It's Thursday Trash Day, March 31st. The little weather thing on my computer reads 67 degrees. I am in Northern California. The current weather in New York, 43 degrees and rainy. The current weather in Cleveland, heck, it's cold with snow on the ground.
Happy Opening Day. A old favorite movie of mine is on, "It Happens Every Spring" with Ray Milland. He is a chemistry professor with a love of baseball. Every Opening Day he becomes absent minded about everything except the ballgames. Due to an accidental discovery he becomes a big league pitcher. It's a cute movie from 1949.
Do you live in New York? Do you think you may want to go to a baseball game this season? Ticket prices start at fifteen bucks in the bleachers and go to three hundred twenty five dollars for the best in the house. I am going to repeat that three HUNDRED twenty five dollars per seat. I wonder, can you pay One sixty two fifty and just sit with one ass check?
Seven people at the same work place in New York went in on a lotto ticket this week. They won three hundred nineteen million dollars. They just may be the only people in that state that can afford season tickets this year.
As I get older I seem to be loosing interest in lots of things. By the time I'm seventy I do not want to be the stereotypical grumpy old man, only interested in cookies, or maybe a good piece of fish. I wish I could get as excited about the day, like I always did. Not only as a kid but a young and older adult.
Even the average guy can wax poetically today. Spring, when a young man thinks about new beginnings and romance. Opening Day, every baseball team is in first place. If your team should lose today there is tomorrow. Today is the beginning of 162 baseball games and the playoffs and the World Series.
When I was young I loved baseball. I loved Opening Day. Think about spending five months in cold, grey, dismal weather. Late February and early March arrives and the "boys" are down in Lakeland, Florida in Spring Training. All a nine year old kids favorite players will soon be back home. The weather is going to turn, the leaves begin to unfurl, spring will soon sprung. Opening Day was always a new beginning.
Early spring in 1984 I was in the process of a divorce from the bad spouse. The last thing I was thinking about was baseball. I came home one evening to a message light blinking on the machine. I hit the play button and heard, "Let me know now if you want to go to the World Series this year." It was from my brother Fred. I listened to that message several times but still couldn't figure out what he was talking about. Were they playing the W.S. in Detroit this year? I thought. Hold on, the Super Bowl changes location every year, not the World Series. What the Hell is he talking about?
After a couple of phone calls I learned the Detroit Tigers record was 35-5. That is astonishing. They never lost the division lead winning 104 games that year. Yes, the World Series was played in Detroit and I was there. I always wanted but never had seen a playoff or series game. I called my brother early in that season and said, "I am going to hold you to it, get the tickets." And he did, one playoff game and one World Series game, the Tigers winning both.
Irving the Barber was not frugal, I think he was cheap. That is not a very nice thing to say about your father, sorry. There were certain things he would not, under any circumstances, pay for. Or, he would try to, and usually succeed, get a lower price on a similar item. When I was a kid I'm sure he hoped I would stop growing. If I stayed four feet tall he wouldn't need to buy me new school clothes every year. I did grow, a little so he would take me to National Dry Goods in downtown Detroit. This was a very large warehouse with boxes and boxes of stuff, also lots of dust. It was all somehow organized, sold at bulk prices and inexpensive. Some of my classmates got clothes at Hudson's or even Saks 5th Avenue. I went to a warehouse and the stuff was usually two sizes too big.
My oldest brother Fred inherited some of Irving's money habits. He can be overly generous, almost extravagant to a fault about many things. He will also go ten miles out of his way to get something a little cheaper. Paying for parking, they both tried to avoid whenever possible.
I told you Fred got tickets for those ballgames in 1984. Then, the team played in mid-town Tiger Stadium. Within a few blocks were several commercial parking lots, free residential street parking a short walk away. To save a few bucks Fred parked on one of those residential streets. I still have the tickets stubs from that game, the seats fifteen dollars each. He spent around fifty bucks for everything that day and saved five parking.
In 1984 there was one playoff round. The team that won the best of five series went to the World Series. It was a fantastic game. The Tigers third win, 1-0. When the last out was recorded the crowd went nuts. It was the most electric feeling I had ever experienced. When we filed out of the stadium people were dancing in the streets. The home team was going to the "Big Show" for the first time since 1968. There were conga lines on Michigan Avenue. All the way to the car we were celebrating, what fun it was.
I guess we were ten or fifteen feet from the car when we noticed the trunk. Usually the trunk of a car is flat, down on the car body, locked. This one was not flat and not locked. What easy pickings these cars were and they were picked, clean. Taken was a very expensive
trench coat, probably already in a pawn shop. His briefcase containing a lot of cash was gone. He lost his business checkbook too. Over a year later people were trying to cash checks on that account. He lost property and money and got a lot of aggravation but he did save five dollars parking.
Irving tried to save a few dollars too. He loved sports and was always happy to take me to a game. From the time I was maybe nine we went to lots of sporting events. Baseball, football, and hockey. I remember football games in the freezing weather, him telling me to "stamp my feet" when they were numb. He was drinking brandy and I was stamping my feet. At times we could only get standing room only tickets for hockey but I didn't mind. I loved the sports and I got to share something with him. I just wish he wouldn't have been so damn cheap.
The games were always crowded when the dreaded Yankees were in town. He loved to see that team and we would often go. Since he was adverse to paying for parking he would drive around while I would scout a space. One game close to first pitch, unable to find a space he spotted a cheap parking sign. About fifty yards away a guy was waving cars to parking rows and collecting money. I don't remember the cost, it wasn't much. When we returned after the game all the cars had parking tickets. Those guys had waved us into the rear of a large public school parking lot. The ticket was much more than commercial parking.
Do you think Irving learned a lesson? I don't think so.
One beautiful fall day we went down to Tiger Stadium for a Lions game. This was in the 50's when Detroit had a great football team. Then, the Lions played outdoors, rain, shine, cold or snow. The game started at one o'clock and we were running late. Dad payed for parking near the stadium and bought our tickets from a guy outside. Lots of folks bought, and sold tickets this way. It was called "scalping." if the tickets sold higher than face value. Since the game had already started the seller asked less, we got a good price and he got rid of the tickets.
We got some hot dogs and soda, found our seats, good ones on the forty yard line and sat down. I guess we were sitting there for maybe ten minutes when a couple of guys approached us from the row behind. "Excuse me sir, may I see your tickets please?" one of them asked. My dad dug them out and handed them over. "Thank you, please come with us sir." the other one said. We didn't want to miss any of the game but these guys looked a little rough. Dad asked what was going on and the guys flashed a badge at him. We got up and followed them out to the concession area.
Irving bought tickets from a scalper who didn't scalp. What he had done was either steal the tickets himself or bought them from someone who did. A season ticket holder had his house burgled. The tickets were part of the stolen loot. They questioned us, satisfied we "got taken." We weren't allowed back to those seats, or any seats. We had to leave, were able to buy bleacher seats and went in. If we had binoculars I bet we would have seen the detectives in the stolen seats. If we had binoculars I bet we would have seen the players. It was an interesting day. We almost missed the entire first half and had terrible seats but did have a fantastic adventure. I learned a lot of what not to do from my father.
Wanda and I are both sports fans. In the late 80's and early 90's we went to twenty or so games a year. We bought season tickets and always parked in the lot. We had a good time, spent a little extra money and never, ever, ever got arrested going to a ballgame.
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