SECTION: News; Pg. 8

LENGTH: 417 words

HEADLINE: 'CREATURE' COMFORTS END
YANKEE SUPERFANS LOSE SEATS


BYLINE: By TARA GEORGE With Filip Bondy

BODY:


A dispute between a group of die-hard Yankee fans and team management may mean the end of a Stadium ritual for the rest of the season.

The so-called Bleacher Creatures say they'll stop doing their famed "roll call" to protest management's refusal to help them sit together for the playoffs.

Leaders of the raucous crew of about 100 fans who occupy the same right-field seats every game are angry they've lost playoff seating privileges they've had for the past two years. So starting Monday, the Creatures say, they will protest the only way they know how.

"There'll be no roll call," vowed Milton Ouslan, 27, who rings a cowbell as part of the tradition. "We're just going to go out there and do nothing."

Roll call is one of a number of rituals that have earned the Creatures a place in Yankee lore. Seconds into the first inning, group members yell out each player's name until he acknowledges them with a tip of the hat.

Yankees spokesman Rick Cerrone said it was the Creatures' "prerogative" to protest, but it probably wouldn't help.

"They're great fans," said Cerrone. "But we have to treat our fans the same when it comes to selling tickets."

Officials could not explain why the Creatures were able to sit together in past playoffs.

Cerrone said he would "not deny" the Yankees gave the Creatures preferential treatment by letting them purchase Section 39 seats for each game of the 1996 and 1997 playoffs.

The group would have been unable to get its seats together if it had been forced to line up in the pre-playoffs ticket pandemonium a situation the Creatures now face.

But Cerrone said that accommodating the Creatures this year would be impossible.

The Yankees don't have enough seats to make allowances for a large group like the Creatures because of obligations to season ticket holders, Cerrone said.

He noted that the Creatures are demanding seats to each playoff game, whereas regular fans are limited to one game.

But group members said their regular attendance at all home games and some out-of-town ones should give them the same privileges as season ticket holders.

Bleachers seats can't be bought for a whole season. But someone holding four season tickets is entitled to twice as many playoff seats, which overflow into the bleachers.

"It's not that we wouldn't stand on line or want preferential treatment," said Larry Palumbo, 28, a veteran Creature from Long Island. "It's just that we want to get tickets together."



GRAPHIC: ANDREW SAVULICH DAILY NEWS BLEACHER CREATURES (clockwise from top l.) Donald Simpson, Larry Palumbo, Joey Lopez and Tom Brown watch the Yankees play on TV.

LOAD-DATE: September 17, 1998