New Yankee Stadium Food Options Announced By Legends Hospitality Management

As we mentioned early last week, Legends Hospitality Management promised a press release to announce all of the food and drink options at the New Yankee Stadium. Today, they made good on that promise and the press release was posted on the Yankees' website. Sadly, it does not include prices, but it does list all of the specific brands and concessions that will be a part of the new Yankee Stadium experience. It looks like garlic fries are being touted as one of the major new additions, and we can't wait to try them.

Stadium Debuts:

• Boar's Head made-to-order deli sandwich stand, including soups and salads
• Brother Jimmy's BBQ
• Dunkin' Donuts Coffee
• Highlanders traditional ballpark food with a New York flair, including hot dogs with sauerkraut and "pushcart" onions
• Johnny Rockets
• Lobel's of New York
• Moe's Southwest Grill
• Otis Spunkmeyer
• Pepsi Cola Products, including Lipton Iced Tea, Tropicana Lemonade and Gatorade
• Tommy Bahama's Bar serving mixed drinks
• Turkey Hill Ice Cream

New Cuisine:

• Garlic Fries stand, a staple of West Coast ballparks
• Latin Corner, serving hot-pressed Cuban sandwiches, nachos and burritos
• Noodle Bowls stand with other Asian-inspired items
• Soy Kitchen sushi and salads
• Triple Play Grill, offering beef and chicken sliders, and Lobel's steak sandwiches

Healthy Alternatives and Specialty Items:

• Melissa's, a traditional farmers market, carrying fresh fruits and vegetables
• Various Glatt Kosher options

Child-Friendly Options

• The Big Apple stand, offering candy, caramel and chocolate-dipped apples
• Dale and Thomas popcorn stand
• Kids Cart with school-lunch favorites and smaller-portion items, such as peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, milk, small hot dogs and Kozy Shack Pudding

Traditional Favorites:

• Bazzini nuts
• Carl's Steaks
• Carvel Ice Cream
• Cracker Jack
• Famous Famiglia Pizza
• French's Mustard
• Hebrew National
• Heinz Ketchup
• Mike's Arthur Avenue Italian Deli, featuring zeppoli and antipasto
• Nathan's Famous, serving hot dogs in natural casing
• New York Pretzel
• Premio Sausage, serving grilled coiled sausages
• Poland Spring Water
• Tyson chicken
• Utz Potato Chips

As everyone probably realizes by now, the food at the new Yankee Stadium is a major interest of ours, so we will be sure to get more in depth with this when time permits.

UPDATE (1:06 PM) - The link to the actual release was added to the the top of the post. We inadvertently left that out previously in our haste to post the news. Also, it was pointed out (via Twitter) that prices are discussed on the release, promising a $3 hot dog, $3 soda, and $6 beer. We don't recall there being a $6 beer at the old Yankee Stadium, but it will likely be a 12 ounce bottle of Bud Light. Also, Fake IPK has chimed in via the comments and has pointed out the death of Dippin' Dots. They were the ice cream of the future for a couple of decades, but they never really caught on. The world's supply of Dippin' Dots is slowly dwindling. Sad stuff. Read the full post, after the jump

The Fickle Nature Of New York Yankee Fans

After reading a recent blog post by Greg over at Sliding Into Home, contrasting recent quotes by Randy Johnson and Jason Giambi, we feel the need to get something off our chest.

All you need to know about our bone of contention is that Yankee fans have happy memories of Jason Giambi's ringless time in Pinstripes, but rue the day that Randy Johnson toed the rubber at the "House That Ruth Built."

Randy Johnson may have flamed out in the postseason, but he was a rapidly aging workhorse in the toughest division in baseball and was surrounded by a terrible pitching staff. He took the ball every 5 days and gave it his all, even if his teammates and the fans hated him.

We have no feelings of disdain for Randy Johnson and find it comical (and sadly, somewhat appropriate) that most Yankee fans think way more highly of a known cheater, and scumbag (Giambi), no matter how fun he was or how close he was with Derek Jeter. Don't even get us started on the entire A-Rod situation, because it will just drive us further into this diatribe about the fickle nature of Yankee fans.

