How to sell tickets on Stubhub
I have used the site stubhub to buy tickets in the past. I’ve bought tickets for far below face value on the site. Now that I’m a full season ticket holder for three different teams, I can’t attend every game, obviously.
So, I turned to stubhub to sell the tickets because it is the most used internet site to purchase tickets. I was surprised at how easy it is to sell tickets.
Here’s a walkthrough if you’d like to consider selling your tickets on stubhub. First, select the game or games you’d like to sell. It’s really easy if you’re a season ticket holder, you can just check every box. If you’re only attending several games, then leave those boxes unchecked as you will not want to sell them on stubhub.
The second step is to say if you have the tickets or not. Since I don’t have my season tickets, I picked a time when I definitely knew I’d have them.
Also on this screen, you will need to type in the quantity of tickets you have, and their location.
Next, is the fun part – pricing your tickets. Stubhub lets you see the average unsold ticket price along with the average sold ticket price in a box to to the right of the game each game. It’s awesome. Having that data is really helpful.
I would suggest listing your tickets competitively, especially is you’re like me and have tickets in the bleachers, where there’s lots of competition in terms of volume of tickets available in the same section on stubhub.
Another cool feature, is ‘See Your Payout.’ You can click it and a little drop down box will tell you exactly how much you’ll be paid after stubhub takes its commission. You can easily edit the ticket price to get your desired net amount.
There is a lot of competition on stubhub among sellers. To be competitive during weekday games, I would need to price my tickets for less than $10. To break even on a ticket in the bleachers, I’d have to sell for $10.59. But look what tickets go for on the first weekday game of the year:
There’s lots of tickets available for $4-$5. And, I remember at the end of the year last year, many of those tickets cost less than $1. I once bought tickets from Stubhub for 25 cents (which was like $5.50 or whatever after fees). Still, that seller made nothing from those tickets.
That’s why stubhub can be great for buyers. However, if it were a high demand game, the buyers would pay over face value.
Anyway, after setting prices, stubhub lets you choose if you want to be paid via check or paypal. After submitting your credit card info so that your address can be verified, a summary screen comes up. It is a list of every game that you listed along with the price, and your payout (what you’ll receive after fees)
If everything looks great, you just click list tickets and you’re done.
The only other thing that I’ll need to do is when the tickets arrive, I’ll simply need to type in the ticket barcode numbers into stubhub. Stubhub will then deliver the tickets electronically to the buyer’s email address with the barcode generated on them. I don’t need to worry about mailing any tickets, or leaving tickets at will call. It’s great!
Its an easy to use site. I just thought I’d spread the word. I wish I would’ve attempted to use stubhub last year.
Only 69 more days until opening day…
Cleveland Indians Season Tickets
In 2010, I bought a 20 game plan to the Cleveland Indians. It was a pick-a-plan where I was able to choose the games that I wanted to go to. It was really nice, because I always had my ticket in advance. In 2011, I didn’t renew, mostly because the Indians have no worthwhile benefits for partial season ticket holders, and also I wasn’t going to make it to many games in Cleveland. Recently, I’ve compiled my 2012 master schedule, and it appears that I’ll be able to attend somewhere around 20 games in Cleveland. So I decided to go all in and buy a full 81 game plan.
Yes, I can do math. I realize that I’m taking on 61 games of tickets that I won’t use. I plan on using stubhub to get rid of those. I’ll sell the tickets for games against the Yankees, Red Sox, and Tigers for slightly more than face value and the ones I won’t use against other teams for slightly less than face value. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get my money back.
Also, the Indians give each full season ticket holder a game day suite with 16 tickets and 3 parking passes – a $2,000 value. I plan on selling the whole suite or ticket by ticket, and making my money back that I’ve invested.
My season tickets cost $1458, so if my plans work out, I’ll make that money back on those 61 games and break even. That way it’ll be like I’m getting those 20 games for free.
By the way, I bought 2 season tickets in the bleacher section.
Anyhow, I’m pretty excited. Progressive Field is in my opinion, the best field for ballhawking. My statistics back that up.
