bani1717

There's no doubt in my mind that the cheapest ticket to be had will be about $400 the closer it gets to the WS. There's no doubt in my mind that World Series tickets could be had for around face value, especially for Game 2. I think the story in the JS makes perfect sense of the falling prices: uncertainty as to game time. I guess TV has to rule all, but it seems to me that just fixing the time at 3:05 regardless of the ALCS result would have been the way to go. The TV audience isn't going to be appreciably different regardless of the time. I don't think MLB really cares about ticket prices falling. Either way they'll have a sold out stadium and a packed house (because there still won't be too many no-shows, even with the game time changing). It would have been more convenient for a lot of us if they would've set the time at 3:05, but that's the least of their concerns.

Who cares who's throwing out the first pitch, really? Seems kind of classless to me. In all seriousness though, I don't care that he's throwing out the first pitch. And the comparison between Suppan and Sheffield is nothing short of completely ridiculous. Like someone else mentioned, Suppan was a great guy off the field. There are some guys that I root for and like to see do well just because they're incredibly down-to-earth and humble off the field. Suppan was one of them. Casey McGehee is another.

Here's an article about her that yahoo did today: http://ca.sports.yahoo.co...b/news?slug=ycn-10185837 The article reveals that she has a kid. How would you like to be him? Can you imagine the kind of crap that boy is going to get about his mom once he gets into high school? The whole thing just keeps seeming weirder and weirder to me. I'm not even married yet, but I know my fiance wouldn't be happy if I went to 40 games a year by myself, and I live in Milwaukee. It boggles my mind that she has a husband and a kid at home and still finds the time to drive down 40+ times a year from Oshkosh. Granted, the article says that they used to have 2 season tickets (which makes it a little less weird), but even still...

I've scalped before. Ticket prices will probably be about roughly what's on Stubhub. There'll be tickets available at the intersection of Oneida and Armed Forces Drive and maybe around that area as well. It's definitely not a matter of "if" there are tickets, it's a matter of the price. I think scalpers up there are technically supposed to be licensed (and I wanna say they might even need to wear the license in a lanyard around their neck), so if you find someone like that then you know it's not a shady person you're dealing with. (Though you'll also probably pay more than if you got lucky and found a random fan with extra tickets).

Ticket prices kind of bottomed out due to a huge supply on stubhub... my dad picked up a pair 14 rows behind home plate for less than face value. Anyone who wants to go should have no trouble finding something on stubhub or showing up at the game.

If you're not tailgating, get there a couple hours early and park on Wisconsin. If you are tailgating, park in the north lot and sprint to your car after the game.

Last time the D'Backs were in the NLCS, I remember the guys on ESPN saying the day before a game that you could still get 24 seats together in the same row...

does anyone know where the Brewers will be staying in CHI in a few weeks? I am hoping to head down there for a few games and would love to try and get a few autographs at the hotel after the game. They usually stay at the Westin on N Michigan Avenue. I've never gone to the team hotel after a game, but I've heard from people who said the hotel was good before games. I also have had really good luck right outside Wrigley Field before games.

...and your manager will order that Braun gets drilled in the next inning

I've gotten Morgan both with and without "TP" underneath his signature, and I've also seen him sign just "Tony Plush"

Had a good purchase from apirk involving paypal and a shipped hot dog bobble.

The most irritating thing (in Madison at least) about bicyclists is when they blow through a stop sign/red light when there's other traffic/pedestrians around. I've almost gotten hit by bikes multiple times that way. One of my friends was so pissed about it that he said he was going to start getting close enough to just kick the bikes over when they do that. That's obviously extreme, but sometimes I wonder if something like that is the only way these people will realize they're endangering themselves and others, in addition to breaking the law....

I'd say that's a good signature for Prince compared to what I've gotten recently.

My dad likes to say that with regard to bikers, equal rights are not special rights. I can see how a bike rider could legitimately act as a pedestrian after riding on the road (eg, by waiting to cross at a crosswalk instead of trying to make a left turn), or vice versa, since at different times it's safer to ride as one or the other depending on where you are. But if you're going to do that, you have to be aware of your surroundings. When I'm riding on the road, it's pretty much either in a bike lane or on a quiet road with plenty of room where I'm not in anyone's way.

This only works for non-Marquee games, fyi. For the Marquee games, they sell that section ahead of time at the marquee price.

I'll agree that Morgan comes across (to me at least) as a little oblivious to the possible consequences of his actions. Even if they are generally good-natured and playful. I don't think what he did (referring to all his interactions with the fans, not specifically the T) was smart, but I thought it was in no way wrong, immoral, obscene, warranting a suspension or fine, etc.

