Hal Steinbrenner Speaks, and He Might Have Said Too Much

NEW YORK - Hal Steinbrenner, the Yankees' general managing partner, isn't a whole lot like his father, George. Hal is media-shy, thoughtful and not prone to bombast. (The bombast gene went to older brother Hank.)

But when Hal addressed the media Thursday, mostly to give his impressions of the new Yankee Stadium, he uncharacteristically gave out a couple of soundbites.

After the Yankees worked out at their new yard and everyone took in that new-stadium smell, Steinbrenner was asked about opening an opulent new park – "I don't see this place as ostentatious or flashy," he said, defensively, "I see it as classy." – with $2,600 seats (many unsold) during an economic crisis.

"We understand that a lot of our fans are struggling," he said. "At the same time I think baseball has always been an escape for people. I think what we're going to provide here is an unbelievable experience for thousands and thousands of our fans."

So far so good. But then he was asked about the high-priced seats.

"There's no doubt a small amount of our tickets are overpriced," he said. "We're looking into that."

Points for honesty. But how do the people who already paid for the those tickets feel to find out the Yankees admit they were overpriced?

There had to be some wincing in the front office over that one.

Speaking of overpriced, Steinbrenner was also asked about Alex Rodriguez's turbulent few months, which included (are we leaving anything out?) being exposed as a steroids user, admitting it but giving a story full of holes, suffering a hip injury, having a madam accuse him of hiring (ahem) escorts and posing for photos kissing his reflection in a mirror.

"Alex is one of the best players in baseball," Steinbrenner said. "He represents the Yankees well. I have no doubt that he will continue to do so. Nobody's perfect. Everybody makes mistakes. I think the important thing in life that anybody should learn to do is admit they made a mistake, apologize for it, mean it – and he's done all this stuff."

Hang on there – represents the Yankees well?

Not really. Rodriguez has a knock for bringing non-stop negative publicity on himself.

OK, so did Reggie Jackson. And David Wells. And Babe Ruth would have had there been tabloids in his day.

But the Yankees have always thought of themselves as, to use Steinbrenner's word, "classy."

So approving of A-Rod as the face of the franchise is kind of like a $2,600 baseball ticket. No one's buying it.