We don't mean to pick on Greg, or any of the commenters over at his fine blog, but this is just something that really grinds our gears. We cheered for Giambi as much as the next guy, and always appreciated the fun he had playing a child's game for millions of dollars. That being said, we're willing to call a spade a spade. Jason Giambi is a shamed slugger who would never have sniffed superstardom if not for injecting performance enhancing drugs into his body. Randy Johnson is a weird looking stringbean of a man who overcame faulty mechanics and extreme wildness and became one of the most dominant left-handed pitchers in our generation, if not the history of baseball.

Johnson's legacy in New York is that of hall of famer who had a failed stay, while Jason Giambi's legacy is the steroid scandal and seven ring-free seasons. Even with the millions that Johnson cost the Yankees, Giambi cost way more. Think of that next time you curse the thought of Randy Johnson in Pinstripes and dream of Jason Giambi's return to Yankee Stadium so you can give him a standing ovation. Read the full post, after the jump

NSI Cuts Through The Hype: How To Get Cheap Yankee Tickets For The 2009 Season

All we have been hearing about all weekend is just how expensive Yankee tickets are for 2009. The AP took weeks old single game price information and made it a fun, "look how expensive these tickets are, OMG!1!1!!!" story. Combined with the timing of the recent presales, the mainstream media and even the blogoverse jumped at the opportunity for a flashy headline. $2,625 for a ticket? Who can pay that?! That is so silly lets write a story about it!

We here at NSI cut straight through the hype and present the real story. In this case, it is very true that a lot of Yankee tickets are ridiculously expensive. It is also very true that the Yankees are sitting on those seats because there aren't many suckers out there buying them. As a matter of fact, some lucky Yankee fans who had the opportunity to participate in either Thursday or Friday's ticket presale made a savvy discovery of some extremely cheap Yankee tickets.

Without further ado, we present to you at least seven different Yankee games that offer $5 tickets in the Bleachers, Outfield Terrace and Grandstand (mostly Wednesday evening games):

4/20 vs. Oakland
4/21 vs. Oakland
5/7 vs. Tampa Bay
5/20 vs. Baltimore
6/3 vs. Texas
8/11 vs. Toronto
9/28 vs. Kansas City

This list is by no means comprehensive, so feel free to add anything you have found from personal experience in the comments section. These are the least desirable games because they are mid-week and against some of the worst teams in the American League for the past few seasons (except for Tampa Bay). It appears that these games are the games that used to be a part of the popular "Fuji Film" $5 games. At the end of the day, $5 for a seat at the new Yankee Stadium is a bargain regardless of the opponent, day of the week or the seat location. It isn't something that people with ticket purchasing opportunities will want to miss.

Hopefully people will read this and will be able to score some cheap tickets on Monday and Tuesday morning at 10AM when the last two on-sales commence. If those people have luck, it will prove that there are bargains to be had for Yankee tickets, even with a brand new stadium catching all of the headlines. The key is to disregard the sensationalistic mainstream media garbage and dig a bit on your own.

If you are unlucky and unable to obtain any of these $5 tickets, don't worry, New Stadium Insider has you covered. We purchased a pair of tickets in the Grandstand Outfield for the May 20 game against Baltimore, and we are ironing out the details in order to present the first ever New Stadium Insider ticket giveaway. With the dawn of a new era in the Bronx, we want to make all of our readers "Stadium Insiders" and hope to offer multiple ticket giveaways over the course of the season. Please keep reading and be sure to tell your Yankee fan friends about the blog if you haven't already! Read the full post, after the jump

The Yankeee Stadium Version Of Fenway's Green Monster Seats And More Interesting Ticket Options

Earlier this week, we talked about the confusing ticketing options available via the drop-down menu on Ticketmaster's website. Unfortunately, our friends over at The Mets Police fell victim to this confusion, as they tried to choose "standing room only" seats for Opening Day and none were available. Although the Yankees have put most of the seats in the stadium on sale during this week's presales, there are still some tickets being held back until an undetermined date. These seats are some of the most unique options in the stadium, and people who get their hands on them will be in for a treat.

