Mayor Michael Bloomberg may not choose sides when it comes to rooting for a New York baseball team, but former mayor Rudy Giuliani makes his favorite clear – and he's willing to pay a lot of money to get a piece of the Bronx Bombers.
Giuliani could pay up to $2,000 for some grass, dirt and seats from the old Yankee stadium.
"He wants a little bit of everything," Brandon Steiner, whose company Steiner Sports is handling the official memorabilia sale, told the New York Post. "He's a bit of a collector."
Indeed. Rudy already boats four Yankee World Series rings and Yankee Stadium seats in his omnibus and he's expected to place an order this week for more Yankee stuff.
"He definitely wants his seats, the two he sits in near the dugout," Steiner told the Post. "He definitely wants grass, and he asked about our dirt products, for his office or for his kids. He's a great fan."
You can say that again. But Giuliani's high-profile fan status isn't getting him any special treatment. There won't be a discount for him, Steiner told the Post, nor will there be any discount for the other famous super fans who want to snag some pinstripe history. Richard Gere, LeBron James, Jason Kidd, Spike Lee and a bunch of other celebs have expressed interest in obtaining items for their personal connections, reports the Post.
The sale of Yankee memorabilia has been going swiftly for Steiner Sports since it started last week. The team paid the city nearly $12 million for the rights to sell off pieces of their pasts – some of which go for an alarming amount (i.e. a $50,000 piece of sod cut from the logo behind home plate). About 1,500 seats went on the first day and they've also sold more than 1,000 patches of freeze-dried grass at $80 a pop. Go check out the online auctions if you want a piece yourself. Steiner guessed that about $1 million worth of merchandise gets sold every day, the Post reported, so you better move fast.
