Let he who has fans cast the first stone

Don Garber, commissioner of Major League Soccer, learned a lesson last week: Those with half-filled stadiums should not throw stones at the New York Yankees.

Speaking last Thursday at the Associated Press Sports Editors meeting, Garber commented on the empty premium seats at recent Yankees home games.

“It’s incomprehensible that you watch a game and there will be front-row seats empty,” Garber said.

That prompted Yankees President Randy Levine to shoot back.

“Don Garber discussing Yankee attendance must be a joke,” Levine said. “We draw more people in a year than his entire league does in a year. If he ever gets Major League Soccer into the same time zone as the Yankees, we might take him seriously.

“Hey Don, worry about [David] Beckham, not the Yankees. Even he wants out of your league.”

Levine was accurate in his comparison of MLS and Yankees attendance. Last year, MLS averaged 16,460 for 210 regular-season games for a total of 3.46 million. The Yankees averaged 53,070 last year in the final season at the old Yankee Stadium, a total of 4.3 million.

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Trivia time

Who finished second to Jesse Owens in the 200-meter race at the 1936 Olympics?

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When retro goes bad

In honor of the 50th anniversary of the American Football League, the eight original AFL teams will wear replicas of their original uniforms for two games this season -- one home and one away.

That means the Denver Broncos will be unearthing their horrible yellow and brown uniforms.

Broncos vice president of communications Jim Saccomano told the Denver Post that the jerseys “looked like French’s mustard” and the pants and numbers “were sort of a seal brown.” The ugliest uniforms in sports history?

“Unquestionably, without a doubt,” said Frank Tripucka, the Broncos’ starting quarterback during the team’s inaugural season.

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Universal language

Tiger Woods’ wife, Elin Nordegren, is Swedish, which raises one obvious question: Does Woods speak any Swedish around the house?

“I speak a little. It’s not very good,” Woods said. “I’m better at reading than I am anything else. Or ‘Take out the trash’ or ‘Clean the house,’ ‘Wash dishes,’ I understand those.”

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Trivia answer

Matthew “Mack” Robinson, older brother of Jackie Robinson.

(Question and answer provided by Bob Brown of Thousand Oaks.)

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And finally

NBC’s Len Berman, on Forbes listing the Yankees’ worth at $1.5 billion: “Since the stadium cost $1.5 billion, does that mean the players are worthless?”

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mike.penner@latimes.com