The Desolate Dust of Winter
Well, folks, Auld Lang Syne's been sung, the Christmas presents unwrapped, and spent tannebaums are lining the neighborhood streets waiting to be recycled. Those flashing lights in school zones (and from school buses) are reappearing, while the Joneses took down their Christmas lights last weekend. The $200 Christmas tree you wanted in November can now be had for $39.95. Egg nog is getting harder to find, and I forgot to remind my wife to try a gingerbread latte...
Add all that to the reality that the Hot Stove League is cooling off, with a good majority of the thin crop having been harvested. I really, really hate this time of year, especially living in Western Washington. Nevermind that the Rose Parade announcers thought that Mercer Island was a "small island off the coast of Seattle" -- this time of year really plays out the stereotypes of Seattle. It's dark when we leave for work, and dark when we get home. It's gray and rainy, and we rarely, if ever, get snow (at least on the west side -- where CK lives, they actually get some true winter weather).
Now we find out that daily ticket prices will be increased. I haven't heard anything on daily tickets at Cheney, but since season tickets have gone up there, it wouldn't surprise me to see them rise a little. I love Safeco, don't get me wrong, but it'll take a lot for me to get there next year. You'll probably still find me in Cheney regularly, though. I really love seeing games there, especially when I can take my family and get tickets for all of us behind home plate for half the price of similar tickets at Safeco. And the umpire can actually hear me!
Anyway, Happy New Year to all of you! Hope it brings much cheer to all of us. I could certainly use some...
posted by PositivePaul @ 4:29 PM
12 comments
12 Comments:
Why are you concerned about a rise in ticket prices? With the BM Bavasi took this offseason, scalpers will be offering them for pennies on the dollar! I'll be watching M's games on t.v., anyway, so I don't care either way...
Some fans (are you really one?) choose to get their tickets only by legitmate means and that (no pun intended) means we pay full price.
I prefer not to get my tickets from slack-jawed crack addicts...
Slack-jawed crack addicts? Do you even realize that scalping is now a legal form of ticket distribution? Even though someone like you probably gets their female (I hope) companionship through the illegal means of prostitution, you choose to harass the street vendors that make their living in a perfectly legitimate way. Somehow, I don't think anyone on this thread is going to take anything you say seriously...
Hey, someone let PositivePaul know that his hero George Sherrill will be making an appearance at the Olympia team store next Wednesday as part of the Mariners Caravan...
Look, I'm only blogging anonymously because of bad experiences on other blogs where deviants used my blog identity to steal my identity and transfer funds! If you have any problem with this, I would suggest that you, too, are not someone to be taken seriously!!!...
Hi Deanna!
Ticket scalping may be, as you say, "legal" but, to the many of us who bathe regularly, it remains unethical and distasteful; much like a Gaylord Perry spitter...
That being said, I respect your decision to "slum it" with those types of people. I, for one, will not.
Hey, someone let PositivePaul know that his hero George Sherrill will be making an appearance at the Olympia team store next Wednesday as part of the Mariners Caravan...
Thanks for the extra heads-up, Deanna! I've actually, through "indirect" means, offered to treat him to dinner down here in Oly, if he's available :-) At the very least, I'll likely skip out a little bit early from work, at the very least, in order to wade through the line to say "hi" to him (again).
Believe it or not, I don't have any autographs from George. I darn near got one on autographed ball night at Cheney, but ML (from the old PI blog) wouldn't trade me his for BOTH my Ramontiago and Damian Moss baseballs. I swear everyone around me had George-autographed baseballs, and it was relative torture.
Interesting how this has turned into discussion on ticket scalping. The M's have been doing it for a few years now, and I'm just glad Seattle (the city bureaucracy, that is, not the M's) made it legal -- for the mere sake that it takes a small piece away from the M's. Just because something's legal, though, doesn't mean it's ethical.
Anonymous flame wars. Hmm. Interesting. This site must be moving up in Mariner Blogdom :-)
Ha! That's so cool. I was thinking how if I actually got down to IKEA on Tuesday, I was going to ask him two questions: 1) "is elsid really your brother?" and 2) "did you know that there's a blog out there subtitled Free George Sherrill?"
:)
Of course, knowing me, even if I go to the IKEA thing, I'll be too terrified to say anything but "Umm, can you sign this, please?"
Also, I went to that game with the autographed baseballs too, and we were too late to actually get one. I'm still sad about that. At least I have my "Bark in the Park" baseball from Everett autographed by Jeff Clement!
... 1) "is elsid really your brother?" and 2) "did you know that there's a blog out there subtitled Free George Sherrill?"...
Well, I can vouch for #1. Indeed elsid is his brother -- I've verified this with George himself. There's no doubt in my mind at all 'bout that one.
#2, though, I'm not quite sure. Elsid probably has discussed it with him, but I highly doubt he's paid much attention. I mean, he'd probably answer this one like Justin Leone did (scroll to the second-to-last question).
I'm still jealous 'bout that Clement baseball, you know. I have offered you my Ramontiago ball before, and that offer still stands. I'm not giving up my Jeremy Reed ball from 2004, though :-)
This is truly a miserable time of year for those of us who need their daily fix of baseball news.
Hope springs eternal, so as a lifelong Oregonian I'm really hoping the Florida Marlins' officials are positively impressed when they visit Portland next week. I'm not sure Portland is really much of a baseball town, but maybe the attitude there is "If you build it, they will come." The Marlins can leave Florida after the 2007 season, so that would give Portland time to get its stadium ready. We'll just have to see what happens. My guess is that Las Vegas will beat Portland for the Marlins anyway, but one never knows.
How many days until pithers and catchers report?
Pither, n. One who piths.
Haha. Of course that should have read "How many days until pitchers and catchers report?
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