Veterans Stadium’s unwritten bring-your-own-bottle rule for luxury-box fans is constitutionally unfair to regular Joes, alleges a federal class-action lawsuit filed yesterday.

A West Chester Eagles fan filed the suit following reports by Joe Sixpack that the stadium allows affluent fans and corporate honchos to stock their own liquor in stadium luxury boxes.

The fan, Mary Helen Jacobs, seeks $20 million on behalf of anyone who has attended a Phillies or Eagles game since 1985.

The suit alleges the stadium’s BYO policy is a violation of the plaintiffs’ 14th Amendment right to due process and equal taxation.

Both Jacobs and her Center City lawyer, David C. Brooks, declined to comment on the suit.

The lawsuit is the third arising from an ongoing Daily News investigation into the food-and-beverage concessions at the city-owned stadium.

Two other class-action lawsuits were filed this spring after Joe Sixpack disclosed that the stadium concessionaire, Ogden Entertainment, was selling 18-ounce beers that contained about two ounces less beer than advertised.

The BYO lawsuit stems from the revelation that the Vet allows a double-standard in its alcohol sales policy.

Average fans are prohibited from carrying their own beer into the stadium. They are subject to searches and possible arrest if they attempt to smuggle even a single can to their seats.

Ticketholders in the stadium’s luxury penthouses and super boxes, in contrast, are encouraged by the stadium to cart case upon case of their own beer to their boxes. They are even issued hand-trucks to help them wheel the suds upstairs.

The practice costs the city an estimated $200,000 each year in lost beer concession fees and alcohol taxes.

If the lawsuit is certified as a class-action, it would conceivably include every fan who attended a professional sporting event at the stadium for more than a decade.

The size of the class “may number in the millions” the suit says.

The lawsuit names the city, Mayor Rendell and the Revenue Department as defendants. Ogden Entertainment is not named in the lawsuit.

A city spokesman was unavailable for comment about the lawsuit late yesterday.

Earlier, Rendell told reporters he believed the luxury box BYOB policy is “unfair,” and vowed to investigate.

The suit says Jacobs attended an Eagles-Redskins game last year, during which she was forced to pay taxes on at least one cup of beer. Meanwhile, luxury-box tenants were able to consume alcohol without paying the city concession fee, the lawsuit says.

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An unwritten rule that lets corporate honchos and wealthy fans avoid the high price of Veterans Stadium beer is under review by the mayor’s office.

While average fans are prohibited from bringing their own suds to the park, management at the city-owned facility allows penthouse suite and super box ticketholders to stock their own booze.

The discriminatory practice, disclosed yesterday in the Daily News, costs the city an estimated $200,000 a year in lost concession fees and beer taxes.

“Your story today raised issues that need to be addressed,” the mayor’s deputy, Kevin Feeley, told Joe Sixpack. “We’re looking into it to see how widespread the practice is,” he said.

Earlier, Hizzoner told radio reporter Tom MacDonald of Metro Networks that he was surprised to learn of the luxury loophole.

Calling the policy “clearly unfair,” Rendell promised he’d look into it. A spokesman for the stadium concessionaire, Ogden Entertainment, declared:

“This is not our policy. The city of Philadelphia and the sports teams set and control the policy concerning beer and outside catering at the Vet. ”

Feeley and other sources said the practice has been in effect at least since Ogden took over the Vet contract 13 years ago. The unwritten policy apparently evolved when wealthy box tenants rebelled against the cost of Ogden booze.

Currently, luxury box tenants who make the mistake of ordering beer through Ogden pay up to $80 for a case of domestic beer.

An unknown number of these affluent fans opt to bring their own to the stadium.

While average fans are searched at the gate, luxury box tenants are greeted and issued a hand-truck to cart case upon case of cheap beer to their seats.

“These are obviously preferred customers because they’re spending a lot of money for the boxes,” said Greg Grillone, the city employee who manages the stadium, explaining the reasoning behind the policy.