Did anyone else see that Giants fan flipping Morgan the bird in the background after he just got thrown out at third?

I didn't bother with this. I'm thinking I'll go to the game on Tuesday or Wednesday and bank on the fact that someone will be willing to either give me their free tickets or sell them to me real cheap.

Or use it until it goes over a fence and gets taken by a gigantic dog that has been known to eat kids...

That theory doesn't seem to take into account human decision making. Which is often so unpredictable and poorly executed that it would be hard to take into account in a theory.

people who use the fast lane as their own personal lane and won't move over for faster cars There are a whole plethora of things that bug me when driving, and this is one of them, as long as it's within reason. I had an instance a couple months ago where I was in the left lane somewhere between Oconomowoc and Madison (where the freeway is 2 lanes wide on each side). I was going 7 over and was going at such a speed that I was going to be passing a couple cars soon, just as I had been passing cars the whole time I was in the passing lane. And then all of a sudden, a guy came up behind me going about 25 over and flashed his lights at me as though he wanted me to speed up or just get out of his way, even though (a) he was the one speeding like crazy while I was essentially driving the "enforced" speed limit, and (b) I was doing exactly what the passing lane is for - passing. So, naturally, I slowed down.

Heat index of 110'F here in NC today. Tell me about it... Today was a scorcher too. I got up at 6am today to go for a run, figuring it would be cool and not too humid, but no such luck... I need to vacation here in October instead of July.

To evaluate the overall effect on scalpers, there are basically a few things that can happen with the price of tickets under demand-based pricing: (Please note "current face value" refers to the 2011 single game ticket prices, whether they be regular or marquee games.) 1) The price starts and ends lower than the current face value on tickets. This will hurt scalpers, I think. For these games, scalpers will be able to buy tickets even more cheaply from fans than they already do. (It's easier to buy a $10 ticket for $5 than it is to buy a $20 ticket for $5.) However, they'll also have to sell their tickets for drastically less than they otherwise would've. So their profit per ticket goes down. And they'd have a hard time making it up in bulk, since this is a type of game that isn't in very high demand. 2) The price starts lower than the current face value, but then rises to at or above the current face value on tickets (potentially meaning the game is sold out). This will be where scalpers make their biggest money. They can buy tickets for cheap either from the ticket office or from random fans who bought their tickets very cheap. They can then turn around and sell these for decent money. Chances are this will be a game where there are plenty of extra tickets that fans have (since prices started out cheap), and where demand is high enough that they could sell a bunch of tickets in the parking lot or online or wherever, and for a price that's a decent amount higher than their purchase price. 3) The price starts at the current face value and stays the same. No change relative to what we have now. 4) The price starts at or above the current face value and rises (most likely meaning the game is sold out). Here, I think scalpers will make decent money but in a more hit-and-miss fashion than in situation #2. They'll still be able to pretty easily buy tickets for cheaper than the gameday face value (either from random fans or from the Brewers), but not as easily or as cheaply as in situation #2. This is because many fans will recognize that this is a higher-demand sold out game and won't part with their tickets for too much less than market value, at least relative to situation #2. That said, for the tickets that scalpers to pick up, they'll make very good money on those. So what I think we'll see is fewer scalpers for the real low-demand games (since the Brewers are now competing with them at lower prices) and more scalpers for games where ticket prices have risen (ie, situations 2 and 4 above).

I think that's because scalping basically is a free market economy at work. The negative image of scalpers is largely due to the fact that (a) some of them are low-lifes and (b) they sell at market value - which means they sell higher than face value for the games people actually care about, but when people aren't paying attention to the worse games they'll sell tickets dirt cheap. In any case, the big difference between demand-based pricing and scalping, in addition to the fact that the Brewers are selling their own tickets, is that the price will never go down. When looking at scalped tickets, prices may fluctuate up or down. It's definitely smart of the Brewers to try to get people to lock in savings early with the guarantee that prices will never be lower than their initial price. However, people who really want tickets will still buy them without that guarantee - people buy overpriced tickets from brokers/scalpers/stubhub/ebay all the time just to guarantee they have the tickets they want and be done with it. So the Brewers could maybe sell more tickets if they lowered the prices as necessary as the game got closer. Either way, I think full-time demand-based pricing would result in both more money for the Brewers and more fans in the seats (due to prices less than the current face value for the games that are tougher draws).

If the Yankees or Jeter wanted to bid, I might give them a discount After they signed CC Sabathia by outbidding us and then outbidding themselves, there is no way I'd give the Yankees a discount. Like many others, I'd sell the ball for any kind of large amount of money if it's a huge deal. For a lesser milestone, I'd either keep it or trade it for memorabilia/pictures/tickets (in that order).