The Yankees have won the World Series at home only three times in the past half century – and never, of course, at the new Yankee Stadium.

So it is no surprise that fans eager to witness history have been driving up the price of tickets to Game 6 since it became clear the Phillies would win Monday and force the teams to return to the Bronx.

Until Monday, the average sales price for Game 6 on StubHub.com was $814. The average for tickets sold yesterday was $1,044 as of late morning.

Other sites saw comparable price rises. The game was on its way to beating Game 2 as the highest-grossing event in StubHub history.

Might prices fall as game time approaches Wednesday night? Not necessarily. That did happen for Game 1, on a misty night. For Game 2, prices rose on game day.

Just imagine if there’s a Game Seven. The last time the Yankees played a Game Seven in the World Series at home? October 10, 1957. Needless to say, that was not a good day.

The last time the Yankees played a Game Seven in the World Series at home where New York won the game? October 6, 1947. Yeah, nineteen-forty-seven.

Whoooa, that was a looooong time agooooo….eh?

The New York Yankees announced today that they will open the Yankee Stadium Field Level and Great Hall to the public to watch the broadcast of the World Series Game 4 from Philadelphia on Sunday, November 1. (The opening will be dependent on weather conditions in Philadelphia permitting the game to be played.)
Turnstiles between Gates 4 and 6 will open at 7:00 p.m. for the 8:20 p.m. game. Fans can watch the Game in the Great Hall or in the opened sections of the Field Level.

“When we opened the Stadium for Game 3 in the ALCS, the response was positive and the energy from our fans was truly infectious. They really enjoyed coming together to watch the game,” said Hal Steinbrenner, Yankees Managing General Partner. “Once we reached the World Series, we felt that it was the perfect time to open the Stadium again. We remain grateful for the support of the best fans in baseball.”

Food and concession stands will be open and available to fans. NYY Steak and Hard Rock Café will also be open.

Last time the Yanks did this, it was bad luck for them – although they had a decent turnout. Wonder how this one will be different than last time…considering the time of the game for today…

Yankee Stadium won’t be the site of Game 3 of the American League Championship Series on Monday. But that doesn’t mean it will be empty.

The Yankees announced on Sunday that they will open the Stadium Field Level and Great Hall to the public to watch the Yankees face the Angels in Anaheim as New York tries to take a commanding 3-0 lead in the ALCS.

“We wanted to provide a place for our fans to come together to cheer for our team, even if the game itself is taking place across the country,” Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner said in a news release. “This is a way of saying ‘Thank you’ for their continued support.”

Turnstiles between Gates 4 and 6 will open at 3:30 p.m. ET for the 4:13 p.m. game — broadcast on FOX — and fans can watch it in the Great Hall or in the open sections of the Field Level. Food and concession stands, as well as NYY Steak and Hard Rock Café, will be open and available to fans.

The decision to open the stadium was made after consultation with Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr.

“I thank the New York Yankees for opening their amazing new stadium to the community, and I hope that people from all over the city will come out to cheer for the Yankees and share in what’s sure to be a great night right here in the Bronx,” Diaz Jr. said in the release.

…hmmm…

Whatever happened to “Any rebroadcast, retransmission, or account of this game, without the express written consent of Major League Baseball, is prohibited…”?

I suppose that MLB and FOX is giving the Yankees the rights to broadcast the game at the Stadium…which is cool. Although, given the start time for this game, and the fact that it’s a Monday, and it’s short notice on the Stadium being open, expect the joint to be filled with Lee Elia’s favorite 15% of the population. Could make for an interesting Stadium experience…

Irish tenor Ronan Tynan sings a first-rate “God Bless America,” at Yankee Stadium, but his attempt at telling a joke offended a Jewish doctor who found it to be anti-Semitic.

Tynan apologized, telling WNBC, “I would never want to hurt anybody’s feelings. It was stupid of me to be so callous.”

But the Yankees still canceled his appearance at the stadium Friday night.

The trouble started when Tynan, 49, bumped into a real estate agent showing an apartment in his East Side apartment building to a doctor from NYU Medical Center.

