Doc Halladay at Citizens Bank Park

Yesterday I got to spend a lovely afternoon at Philadelphia's Citizens Bank Park (thanks to $4 Stubhub tickets). I got there early for batting practice and watched Roy Halladay (pictured) and fellow Brandeis alum, Nelson Figueroa spend quite a bit of time signing autographs for all the kids lined up against the outfield wall.

Although it was a 1-0 snoozefest in The City of Brotherly Love, the awesome Citizens Bank Park made it a lovely afternoon. I'm still convinced that the Philly Phanatic is the best mascot in sports--though I'm still trying to figure out their hot dog giveaway where he launches hot dogs into the stands from the same gun that shoots out T-shirts in many other ballparks. It was a fun afternoon of baseball, though.

-Andrew

The Yankee Clipper: 5 April Surprises

Another series, another series win for the New York Yankees. The Yankees had a chance to sweep this series, but lost the rubber game behind another weak outing from Javier Vazquez (and BP's Jay Jaffe does a great job of breaking down Javy's troubles so far). But they bounced back last night in the rubber game and beat the White Sox 12-3 behind another strong pitching performance from Phil Hughes and some big games from their surprise bats. Let's take a look at some of those early-season surpises so far as we turn the calendar from April to May:

1. Brett Gardner - Patience was a virtue for this gritty, gutsy outfielder. Many fans were clamoring for Johnny Damon, Matt Holliday or Jason Bay to come to the Bronx to play left but the Yankees stuck with Brett Gardner and the results have been excellent so far. And while I thought that Gardner would be fine in leftfield because of his glove (UZR of +20.8 for his career) and his speed, he's so far been showing that given enough playing time, Gardner can impress with his bat. Gardner is 6th in the American League in batting average at .342, 10th in OBP at .415, 9th in runs scored at 18, tied for 9th in wOBA at .411, and 1st in stolen bases at 11 (which leads the Majors and is great in comparison to his one caught stealing). He is now on pace for 80 steals for the season. As the New York Times writes, the most important play in Sunday's win may have been Brett Gardner's infield hit in the second inning which drove in the game's first run. As a bonus, the little guy hit a home run too. Gardner, a slow starter at all levels over his professional career, has come on strong this season with his selectivity with the bat, seeing 4.43 P/PA good for 3rd in the AL. Oh, and those who thought that Gardner should face a strict platoon to guard him against lefties are looking off so far: he's hitting .409 against lefties so far this season. The one cause of concern? Gardner's .381 BAbip may be unsustainable (even with his speed). But so far, it's been a great start for the man who replaced Johnny Damon in left...and now Curtis Granderson in center.
2. Phil Hughes - I want to repeat: my preference of Joba Chamberlain being a starter had nothing to do with Phil Hughes' ability; I really though, eventually, he'd be a solid starter...but even I didn't see this coming. Hughes is becoming everything that the Yankees thought he would when they refused to package him in a deal to get Johan Santana. And after their starts yesterday, the Yankees look somewhat justified--a place that no one thought they'd be after Hughes' dismal 2008. Well he's showed them so far. He's 3-0 so far and looked like an ace. Hughes is 2nd in the AL in ERA (1.44), 3rd in wins (3), 2nd in WHIP (.880), 1st in H/9 (3.600), 9th in K/9 (8.640), 8th in HR/9 (.360), and first--in the majors--with a .122 BA against. Although his FIP (3.13) and xFIP (4.24) show that maybe he's been the bearer of some good luck, Hughes has looked as good as he did in the bullpen last season. You hope that players take bullpen assignments like that as motivation to trust in their stuff and use their fastball to get ahead and Hughes is certainly doing just that so far in 2010.

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More than 6,300 Tickets Available At Fenway Park For Opening Day

Red Sox fans were quick to criticize Yankees fans last year who kept out of Yankee Stadium early in the season due to high prices in the Legends Seats, but those Red Sox fans should be pointing the fingers at themselves. After having trouble selling out the American League Division series last season, the Red Sox still have over 6,300 seats available left for Opening Day this year according to today's Boston Herald (picture to the right from the article). And Sox fans can't blame this one on the Red Sox virtual waiting room (AKA as The Eighth Circle of Hell). This is just a case of fans not wanting to pay the price to see their team.

It's not like the Red Sox are playing the Orioles or the Blue Jays. Or that it's a Tuesday in mid-April. This is Opening Day on a Sunday. According to the Red Sox website the seating capacity for night games is 37,402. That means that 17% of the park still isn't sold two weeks before the game. And those tickets that are being sold are down about 30% for last year's opening day when the opponent was Tampa Bay. Yankees fans, it's a buyers market and a great chance to invade Fenway Park on Opening Day for the depending World Series champion, New York Yankees.

And the Red Sox don't seem to think that anything is wrong: "Ron Bumgarner, the Red Sox ticketing senior vice president, had a more positive pitch, saying the team is experiencing 'incredibly high demand' for Opening Day and the season...'I’m surprised that anyone would think sales are off.'” Um, Ron, I think we have plenty of statistics to support that notion.

The comments on the article showed that Red Sox fans weren't feeling too sorry for anyone. Check out some of the bitterness being spewed from "Red Sox Nation":

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Ok...Now THESE Are Expensive Tickets

Legends seats don't even begin to compare. Neither do these, which we highlighted this past week. These tickets are the most expensive I believe you can list on Stubhub. Wow (H/T Dad):

So that's two tickets for $1,999,998 + $199,999.80 in Stubhub fees + 4.97 electronic delivery fee for a grand total of...$2,200,002.77!!!

Wow. That's a cool $499,999.50 for Stubhub. Wow...