According to a representative in the Yankee ticket office, "standing room only," "Mohegan Sun Sports Bar" and "Outdoor Food Court" tickets will be made available to the public, but there is no date for the sale or price of the tickets. It is shocking that these options still don't have prices or purchase information this close to the first games, but it might be a sign that the Yankees are taking our advice and making these tickets day of game sales only.

Pictured below is an overhead shot of the area in question:



The Mohegan Sun Sports Bar is located inside of the tinted black "batter's eye." These seats will be climate-controlled and will essentially be the equivalent of watching the game from a bar, except you will be at the game. According to a ticket rep, there are "fixed rows of bar-like seating facing the field." Mohegan Sun issued a press release about these 132 seats last May with plenty of additional information. These seats will be great when it is in the 40's and drizzling in April or October, and perhaps when it is in the upper 90's in August. However, most people go to a ball game to feel like they are in the stands and close to the action. It seems impossible for these sports bar seats to offer the classic feel of going to a Yankee game. We'll have to check them out at some point.

Right above the Mohegan Sun Sports Bar and in front of the Outdoor Food Court will be the "Outdoor Food Court" tickets, also known as the "cafe seating." These are the seats that are most similar to Fenway's Green Monster offering. In the photo above you can see the blue seats, above the black "batter's eye." These seats offer a rare view of a game at Yankee Stadium and may be the new Yankee Stadium equivalent of the landing spot for home runs hit "into the black." Fans in these seats should not expect a mammoth blast to be hit their way, but when the likes of A-Rod step up to the plate, they should probably keep an eye out. There can't be many more than 40 of these seats per game, so they will likely be hard to come by.

Finally, "standing room only" ticketing will be offered. Information about these tickets is the most vague. An interesting rumor that was confirmed by a ticket rep is that there will be standing room only tickets in multiple locations around the stadium. There are even rumors that there will be "Legends standing room only" that will cost $375 and will offer admission to all of the special amenities for the rich folk. As of now, the Yankees have not yet officially announced the location or price of these tickets, but Lonn Trost indicated in an interview that the cheapest standing room only tickets will be $20, as we have discussed previously.

We're not sure how these standing room only folks will be prevented from sitting in empty seats around the stadium, but perhaps this will be the Yankees' solution to all of the unsold "greatest seats in the world." In that scenario, the Yankees can have the most possible time to sell the really expensive tickets. If, by the day of the game, those expensive seats are still unsold, the Yankees can sell their day of game standing room only tickets. Once these fans are in their designated spots, the Yankees can have their security guards/ushers accompany them to open luxury seats.

The likelihood of the above solution actually occurring is pretty slim, and it would be unfair to people actually paying for the "greatest seats in the world." However, it would be a way for the Yankees to make those seats look filled on TV without officially dropping the price of the "greatest seats in the world." Sometimes you have to think outside of the box, especially with the current economic situation. With word of these interesting ticket options, perhaps the Yankees are starting to expand their thinking.

UPDATE (3/21 1:20 PM) Courtesy of Sliding Into Home, Via Flickr member treman262 with special credit to baseball-fever's "donut726" comes this photo that illustrates a lot of the above-mentioned seats even better:


If you enlarge the photo, you can see the bar-style seating inside of the Mohegan Sun Sports Bar, and you can clearly see the "Outdoor Food Court" seating on top. Read the full post, after the jump

Some Yankee Thoughts To Get Us Through The Dog Days Of Spring Training

At this time of year, Spring Training gets tedious for most people interested in baseball. The weather starts to warm up, evoking thoughts of America's past time being played in front of the baseball-starved residents of the Northeast. Players are mostly in game shape and the early bird specials in Florida likely aren't as satisfying as they were when they first arrived in Florida. Games are being played every day, but there isn't much to draw from them. The only people still enjoying Spring Training at this point are those who planned a trip to Florida for the end of March. With that in mind, here are some Yankee thoughts that will get you primed and ready to go for opening day.