The agent told Tynan, “Don’t worry, they are not Red Sox fans,” according to apartment-hunter Gabrielle Gold-von Simson.

“I don’t care about that, as long as they are not Jewish,” was Tynan’s reply.

The Yankees are adding seats to their new ballpark for the playoffs.

The team said Friday it will install 60 cafe seats on the field level and sell 200 standing room places on the field and main levels during the post-season.

The cafe seats will cost US$81 for the division series and $131 for the league championship series, and standing places will go for $30 and $25 in the first round and $64 and $48 in the second round.

New York will put a limited amount of regular seats plus the new areas on sale Monday on its website. Buyers are limited to two tickets for one game of one series, and they must print their own tickets for the first two division series games.

The Yankees generally did not sell these areas during the season, although they experimented during a game against Boston.

During the ALDS, for an extra $100, if you purchase one of the field level “cafe seats,” Joba Chamberlain will also fold your towels for you.

And, for an extra $200 bucks, you can get a lap dance from Jonathan Albaladejo, Hank Steinbrenner or Ronan Tynan – with the one caveat that Tynan is not available during the 7th inning.

The Yankees today announced 2010 full-season ticket license pricing for regular season games at Yankee Stadium. Prices for 97 percent of tickets will either remain the same or decrease.
Of the 50,086 seats in the Stadium, prices for 41,928 tickets (84 percent) will remain the same from 2009, while 6,454 tickets (13 percent) will see a decrease in price. There are 1,704 tickets (three percent) that will have an increase in price.

A total of 3,400 Field Level seats currently priced at $325 as part of full-season licenses will drop to $250 or $235 each next season, depending on their specific location. Additionally, all 1,208 Suite seats in the Delta Sky360° Suite will see a decrease in price, as will 1,846 of 1,894 Suite seats (97 percent) in the Legends Suite. The balance of the Legends Suite seats will have no price change.

All Field Level seats not in the aforementioned locations will remain at their current prices. Additionally, non-Suite tickets in the Bleachers, Grandstand and Terrace levels will see no change in price in the 2010 season.

In the Main Level, 10,111 seat locations will see no increase. The remaining 1,704 seats in Sections 216-217 and 223-224 currently priced at $100 will be $125 next season. These mark the only increases for 2010.

Did they really need to increase the prices on those 1,704 seats in Sections 216-217 and 223-224? That’s an extra $3.5 million for the Yankees. Do they really need $3.5 million that badly? Man, if I had one of those seats, I’d be seeing red on this news…

Me? I was happy with the Yanks passed on ol’ Petey. And, to be candid, the thought of seeing him in a Yankees uniform somewhat turns my stomach. But, when your options after Joba and A.J. are Sergio Mitre and Chad Gaudin…well…pour me a Pepto for Pedro…and maybe I’ll learn to survive…

That’s today’s wild thought. What are your thoughts on this?

Trost’s letter opens with:

Dear Yankees Fan:

Over a span of just a few short months, Yankee Stadium has already been the site of several memorable and unforgettable moments.

Anyone who was in attendance on Opening Day will surely recall the pageantry and pride that went into unveiling the Yankees’ sparkling new home.

On May 15, Brett Gardner’s inside-the-park home run propelled the Yankees to a victory against the Twins and put a smile on the face of a young girl awaiting a heart transplant, a girl that Gardner had met in a children’s hospital earlier that day. And who can forget August 7, when A-Rod’s 15th-inning home run broke up a scoreless tie against the Red Sox, or the numerous come from behind victories and walk-off home runs?

It’s likely that you have your own particular moments that will stay with you forever. And that is what Yankee Stadium is all about, unforgettable games and unforgettable moments.

So far, 2009 has been a season for the ages; the come from behind victories, the pinch-hit home runs and the amazing plays in the field. The excitement in the Bronx has been palpable and it is sure to increase as the seasons draws to a conclusion. As we enter the home stretch for the 2009 American League East Division title, the Yankees have begun preparations for a return to the postseason in our Inaugural Season of our new home. It is also time for you to start making preparations for a return to Yankee Stadium to enjoy the postseason.

