Van Slyke, Tigers’ first-base coach, can’t avoid that fare-jumping ticket

Every day, I see a few hits here from people searching for information on transit cops handing out tickets to turnstile jumpers. It’s always an amusing topic.

From personal experience, I’ve noticed that the New York City Transit Police are fairly vigilant about fare jumpers at crowded stadiums. Take Sunday, for example. On my way back to Manhattan from Yankee Stadium, I witnessed two people jump the turnstile in their efforts to reach the D train at 161st St.

Well, the transit cops were standing six feet away on the other side of the turnstile, writing tickets to another group of fare jumpers. The two most recent turnstile jumpers were quickly corralled by the cops. To say they were irked by their $60 tickets would be an understatement.

Recently, the transit cops ticketed someone a little more famous than your average subway fare jumper. They nailed Detroit Tigers first-base coach Andy Van Slyke a few weeks ago when the Detroit Tigers were in town to play the New York Yankees. Danny Knobler, one of the Tigers’ beat writers, has more:

Van Slyke was trying to get back to the Tigers’ Manhattan hotel with his family Saturday night. He said that the subway tickets he bought for him and his wife wouldn’t work, so they finally jumped the turnstyle.

The only problem was that two police officers saw them, and handed each of the Van Slykes a $60 fine.

“They had us standing there, and people were walking by pointing at us, and yelling, ‘Jumpers! Jumpers!’ ” Van Slyke said Sunday morning. “It’s great. It’s New York City. A guy walked by and said, ‘Andy, I don’t think I can get an autograph now, can I?'”

Oops.

Now, you and I know that Van Slyke was trying to swipe his MetroCard and was probably just growing sick of the that “Please Swipe Again” message. So he did what he though was the sensible thing and jumped the turnstile. That is a no-no.

According to other accounts of the incident, fans leaving Yankee Stadium recognized Van Slyke and joked around with the Tigers coach. The transit police, however, were unamused.

And this goes to show you that’s it’s far better to pay that $2 fare than it is to risk a $60 ticket, especially at Yankee Stadium.

The hat tip on this one goes out to Mike A. at River Ave. Blues.