• From observing the chatter around the interwebs, it appears that the Yankee ticket presales have gone more smoothly than in past years. Our friends over at The Mets Police scored some good tickets during today's partial plan sale, and Nick mentioned our success from yesterday. Our previous 20 game plan presale password remained active even though we were upgraded back to the 41 game plan. We took advantage of this glitch by sharing it with a couple of out of town friends. They were able to score tickets to games when their favorite teams come to town, so we were able to spread the good cheer. We also were able to get pairs of tickets to each Cubs exhibition game, so Nick won't be forced to repeat his lonely Kei Igawa day.
  

• Did anyone else notice that the first 4 games at the new Yankee Stadium are day games? As a matter of fact, 5 out of the first 7 will be played under the sun. Smart move by the Yankees, considering the cold nights that April sometimes has in store. For working folk, however, it is going to be a bummer to miss the first two games while slaving away at a corporation.
  


• The joy of watching Spring Training Games wore off back in February, but people still paying attention are noticing that the viable options for the long reliever are slowly dwindling. Spring Training stats are mostly meaningless, but it can't be a good thing that early favorites Dan Giese and Alfredo Aceves have each given up 4 HRs in 12.1 and 10 IP respectively. Meanwhile, Kei Igawa has an ERA of 0.00 and Brett Tomko has an ERA of 1.59. If we were to put stock into Spring Training statistics for any players, it would probably be for those players competing for the long relief role. This spot usually goes to a player that is not a high ceiling prospect or a viable major league starter, so the people vying for the spot have much more to lose. The Yankees have been tricked into thinking Kei Igawa could be a major league contributor a few times before. Regardless of Igawa's emergence as Mr. March, Tomko seems to have put himself into a good position. The wild card with Tomko is that a spot on the 40-man roster would have to be cleared to allow him on the team, which is always a headache.
  

• Watching Derek Jeter play shortstop for the United States in the World Baseball Classic has been a pretty depressing sight. This was touched on in the previous post, and we don't want to pile on El Capitan, but all Yankee fans should get used to hearing announcers exclaim: "Past a diving Jeter up the middle." Fellow blog-author, Nick, revealed that he had come to this harsh realization during a hilarious drunk-dial the other night. Nick was near tears while explaining that Derek Jeter was a liability at short and how sad it was to see. We'd love to be lying about this, but the guy really gets emotional when he is intoxicated.
  

The countdown on Yankees.com says it is 17 days until opening day in Baltimore. That Monday can't come soon enough. Read the full post, after the jump

Check Your Email To See If You Have "Won" The Chance To Buy Tickets On Monday

As we mentioned in a previous post, the winners of the Yankee ticket buying opportunity are being announced today.

We like to try our luck in lotteries like this, and wouldn't you know, our name was picked at random. To recap, we already had our presale password on Thursday from our 41 game plan, our presale password from our temporary 20 game plan valid for today's presale was still active (no idea why) so we had another opportunity for tickets this morning. Now, we will have one more chance on Monday before the tickets are released to the masses.

Before anyone gets too incensed, we aren't buying up all of the tickets for ourselves, or to scalp. As a matter of fact, we plan on giving Monday's code away to our friends so they can get a shot at tickets in the new stadium. That way, they won't be bothering us for tickets from our 41 game plan!

Keep an eye out for this email, and let us know if you are lucky in the comments. Read the full post, after the jump

Andy Pettitte: Bad Luck in 2008 Could Be Good for Yankees in 2009

All of the Yankee pitching talk centers around Sabathia, Burnett, Wang and Joba, but Andy Pettitte may quietly be the pitcher who determines the true dominance of the Yankee staff. Due to his constant Clemens-esque threats of retirement, people often forget that Pettitte won't even turn 37 years old until June. He struggled through shoulder woes in 2008 and all reports indicate that he is healthy this Spring. More importantly, Pettitte had an extremely unlucky 2008. His BABIP was .339, while the league average for pitchers is .301 and his career average is .316.

