So I was kicking around the idea of trying to go to the All-Star game last week. Yes, I’m a big-time procrastinator but I thought I might have a chance to grab a deal on two tickets from someone with a last minute conflict. This was not the case. Any seat in the stadium was ridiculously expensive. Upper deck seats had a face value of $150 and they were selling for ten times that amount. I soon realized that I never had a shot to be in Yankee stadium for the game and the grump factor took over.

Who can afford those prices? Certainly not the everyday fan. Those prices really pissed me off. Yankee Stadium with all its history is going to be retired and the All-Star game has been taken over by corporate America. I was/am sick and tired of being priced out of sporting events to make room for some dude to schmooze his client. Lame. Lame. Lame. I was ready to watch the All-Star game as an emotionless game with the players going through the motions and the fans not caring. At least the fans in the seats not caring because they weren’t really fans. Real folks couldn’t afford the $750 face value nonsense. Am I right or am I right?

I was wrong. I expected half hearted cheers. What I heard were boos. And they were great. This is what it sounded like when a certain Jonathan Papelbom walked on to the field (fyi- the language in this one isn’t so clean). Those were real 100% Yankee fans acting like Yankee fans and giving Papelbom exactly what he should expect from them. I’m guessing you already saw Utley’s introduction but if you didn’t, here you are (this one is also not so clean but it is funny and it was on TV). There were also real live Mets fans in attendance.

I know many people out there looked at this as classless. “It’s an All Star game… Come on.” I felt exactly the opposite. After resigning myself to the fact that Yankee stadium’s capacity had been filled with tourists and business execs, the boos were like a familiar warm fuzzy blanket. Red Sox players, especially ones that behave as Papelbom did in the days leading up to the game, should be booed every time they set foot on the Yankees’ home field. There was an unexpected buzz in the air and there was no mistaking that the game was being played in The House that Ruth Built. J.D. Drew got booed when he went in the game, then cheered when he hit a home run, then booed again. It’s not often that anyone gets that kind of reception. Boos are part of baseball. Remember the “root, root, root for the home team… if they don’t win it’s a shame,” part of Take Me Out to The Ballgame? Well, they sing that song at All Star games too.