NEW YORK - Selling discarded seats from Yankee Stadium was a big moneymaker for the city.
In two hours Monday, Yankee fans shelled out $150,000 for 100 sets of three seats, with stanchions. Cost of each set: $1,500.
"I'm a season ticket holder," said Bob Coccodrilli, who arrived Sunday night with a sleeping bag. "Those games that I can't attend, I'm going to watch in my living room in my Yankee seats."
The seats were installed in 1975, when the left- and rightfield boxes were renovated. They were removed when the city-owned stadium got another face lift in 1998 and 1999. Since then, they've been in storage at a warehouse on Randalls Island.
About 30 fans were lined up by 8 a.m., one hour before the start of the sale at the government's CityStore in lower Manhattan.
First in line was Suzanne Bressler, who arrived Sunday afternoon from her Upper West Side apartment equipped with a folding chair and blanket. She was buying the seats for her father.
"My two sisters and I are going to sit in the seats and say we're his biggest fans on Father's Day," she said. "It's corny, I know, but he loves that stuff."
Monday's sale was organized by the Department of Parks and Recreation to raise money for the city's general fund. Another 300 sets of seats will be sold in an auction this year.
VETERANS CANDIDATES: Ron Santo, Tony Oliva and Roger Maris are among 200 players still eligible for election to the Hall of Fame in the 2005 Veterans Committee vote.
Santo, the former Cubs third baseman and current broadcaster, has long been considered by baseball analysts to be one of the Hall's most puzzling oversights. He is ranked by writer and current Red Sox employee Bill James as the seventh-greatest third baseman ever.
A 60-member screening committee appointed by the Baseball Writers Association of America will cut the final list of former players to 25 this summer. The final ballot will be announced in the fall, and the Veterans Committee will vote in January.
BRAVES: Hopeful he might be out about a week, the team decided not to place leftfielder Chipper Jones on the disabled list. Jones' sore right hamstring gave way Sunday as he was going for a ball at the fence against the Marlins.
CUBS: The team set an attendance record for a four-game series with 159,461 against the Reds.
EXPOS: Centerfielder Peter Bergeron was out of the lineup with sore ribs a day after a collision at second base with Philadelphia's Jimmy Rollin. Manager Frank Robinson said Bergeron will have tests.