This stat has the potential to be a warning sign for a pitcher if his strikeout rate decreases at the same time. However, Petttitte's K/9 was 6.97 last year, representing his second-highest K/9 with the Yankees, and higher than his 6.60 career rate. The only explanation is that Petttite was extremely unlucky last year and the balls that were hit fell in for hits. That, or maybe he was serving up a lot of grounders in the vicinity of shortstop. By now, we all know that most of those balls are headed into the outfield.

To further enhance his bad luck, Pettitte's strand rate (the percentage of baserunners left on base by the pitcher) was 68.2% in 2008. The league average for this stat typically hovers around 70%. As mentioned previously, Pettitte had a very good strikeout rate, so that is not a valid explanation for this below-average rate. His career strand rate is 71.3, so Pettitte has hovered just above the league average throughout his career. He even earned the reputation as a "grinder" who battles out of trouble, based on some of his seasons with strand rates in the upper 70's.

If Pettitte can make 33 starts this year out of the 4th slot in the rotation, he has the potential to provide the performance of a number 2 or 3 starter. The idea isn't too far-fetched, and if it happens, the 2009 Yankee rotation will be unmatched by most teams in MLB. Read the full post, after the jump

Yankee Season Ticket Holder Pre-Sale Update: How did everyone do?

Today the Yankees allowed ticket holders of Half and Full season plans access to single game tickets on Ticketmaster. Now that we have been upgraded to a half-season plan, we were lucky enough to be involved in this pre-sale.

I focused my frantic clicking on finding tickets to some of the "premium" games, for example, Opening Day or games against rival opponents. While I was unable to find any affordable tickets for Opening Day, I did manage to get a pair of tickets for 2 games against the Red Sox.

The seats for both games are located in section 407A in the Grandstand. For September 27th, the seats are in Row 1, while the August 9th tickets put us in Row 6. It seems several others found tickets in the same section for other games as well.

I was disappointed that I was unable to find tickets for the ultra-cheap Cubs exhibitions. Ross was only able to get a single ticket to one of the games which reminded me of the only time I went to see the Yankees on my lonesome. It was a day game, a scorcher in the summer of 07, and Kei Igawa was rocking his signature sunglasses on the hill. By "rocking" I mean, boring me so badly that I left early. I think he threw a pitch once a minute...BOOOOOOORING. Back on topic now: I insist I will not attend another game alone. Not gonna happen.

So, anyone make out especially well during today's pre-sale? Leave some comments -- hope you found some awesome, affordable seats (YEAH, RIGHT.). Read the full post, after the jump

REMINDER: Housekeeping Note - The RSS Feed For New Stadium Insider

Last week, we switched up the RSS feed for the site for technical reasons. We were under the impression that people previously subscribed to the feed would remain subscribed, but alas there was a setting in blogger that we forgot to switch.

Please click here to subscribe to the new RSS feed. The RSS feed link at the top of the page is always there for you as well. If you aren't using RSS feeds and Google Reader, you aren't getting the most out of the internet.

Thanks to Jay from Fack Youk and Mike from River Ave. Blues for pointing out the feed issue.

Talk about it in the Stadium Insider Forums!

Tax Season is here - Save By E-Filing Your Taxes and tell 'em Stadium Insider sent you - Only $19.95! Read the full post, after the jump

The Yankees Try To Make Nice With Bronx Communities

They may have taken all of the public parks from the South Bronx, but the Yankees know exactly how to make it up to the community. The team announced today that they will distribute 15,000 tickets good for entry to the Yankees and Cubs public workout on April 2nd, the day before the first exhibition game. The tickets will only be distributed to residents of Bronx communities, and will also come with a free lunch voucher good for a free hot dog or pizza.

This is actually a pretty cool thing for the Yankees to do, and although it is clearly a PR stunt, there is little to critcize. 3,000 of the 15,000 tickets will go to union members who helped to build the stadium, so they really are taking care of the people who helped to make this new grand home a possibility. Kudos to the Yankees, and hopefully everyone enjoys the sneak peak and helps to work out some of the inevitable new park kinks.