“We’re trying to make the experience a pleasurable one,” he said. “We don’t want to price them out of the market. ”

Feeley said Rendell does not bring his own beer to the mayor’s box on the 400 level of the Vet.

“He gets it from Ogden,” Feeley said.

The BYO policy costs the city its 20 percent cut of luxury box beer sales and, if the beer is purchased outside Philadelphia, another 7 percent in alcohol sales taxes.

Based on concession sales records, the loophole costs taxpayers about $200,000 a year.

Average fans reacted yesterday with surprise and outrage when they learned of special privileges for the elite.

“Why should the corporate snobs receive that luxury?” one e-mail correspondent wrote. “Most of us average Joes can barely afford the ticket prices, let alone concessions. ”

Ines Stelzer, a Roxborough mom, said she’s contemplating a discrimination suit against the stadium.

A couple of weeks ago, she and her family were booted from a game when her husband was caught sneaking a couple of cans of Bud from cooler.

“We got ratted out by a little kid in front of us,” Stelzer said.

“We left with no argument, we were breaking the rules. But we spent close to $90 before we got thrown out. Now that I read that luxury boxes get to bring their own beer to the game, I want my money back. ”

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There are two kinds of beer-drinking Phillies fans at the Vet.

Those, like Joe Sixpack, who shell out their hard-earned cash for the most expensive draft brew in the National League.

And the lucky ones, who avoid inflated prices and bring their own beer to the ballpark – legally, and with the encouragement of stadium officials.

The first are searched and harassed at the turnstile, lest they attempt to smuggle in a can or two of cheap suds.

The lucky ones are welcomed at the gate, where they are provided with hand-trucks to help them haul cases of discount domestic and imported beer to their seats.

The lucky ones are the corporate honchos who lease super boxes and penthouse suites at Veterans Stadium.

Though these affluent fans are among the few who can actually afford the ballpark’s steep concession prices, an unwritten rule allows them to cart unlimited quantities of beer to their plush, air-conditioned boxes. There, they can enjoy their favorite brew at less than a quarter the cost of what the less fortunate pay at concession windows.

The policy costs the city hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in lost revenue, from uncollected taxes and concession fees.

Moreover, though the Vet is a city-owned property that supposedly benefits all citizens equally, the rule discriminates against loyal fans who don’t have the connections necessary to gain entrance to the luxury boxes.

Greg Grillone, the city employee who manages Veterans Stadium, said the privileged few have been permitted to stock their own booze for at least 10 years.

“These are obviously preferred customers because they’re spending a lot of money for the boxes,” Grillone said. “We’re trying to make the experience a pleasurable one. We don’t want to price them out of the market. ”

Non-preferred customers, on the other hand, are royally fleeced.

The stadium concessionaire, Ogden Entertainment, charges $5 for a paper cup purportedly containing 18 ounces of beer. Per ounce, only the Anaheim Angels charge more for major league beer.

Earlier reports by Joe Sixpack disclosed that Ogden’s cups actually contain just 16 ounces. Those reports prompted a City Council probe and a class-action lawsuit against the company.

Ogden charges similar wallet-emptying prices up in the boxes.

A case of domestic beer, like Coors or Miller Lite, costs 60 bucks. If the case is ordered on game day, the company tacks on service charges that can drive the price up to $80 for 24 bottles.

The ticket holders who sit in the super boxes and penthouse suites would be chumps to pay those prices when they can simply bring their own.

Each weekday, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., private citizens roll up to the entrance beneath Gate E on the north side of the stadium and pop open their beer-filled trunks.

Though average fans face possible arrest if they try to carry a bottle into the stadium, these fans are provided a hand-truck to load up their cases of booze.

(My own employer, Philadelphia Newspapers Inc., keeps its eye on the bottom line by stocking its corporate box. )

On Friday, I encountered a guy unloading cases of Coors Light and Heineken from the trunk of his Chevy. He wouldn’t tell me his name, but he said he works for a company that leases a suite.

