MLB

CITI SLICKERS

A CLOSE friend has been a Mets’ season’s tickets holder since 1964, when Shea opened. He has four box seats.

In 1993, his bill, including parking, was $5,837. By 1998, it had doubled, to $11,836. Two years ago, the same deal was for $23,702 (another bill, sent in August, for $8,660, was for postseason tickets, with a payment deadline of Sept. 8. He has been providing the Mets such interest-free loans for years).

This year, when he was charged $33,300 for his regular season tickets, full payment due Jan. 15, he was pushed closer to the edge.

This week, a Mets’ rep called him to provide renewal details for next season, the first in the Mets’ new park. His tickets will cost him $56,700. The price of parking has not yet been established, thus he can expect a total bill of roughly $60,000.

“It’s beyond absurd,” he said. “They want $60,000 from me, yet, on short notice, they’re going to keep switching afternoon games to Sunday nights [for ESPN money]. Yeah, I’m going head home from a Sunday baseball game after midnight. And pay $700 a game, just for the tickets.

“If they play three Sunday night games, that’s $2,100 worth of useless tickets. If eight o’clock games on Sunday nights is logical, how come all teams don’t schedule them? But that’s just one part of it.

“There will be another three of four games with two and three-hour rain delays. They’ll be three or four games that won’t be postponed until after game time when they should have been postponed hours earlier. And they’ll be two or three played in weather that should have caused postponements.

“And they want $60,000 from me for it. It’s way out of control, no sense left in it.”

My friend’s a wealthy man. He didn’t become one by writing bigger checks for worsening deals. The Mets may have finally priced him out. For years, he gave away many of his Mets’ tickets to friends, family, employees and to those who applied them to charity fund-raisers. He hopes they’ll understand.

Oh, nearly forgot. The Mets’ ticket rep, when asked about it, told my friend that compared with what the Yankees are charging for comparable seats, next season, Mets tickets are cheap.

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It may not always be apparent, but I root for ESPN. I root for ESPN because I’m a sports fan and because, despite all the disappointments, ESPN still has a bunch of channels that hold promise for sports fans.

And it’s not as if there are many TV options. Fox Sports Net’s sense of competing with ESPN is to show Hooters Girls wrestling in a kiddie pool filled with Jell-o.

And so, the other day, when the TV listings noted that the ESPN Classic channel would be showing an “AFL” game, I grew excited. Visions of Daryle Lamonica to Fred Biletnikoff danced in my head. Neat!

I should have known better. The old AFL games that are shown on ESPN Classic are not-so-old Arena Football League games. Of course they are; Arena Football is an ESPN property.

Then again, ESPN rarely misses a chance to blow an opportunity. While its video library is loaded with classic games, ESPN Classic mostly presents programming that barely lends itself to sports. It’s closer to Classic Spike TV.

In addition to Arena Football, ESPN Classic now is loaded with old “American Gladiators,” pro wrestling and strongman competitions – all three reliant on dubiously muscled performers (how many didn’t make it to 45?). And there’s also lots of few-years-old poker. Poker is an ESPN property, too.

ESPN’s adherence to damn-the-sports, full cross-promotion ahead!, as well as to further desensitizing the young male demographic – as opposed to serving genuine sports fans of all ages – is painfully apparent, even on a channel that held so much promise, a channel named ESPN Classic.

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By Saturday, most everyone who knows CC Sabathia from ZZ Top knew that Sabathia was headed from Cleveland to Milwaukee. On Fox, that day, Ken Rosenthal twice reported that Sabathia’s next start, scheduled for Tuesday, almost certainly would be for the Brewers. Friday, that story, crediting the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, was on the AP wire.

Yet, Sunday, an ESPN news crawl reported that “ESPN has learned” that Sabathia is close to becoming a Brewer. Monday, when the deal was announced, ESPN again credited itself for the scoop.

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Check Out Counter: 1. Bill Meth and Tom Mariam, hosts of “The Metro Golf Show” over Westchester’s WVOX, 1460-AM, tomorrow at 8 a.m. have a British Open preview provided by Gary Player.

2. Ch. 9’s Russ Salzberg, this evening at 6:30, before Yanks-Jays, anchors “Yankee Stadium: Home of Legends.” Yogi Berra will be with him in Monument Park. “Even at 83,” Salzberg said, “Yogi finds it easier to say, ‘Yes,’ easier than, ‘No.’ “

phil.mushnick@nypost.com