The World Series, 2 years ago - CHA CHING!

If you know me, you know that the Red Sox are part of my blood.  Even though I've never been a huge baseball fan although I grew up in a house that revolved around sports - mainly the Red Sox and Fresno State (mealtimes, weekend activities, whether or not we could speak or we'd be shushed until the play was over...) it still is a big part of who I am.  I learned through exposure, not desire.  I know who and what, not because I paid attention but because it saturated my summers.  As an adult I travel to Cape Cod and Boston every summer with mom to visit and vacation and we always make a game at Fenway a priority.

Two years ago when the Red Sox played in the World Series for only the second time in 86 years we convinced mom to buy tickets.  They were playing the Colorado Rockies in Denver.  She bought 2 tickets to game 3 on a Tuesday and the game was Saturday night.  You can imagine what airfare and the tickets combined cost.  If you know mom, you know that not only do the Red Sox run deeply through her soul but you also know that she doesn't do three things:  take time off from school, spend a shitload of money in one drop, or make huge spontaneous decisions. 

Obviously it would have made sense for my brother to make the trip with her but work and family obligations kept him home.  That meant... I got to go!  Drew was 2.5 and William had just turned 1.  Chris rearranged his schedule to be home and I booked a flight to Denver.  I flew into Denver Friday night and met mom who had flown in ealier that afternoon.  We stayed with one of mom's close friends.  It was a trip of a lifetime. 

The following is an email I wrote to a few friends when we returned from our trip.  When I say it was the trip of a lifetime, I wasn't joking.

What a great time! Everything worked out very smoothly (and in our favor*) and it was a whirlwind 48 hours. Coors Field is a beautiful stadium and Denver is an even more beautiful city. Lots to do, great restaurants, good looking people. We sat in front of 5 guys, all about my age, all true Red Sox fans. We had awesome seats and we were dressed appropriately so we were never cold (it was 30* at gametime). AND, the Red Sox won. Mom and I both had safe trips to and from. Couldn't ask for anything more.




* Sooo, we were screwed around much of the week by the people from http://www.anytickets.com/ (NEVER use them). Saturday came and we still didn't have tickets in hand. We were told Sat. morning that at 3pm they would be at will call at the stadium. 3pm came, no tickets. I called the guy and he said that in fact that were at will call at his hotel where they (they being this website/broker) had set up a temporary office. We went to pick them up around 4pm (2 hours before game time) and in the envelope w/ mom's name on it were FOUR tickets. Mom ordered (and paid for) only two. We told them there were four but in the hurried atmosphere of their "office" either they didn't hear or didn't care. We didn't have to sign for them or anything, we were just handed the envelope. FOUR World Series tickets 2 hours before gametime. Cha-ching!!



I immediately called Brandon and he urged us to "shop around" on the street for someone who would give us the best deal. Mom and I were thinking that potentially we could get enough for them to pay the cost of the two tickets she actually bought. Two white chicks with two tickets to sell illegally on the street - this was almost thrilling! We approached the first people we saw with a sign begging for tickets (they were everywhere) and he offered us $800 for the pair. We said no thanks and walked away. He called to us and told to us to be careful, that there were undercovers all over the place waiting to take our money, our tickets, and US to jail for the night. We knew that it was true but also that this may be a scare tactic for him to get our tickets for such a low price. Mom and I talked about it briefly and decided that that money would pay for one of our flights AND that since the half-chipped gold tooth on the guy pretty much insured that he was not an actual cop, we may as well be safe and just make the transaction. He pulled out an enormous wad of cash, counted out $800 and handed it to mom. She gave him the two tickets and we walked away.



Those two tickets were for the seats right next to ours so we couldn't wait to see who actually was going to sit there and how much they paid for them. Clearly the two guys who bought the tickets were not baseball fans and they were going to turn them around to someone else for more money. Nothing lost for us (or mom I should say) but we were still anxious to see what suckers paid more for them. Those two seats sat empty the whole game!!  We figure the only two things that could have happened are: those guys got caught trying to sell them on the street or they couldn't get rid of them.



The guys behind us and the family next to us both saw people getting arrested on the street before the game for scalping tickets. I think we were pretty lucky.

If there is a moral (or two) to the story it is this: Live life BIG. Step out of the box sometimes. Money needs to be spent responsibly but if you work your ass off for what you have and do nothing to really enjoy it, it's not worth doing. Also, when good fortune comes your way, shut up and don't ask questions.