“I’ve been doing this for years,” he told me. “Why should I pay 60 bucks for a case of Ogden beer when I can buy it myself for 15? ”

The most obvious reason would be that Ogden presumably holds an exclusive 15-year catering contract that gives it the right to vend all food and beverages at the stadium.

Across the street at the privately owned CoreStates Complex, for example, Aramark’s exclusive concession contract forbids deluxe box owners from stocking their own booze.

But Ogden’s arrangement fell apart about 10 years ago, when tenants in the boxes complained about the vendor’s high prices and lousy food. Worried that they would lose their wealthiest ticket holders, the Phillies and Eagles – who own the luxury boxes – persuaded the city and Ogden to open them to other caterers.

Today, four other companies compete with Ogden to cater those boxes.

Ogden, though, holds the stadium’s only state liquor license. That means the other caterers must purchase booze from Ogden, then pass along the concessionaire’s pocket-gouging prices to their customers.

“I’m ashamed to have to charge them so much,” said one caterer, who requested anonymity. “The other day, I had to write up a bill for a case of Heineken and a case of Amstel. It cost $160. They must have flown them in from Holland just for me. ”

This caterer and the others advise their customers to plan ahead and stock up with their own bottles.

The bring-your-own policy, though, costs every taxpayer in Philadelphia.

Among its many stadium concession fees, the city takes a 20 percent cut from food and beverage catering in the deluxe boxes, plus another 7 percent in alcohol sales taxes.

At those rates, every BYO case of beer costs the city $16.20 in lost revenues.

The total annual cost to the city is impossible to accurately gauge, because the BYO practice is largely unsupervised and completely unaudited.

Based on Ogden’s annual reports, I estimate the city loses about $200,000 a year in fees and taxes – a staggering $1.5 million during the Rendell years.

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The only thing more tenacious than a beer-drinking journalist, possibly, is a Philadelphia lawyer with a class-action lawsuit.

Ogden Entertainment, the company that serves up short cups of beer and overpriced hot dogs at Veterans Stadium, now has two of the latter on its case.

A day after company execs sweated through Joe Sixpack’s damning City Council testimony about the beer scam at the Vet, another lawyer joined the fray.

William G. “Billy” Schwartz, son of former City Council President George X. Schwartz, said yesterday that he, too, has filed a class-action lawsuit against Ogden.

The complaint, along with another filed last month by a pair of Northeast Philadelphia mechanics, accuses the stadium concessionaire of consumer fraud.

It was sparked by a Joe Sixpack investigation that revealed Ogden’s 12- and 18-ounce cups of draft beer were missing one or two ounces apiece. The situation costs ballpark imbibers an estimated half-million dollars.

“The consumer – the Joe Sixpacks of the world – expects a full cup,” said Schwartz.

Steve Levin, an attorney who filed the first class-action lawsuit, said the two actions had been consolidated and will be heard as one case. The case likely will not go to court before this autumn.

Ogden, still stinging from Council testimony on Wednesday, replied to the lawsuit with a faxed 62-word statement:

“Ogden has never mislead [sic] any customer, contrary to one-sided newspaper reports and claims made in this lawsuit. We’ve always served fans a properly filled cup of beer and have never misrepresented the number of ounces in each cup. This lawsuit – just like Joe Sixpack’s coverage – is absurd, and we look forward to presenting the facts in a court of law. ”

If Ogden loses, a judge could force the company to shell out rebates or – be still, my pounding heart – free beer for all baseball fans.

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The execs from Ogden Entertainment were sweating under the TV lights as City Council members Jim Kenney, Frank Rizzo and Joan Krajewski grilled them about the price of beer at the Vet.

Joe Sixpack almost felt sorry for them.

A few minutes earlier, I had demonstrated to a packed City Council caucus room how it was physically impossible to fill a stadium cup with 18 ounces of beer.

Behind me stood a huge enlargement of a Daily News photo that clearly shows that the stadium had advertised its beers at 18 ounces for five bucks.

Caught redhanded, the Ogden guys were now sweating bullets as Kenney and company questioned them about everything from frozen pretzels to overpriced hot dogs.

