From the way "phones have been ringing" at MLB's
offices last week, Commissioner Bud Selig is "certain that
there is little truth" that the Subway Series holds "little
allure outside" N.Y, according to Steve Popper of the N.Y.
TIMES. Selig: "Without a doubt this is the most intense
ticket requests I've seen in 35 years in baseball. And it
has come from all over the country. ... The conventional
wisdom that nobody west of the Hudson River is interested I
think will be proven wrong and I think the ratings will show
that" (N.Y. TIMES, 10/22). Also in N.Y., James McKinley
noted that about 3,000 tickets to the Series are given to
other MLB teams for their employees, while 400 go to
baseball writers and 1,500 to MLB players not in the Series
(N.Y. TIMES, 10/22). CNNfn's Alan Dodds Frank reported that
in N.Y., the "excess is never enough, and this week, the
true test for big shots is scoring World Series tickets."
Publicist Sy Preston: "They have to get the best seats in
the house, because if they put some of their clients in a
bleacher seat or in the upper deck, that's demeaning"
("Moneyline," CNNfn, 10/20)....On Long Island, Jack Otter
writes under the header, "Boardroom Bigwigs Battle for Box
Seats," that "no one can remember a year when this many
people were begging, scheming or screaming" for World Series
tickets (NEWSDAY, 10/23). CNBC's Ron Insana reported that
ticket scalpers around the Series "are striking out."
Insana: "Online auctioneers eBay and Amazon.com have decided
to pull any World Series ticket auctions, for prices were
soaring ten to 20 times over face value of the ticket.
eBay's policy is to respect each state's scalping and ticket
resale laws, but that hasn't stopped Yahoo!'s auction site,
where World Series tickets are now reaching into the
thousands of dollars" ("Business Center," CNBC, 10/20).
DIAMOND IN THE SQUARE: Friday night's CBS "Late Show"
Top Ten List was, "Top Ten Movies Playing In Times Square":
10) "Behind The Green Monster" 9) "Sacrifice My Fly" 8)
"Pantless Joe Jackson" 7) "The Don Zimmer/Pamela Anderson
Home Video" 6) "Debbie Does Dallas Green" 5) "Who's In
First?" 4) "Abner Double-D" 3) "How Chuck Got His Knob-
Locked" 2) "The Story Of The '69 Mets" 1) "A Babe Named
Ruth" ("Late Show," CBS, 10/20).
NOTES: In NJ, Bob Klapisch wrote that Yankees Owner
George Steinbrenner "sent word that no job [within the
organization] would be secure should" the team lose the
Series. One source: "Basically, we were all put on notice.
We were told heads would roll" (Bergen RECORD,
10/22)....David Letterman: "Mayor Giuliani is doing
everything he can to make [the Subway Series] even more
exciting. He's hired a 1,000 more guys to rub against you
on the subways" ("Late Show," CBS, 10/20).
