This Postseason, Ventura Will Park for Free  
By JACK CURRY
(Sept/Oct 2002 ?)

When Robin Ventura was playing with the Mets in 2000, he arrived at Shea Stadium
one afternoon and a parking lot attendant asked him for $7 to enter. Ventura
politely explained that he was the third baseman for the Mets and that he should
not have to pay, but the attendant was unconvinced. The attendant, who obviously
had never watched an inning of a Mets game, repeated his demand for $7. Ventura
could have phoned someone in the front office for help or searched for one of
his baseball cards in the trunk as proof. Instead, he stopped debating and paid.
Mild-mannered and self-deprecating, Ventura is surely one of the only major
leaguers who would have agreed to pay to park in his home lot. Could you imagine
Jorge Posada being forced to pay a few bucks to go to work at Yankee Stadium?
George Steinbrenner would fire a dozen people if that ever happened. How about
Carl Everett or John Rocker handing over a five and two singles? Do you think
either one of them would have ever been !
as cordial as Ventura? Please. General Manager Steve Phillips found out about
Ventura's odd encounter after Ventura told a reporter, and Phillips eventually
reimbursed Ventura the $7. That should have been the end of the story. That
should have balanced all of the accounts, for the Mets and Ventura. Correct? Not
really.  

Ventura, who is now the third baseman for the Yankees, told me last month that
he paid to park at Shea several more times that season. The Mets were playing
extremely well when Ventura first handed over $7, so Todd Zeile, who car-pooled
with Ventura, convinced him, for superstitious reasons, to pay in the
postseason. What did Ventura have to lose? It was a cheap investment if Ventura
and Zeile really felt it might bring the Mets luck. "Todd thought it would be a
good idea so we did it," said Ventura. "It didn't help me do anything. I wasn't
hitting at all, but we kept winning so I kept doing it." It is preposterous to
think that the different parking lot attendants did not recognize Ventura or
Zeile throughout three rounds of the playoffs two years ago, but Ventura
insisted that he paid to park without ever being recognized. For the witty,
playful Ventura, it seemingly became more of a challenge to get away with paying
for something that was supposed to be gratis. "The only thing that puzzled them was when they were waving us in one certain direction
after we paid and we drove right past them to the player's lot," he said. "They
kept waving at us. I just went around the cones and parked in our lot. I guess
they must have wondered how we got in there." The Mets lost to the Yankees in
five games in the World Series that year, winning one of the three games at
Shea, so Ventura's superstitious parking payments fizzled out. He has no plan to
pay to park at Yankee Stadium when the postseason begins next week. The good
fortune only worked until the World Series for the Mets two years ago and,
besides, he will save a little money this year.