Press parking at Yankee Stadium

But of course.

 

Doesn't everybody at ESPN?

 

Would you feel the same if your employer didn't reimburse you?

 

That's not the Yankees' problem.

 

Top Ten Post Of The Month material, there . . . though it's only the 2nd.

 

Good point; who's getting on the subway with all your junk every night at 1 a.m. and feeling secure you're going to make it to your final stop every single night? It would be worthwhile to check back on this one around Aug. 1 to determine how many guys who cover the team every night are getting reimbursed. I guess you would get it back at the end of the year as a deduction, but still, that's a hefty one.

 

I agree - but that wasn't the question.

The question is - would you be so willing to cover the Yankees if it cost you $1600 to do it. I for one would tell my bosses to give me a different assignment.

 

And you'd be out of work the next time they "RIF"

 

It's an issue for the various media outlets who cover the Yankees, not the Yankees', and it's probably helpful in the long run because it will force the media outlets to make value-based decisions about whether they need to have people at the Stadium for every game.

I say "helpful" because sports and journalism have a dysfunctional relationship that has evolved over more than a century. We've looked the other way on both sides of the equation because the relationship was considered mutually beneficial -- sports teams got free publicity and media got compelling content.

But how much of this content is actually news? How compromised are the various media outlets when actual news breaks out? Why should teams overexpose themselves to increasingly hostile media members who know that breaking "hard" news is the key to advancing their careers? Why should every reporter feel entitled to speak with everyone with whom they want to speak? Etc.

As sports' ability to generate their own media grows these questions are naturally going to come to the forefront. I think it's a healthy development.

 

At this point the New York newspapers need the Yankees more than the Yankees need the New York newspapers. And there is a handful of other franchises about which that is true as well:

Mets
Red Sox
Dodgers
Cubs

These clubs don't need newspapers to help sell their product anymore. Reporters are a nuisance, not a benefit.

I wouldn't be surprised if the thought of cutting the number of beat reporters showing up every day was one of the reasons the Yankees jacked up the cost of parking.

 

And that is sad -- because an independent press is no longer needed nor valued.

And it is not just in sports -- government agencies no longer need the press to get their message out.

But I don't know how anyone could think it is a good thing that the Yankees.Com and ESPN or whatever is some day soon going to be the only "source" of Yankees coverage -- and the hard questions will no longer be getting asked.

 

Why would the "hard" questions no longer be asked? Because the Yankees don't invite them in, give them a space to work, some free munchies and a parking pass? If the "hard" questions don't continue to be asked, again, that's not the Yankees' problem, it's the media's problem.