Their faces flushed, they could’ve use a tall, cold one. I’d have offered them a glass from my demonstration bottle of Bud, but after Council got done with them, they looked like they needed something stiffer.

It was not pretty, baseball fans. By the end of yesterday’s Council hearing, the Ogdenoids admitted removing the 18-ounce advertising signs after the first reports of the suds-skimming scam.

They conceded that Ogden’s el cheapo $1.25 wiener is actually intended for children. If you want an adult-sized mutt, they hit you up for a sirloin-like $3.50.

They confessed that only those privileged enough to attend games in the stadium’s high-priced private boxes are fed fresh, authentic South Philly soft pretzels. The rest of the fans get factory-made frozen wads of salted dough.

And they had to listen to Kenney tell them the worst cheesesteak in Philadelphia is the one they sell at the Vet.

At one point – I kid you not – these Ogden guys got so hot, their neck arteries bulged as they blathered about “these allegations leveled by Mr. Sixpack. ”

Afterwards, a City Hall regular congratulated me for being vindicated by the Council hearing.

Vindication – who needs that? If you’ve ever gone to a game at the Vet, you already know the score.

Following is the text of Sixpack’s testimony before City Council.

I come before you as a journalist, as a beer drinker and as a lifelong Philadelphia baseball fan.

And I come before you with a sense of outrage over the rip-off that is being perpetrated at Veterans Stadium.

Six weeks ago, armed only with this simple measuring cup, I randomly tested the draft beers sold during Phillies games. At concession booths throughout the stadium, the drafts were plainly advertised as either 18- or 12-ounce beers.

After just a few innings of testing, it became clear that these beers did not measure up. Each 18-ounce cup was consistently short by two ounces, and the 12-ounce cups were missing one or two ounces apiece.

Those two ounces may not sound like much. In fact – it’s barely a swallow.

But at a ballpark that sells three-quarters of a million cups of beer a year, it’s ounce after ounce after ounce after ounce.

At either $4 or $5 a cup, Phillies beer is the most expensive in the National League. Each ounce of beer costs the consumer up to 33 cents. A conservative estimate shows the cost of the missing beer totals perhaps one-half million dollars.

When I alerted the city Department of Licenses and Inspections to the beer racket, a team of inspectors visited the stadium and nosed around exactly one of the stadium’s 60 concession booths. But just one step ahead of the law, the stadium concessionaire – Ogden Entertainment – removed the advertising signs that had promised 18- and 12-ounce beers. Luckily, a Daily News photographer snapped a picture of one of these signs, and it’s shown here along with my first report on beer scam.

With the signs now gone, the L&I inspectors told me they could not cite Ogden for false advertising.

But had the city inspectors bothered to pour a single beer into the stadium cups, they would have found exactly what I discovered with this plastic measuring cup: It is physically impossible to fit a properly poured 18-ounce beer into this paper cup.

With even a minimum half-inch collar of foam on top, this cup can barely hold 16 ounces of beer.

There can be only two explanations:

Either the stadium is charging consumers for foam, which is tantamount to charging for air. Or the stadium is ripping off the fans.

Though they were caught red-handed, Ogden never offered any apologies or rebates to beer-drinking fans.

The simple solution would be to pour those 18 ounces of brew into larger cups. Or just lower the price.

Instead, Ogden pulled a slick sleight of hand by removing the signs. It now euphemistically calls its cups regular and large.

Now, the Daily News has been accused of making a big deal about a little beer. And it is true – it’s just suds.

But a cold cup of brew at a baseball game is as American as we get. Other cultures may satisfy themselves with caviar and cricket, or souffle and soccer. But here in Philadelphia, the birthplace of America, it’s baseball and beer.

Beer is an integral part of our national pastime. It washes down the salty peanuts, it spills out of the cup when we reach for a foul ball. Many of us remember trooping up to old Connie Mack Stadium to watch Rich Allen slam home runs off the Ballantine Beer scoreboard, and listening to the echo of a vendor’s voice shouting, “Yo, getcha cold beer here. ”

Cheating fans out of an honest measure of beer is an assault on the joy of baseball.

