Base

Baseball season has begun, and I devoutly wish that the New York Yankees lose as often as possible. This petition is a desire for vengeance in its purest form: I wish cosmic retaliation against the Yankees for their fleecing of the taxpayer in the construction of their shiny new $2 billion stadium in the Bronx. [Photo: Caleb Ferguson/New York Times]

Way back in 2005 cautious observers were sounding the alarms over the huge price tag this gaudy playground was going to cost even while Mayor Bloomberg was insisting it magically would pay for itself. Field of Schemes says we ponied up over a billion, and the non-partisan Tax Foundation criticized the use of tax-exempt municipal bonds for a private, profit-making activity. The ineffable Charlie Rangel was part of the lobbying effort that got the IRS to agree to this rip-off while coincidentally receiving big campaign contributions from the Yankee owners and lawyers.

So the stadium was built, and we will pay for it until the end of time. Meanwhile, the Yanks promised to replace the public park lands the stadium destroyed in the poorest borough of the city and the many baseball fields used by actual people (as opposed to the ambulatory corporations that wield bats on the professional diamonds). Guess what got delayed and is still not ready while the Yankees, the most valuable team in the majors, get ready to hit and score and win and jerk each other off in front of us for the next six months?