BUYERS REMORSE

Baseball's $1.5 Billion Flop?

Yankee Stadium has empty seats, tired pitchers.

With 80 years of history in the old venue, the pressure on the Steinbrenner clan to get the new Yankee Stadium right was enormous. $1.5 billion later and the new venue's inaugural year is off to a rocky start. A mysterious wind tunnel is wreaking havoc on pitchers, with a league leading 3.62 home runs per game at the park and a 22-run inning against the Yankees in just their third game. Meanwhile ticket sales are suffering under the recession, even for games against heated rivals like the Boston Red Sox. According to Yankees president Randy Levine, early criticisms of the new stadium are premature. "We believe this stadium will have its own great life and great memories," he told The Wall Street Journal. It's already produced plenty of great memories for opposing teams' hitters at least.