Ticket glitch leaves many Yankees fans ticked off

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
NEW YORK -- The New York Yankees' playoff opening loss was a double Bronx bummer Tuesday for more than 1,000 fans turned away from turnstiles for up to 11/2 hours over a bizarre ticket snafu.
The fans -- many of them season ticket holders -- were forced to wait on line until as late as the fourth inning to get replacement tickets after accidentally tearing their ducats out of ticket books without the stubs.
Adding insult to pinstripe injury, Yankee staffers forced the fans to fork over $5 to get their own tickets replaced.
"It's the most vile treatment of loyal fans I've ever seen," said Harold Peterson of Rockland County, who has rooted for the Yanks for 50 years. "We are missing the game, and we can't make up for that."
"They should be ashamed of themselves," said Peter Cohen of Manhattan, who didn't get inside the Stadium until the fourth inning.
One boy cried and pounded on the ticket window after his family was turned away by ticket takers.
But Yankees spokesman Rick Cerrone said steamed fans have only themselves to blame for the confusion.
"They should have torn the tickets right," he said. "It doesn't get any simpler than that."
Cerrone said the team could not allow any fan inside Yankee Stadium without a valid and complete ticket, period.
"If you show up to a Broadway show or a Knicks game with a half a ticket, I don't know what they would do," he said. "We replaced every ticket, and we did it in an orderly way."