I average the most balls per game at Progressive. Low crowds, a 4:30 gate opening time, and a vast expanse of seats for the crowd to thin out across makes Progressive Field my ballhawking paradise. The only thing that would make it better would be for the Indians to allow season ticket holders only in at 4:30, and everyone else at 5:00. I’m working on getting them to consider that…
I also bought full season tickets to another club. You’ll just have to stay tuned to my daily postings to find out which one.
70 more days until Opening Day…
The Competition on Mygameballs.com
For the past three years, the top three ballhawks in terms of balls snagged have remained fairly constant. Zack Hample, Erik Jabs and Nick Pelescak have been at or near the top each year. In 2009, the year ended with Hample first, Jabs second, and Pelescak fourth. In 2010, Jabs finished first, Pelescak second, and Hample third. This past year, Hample finished first, Jabs second, and Pelescak third.
However, with the hobby of ballhawking growing, ballhawks have become more serious. Many are making multiple road trips to different cities to increase their games attended and thereby inflate their balls snagged total. It is quite possible that a new ballhawk challenges for the top spot, or the top 3. Let’s take a look at the candidates (not named Hample, Jabs, or Pelescak) that could challenge for a top 3 spot (in no particular order):
Garrett Meyer (garrett37):
2011: 324, 4th place in 2011. Career: 437
Garrett snagged 324 balls in 2011 and put pressure on Nick Pelescak throughout the season for third place before slightly fading in September. Garrett has a the daunting task of snaggingbaseballs in Kansas City, which features the latest opening time in the major leagues. Although KC allows paying customers in early for a BP tour, they confine all fans behind the dugouts. If Garrett plans some lengthy road trips during the summer to ballhawk friendly parks while KC is out of town, he could be a major contender.
Rocco Sinisi:
2011: 273, 7th place in 2011. Career: 369
Rocco ballhawks regularly in Cincinnati, and despite his age, he has emerged as Great American Ballpark’s top ballhawk. Rocco has an advantage of utilizing a BP tour in which he gets earlyentrance into GABP an hour before the general public. He also finds handfuls of baseballs in the seats that help inflate his overall numbers, and make him a serious contender. If Rocco continues to improve as a ballhawk, and he has many tricks up his sleeve, a 300+ season is probable. I have seen him in person in Cincinnati, Cleveland and Pittsburgh. Plus, if I am not mistaken, he is retired, so making it to weekday games even in another city is an option.
Dave Stevenson (flavadave10)
2011: 311, 5th place in 2011 Career: 311
Dave emerged as Baltimore’s top ballhawk in terms of balls snagged in2011. I had the opportunity to see him in action, and although he’s not the top Baltimore ballhawk in terms of snagging hit balls, he does quite well with getting balls tossed to him. He also has a huge advantage of living in the Baltimore/Washington DC area. The Nationals and Orioles have an extremely staggered schedule, so when the Orioles are home, the Nationals are on the road and vice versa. So, Dave could easily attend over 100 games and snag 400-500 balls if he really wanted to dedicate himself. If he snagged 311 in his rookie season, whoknows what he could do to follow it up?
Tim Anderson (gu3)
2011: 235, 8th place in 2011 Career: 323
Tim started off 2011 putting pressure on Nick Pelescak for third place, even passing him up early in the summer but faded as the weekspassed in terms of balls snagged. He did however garner national attention for snagging nine game home run balls. The question will be if Anderson strives for total baseballs or game home runs (or both). Also, since he ballhawks in Baltimore, attending a bunch of extra games in Washington DC is always a possibility.
Devin Trone (devoT)
2011: 281, 6th place in 2011. Career: 421
Devin attended the second most games in 2011 with 88 and has the benefit ofliving in a region where he can attend multiple games. Since he lives in the Los Angeles area, although Anaheim seems to be his home ballpark, making a short trip to Dodger stadium isn’t out of the possibility. I also thought I heard that LA is opening 3 hours early for season ticket holders in 2012, which would present Trone numerous opportunities to rack up big numbers.