Unfortunately, most Phillies fans are quite accustomed to the beer racket at the Vet.

That’s a sad commentary and I can only say that I’m heartened that most fans have wised up to the beer rip-off at the Vet.

But what about the out-of-towners this city is trying so desperately to attract? In a city that is building its economic future on the development of its tourism industry, the beer scam at the Vet assaults the wallet of every citizen of Philadelphia. How can we expect to promote ourselves as a first-class destination city if we swindle visitors as if they were rubes? We lure them to our ballpark then stiff them on beer.

Maybe this isn’t grand theft. Maybe it isn’t even a blatant act of consumer fraud. But it is plainly dishonest to gouge a captive audience.

Any baseball fan can tell you that the suds-skimming scam at the Vet is not fair play.

The two greatest words in the English language spilled magically over the lips of Philadelphians yesterday. Like the foam of a perfectly poured pint of ale, the words bubbled gleefully as news of a uniquely appealing lawsuit spread throughout town:

Free beer!

Wet your whistles, sports fans. The Phillies suds-skimming scam just took a tasty twist.

Yesterday’s Daily News report that two engine mechanics had filed a class-action lawsuit against the Veterans Stadium concessionaire had locals panting over the potential beer bonanza. The suit was inspired by a Joe Sixpack investigation revealing that stadium cups contained about two ounces less drinkable beer than advertised.

Radio talk-show switchboards and my e-mail address lit up when thirsty sports fans learned that, if they had bought a cup of the Vet’s outrageously priced draft beer, they might be eligible to share in any legal victory. Though the plaintiffs are seeking cash, those familiar with class-action law suggested the settlement may be a free cup or two of ballpark brew.

But don’t yell for the bartender, yet.

And don’t pester the lawyers to join the class-action suit.

The Center City law firm that authored the lawsuit, Neil E. Jokelson & Associates, was swamped with phone calls from fans wondering how they could sign up.

“Are you kidding? The phone hasn’t stopped ringing,” said attorney Stephen Levin. “But please, don’t call us. ”

First, the lawyers must convince a Common Pleas Court judge to certify the aggrieved class, namely all those who have purchased a beer at the Vet during Phillies or Eagles games in the past four years.

If the lawyers obtain the certification and if they win the lawsuit, you’ll hear about it. That’s when you can sign up for your cut of the award.

Representatives from the ballpark concessionaire, Ogden Entertainment Services Inc., did not return my phone calls yesterday to comment on any potential settlement. Earlier, a spokesman called the lawsuit “totally absurd. ”

Meanwhile, the two guys who sued have been fielding calls and visits from supporters and reporters.

“This is such a passionate issue for sports fans in this town,” said Eric Jacoby, who filed the lawsuit, along with his cousin Paul Pollock.

“Maybe it’s just two ounces of beer, but the issue is really the stadium’s contempt for the sports fan,” Jacoby told me. “They’ve been gouging fans for years. We never had an avenue for our frustration till you caught them with their hand in the cookie jar. ”

At wallet-assaulting prices of up to 33 cents an ounce, Phillies beer is the most expensive in the National League. A 12-ounce cup of brew costs $4, an 18-ouncer is $5.

But when I took a random sampling of beer cups two weeks ago, they were consistently short by about two ounces. The value of the skimmed suds is an estimated $495,000 a year.

“It’s time to pay the piper,” Jacoby said. “It’s our turn to get a little something.”

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The Bad News Beers – an overpriced bunch of misfit Veterans Stadium brews – may soon get yanked from the lineup by City Council.

Citing allegations of possible consumer fraud, Councilman Jim Kenney yesterday called for hearings to investigate the Vet’s food and beverage concession.

“People have gotten used to paying high prices for bad food,” said Kenney, whose Licenses and Inspections committee may hold hearings in June. “I disagree with that. We’re missing a chance to promote our city’s epicurean delights. ”

Kenney’s resolution followed reports in the Daily News about awful-tasting hot dogs that compared unfavorably to I-95 roadkill.