And I Thought Legends Seats Were Pricey

How much would you pay for a hypothetical Game 7 in a hypothetical Yankees/Phillies World Series? One person on Stubhub thinks you'll pay a heckuva lot. Check out this listing:

So $99,000 x 2 tickets + a $19,800 Stubhub fee + $4.97 E-Delivery fee and your grand-total is only $212,804.97!

What a bargain considering they're first row, aisle, and "behind first base" (who cares if the tickets are in the top section of the stadium)?!

How much does Stubhub make for you buying these tickets? A cool $49,500. Now I believe this is how they came up with the term "scalping".

StubHub #FAIL: Red Sox teaser

I have enough of a hard time living in New York being a Red Sox fan.
I hear it from my friends, my boyfriend, his family, my hairdresser, the person next to me at the gym when I wear my Sox gear....That's the main reason I'm not a main contributor here when it comes to Baseball, not really my target audience.

So yesterday I receive an email from stubhub titled:

Get great seats to any Boston Red Sox playoff game

Where do you want to sit?

Hey Sarah,

Be there alongside your Boston Red Sox as they chase baseball immortality. Go to StubHub, where you’ll find a fantastic selection of tickets to every playoff game – so you experience the championship chase live and in person. Check it out.Go to StubHub and get the seats you want today.

I actually clicked on it hoping maybe somehow, StubHub managed to get my beloved team back into the playoffs, that they had such power.

Alas, a few hours (and I'm sure many an ANGRY Masshole email later):

Subject: Apologies From StubHub

Hi Sarah,

Earlier today, an email promoting Boston Red Sox postseason tickets was sent to you. This, unfortunately, was a mistake. We regret the error and apologize for any inconvenience or confusion this may have caused.

Sincerely,

The StubHub Team

I mean - was this a practical joke? Probably not.
I'm sure they have some automated system that handles mass mailings - but some intern had to check off the Red Sox in a mailing for those interested in [insert playoff team ] tickets to receive a mailing about postseason tickets for [playoff team]

Anyway, I digress.

At least we made it to the playoffs.
It wasn't like it was for the Mets.

- Sarah

Why Tickets Don't Always End Up In Fan's Hands

I was perusing the Yankee postseason ticket information when I saw this little nugget:

Yankee Stadium has a seating capacity of 50,235, excluding standing room. For each postseason game, the first opportunity to purchase tickets is provided to current season-ticket licensees, which represent in excess of 37,000 full-season equivalent ticket licenses. Major League Baseball directs clubs to dedicate approximately 3,000 tickets per game for players of the participating clubs and to accommodate the media. In addition, Major League Baseball requires approximately 5,500 tickets per ALDS game, 7,000 tickets per ALCS game and 9,500 tickets per World Series game.

So how many does that leave for the rest of us? For the ALCS, that's 47,000 tickets (at least) taken by "full-season equivalent ticket licenses" (who are companies or people who have money since most cannot afford this luxury in a down economy), players, media, and Major League Baseball. That means that there are only 3,235 seats available for other fans. Considering The New York Times reported that there are 1,048 obstructed seats in the bleachers alone, that leaves 2,187 other seats (some of which are also obstructed by the foul pole or something else). Today, two days before the game, you cannot get a ticket any place in the Stadium on Stubhub for under $125 with the Stubhub fees. This is why the "average fan" has reason to get upset.

Options for Sports Tickets

The financial world and the sports world continue to converge. You can now buy options for sporting events. From CNBC's Darren Rovell:

It's sort of an ingenious idea. Fans know that if they want to go a sporting event, they're going to have to buy it before it hits the secondary market (StubHub, Ebay, etc.) or else they're going to have to pay a hefty premium. But many don't want to buy tickets months in advance if they don't know what their schedule will look like by the time the event comes up. So they can pay a smaller premium and have the flexibility to decide. It also gives the opportunity for scalpers to take advantage of this as well depending on how important games are later on in the season. Overall, I think this is a good thing but I'm interested to see how it plays out.

People Making a Fortune Off Of Derek Jeter

I should have bought up some cheap tickets. It's amazing what happened for tomorrow night's game. On Tuesday, I pointed out that tickets on Stubhub were going for extremely cheap.

But with Derek Jeter on the verge of breaking Lou Gerhig's Yankees hits record, prices have now gone through the roof. As you can see from the screenshot on the right (may need to click on it to see the prices), the lowest prices on tickets that are not up for auction on Stubhub are now going to cost you ~$150 a ticket after fees. This is the perfect storm for sellers: a big record that has a foreseeable fall and a day off to get people excited to pony up for their hard-earned dollars to see it fall.

Some lucky people got on right as Jeter was getting close to the hits record and snapped up $40 tickets. I'll go on at 4:30 tomorrow and hope to catch some people desperate to get rid of their tickets.

But those who held on to their Baltimore Orioles tickets for September are counting the dollars right now. They can thank Derek Jeter for that one.

Tickets Going For Cheap Tonight

This is another one of those times where I wish I didn't have tickets in advance. I bought tickets way back in March for Yankees/Rays figuring that a September game between the two teams would be important. Little did I know the Rays would be out of it and the Yankees would be comfortably in the lead in the AL East with Chad Gaudin on the mound.

The reason I wish I hadn't spent the $30 face value on tickets for tonight, though, is because they're going for REALLY cheap on Stubhub. I took a screengrab and as you can see (you need to click on the picture to be able to really see the prices), there's a bunch of tickets on there for under $10. With service fees, you're still not paying much to make it down to the Stadium.

This is a good chance to catch the Yankees at the New Stadium if you haven't this season, especially with only 13 home games left in the regular season after tonight...