fans.

For example, during the Sunday night Red Sox-Rays finale at Fenway Park, I saw a fan in a Boston jersey in the front row of the seats talking to the Rays player in the on deck circle. I have no doubt that he was trying to get into the guys head to mess with him prior to his at bat.

Give the best seats to the real fans is not the way the world works, but it’s a nice thought.

Speaking of thoughts….Who would have thought that 6 weeks into the baseball season, Rocco Baldelli, Jonathan Van Every and Julio Lugo would all have more homeruns than David Ortiz?