As Major League Baseball investigates the events surrounding Tampa Bay’s tardy arrival for a botched doubleheader at the Stadium on Monday, the Yankees were still waiting to hear from commissioner Bud Selig yesterday about getting back some of the estimated $2-3 million they spent rescheduling the aborted twinbill.
Because Hurricane Frances tore through Florida last weekend, the Devil Rays did not travel until Monday for that day’s scheduled games, ran into severe delays, and did not arrive in New York until it was too late to play two. Instead, the Yanks and Rays played one game Monday and rescheduled the missed game to be played yesterday in a doubleheader (which was rained out). The total cost to the Yankees organization was estimated between $2-3 million.
There were 25,836 hot dogs and 25,296 sodas issued to fans who hung around the Stadium all day Monday, which cost a significant chunk of change, in addition to staffing what the Yankees thought would be two games on Labor Day. Fans in attendance also were given rain checks they could use at any of the Yankees’ remaining home games this season.
The Yankees have submitted a bill to Selig and MLB, with the league and the Devil Rays expected to help cover some of that money lost.
“It’s in his lap,” George Steinbrenner said of Selig as the Boss entered Yankee Stadium just before 3 p.m. yesterday. “He’s got to do something.”
Steinbrenner’s rain-soaked comment was much less biting than those he uttered a day before, when he came close to calling Selig and Bob DuPuy, MLB president and COO, liars, in reference to the many versions of Tampa Bay’s travel itinerary that have been floating around, both in public and behind closed doors. The Boss, in danger of being fined by MLB, was quoted saying, “If DuPuy and Selig are lying, then they should be called on it. We want the truth to be told and then you’ll see how we’ve been put upon.”
DuPuy said of being called a liar, “He certainly intimated that. The idea that the commissioner’s office would lie to the Yankees about the schedule of games is preposterous. There is no advantage to doing that. What would we be lying about? All we tried to do all weekend is accommodate them and keep them informed of Tampa Bay’s efforts to get to New York. I warned them Sunday that [Tampa Bay] had not gotten a charter and that they would convene at [Tropicana Field] at 8 a.m.”
DuPuy said he spoke to Steinbrenner and Yankees execs Randy Levine, Lonn Trost and GM Brian Cashman at 1 p.m. Sunday.
“They told me that if Tampa Bay wasn’t there by 1 p.m. they would take the field for a forfeit and that one-half hour later they wanted the second game to start,” DuPuy said. “I told them that wasn’t going to happen.”
Instead, DuPuy gave the Yankees three options on Saturday, two days before the scheduled games. A forfeit wasn’t one of them.
“I said they could cancel [Monday’s doubleheader] and reschedule doubleheaders for Tuesday and Wednesday,” DuPuy said. “Or they could delay the start of the first game [Monday] until Tampa Bay arrives and play the doubleheader. Or play one game [Monday] and reschedule the other as a doubleheader Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday.
“At the end of Saturday, after they beat the Orioles, we talked and they asked if it would help if they delayed the start of the first game to 3 p.m., and I said any delay would help,” DuPuy said.