Rick Gold (jqfc)
2011: 224, 9th place in 2011. Career: 1,241
Gold is yet another Baltimore ballhawk, which presents him with the opportunity to attend many road games by taking a short trip to Washington. He attended 79 games in 2011, and averaged three per game, so by attending 20 more, he could easily reach a 300+ season. Gold also seems to pride himself on catching home runs as his main source of balls and doesn’t often seem to call out for balls or use a glove trick- if he starts doing those, then watch out.
Ben Weil (piazza)
2011: 214, 10th place in 2011. Career: 258
Weil attended 84 games in 2011, and snagged 214 balls, an average of 2.55. He lives in New York, so he has to deal with tough crowds, but could be poised to improve. He also has the advantage of having piles and piles of jerseys at his residence for each team.
Alex Kopp (akopp1)
2011: 168, 14th place in 2011. Career: 214
Alex Kopp is, in my opinion, likely to have a breakout season in 2012. Despite placing in 14th place in 2011, he averaged 5.60 balls per game, which was second place among all ballhawks attending at least 30 games. I met him in Washington DC once over the summer and he snagged at least a dozen balls. If Kopp attends say, 80 games, he could easily end up in the 400-500 ball range.
Ben Huff (bhuff)
2011: 172, 13th place in 2011. Career: 239
I was in Baltimore for a few games this summer and Huff stood out to me as the most athletic ballhawk. He seemed to have the best range and catch the most batted balls of the regulars there. However, he faded throughout the season and eventually dropped out of the top 10 on mygameballs. Again, he has a huge advantage, as do the other Baltimore ballhawks of living near Washington DC. If him and another friend team up to take road trips, his totals could be off the charts.
Mateo Fischer (fischerm)
2011: 161, 15th place in 2011. Career: 222
Fischer earned some recognition as a runner up for junior ballhawk of the year. For only being 17, he is a well-traveled ballhawk, often attending a good deal of road games. However, he will be limited by his age, as he will have school to deal with – thereby making it tough for him to attend weekday games during the school year.
Zac Weiss (wewill1992)
2011: 137, 16th place in 2011. Career: 205
Weiss was PNC Park’s most improved ballhawk in 2011, and was the only regular to improve upon their 2010 season. (All other PNC ballhawks suffered a drop off of about a ball per game in their average.) Weiss’ game consists mostly of using conversation to get balls tossed to him, and using his blazing speed to locate Easter eggs. Weiss really needs to improve upon his hit ball snagging ability to become a major contender. He’s spending this offseason bulking up and honing his baseball skills to become a serious threat to the other ballhawks of PNC. He’s probably also one of the most prepared ballhawks, usually arriving first at the gate and preparing with a lengthy warm routine and throwing. With a goal of 206 baseballs in 2012, he’s not going to be in the top three, but could break into the top 10 on mygameballs, thereby giving him All-Star ballhawking status.
This list features many ballhawks who have yet to really establish themselves, as only one, Rick Gold, has over 500 baseballs. There are a handful of ballhawks who didn’t actively compete in 2011 because they either took some time away from ballhawking or simply decided not to update their stats on mygameballs.com. A list of top 2012 contenders is incomplete without mentioning Happy Youngster (1,143 career balls), Shawn Bosman (1,112), or Greg Barasch (1,099).
Good luck in 2012 everybody.
71 more days to opening day…
(and 71 more entries?!)
Gate Time Change? Please?
Recently, PNC Park held a training sessions for all of their employees. All employees are required to attend this training to make sure that they are aware of the facility’s rules and regulations. I was there this weekend.
Since I don’t work there, I waited outside.
Most of the information that my source told me was presented to the staff was stuff that I already knew. The session is more of a review for current staff and is more helpful for new employees of the park. However, you can’t work without completing your ‘Grand Slam’ training.
There isn’t much new to report. For you fitness enthusiasts, you can now ride your bike to the park and take your helmet in with you. Motorcycle helmets are not allowed. Also, you fans can bring in as much water as they please as long as its sealed and fits into a 16x16x8 container.
I was hoping to get some new information about a possible adjustment to the gate times. Fellow ballhawk Zac Weiss wrote a formal letter to the head of operations of PNC Park in September that several ballhawks and season ticket holders signed which asked the Pirates to consider opening the Center Field Gate at 4:30 rather than 5 PM. This would allow the fans to actually watch the Pirates take batting practice and enjoy watching their home team shag fly balls, hit homeruns, etc.
