Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
@VintageFreak You're on the "ball" tonight. Scalping tickets and Cleveland Indians. I suspect you may have fallen into the politically incorrect outhouse. I'm in favor of the winning team to be from a city with the first letter of "C". This is as brave as I will become.
eBay owns StubHub where first-time ticket buyers can resell for any price. Apparently scalping is perfectly legal. I'm not much into sports - but have heard reports of WS tickets being resold for $10,000 plus.
It's a serious problem for theater goers. Scalpers buy up the best seats as soon as they go on sale using computerized "bots." The legitimate sellers counter by making you jump through all kinds of hoops to buy a ticket online. Like re-entering long strings of letters and numbers to prove you're not a bot. But the scalpers hire teams of low wage workers in third world countries to assist the bots in re-entering the numbers and letters or to defeat whatever other defensive measures exist.
There's been some talk in Congress about making these practices illegal. (Maybe a bill pending?) I think it should be. When a normally $160-$200 ticket to Hamilton can only be had for $800 or $1200 in the aftermarket there's something very wrong. The little guy is essentially priced out.
1908 for the Cubs. Long time. But I like the Indians. How about that relief pitcher, Andrew Miller, eh??? Red Sox had him, then Baltimore, then Yankees, now The Tribe. Pretty dumb to trade him away. Lucky Tribe. 6-0 in Game 1. The catcher, Perez, hit 2 HRs, 4 RBIs, all by himself. Will this be known as the Great Lakes World Series? Here's a great World Series memory: Yogi was CERTAIN that he tagged out Jackie Robinson, stealing home, at the plate. 1955, Game 1.
You omitted the fact that it was the Detroit Tigers who gave young Andrew Miller his mlb debut late one season (a decade ago). He looked unbelievably good - so they promptly traded him away at season's end.
Detroit management has always favored those guys who could regularity blaze it across the plate at 120 mph - even at a very young age. Unfortunately, those kind of guys usually end up lame as an old work mare in a season or two. One more reason I pay little attention to baseball today.
I am very conflicted about this series, lived in Ohio 17 years (13 in cleveland) and remember going to Indians Yankee games when only 2000 people in stadium and listened to Reggie Jackson taunt the fans because he played outfield, everyone could hear him, and people loved to hate him LOL. But on the other hand, the Cubbies have waited so long. Hard to watch last night when Cubs left three men on base instead of having a grand slam. This is the only sport I watch, grew up watching the Dodgers and Yankees with my Dad who was from Brooklyn. He never did get over the Dodgers moving away, and many fans now don't even know they were once in Brooklyn. How sad.
As I have grown older I have come to the realization most sports and most art are worthless. Collectively we are feeding a lot of people we should not.
slick....I think baseball, at least at this point in time, still resonates with folks who grew up following teams largely on the radio before there was wall to wall TV coverage.
Growing up in northeast Ohio, I grew up a Tribe fan with earliest memories being the early and mid-60's teams. One of my favorite players was in fact Tito Francona...the father of the current manager. Yes, the old stadium was a creaking wreck, but one of my earliest memories was walking up the ramps and then seeing the ballyard...the greenest grass I may have ever seen in my young life. I still remember that like it was just yesterday.
Baseball is certainly not as flashy as football or the NBA, but it's not dead yet. By the way...do young kids still play baseball anymore in the US?
Comments
I suspect you may have fallen into the politically incorrect outhouse.
I'm in favor of the winning team to be from a city with the first letter of "C". This is as brave as I will become.
It's a serious problem for theater goers. Scalpers buy up the best seats as soon as they go on sale using computerized "bots." The legitimate sellers counter by making you jump through all kinds of hoops to buy a ticket online. Like re-entering long strings of letters and numbers to prove you're not a bot. But the scalpers hire teams of low wage workers in third world countries to assist the bots in re-entering the numbers and letters or to defeat whatever other defensive measures exist.
There's been some talk in Congress about making these practices illegal. (Maybe a bill pending?) I think it should be. When a normally $160-$200 ticket to Hamilton can only be had for $800 or $1200 in the aftermarket there's something very wrong. The little guy is essentially priced out.
http://qz.com/788441/better-online-ticket-sales-or-bots-act-stubhub-take-note-the-us-government-is-cracking-down-on-ticket-scalping-bots-for-shows-like-hamilton/
http://www.csg.org/pubs/capitolideas/enews/cs53_1.aspx
Derf
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hc7HoWEk6y8
Here's a great World Series memory: Yogi was CERTAIN that he tagged out Jackie Robinson, stealing home, at the plate.
1955, Game 1.
You omitted the fact that it was the Detroit Tigers who gave young Andrew Miller his mlb debut late one season (a decade ago). He looked unbelievably good - so they promptly traded him away at season's end.
Detroit management has always favored those guys who could regularity blaze it across the plate at 120 mph - even at a very young age. Unfortunately, those kind of guys usually end up lame as an old work mare in a season or two. One more reason I pay little attention to baseball today.
Growing up in northeast Ohio, I grew up a Tribe fan with earliest memories being the early and mid-60's teams. One of my favorite players was in fact Tito Francona...the father of the current manager. Yes, the old stadium was a creaking wreck, but one of my earliest memories was walking up the ramps and then seeing the ballyard...the greenest grass I may have ever seen in my young life. I still remember that like it was just yesterday.
Baseball is certainly not as flashy as football or the NBA, but it's not dead yet. By the way...do young kids still play baseball anymore in the US?
Regards,
Ted