Now lets just hope that these tickets don't end up on being sold on the internet, kind of like this pre-sale password on Craigslist. People like that should have their season tickets revoked. Read the full post, after the jump

A Sneak Peak At The Confusing Yankee Ticket Options On Ticketmaster

Via the message boards of baseball-fever.com comes this interesting Yankee-related item. Prospective Yankee ticket buyers can get a sneak peak at the drop-down menu that may greet them when purchasing 2009 Yankee tickets.



This screen grab is taken from the purchase page for the inspirational speaker, Joel Osteen's event at the end of April. It is immediately apparent that there are more options than in the past, and all of the sponsored seats make things a bit confusing.

We can't confirm that all of these options will be the same for a baseball game, but it can be assumed that many of the options will be the same. Not sure where The Mohegan Sun Sports Bar is, but it would be awesome if it included a casino (it doesn't). That would make Yankee Stadium a viable year-round venue!

We would like to note that as exciting of an opportunity as it was, we passed on our Joel Osteen tickets. It was a tough decision, but in the end the recession got the best of us. Read the full post, after the jump

Yankees To Hold A Staff Scavenger Hunt On Sunday

According to a Newsday article, the Yankees will hold a scavenger hunt for staffers at the New Yankee Stadium on Sunday. This will be an opportunity for stadium staffers to familiarize themselves with the ins and outs of the new stadium. The article even cites examples of some trivia questions that will be asked of the staffers during the event.

Questions such as "name the sections where Johnny Rocket's is located," or, where in the building is there a Allie Reynolds autographed baseball are mentioned. Meanwhile, "name the restaurant that blocks the view for half of the people in the left field bleachers," and "which row in the grandstand had to be removed after it was revealed that views from its seats were obstructed" were conspicuously missing.

How about, "what was the name of the NYY Fans message board poster who leaked the photo of seats obstructed by a large support beam back in early February?" THAT is an obscure question, but one that any good Yankee staffer should know. The name of course is Mastermind. Thanks for reading, buddy.

We just hope that the Yankees let the ticket reps partake in the festivities, instead of making them serve as tour guides while people take pictures of the new digs and feign interest in premium seats. From what we hear, this past "select-a-seat weekend" was an epic fail and all the ticket office could sell was few small partial plans. Read the full post, after the jump

Relocation News: We Are Back In The B Plan

We would love to believe the company line that "some cancellations were processed and the seats became available." Maybe the ticket office finally did reach our name on the waiting list. Perhaps we would even give credence to the idea that all of our emails and phone calls to the Yankees had finally paid dividends. We just sincerely hope that our repeated and public venting about the botched relocation on this blog had absolutely no affect on the call we received today, offering us a 41 game plan in section 428.

This signifies a happy ending to our long and frustrating relocation journey and hopefully many others enjoy the same fate. This weekend, we received word that fellow Yankee season ticket holder and Baseball Prospectus writer Jay Jaffe has had his relocation reconsidered and got seats more to his liking. He made sure to point out that his friend's name is on the account and there is no way the Yankees could link him to his article taking advantage of his prominent position at Baseball Prospectus . It just seems a bit suspicious that the two most public and vocal opponents to the Yankee relocation program were silenced within days of each other.

At the end of the day, we're just happy fans who finally feel like we have had a say in our relationship with the team that we dole out plenty of money to support. We can finally look forward to watching our favorite team play our favorite sport, and not have to worry about what games we don't have tickets to. One thing is for sure, getting back on our B plan will make us no less critical of the Yankees and their employees when it is warranted.