Typically, the Pirates portion of batting practice ends at around 5:03 PM. There has been much documentation about this on my blog, Nick Pelescak’s blog and Zac’s blog. If you kept up with us throughout the 2011 season, you saw us a lot of the time complaining about the early end time for batting practice.
Early entrance to PNC Park is a perk. It’s the ultimate perk for me. Without it, I can definitely say that I would not be a season ticket holder. Season Ticket holders should be rewarded and treated great to keep them returning year after year. I admit, we are treated well in Pittsburgh, but I think that this one minor tweak would make PNC Park’s season ticket benefits the best in the country.
There are many other stadiums that open early for season ticket holders such as Cincinnati, Baltimore, New York Mets, San Diego, Detroit, Texas, etc. There are some stadiums such as Cleveland, Washington and Atlanta that open at 4:30 to all fans.
The Pirates definitely have room for improvement in terms of season ticket sales. They are making some strides, but this simple perk would accelerate that process.
From the Pirates perspective, they may not want to open at 4:30 because they would have to pay staff an extra half hour of pay each day. Really though, they’d only need to pay one or two security guards to stand in left field, the ticket scanner, and the ticket supervisor the extra money.
If they wanted to, they could even have a season ticket holder only gate that opens at 4:30. They would just need to open the Stargell statue or left field gate to season ticket holders. Only season ticket holders with cards could have their tickets scanned to let them into left field. Currently, we have our tickets scanned twice. The first scan is to get into the stadium, and then another scan by the bullpen to let us into left field. By creating a season ticket holder only gate, it would eliminate the need for that extra security guard to stand by the bullpen for a half hour.
Anyhow, Zac Weiss informed me through his contacts that the topic of opening the gates earlier for season ticket holders was being discussed at a meeting this month.
By the way, to finish off this entry, I’d like to share Zac’s letter to the Pittsburgh Pirates that got the discussion started on whether or not to open the gates at 4:30:
From the desk of Zachary M. Weiss
August 18, 2011
Dear Pittsburgh Pirates organization:
I write to you today to make a very simple request, please fix PNC Park. You brag about being the ‘best ballpark in America’ but in order to achieve this status you need to treat those fans that have been loyal for all of these years with some more respect; the season ticket holders.
There is a reason why us season ticket holders pay for our tickets, some of which are quite expensive and that is to watch the team, however, we also love meeting the players and getting to know them. Every weekday, the gates open at precisely 5 O’clock and this is a problem. By the time us season ticket holders get into left field to watch the team hit, they are off the players. We are lucky to even see our team hit for three minutes, and it is a shame.
It is my belief that opening the gates at 4:30 on weekdays and Saturday games is very reasonable. It would allow for season ticket holders to experience an almost entire batting practice. This allows for people such as myself to try and catch baseballs, others to get that elusive autograph and for children to meet role models and perhaps even heroes. Us season ticket holders are a family, and these 81 home games are all we have together because of various things going on in our lives…
In the end, we all want the Pirates to succeed; we are all season ticket holders and furthermore fans of the team. We all just want our experiences to be more enjoyable each game and to make new memories that we can tell our co-workers, friends and families about. The more word spreads, the more excitement will build over the Pirates and even more business for the team. Think about it, the choice is yours.
Sincerely, Zachary Weiss
72 more days until opening day…
#11 on 2011 Top 100 Blogs List
Recently, mlblogs released the top 100 blogs of 2011. The rankings were based on the total number of visitors throughout the year.
I finished the year #11 on the list, which is pretty respectable. I would’ve liked to crack the top 10, but now I have something to shoot for in 2012. My blog does fairly well during the baseball season, for example, in April I was #3 for the month, May I was #7, June #7, July #5, August #8, and September #10.
The offseason months kill me though as I blog far less, which is in part why I’ve started blogging daily every day from now until opening day.
