Yankees treat ‘people like crap,’ Trenton Thunder owner fumes

Joe Plumeri knows there’s no chance of his Trenton Thunder being affiliated with the Yankees after the Yankees announced over the weekend they were moving their Double-A team to Somerset,

Joe Plumeri knows there’s no chance of his Trenton Thunder being affiliated with the Yankees after the Yankees announced over the weekend they were moving their Double-A team to Somerset, N.J.

Still, the longtime owner of the Thunder said Tuesday he remains shocked about how the Yankees went about their business.

“This is a team that’s revered that treats people like crap,’’ Plumeri said. “They don’t care about the legacy we have or the city’s diversity. If they cared about community and diversity like they say they do, they would have stayed in Trenton.”

Plumeri isn’t the only owner who is upset with the Yankees.

After the Yankees relocated some of their minor league system as part of the restructuring of the minors throughout baseball that will leave fewer teams with major league affiliations, Staten Island also found itself without a team.

Glenn Reicin, one of the Staten Island Yankees’ four owners, said he received a phone call from Yankees COO Lonn Trost at 10:30 Saturday morning and then an email from Trost at 1 p.m. Saturday afternoon notifying him of the impending announcement. However, as the Yankees knew from dealing with Reicin for 10 years, he keeps the Jewish Sabbath and refrains from electronic communication from Friday sundown to after sundown on Saturday. Hence Reicin didn’t learn of the news until Saturday evening and his partners, none of whom was contacted by the Yankees, found out when the Yankees released the news.

A source said the Yankees contacted people within each organization before the moves became official, but Plumeri said he found out when Baseball America reported the news Friday night.

Plumeri said he’d had conversations with Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner, president Randy Levine and GM Brian Cashman over the last month leading up to the decision, but said he was told nothing had been finalized.

“It’s disingenuous,’’ said Plumeri, who added the Yankees raised issues about the team’s stadium and facilities.

“They said the ceilings were too low in the clubhouse,’’ Plumeri said. “I said, ‘Aaron Judge played here and he was fine and he’s 6-foot-7. They said there were issues in the community. … They were developing a narrative to fit the result.”

In a statement over the weekend, Cashman said the changes were made for a “more consistent application of training with similarly aligned facilities in terms of structure, quality and ease of travel. We are confident that these changes will greatly benefit our players and Yankees fans for many years to come.”

“I don’t think they’ll reverse their decision, but they shouldn’t have abandoned us,’’ said Plumeri, who hopes to hook up with another major league franchise.

“It shouldn’t have happened this way,’’ Plumeri said. “I grew up a Yankee fan and they didn’t have the decency to tell me what they were doing.”