He said he had been spurred into action when an investigation by Joe Sixpack uncovered a half-million-dollar suds-skimming scam at the Vet. The stadium’s purported 18- and 12-ounce cups of beer were missing two ounces of brew.

After the first report last week, the stadium’s concessionaire, Ogden Entertainment, quickly removed advertising signs that stated the size of its beers.

“If true,” Kenney’s resolution stated, “this anti-consumer practice and the potentially successful attempt by Ogden Entertainment to defraud thousands of consumers raises serious questions” about the company’s suitability to continue as the Vet concessionaire.

“If it is discovered that Ogden Entertainment did in fact deliberately attempt to enrich itself by misleading consumers at Veterans Stadium sporting events,” the resolution said, the findings should be turned over to the district attorney’s office.

In a statement released yesterday, Ogden said, “Everyone sees this as a non-issue. Great-tasting hot dogs and full cups of beer have always been a tradition at the Vet. ”

To bolster its case, the company faxed copies of a 1997 USA Today article that called the Vet’s hot dogs “the best. ”

Other sources, though, have been less generous. A Web site called www.ballparks.com, for example, says the Vet is known for the loudest boos and smallest dogs.

Council President John Street said that the company “can’t be allowed to run roughshod over a captive audience. On the other hand, people don’t have to buy the stuff. ”

Like many sports fans, Street said he often brought store-bought hoagies to events instead of buying the stadium’s more-costly fare.

As the city prepares for the end of Ogden’s 15-year contract in 2000, Kenney said the Council hearings should also focus on the possibility of opening concessions to smaller, local vendors.

The city took that approach a couple of years ago when it opened up vending at Philadelphia International Airport to local fast-food vendors. Instead of selling typically bland fast food, these vendors now hawk indigenous delights, including authentic soft pretzels and cheesesteaks.

“Philadelphia is known for some of the best fast food in America,” said Kenney. “That’s what we should be offering at the Vet. ”

And, he said, it should be sold at a fair price.

“Philadelphia sports fans already feel gouged by high parking prices and outrageous prices for concession food,” the resolution said.

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Faced with reports of moldy hot dogs and short cups of beer, City Council may weigh in on the civic embarrassment known as Veterans Stadium food.

Councilman Jim Kenney will introduce a resolution on Thursday that calls for hearings into the city food concession contract with Ogden Entertainment.

Kenney told Joe Sixpack that he’s had enough of the Rendell administration’s cavalier attitude toward the lousy ballpark grub.

“What we put forth down there at the concessions” just doesn’t measure up, Kenney said.

His action was prompted by Daily News reports of the Vet’s half-million-dollar suds-skimming scam. Joe Sixpack discovered last week that purported 18- and 12-ounce cups of beer were missing two ounces of brew.

A Rendell administration official laughed off the short-cupping, saying, “It’s only beer. ”

That would seem an incongruous response from an administration that has banked our economic future on luring visitors to city attractions. If anything can leave a sour taste in tourists’ mouths, it’s ballpark food.

“It’s `just beer’ if you don’t have to work for a living,” said Kenney, who once sweated as a busboy at the ballpark’s Stadium Club. “The `Joe Sixpacks’ I grew up with have got to save to go down to the ballgame.”

“This is not a minor issue,” Kenney growled. “It’s not just a pocketbook issue, but it’s an issue that affects the psyche of the community. ”

Indeed, we are a city with a rich tradition of world-class cuisine that ranges from the Italian restaurants of South Philly to the white tablecloths of Walnut Street. Yet at Veterans Stadium, baseball fans are assaulted by overpriced junk food.

“Can you imagine that, in the birthplace of the soft pretzel, all you can get at the stadium is a radiated, mutant-ninja pretzel? ” Kenney said. “I can’t tell you how many times you go down there and get a pretzel that’s still frozen. It’s really frustrating not to have a choice. ”

Kenney called on the city Licenses and Inspections Department to get to the bottom of the suds-skimming scandal.