The complete list for the 2011 calendar year can be found HERE
You’ll find several other PNC Park ballhawks blogs there (Click their pictures to read their blogs). There is Zac Weiss, who finished #61:
Nick Pelescak, who finished #77:
If you’re a ballhawk and would like to leave your blog link in the comments section, by all means feel free to. I’m thinking of eventually compiling a master list of ballhawk blogs.
By the way, in case you’re wondering, the #1 blog in terms of view went to Zack Hample (in the yellow):
His blog captivated readers as he went to all 30 stadiums in 2011 and attended almost 140 games.
There are 73 more days until opening day…
Season Ticket Pricing Around Baseball
Continuing with my countdown to Opening Day, there are 74 days left, which gives fans plenty of time to purchase season tickets to their favorite team. To help you choose, or just to save you from hundreds of clicks across thirty different websites, I’ve compiled all season ticket and benefit information in this single blog entry for you.
I’ve left a link to the benefits of each team after my pricing and benefits description. Enjoy.
NATIONAL LEAGUE EAST
Atlanta Braves
The Braves have some really affordable tickets for their full season. Fans can choose any seat in the Upper Box level for $471. Even better, an Upper Pavilion Season Ticket is only $370. Outfield seats are $1132 per ticket. The Braves benefits are well worth it as they offer on field batting practice, including warming up in the pitcher’s mound, shagging fly balls in the outfield, and a behind the scene tour.http://atlanta.braves.mlb.com/atl/ticketing/season_tickets.jsp#tab4
Miami Marlins
The Marlins are christening a new ballpark this year, and have signed lots of high priced free agents to keep expectation high and fans in the seats. The cheapest season ticket is in the upper deck and costs $810. Tickets in the outfield cost $1,012.50 for the upper deck sections and $1215 for the lower level. The benefits offered are very vague. There’s a short generic list on the webpage that includes 10% off in the team store.
http://miami.marlins.mlb.com/mia/ticketing/season_tickets.jsp
New York Mets
The Mets cheapest season ticket is $972 – to sit way up in the very upper deck of the outfield (left field). If you wanted to sit in the outfield and catch a home run, those season tickets are $2,341 per seat. Perhaps some awesome benefits could offset the price? A look at their webpage shows a 15% off discount in the team store, and an opportunity to exchange tickets. Additionally, the Mets allow STH early access to Citi Field, but only on Saturdays and Sundays. If you spend the $972, they’ll also throw in a Citi Field tour. Meh.
http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/nym/ticketing/season_tickets.jsp
Philadelphia Phillies
The Phillies are a large market team, and their prices reflect it. The cheapest season ticket costs $1,316 to sit in the nose bleed seats. Outfield seats are a whopping $2,794 per ticket. Yikes. The Phillies are one of the top drawing teams, so they don’t need to offer good benefits to get folks to buy season tickets. On their benefits page they list a Season Ticket Holder Picnic along with the standard exchange dates that all teams offer. I’m happy I don’t live on the eastern side of PA.
http://philadelphia.phillies.mlb.com/phi/ticketing/season_benefits.jsp
Washington Nationals
The cheapest season ticket for the Washington Nationals would cost $815 – and that’s to sit in the Upper Outfield Gallery. If you’d like to sit in left field or right field for your season tickets, well, that would run you $1,630 per seat. Pricey. As far as benefits, the Nationals will give a STH a Ticket Holder ID which entitles them to 15% off. Other perks include Free Spring Training Tickets, an exchange program, complementary tours, and other “events.” The Nationals do offer fans to take batting practice on the field, but only if you have a fortune invested in the club and you are a Suite Holder. No one else gets to hit.
http://washington.nationals.mlb.com/was/ticketing/sth/benefits_chart.jsp
NATIONAL LEAGUE CENTRAL
Chicago Cubs
The Cubs aren’t even selling season tickets. They only offer a season ticket holder waiting list.
