MLB: Pitching a gem

By Ed Piper

A few days ago, I pitched a gem.

In my view, at least.

The night before the Padres game I was contemplating, I eyed a $6 ticket on StubHub and went for it. The service fee (to give the site its cut) was more than the ticket price! $7.

The details: $6.47, to be exact, for the seat. (A resale from someone else.) No tax, the receipt says. $7.21 for "Total fees" at the bottom. A big $13.68 total.

After I hopped on the trolley ($1.25 for seniors each way) and had a good day at the park, I remembered the old days.

Four dollars, including parking, a ticket, and whatever. This was 1993-1994, Qualcomm Stadium, so few people there you could hear this one individual calling out--echo, echo, echo.

The parking was in the dirt behind third base, next to where IKEA ended up. A dirt field, no more. The ticket was for straight-away centerfield, not far behind the fence.

I would sit and read a book while I watched the game on a Sunday afternoon, relaxing and looking forward to the rest of the week.

"Whatever" meant I didn't buy concessions (my parents modeled never buying things from concessions; costs too much--my dad was a Depression kid). So, no other expenses...

I realized recently this type of outing isn't for everyone. One person I asked about going to a game (to the Hated Blue North) said if he was going to go, he wanted to buy good seats. Too expensive for me. A couple of seasons ago, I bought seats in the upper left field area of Petco, and they were $37 each, plus fees (and that was before post-COVID inflation hit).

The Padres were owned by Tom Werner in those days, and the Fire Sale was on. Under 10,000 attended games, so people were pretty sparse at the games.

Oh, the good old days...