SHIELDS

ing star player Giancarlo Stanton, who hit 59 home runs last season and was given the highest salary deal in baseball history, $325 million over 13 years. Like Wall Street, identification with which their pinstriped uniforms reflect, the Yankees have no compunctions about tapping the public treasury, even if it might mean leaving the sick orphan’s prescription unfilled.

The late William B. Mead, in his classic “The Official New York Yankees Hater’s Handbook,” reminded us that the Yankees players voted against sharing any 1976 World Series money with the team’s batboys. Only when it was publicly disclosed that the Cincinnati Reds players had voted their own batboys $6,591 each did the Yankees reconsider and give their batboys $100 each.

Democrats, dare to stand with the people against the rich and the powerful. Know that there are more Yankees haters than there are Yankees fans. The late Bill Veeck spoke for the majority: “Hating the Yankees isn’t part of my act. It is one of those exquisite times when life and art are in perfect conjunction.”