From time to time, I like to blog on a human interest level, such as this one on participating in a Chick-Fil-A grand opening in freezing weather or this one about our annual March Madness challenge.
This blog is one of those.
Yes, I have World Series tickets. Yes, they have my name on them. Yes, Lord willing I am going to see the St. Louis Cardinals take on the Texas Rangers in game two of the Fall Classic tonight.
The 2011 Cardinals “most unlikely World Series team ever”
This opportunity seemed unfeasible two months ago. You probably know the numbers: the Cardinals were 10½ games out of a playoff spot on Aug. 25, and 8½ out on Sept. 7.
The Cardinals are the first team ever to be 10 or more games out through Aug. 27, in the league, division or wild-card race and reach the World Series, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, leading CBS Sports’ Scott Miller to say this Cardinals team is the “most unlikely World Series team ever” (http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/story/15756888/cardinals-run-to-fall-classic-couldnt-be-more-unlikely).
But the Cardinals did it, with a little help from the Atlanta Braves, a revitalized bullpen, Albert Pujols in MVP form and enough timely hitting to blaze down the stretch with a 15-5 mark. Then good-bye team-record-102-win Philadelphia Phillies and team-record-96-win Milwaukee Brewers.
The Cards are back in the Series for the 18th time.
The ticket opportunity
Three weeks ago, I received an email asking if I wanted to be entered in a drawing to be eligible to purchase World Series tickets.
Please note - Twitter haters - that I got on this email list because I was following CardsInsider on Twitter and got hooked up that way.
So, I entered the drawing and on Oct. 7 I received an email saying I was selected. This led to a conversation with my gracious wife, where we agreed on counting the ticket purchase as an early Christmas present. Christmas decorations are available in stores now: it seemed to appropriate to go ahead and purchase the first present.
On Oct. 10, I logged in to get the tickets where I waited in a virtual waiting room for about a half an hour.
Then I got in.
I pulled up the ticket prices: $50 for standing room only (SRO), $175 for nosebleed way out in right field. I had been expecting $60-$80 for actual, physical seats that can be useful when watching a game that takes about three hours to play, so I nearly choked when my estimate was doubled.
I went with the SRO.
Later I learned that $50 (plus about $12 in convenience fees - how is that convenient?), was a steal of a deal when I discovered that SRO tickets on Stub hub were starting at $259 per ticket.
You saw that right.
The pre-game
So, it is 1:16 p.m. on game-day. My brother John is currently trekking east on Highway 70 to attend game two of the World Series with me. I am going to lie down because I opened at Starbucks this morning (4:30 a.m.) and do again tomorrow (gag!). I get to be young again, but I’m mixing it up with being old by attempting a nap.
Worshipping God; enjoying the game
I look forward to doing that tonight. I’ll write more about that in a later blog. For now, I will say that I am stoked out the wazoo for this opportunity and look forward to delighting in this good gift from God. I have actually printed two sets of tickets, one to use and one to laminate.
And I’m glad that I get to do this with my brother John. We have a whole bunch of unique memories growing up together.
One of those is playing an 81-game season of Strat-O-Matic baseball in high school (I’m talking 81 games for every team, playing every game). Another is a roughly 50-game season where we kept exhaustive stats for each game.
Another is playing baseball together for the SHEM Eagles, a home school baseball team that took the world by storm (okay, it was a city league at Meador Park in Springfield, MO). We finished in second place one year, a hearty improvement from previous years. I’ll never forget the three hour practices on Friday afternoons with a great bunch of a guys and a coach who gave his time to form us into a team.
Another is building a house from the ground up with my dad one summer, while sleeping in a shed near the house. We would get up, work on the house, eat, drive about 20 minutes to shower and see our mom and siblings, then drive back, sleep and do it again the next day. We mixed in work for our home business in there to form a summer memory we will never forget.
I look forward to adding tonight to that list of memories - and a whole bunch of others - with my bro.
Go Cards
So, go Cards. Go Jaime Garcia. FREEESSEEEE!! Give us your best shot Rangers. We are the most unlikely World Series team ever. Let’s make it the most unlikely World Series champion.
I’m grateful for this opportunity.