For example, today some unlucky fans with 2008 seniority received the bad news that the Yankees were changing their mind about the relocation guide and they would not be receiving partial plans in 2009. Taken directly from the relocation guide on the Yankee website, it is clear that these people were mislead:

If you licensed and maintained a Partial Season Plan for the 2008 Season, you will be assigned the same number of seats in the new Yankee Stadium as are included in your Partial Season Plan at the end of the 2008 Season. In making assignments under the Relocation Program, the Yankees will, among other things, consider your seating preferences as indicated on your Relocation Program Questionnaire. Please note, however, that your assigned seat location will not likely be comparable to your current seat location in Yankee Stadium. Further, since the Partial Season Plans being offered for the 2009 Season in the new Yankee Stadium are not identical to the current Partial Season Plans, you will be given an opportunity on the Relocation Program Questionnaire to indicate the 2009 Partial Season Plan that you believe works best for you.

The Yankees had overwhelming demand for their larger plans, especially full season, and someone had to pay the price. It is understandable that people with the least seniorty should have the last shot at tickets. What is unfathomable is printing an official relocation correspondence and not even considering the idea of lowering expectations in case things really didn't go as planned.

A little bit of warning would have gone a long way in keeping these jilted ticket holders from revolt. Most of those with 2008 seniority and small partial plans understand their place in the Yankee ticket pecking order. When the official documentation outlining the relocation was blatantly ignored, however, these people suffered an immense Yankee-induced disappointment.

Confidence in the competency of the higher-ups in the Yankee ticket office lowers with each day's blunder. Today, the ticket office sent out an official announcement about ticket pre-sale dates. Unfortunately, the dates on the correspondence were a week later than the actual dates - a blatant typo that was somehow overlooked. Of course, mass confusion among ticket holders ensued, and the Yankees quickly sent out another email acknowledging the error in the earlier email. This sort of correspondence is essentially a form letter. How could they get wrong the one detail that the document was centered on? Incompetence defined.

We even coaxed some information out of our ticket representative regarding some seats in row 14 of the Grandstand that needed to be pulled due to obstructed views. This ticket representative has just dealt with the awakward situation of having to tell a season ticket holder that their seat wasn't exactly a viable option. It obviously doesn't reflect too well on the Yankee organization when major flaws are being discovered in 1.3 billion dollar stadium just weeks before opening. They deserve credit for recognizing the row 14 flaw before the season commenced, but also deserve any criticism they receive due to the design flaw ever occuring. Apparently, there will still be 14 rows in the Grandstand, but some more construction needs to take place before the Yankees include them in season ticket plans and not as single-game obstructed view seats.

Apparently all season ticket packets should be received via FedEx (they have switched shipping providers for 2009) no later than April 10. Many of the tickets are already at the printer. As a matter of fact, the tickets for our previously invoiced 20 game plan have been at the printer since March 3, and we will have to return them to the Yankees before being refunded for the price of that plan. Even though the Yankees have not yet completed the relocation process, rest assured that your tickets are being printed. As for us, we won't truly believe this saga is over until we have the reassuring feel of rectangular slices of cardboard between our fingers. Read the full post, after the jump

Joba Rules 2009 - How The Yankees Can Keep Joba Below 150 Innings And Win

In reading our copy of Baseball Prospectus 2009, we came across an interesting discussion in the Chicago White Sox' chapter about the potential to bring back the four-man starting rotation in Major League Baseball. Stat-heads have long pined for the return of the four-man rotation, since fifth starters are so often painfully below replacement level. Ozzie Guillen wasted too many starts on the fifth starter in 2008, and Baseball Prospectus broke down exactly how the White Sox could have done better with their pitching staff management.

The Yankees don't have the problem of a below replacement level pitcher anywhere in their rotation. What they do have is a young stud pitcher named Joba Chamberlain who can't throw many more than 150 innings in 2009 due to unfortunate injuries in 2008. That leaves the Yankees in a predicament that often devolves into a "Joba should go back to the bullpen" debate. That asinine sentiment aside, the Yankees can easily limit Joba to 150 innings by simply treating his spot in the rotation as if they have a scrubby fifth starter who they don't want to see the light of day.