Cincinnati Reds
The Cincinnati Reds offer upper deck Kroger Bleacher seats for $632 if you pay before January 13th – afterwards its $672. Seats in left field cost $1,584 ($1,665 after 1/13) , and a right field season ticket costs $1665 ($1746 after 1/13). The Reds also have a decent benefits package. Full season ticket holders get to take batting practice on the field, receive early access to Great American Ballpark (30 minutes, and give away free RedsFest tickets. The on field batting practice almost makes spending $672 worth it alone. I was a Reds partial season ticket holder in 2010 with a 13 game plan. I thought that getting into GABP 30 minutes early would be a huge advantage, but it really isn’t, because the Reds allow tour groups in even before the season ticket holders, so there was always a bunch of people in there when I ran in.
http://cincinnati.reds.mlb.com/cin/ticketing/season.jsp?loc=incentives
Houston Astros
The Astros were the worst team in baseball last year, losing 106 games. Surely they’d have affordable tickets? Not really. The cheapest ticket way up in View Deck II is $1,079. If you’d like to sit in those infamous Crawford Boxes and catch shallow fly balls, I mean home runs, it’ll be $3,071. Right field is a bit more affordable at $2,241. OK, so the Astros ticketing prices aren’t that great for a terrible team. Their benefits are alright though. They give away a Free Group outing of 20 tickets to each season ticket holder, as long as you attend the game in April or May. Each season ticket account also gets 2 free Spring Training tickets. As for their events, season ticket holders can watch batting practice early before the regular gates open on selected dates and they get their own Season Ticket Holder gate. Other perks are an MVP card that gives the holder 15% off and a few other standard perks.
http://houston.astros.mlb.com/hou/ticketing/season_benefits.jsp
Milwaukee Brewers
The Brewers are taking deposits on full season plans, and only have the pricing per game available. Their cheapest ticket is $12 per game for an already existing season ticket holder, which comes out to $972. To sit in the outfield, you’d have to buy a loge bleacher ticket, which would run you $1377. However, if you’re a new season ticket holder, you’d have to pay $1539. Welcome aboard! Pay a $162 tax for joining! The Brewers drew over 3 million fans in 2011, so they really don’t need to concern themselves with awesome benefits. They give fans the opportunity to order additional tickets before the public, flexible exchange options, and the chance to buy playoff tickets. That’s about it.
http://mlb.mlb.com/mil/ticketing/sth/benefits.jsp
Pittsburgh Pirates
The Pirates have one of the most affordable season ticket plans. Their cheapest season ticket costs $399. Left field bleacher seats only cost $699 per seat. Center and right field seats are $1,053. In addition to being affordable, the Pirates have lots of great benefits such as: Early entrance to PNC Park on Monday-Saturday, Taking Batting Practice on the field, play catch on the field, take batting practice in the PNC Park batting cages, Piratefest tickets, a Food and Beverage credit ($50), 15% off at the clubhouse store, and 2 Club tickets (more tickets if you have more than one season ticket. The Pirates great prices and benefits make me feel lucky that the Pirates are my home team despite their miserable play on the field.
http://pittsburgh.pirates.mlb.com/pit/ticketing/sth/benefits_2012.jsp
St Louis Cardinals
It’s almost February, and the Cardinals are still taking deposits. Click on the seating and pricing option, and there is no pricing information available. Get with it Cardinals.
The Cardinals benefits are extremely generic and bland. Season ticket holders get an ID card to give them a discount at the team store, and that’s about it.http://stlouis.cardinals.mlb.com/stl/ticketing/season.jsp#benefits
NATIONAL LEAGUE WEST
Arizona Diamondbacks
The Diamondbacks offer an upper deck seat for $498. Their left and right field seats are all priced at the same rate, $996, not bad for a defending Division Champion. The Diamondbacks have the best benefit of all, opening the gates early for season ticket holders on Monday through Saturday games.
http://arizona.diamondbacks.mlb.com/ari/ticketing/season_tickets_benefits_new.jsp
Colorado Rockies
The Rockies benefits are generic and pale in comparison with some other teams, so let’s get right to the pricing. The Rockies cheapest season ticket is $640 in the upper deck. Left Field Pavilion seats are $1,120 and right field box seats are $1280.
