Hey Now....Get Your Game On.

I've always been a discriminating sports fan. I keep up with baseball and football. I watch few hockey games during the season and become a rabid fan through out the playoffs. I enjoy the games I played as a kid. I never missed the Midsummer Classic, the Major League All-Star game. I well remember how disappointed I was in 1987 when it was in Oakland, California. I had to work and couldn't go, or even watch it. Looking back on things that was about the time I stopped caring.

At one time the game was the show, the whole show and nothing but the show. Now E.S.P.N. starts its coverage the day before the ballgame. We can watch batting and fielding practice, a little cup adjusting and the spitting of saliva and sunflower seeds. If we're really lucky one of the pitchers will blow his nose on the mound, ala Madison Bumgarner of the S.F. Giants.

I'm almost embarrassed to admit this. Last night Wanda and I watched the Home Run Derby, all two and a half hours (and it only seemed like four). You may ask why? Go ahead, it's OK, ask why. We watched it because of an Oakland A's player, Yoenis Cespedes. The A's were running a promo. For each home run Cespedes hit they would take $1 off the price of a $36 field level seat. The one stipulation was a minimum price of $5. We haven't been to a ballgame in years and thought we would take advantage of this offer.

If you are not familiar with it, the Home Run Derby features ten ballplayers trying to hit a baseball as far as possible. If it was a cartoon you would see screaming faces on the balls as they were launched off the bat and into the stratosphere. The longest one hit traveled 483' which is about a football field and a half, including the end zones. In 1985 the first Home Run Derby was an after thought. Now, twenty eight later, it raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for charity. A ticket to this event costs upwards of $700.

Cespedes won the contest blasting 17 homers in the first round, 6 in the second and 9 in the finals. Fifteen minutes after the contest tickets went on sale. I couldn't get seats together the first few times I tried. Eventually I found seats in the outfield along the third base line. Although the tickets were only $5 each had a "handling charge" of $3.50.

I can understand a handling charge for some things. A masseuse, a hooker, but baseball tickets? It's bad enough the $8 dollar seats we used to sit in are now $36. Does it really cost $3.50 for a person to "hand" me a ticket?

So what's my point? In spite of the promo and the $17 tickets, parking is $17. Public transportation is just as much. What's a ballgame without a snack or two? I can't justify spending $50 or $60 (with the discounts) to go to a game and hear people scream obscenities when I have a 47" Hi-Def TV at home. Live events have become too expensive for us. The Cirque Du Soleil plays San Francisco every other year and we used to go. Now that its become a $250 evening we don't. 

I've mentioned this before. Sometimes I ask myself if I'm truly happy or have convinced myself I am due to my circumstances. Sometimes I think I'd like to do more. But when reading a book, watching a movie, or just hanging out with Wanda is enjoyable, and the cost of going out reaches triple digits, I'm fine staying home.

These days Wanda and I are much more selective with our spending, and there's nothing wrong with that.