I was given four tickets to yesterday's Niners game (Sunday, Nov 28 vs Miami) --a mixed blessing for me, since historically, I've loved Niner football games, but have participated in the launch of the Dumpyork effort out of a sense of sheer disgust at how our loser of a owner has driven this team into the ditch.

The tickets were funneled to me fourth-hand. Their source was a 28-year season ticket holder, who couldn't seem to even give them away. So I took them--for free. The sweats were in the south end zone, literally three rows off the field. Even in the recent past, these would have been incredibly expensive, and probably wouldn't have been available at all.

Upon arrival, my friend and I felt great encouragement walking through the good parking, and seeing the usual hordes of seemingly professional tailgaters, all flying their 49er flags, making great food, drinking massive quantities of everything from bloodies to beer to bourbon and more. Judging from the well-worn jackets and other Niner gear, this obviously was no group of posers. These people having been coming to games for years, and they are as dedicated as any of us to the team's success.

So we entered Monster Park (Have a Monstrously Great Time!), and located our seats. The stadium is really showing signs of wear--worn out, old orange seats, many of them with faded or missing numbers, and the letters painted on the aisle seats identifying the row are chipped and worn. The whole place looks dilapidated. Obviously, beyond keeping a thin coat of red paint on the place, no one in management seems to give a shit.

As you all witnessed for yourselves, the team played terribly. They looked listless and disinterested coming onto the field, and things never got any better. Poor execution, no field vision of any kind by Rattay, passable defense that got absolutely no support of any kind by the offense--a generally pathetic product overall. Whoever had the idea to put Rattay's photo alongside a similar photo of Joe Montana on the cover of that week's program ought to have to eat copies of the program for the next month.

I've had more fun at high school football games--the players and coaches at least seem to care.

All of this can be directly attributed to Owner York, who has stomped every drop of air out of the balloon that was once this great franchise. As in baseball, it's possible to create such a negative mindset from top to bottom of an organization that everyone loses heart and motivation, and you wind up with a team of headcases that can't get out of their own way. I'm not excusing poor play, but I really belive that, being human, players can only take so much of being set up to fail before they actually will fail, in spite of whatever talent they have.

It's one thing to have some great years and then some years of decline and rebuilding. This is completely beyond that.

My heart goes out especially to the real ticketholders around me, who seemed to rally each time the defense made a successful stop and cheer their hearts out, only to boo with equal vigor at each boneheaded move the offense would make. The bitterness of those boos still rings in my ears, because they came from people who love this team and hate seeing what's it's become. If some of them were to suit up next Sunday, I almost think we could win.

Please, Dr. York--give this up. The only one having a Monstrously Great Time is you--counting your money. Sell this team to someone who cares, because you obviously don't.