As the State Commission on Public Integrity begins an inquiry into Governor David Paterson’s allegedly unethical attendance at a World Series game, it’s worth recalling Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s exponentially more long-lasting, fruitful, and unethical relationship with the Yankees. Giuliani was always at Yankee games, but as the Village Voice’s Wayne Barrett reported a couple of years ago, he only paid for “some of his tickets.” Furthermore, Giuliani and his friends were “repeatedly given Yankee jackets, caps, autographed balls, and other gifts,” and Giuliani even received personally engraved World Series rings worth tens of thousands of dollars while he was in office. Mayor Bloomberg attends plenty of Yankee games as well, but he pays for his own seats, every time, obviously.
