Yankees Announce Another Ticket Hike

The best tickets for New York Yankee games at Yankee Stadium will cost $65 a game next season, up $10 from this year and more than 2 1/2 times the price when the Yankees began their recent run of championships in 1996.

The price of the top seats was $25 in 1996, then increased to $35 in 1997, $45 in 1998, $50 in 1999 and $55 this past season.

The Yankees’ payroll has gone up from $61.5 million in 1996 to $73.4 million, $74.0 million, $92.0 million and $113.4 million this year. After last week’s signing of Mike Mussina to an $88.5-million, six-year contract, the Yankees project their 2001 payroll also will be about what it was at the end of last season.

Meanwhile, the value of the Yankees’ World Series shares keeps going down.

A full World Series share was worth $294,783.41, the commissioner’s office said Tuesday, down from $307,808.70 last year and $312,042.41 in 1998, when the Yankees won the first of their three consecutive World Series titles.

The decrease was due to more people splitting the money.

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Pitcher Pedro Astacio of the Colorado Rockies will be allowed to remain in the country despite pleading guilty to a domestic violence charge. Astacio pleaded guilty Nov. 14 to the misdemeanor charge of telephone harassment after initially being charged with third-degree assault for allegedly punching his then-estranged wife, Ana. . . . Jon Rauch, a 6-foot-11 pitcher in the Chicago White Sox organization, was selected as the minor league player of the year by the Sporting News.

Miscellany

Prosecutors attempting to affirm a former girlfriend’s testimony that Rae Carruth confessed to a drive-by shooting brought a former NBA player to the stand.

Charles Shackleford, previously with the Charlotte Hornets, testified Monday in Carruth’s murder trial in Charlotte, N.C., that Candace Smith relayed to him what she said Carruth told her after the November 1999 shooting of Cherica Adams.

Smith testified last week that Carruth, then with the NFL’s Carolina Panthers, told her he planned the shooting of Adams, who was pregnant with Carruth’s child.

John McEnroe, who quit as captain of the U.S. Davis Cup team two weeks ago, said he would offer himself as a doubles player but doesn’t expect to get the call. . . . Former Australian Open champion Petr Korda of the Czech Republic lost to Martin Hromec of Slovakia, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (2), in the opening round of the $25,000 Prague Challenger tournament.

A domestic assault charge against America’s Cup yacht racing winner Bill Koch was dismissed after his estranged wife told authorities in Barnstable, Mass., she would not testify against him.

Koch, 60, was arrested in July after Angela Koch called police to their Oyster Harbor home and told them her husband punched her in the stomach and threatened to hurt his 14-year-old son from a previous marriage.

Officials of the newly formed American Basketball Assn. and the year-old International Basketball League have called off their planned merger. The leagues were unable to agree on the rules and direction of the merged league, according to ABA executive committee chairman Gary Elbogen. The ABA will return to its eight-team format and begin its inaugural season on the original date of Dec. 26.

Weeraphol Nakhonluang of Thailand retained his World Boxing Council bantamweight title, stopping a bloodied Oscar Arciniega of Mexico in the fifth round at Bangkok. . . . Heavyweight Andrew Golota, criticized for quitting against Mike Tyson in October, is expected this week to agree to a 10% reduction in his $2-million purse.