AS THE YANKEES HUFF AND PUFF THIS WEEK NOT TO BECOME A BRONX-VERSION OF THE PERENNIAL-CHOKE ARTISTS ATLANTA BRAVES, George Steinbrenner is going after loyal fans who resell even two tickets. The no-fan-is-to-insignificant-to-screw Bombers just handed a life ban to a season ticket holder who—get this—resold tickets to two games. Steinbrenner—a felon banned from baseball for two years in 1974 for making illegal campaign contributions to Richard Nixon—banished a fan who twice resold tickets at StubHub.com, an online ticket broker. Yankee spokesman Rick Cerrone (that was Bucky Dent, by the way, selling hotdogs at the Tigers game) says shilling season tickets is a breach of the season-tickets contract. The two games the unidentified seller pawned were against the fearsome Royals and the mighty A’s, huge profit-mills for the Yankee owner. A Stubhub.com spokesman says the Yanks, worth an estimated $1.026 billion, plan to open their own online ticket resale business next year.
-- Wayne Bartley