He put fannies in the seats.

Auerbach needed to re-establish an edge, to forge an identity that would help put fannies in Boston Garden seats.

"We are both in the business of putting fannies in seats," said Mr. Brenneman, referring to Broadway and Continental.

In general in baseball, give the fan exciting entertainment - usually a winning team - and you put fannies in the seats.

"Putting fannies in the seats," the expression Steinbrenner uses, has been the paramount consideration.

Steinbrenner has not disappointed, playing perfectly his role as a man still obsessed with the notion that one move brilliantly engineered by him will put fannies in the seats.

For Mansouri, a success that doesn't put fannies in the seats is no success at all.

After all, it was the Yankees' owner who made Billy Martin the manager five times partly because, Steinbrenner said, Martin could "put fannies in the seats."

"Teams are always looking for ways to put fannies in the seats," Mr. High said, "and this is just a creative way to reach a certain demographic of people."

The business of the game, in the crass term of old baseball men, is to put fannies in the seats.