By Baseball Prospectus' calculations, the White Sox fifth starter would have had to make only 24 starts in 2008 if they had skipped the fifth starter whenever off days permitted. We have not done the calculations for the 2009 Yankees schedule, but we can assume it will be around the same number. If we round up to 25 starts, and we are conservative by giving Joba the league average of 5.44 innings per start, that would leave him with 136 regular season innings. Considering that the Yankees are 6/5 odds to make the World Series, there is a strong likelihood that the Yankee will be playing October baseball, and Joba will be able to continue pitching throughout.

Joe Girardi has indicated that he wants Joba to make 30 starts, even mentioning that he has projected out all 162 games without skipping Joba's turn even once. Again using the conservative estimate of 5.44 innings per start, that would put Joba at 163 innings before the playoffs. After throwing only 100 IP in 2008, throwing 163, plus the playoffs would put Joba in serious danger of suffering an injury due to what is now known as the "Verducci Effect" in 2010. Beyond The Box Score recently had some interesting analysis of the "Verducci Effect."

Girardi has conceded that he will likely have to pull Joba after 5 innings in many starts if he plans on running him out to the mound 30 or more times. With a pitching staff featuring workhorses like CC Sabathia, Chien Ming Wang and Andy Pettitte, why not skip the fifth spot when possible instead of wearing out the bullpen every fifth day? Some will argue that young pitchers only suffer injuries because they are handled too carefully, but when you have a commodity as valuable as Joba Chamberlain, you can never be too careful. Read the full post, after the jump

Just To Whet Your Appetite: Some Of The Food Options At The New Yankee Stadium

Legends Hospitality Management plans on posting a press release later this week, detailing the food options at the new Yankee Stadium. For now, we can take a sneak peak at some of those options courtesy of the many great photos that came out of the stadium tours this weekend (and in the past).



First up is the unsurprising and disappointing Famiglia Pizza. If it looks like microwave pizza and tastes like microwave pizza, it must be microwave pizza. Very disappointing, since New York City is known to have some of the best pizza in the world. Why the Yankees continue to torture us with Famiglia's horrendous dough with cheese and sauce on it is inexplicable (or perhaps it is that Famiglia is willing to pay the big bucks it must take to forge a concession deal with the Yankees).



Next, we have a minor tweak to a Yankee Stadium classic. Nobody can forget the chicken fingers and fries combo that was served at a few concession stands around the old park. Sadly, the rubbery chicken and days-old, grease-soaked french fries were actually one of the highlights of the food selection in the upper deck. Now that those days are behind us, it looks like Legends Hospitality Management has a new trick up their sleeves: sliders. Who doesn't love mini burgers? We will set the under/over on the price per slider at $5. I'll bite and take the under. Anyone willing to make the wager? A Bernie Williams CD might be in it for you if you win the bet.



Of course, there is Johnny Rockets. However, we previously covered this concession in a previous post, so we'll spare you the diatribe about awesome straw dispensers.



Here comes the good stuff. When Stadium Insider had the pleasure of visiting Safeco Field in Seattle last May, everyone recommended the garlic fries as the must-have stadium food. We gave those fries mixed reviews, but the smell of them cooking was enough to make the mouth water. As long as the Yankees change the oil in the fryers every once in a while. garlic fries at Yankee Stadium have some major potential.



Finally, we present a relatively new classic from the old Yankee Stadium, Carl's Cheesesteaks. A reviewer on yelp was hopeful back in November that Carl's would make the move to the New Stadium, and they won't be disappointed. The lines at these "hot" concession stands are typically too long to justify waiting in, but with the more open design of the new Yankee Stadium, the potential exists to wait in line and not have to miss all of the action on the field. The joys of a modern stadium will never get old to us.

Of course, there is the Hard Rock Cafe (open year round), and the upscale NYY Steak Restaurant in centerfield (it isn't too late to apply for a job there), for meals of the sitdown variety. We plan on visiting all of these fine establishments for in-depth reviews from the perspective of the average Yankee fan (never to be confused with the typical Yankee fan) during the season. Now we just have to wait to see how much all of this is going to cost us. We're pretty sure that beers are going to average $10 for the first time in 2009, but that is just speculation. Read the full post, after the jump