Every day in every way, the Jets’ desperate methods to sell PSLs seem to have turned the team into a boiler-room operation, the kind of team for which only a Wayne Root could root.
Everything attached to the Jets’ friendly persuasions seems greasy, as if soaked in discarded Johnson & Johnson baby oil.
Now former ticket subscribers who have rejected PSLs because of their ludicrous price tags — and there’s no shortage of such folks — are being told they’ll receive free parking if they return as PSL holders.
In other words, they’ll get a less onerous deal than those who’ve already bought in. Parking fees are $250 — $25 for each home game, including two preseason games — or $35 per home game, $350 for the 10 dates.
What about those who’d already paid for PSLs, tickets and parking? Tough.
But the Jets seem to have a new PSL incentive offer every day. One recent pitch was directed at Facebook members, offering “two free premium seats to an upcoming concert at the new Meadowlands stadium” in exchange for buying a PSL.
It’s now apparent that patrons in the same sections will discover that they’re paying more or less than those seated nearby. The Jets might have to begin a “Don’t ask, don’t tell” campaign, if they haven’t already. Either way, the scent of lawsuits is on the wind.
But the Jets can lean on the easily missed or ignored, read-it-and-retch small-print entries in their PSL contracts. Section 11e, for example, is a clause that absolves the Jets of all exaggerations, deceptions, unfulfilled promises and outright lies used by Jets’ sales reps to have one purchase a PSL.
Hey, maybe the Jets can bring in Joe Namath to throw out the first lawsuit.
But from the start, when the Jets’ sales strategists allowed a team-connected mortgage broker to pose as the “winner” of an auction through which he “purchased” two 50-yard-line PSLs for more than $414,000 — this fine fellow has since been indicted for $11 million in bank fraud — the Jets seem to be working from the Big Book of Three-Card Monte.
And, in case you missed it, Roger Goodell has joined Bud Selig as another commissioner who lets team owners know that, until further notice, the “steal” sign is always on.
Fran-say-so strikes again!
Good thing for Mike Francesa that at WFAN integrity doesn’t count.
Among other malodorous Francesa episodes last week, Friday he intimated that he had the inside dope that the Cavs, at a 2:30 press conference, would announce that coach Mike Brown had been fired. Yep, done deal, said Francesa — at 2:30, Brown is out.
Funny thing, though, this same scoop had been published, then widely disseminated, on Sports Illustrated’s website shortly before Francesa’s claim to know.
And then, oopsie, during the press conference, the Cavs announced that no decision had been reached on Brown. After that, Francesa blamed SI for the bum steer. Did Fran-say-so lift bad info and run with it as his own? Not again!
NBC lacking horse sense
As Kentucky Derby winner and Preakness favorite Super Saver approached the gate, Saturday, NBC’s Tom Hammond provided this nugget: “Derby winners usually run well in the Preakness.” Ya don’t say? Well, they’re good enough to have won the Derby, right? And winning the Derby might even be why Super Saver was the favorite.
NBC’s approach to horseracing is like ESPN’s to Monday Night Football: It caters to casual fans by abandoning hardcore fans — when it can serve both.
During its Preakness telecast NBC, as is its big-race habit, paid little attention to the odds. In other words, at the track, horse players can always look at the board, but while watching NBC they must always look for the board.
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Flyers, down 3-0 in games, then down 3-0 in Game 7, defeat the Bruins in Boston. Hey, Bill Buckner was beaten through the five-hole, too.
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Seems that as long as Gus Johnson keeps screaming, there will be a place for him on CBS, be it NCAA Tournament games or on Saturday cage fighting.
Thumbs up to ‘YES-Mo’
Thus far, YES’s use of “YES-Mo” — super slo-mo looks — has been wisely applied to Yankee telecasts.
YES must fight the temptation to over-use the technology or YES-Mo will become No-Mo.
Mike Vaccaro’s column in The Post, yesterday, included a reader’s claim that he brings a radio to Yankee games just to hear John Sterling’s calls. Good idea. Given Sterling’s descriptions, that’s like two games for the price of one!
Stat of the Week, from SNY’s Ron Darling: The first inning of Monday’s Nats-Mets finished 0-0, yet ran 33 minutes.
SportsCenter, Wednesday, referred to Bill Mazeroski’s 1960 World Series-ender as, “a walk-off home run.” Oh, for crying out loud. That’s like explaining Jeffrey Dahmer as a compulsive eater.
Reader Allen Eisenstein isn’t wild about newfangled baseball talk, either. Things such as “a base knock” and “walk-off” this-and-thats bug him. All I know, Allen, is that in our home, to “go yard” is something we say to the dog.
YES’s John Flaherty, Saturday, became the latest to apply the weak “he thought” defense. When Alex Rodriguez didn’t run hard on a blast to right-center that hit off the wall, Flaherty explained that “he thought it was going to be a home run.” Obviously. But why not find out for sure while running?
Has that awkward, tortured chat among Michael Kay, Ken Singleton, Jay-Z and Eminem ended, yet? Last I saw, it was Wednesday in Detroit, a Yanks-Tigers game going on in the background, and the session had already lasted far too long, and all four realized that, but it kept going.
How many screwballs does it take to light bulb the Mets?
Everything now has to have at least a little stink attached. An ad that appeared on SNY, yesterday, for the Mets’ Fan Club For Kids, includes the claim that “members receive two free tickets.” How can they be free when it costs $25 to join the club?
From reader Robert De March: “How dare you rip Joe Morgan, the only man who knows what all the players, managers, coaches, bat boys, vendors and the fans in the stands are thinking and saying. He is most impressive when he tells us what the pilots flying over are talking about.”