Since when did Yankees post-season tickets become such a hard sell that the team has to play the “smile on the face of a young girl awaiting a heart transplant” card? Really, is it necessary to use this poor girl’s misfortune in an attempt to pitch coming to see October baseball in the Bronx?

Michael Kay always quotes Buck Showalter with the line of “If you do something good for someone, and somebody other than you and them knows about it, you have to question what your intention was really all about.”

Gardner went to see that sick kid because that’s the way he is…and it was a nice thing for the kid. He didn’t do it for some P.R., etc. Shame on the Yankees for trying to use that now…to fluff up the new Yankee Stadium experience.

Hey, Lonn, you know what? At this moment, the Yankees are 48-20 at home this season, in first place, and going into the post-season, most likely, as the team with the best record in the league for the first time since 2006. That should be good enough for a sales pitch. Leave the sick kid out of it.

Those expecting to hear of a price gouge for Yankees postseason tickets might be surprised.

It’s not coming.

CNBC has seen the final face value prices that the Yankees submitted to Major League Baseball and increases will be much smaller than the jump season ticket holders saw for home games played at the old Yankee Stadium in the 2007 postseason, the last time the Yankees were in the playoffs. In fact, some 2009 postseason seats will cost LESS than this year’s regular season prices.

Ticket prices in the new Yankee Stadium are especially complex to decode since premium ticket holders — those in three suite areas — already paid for their suite licensing fees, which makes up the bulk of the per game ticket price.

That’s one of the reasons why ticket holders in most premium areas see a face value on their tickets of less than 20 percent of the price they eventually pay. The rest of the price is then made up of these fees that are paid ahead of time.

For example, those who sit in the first rows behind home plate, pay $2,500 a seat, but the face value of the tickets — and thus the price paid on a per game basis — is $325.

For the ALDS, the Yankees are expected to announce that the top per game price will be $275, $50 less than what those sitting in the best seats pay for each regular season game.

Those season ticket holders sitting in non-premium seats will pay the same per-game price as they are paying for the regular season for their ALDS seats, with the exception of one section of seats.

Compare that to the increases on the 2007 postseason face value of tickets, which roughly ranged from 30 percent to 130 percent above the regular season price for the ALDS, the only series the Yankees played that year after being bested by the Cleveland Indians.

Fans will see bigger jumps in price from the ALDS to the ALCS, should the Yankees advance, but the increases — which start at 27 percent over the ALDS prices — is nothing out of the ordinary.

Non-season ticket holders won’t have much of a chance at getting playoff tickets, since the Yankees have sold the majority of the new stadium on a season ticket basis and Major League Baseball is expected to ask for another 10 to 15 percent of the seats for executives, sponsors and media partners.

Well, if the Moonlite BunnyRanch doesn’t raise prices on Valentine’s Day, it only seems fair that the Yankees don’t look to jack up their prices in October, right?

So much of Yankee Stadium II’s first four months had been devoted to all that was missing: the charm, the history, the intimacy of a loud crowd on a summer night.

And the Yankees won 2-0, won what obviously was the greatest game in the brief history of the new ballpark, won a second straight game over the Red Sox, extended their lead to 4½ games, and gave everyone a stern reminder that they are the alpha dogs of the AL East now.

All the talk of baseball’s best team has bounced around baseball the past few months, from Los Angeles to Philadelphia to Boston.

Look homeward now. Look to The Bronx. Look to the familiar old neighborhood. And cross the street. Yankee Stadium II made its bones last night, proved it can be a fair acoustic heir, and maybe approach the experience the old joint used to specialize in: feeling like you had a stake in things. Feeling like everyone on the field could hear you. Feeling like a 10th man.

And being one. The games that came before didn’t have any of that. This one did. This one lasted until close to 1 in the morning, but when it ended everyone was ready. Everyone was prepared. The best game in the new ballpark, and they screamed as the ball soared, and it sounded sweeter even than Sinatra.

It’s an interesting question: Was New York’s game against Boston on August 7th the cherry-popper for the new Yankee Stadium? What do you think?