On Friday, L&I agents briefly nosed around the stadium, but issued no violations because Ogden had already removed advertising signs that had stated how much beer is in a cup (see photo above, taken before the signs were removed). Without the signs, L&I was unable to charge Ogden with false advertising.

Kenney wants L&I to investigate all the issues raised by the Daily News, including reports of green, foul-tasting hot dogs and tasteless pretzels. And, he added, “There’s no reason in the world not to look into the overall nature of the concession operation. ”

When Ogden’s 15-year contract ends in 2000, Kenney said, the city should be prepared to sign up a vendor who can guarantee ballpark food that matches Philadelphia’s reputation for first-class eats. He envisions concession stands operated by some of the city’s best-known eateries.

“The cheesesteaks are terrible down there – we should have Jim’s Steaks or Tony Luke’s,” he said.

“You could have Termini pastries or Rita’s water ice.

“We invented the hoagie, didn’t we? Ever have a hoagie at the Vet? Yecch . . .

“You could throw a baseball from Veterans Stadium and hit the building where they make Federal pretzels, and we’re selling this poor excuse for a pretzel? ”

Ogden has been reluctant to talk about the food it serves at Phillies games. Yesterday, company officials did not return calls seeking comment on the proposed City Council hearings.

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The Phillies’ half-million-dollar suds-skimming scam frothed into extra innings at the Vet last night.

After the Daily News reported yesterday that the stadium was selling short cups of brew at baseball games, city officials vowed to send inspectors to the ballyard to test the beer themselves.

“We’re going to make sure they’re dispensing the beer they say they are,” said Fran Egan, commissioner of the Department of Licenses and Inspections.

She said L&I inspectors, armed with measuring devices, would visit the stadium as early as today.

What they’ll find, though, is a slick advertising trick that’s as smooth as a Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance double-play.

Here’s the setup:

During a visit to the Phillies/Reds game earlier this week, Joe Sixpack discovered that large beers – among the most expensive brew in the Major Leagues – are consistently missing two ounces.

Though signs at each beer stand clearly stated that these cups contain 18 ounces, not one among the 10 that I measured held more than 16 ounces. The cup simply could not hold a full 18-ounce beer with a minimal 1/2-inch collar of foam.

The simple solution might have been to pour those 18 ounces of brew into larger cups.

But in a slick move that most fans probably won’t catch, Ogden Entertainment – the Phillies $16 million-a-year concessionaire – simply pulled the signs.

It did not drop it’s wallet-assaulting $5-a-cup charge.

Nor did anyone from the team, the stadium or Ogden offer any public apologies for the apparent rip-off, worth an estimated $495,000 in skimmed suds.

Caught red-handed, the Phillies refused to take any responsibility for short-cupping its loyal, long-suffering fans. A front-office spokesman said Ogden is responsible for beer-pricing.

Representatives of the company were unavailable for comment when I visited the Vet last night. No one could explain why the signs had been removed.

Meanwhile, L&I boss Egan said the city had never received any complaints from thirsty Philadelphians about the shallow swallows. But, after yesterday’s report, she said her office would visit, pronto.

Undercover?

Nope, Egan said. “We’ll tell them we’re there. ”

Egan conceded L&I has little experience in inspecting alcohol.

It’s not that difficult, according to the experts I chatted with yesterday at San Francisco’s Department of Weights and Measures. The City by the Bay makes a big deal about ensuring the locals get an honest pint.

“You go to the bar with a measuring cup, and you pour the glass of beer into it,” said Sid Baker, assistant commissioner of weights and measurers. “If they say it’s 18 ounces, there should be 18 ounces of liquid. ”

And that does not include the foam, Baker said, because that’s mostly air.

When I spoke to City Hall officials yesterday, some tried to laugh off the whole scam, charging that the Daily News was sensationalizing a minor problem.

“It’s only beer,” said one administration source.

But it’s more than just beer.

It’s a day at the ball park, where an honest cup of cold brew is an integral part of the national pasttime.

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