Heroes in a half shell in more ways than one. If you missed Last Week Tonight with John Oliver on Sunday, you’ll have missed a four minute takedown of the Yankees apocalyptically stupid policy banning print-at-home tickets from being used to enter Yankee Stadium.
He then offered up two premium seats right behind home plate on Opening Day (and the other two games of the season-opening Astros series) for 25 cents apiece, which probably annoyed Lonn Trost quite a bit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6J9viOvUbOY
The winners of that contest dressed up as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and were a sight for sore eyes among a sea of empty blue seats behind home plate left unoccupied either because the rich are afraid of the cold, or, in the more likely case, the seats probably went unsold because the Yankees are charging the GDP of a small Pacific island nation to purchase them.
https://twitter.com/Joe_TOC/status/717399743165558787
During the game, the Yankees actually denied the media access to the Legends area where the turtles were sitting so the they couldn’t speak to them, though intrepid reporters like those at the New York Daily News still managed to get a couple of quotes.
“I was so stoked and I was so excited,” said John Welch, of Yorktown, after winning the seats in a contest that fired a shot at the imperialist Yankees.
“It’s a practical joke, but it’s fun for us and it’s awesome to be sitting here for 25 cents. Big shout out to … John Oliver. This could not have been any better.”
Of course, the Yankees dressed up the situation a bit.
“Everyone is welcome at Yankee Stadium,” Yankees’ president Randy Levine told ESPN’s Wallace Matthews on Monday. “And I thank John Oliver for buying Yankees tickets.”
Our turtle heroes also believe that anyone that can afford the absurdly priced tickets should be able to sit in the premium seating.
“If people can afford (the tickets), they should be able to sit there no matter who they are,” said Welch. “I get what (Trost) is saying to a degree, but I don’t agree.”
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles… heroes in a half shell… showing turtle power to fight the injustice of a broken and archaic ticketing system. This is a bigger deal than any time they stopped the Shredder.