http://colorado.rockies.mlb.com/col/ticketing/season.jsp
Los Angeles Dodgers
The Dodgers have been going through some tough financial times recently, so widening their season ticket base would definitely be beneficial to them. For the first year in 2012, season ticket holders will be allowed into Dodger Stadium early to watch batting practice. I’ve heard that it will be a full hour before the rest of the gates open. Additionally, fans get to play catch after some games on the field. When I looked at their season ticket prices, I was struck by how affordable they are. Seats in the top deck are $405. Left field pavilion seats are only $729 – the same as the Cleveland Indians and almost as cheap as the Pirates. Right Field is $1215.
http://losangeles.dodgers.mlb.com/la/ticketing/season.jsp
San Diego Padres
The Padres website has said check back soon for 2012 Ticket Prices for over a month. Seems to me that their ticket staff is just lazy. For a team that finished in last place in their division in 2011, they should get motivated and provide some interesting and affordable ticket options. I’m not sure what a ‘let’s wait until a couple weeks before opening day to unveil our 2012 ticket prices’ will do in terms of brining in new customers. No joke – the Pirates had all of their 2012 ticket prices out and were recruiting 2012 season ticket holders in AUGUST last year. The Padres benefits listed were still for 2011. Their unused season ticket exchange program is terrible, with only 5 exchange dates. Although nothing is listed here, I do believe that they allow season ticket holders early entrance to Petco Park.
http://sandiego.padres.mlb.com/sd/ticketing/sth/full_season_benefits.jsp
San Francisco Giants
The Giants are completely sold out of left field season tickets ($1750) and Arcade (Right Field, $2500) season tickets. The cheapest ticket available was a $1775 upper deck season ticket, although there is a $1000 ticket that is sold out. The Giants offer some perks such as 20% off, and invitation to special events, but after looking at every team’s benefits, they all start to look the same.
http://sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com/sf/ticketing/sth/benefits.jsp
AMERICAN LEAGUE EAST
Baltimore Orioles
The Orioles call Camden Yards their home, considered one of the better ballparks in baseball to watch a game. Season ticket holders get early access into the entire seating bowl of Camden Yards, whereas non season ticket holders are confined to right field for the first half hour. Also, the Orioles give away free Spring Training tickets along with free minor league tickets and ballpark tours. Additionally, season ticket holders get Free Admission to Area Museums. The cheapest season ticket at Camden Yards is $988 on their website, with left field being $2025 and right field being $1215.
http://baltimore.orioles.mlb.com/bal/ticketing/season.jsp#orange_carpet
Boston Red Sox
There aren’t even any season ticket links on the Red Sox website, so…
New York Yankees
After looking through dozens of seating categories, the Yankees cheapest season ticket is $1620, and it is Grandstand level seating in the upper deck. The season ticket map is ridiculous with lots of different pricing for yellow sections, so I can’t really tell how much an outfield season ticket would be, but it looks like it’d be $5670. By the way, the Yankees benefits are extremely generic.
http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/nyy/ticketing/season_tickets.jsp#benefits
Tampa Bay Rays
The cheapest Rays ticket costs $930 for an upper deck seat. That seems pricey for a team that struggles to draw fans despite being in contention consistently the past couple years. An outfield seat costs $1506. For individual games a confusing 4 tier pricing approach is used, so it’s better to buy a season ticket. For example, a seat in the upper deck could cost $9, $12, $17, or $19, depending on the opponent. Their benefit lists the opportunity to enter through a season ticket holder gate, but says nothing about early entrance to batting practice. I’m thinking it might be like Washington, where there’s a special gate for STH, but everyone still gets in at the same time. Not much here, no wonder no one goes to their games, despite a great team.
http://tampabay.rays.mlb.com/tb/ticketing/sth/benefits.jsp
Toronto Blue Jays
The Blue Jays are offering season ticket holders the benefit of entering the stadium early to watch batting practice from a designated Season Ticket Holder Area (it better be in the outfield somewhere). It sounds like it could be a deal where you just stand on the field though. The cheapest Blue Jays ticket is $635 Canadian. ($616 US) Outfield seats for $1907 Canadian. ($1861 US)
http://toronto.bluejays.mlb.com/tor/ticketing/season_tickets_benefits.jsp#tab1
AMERICAN LEAGUE CENTRAL
Chicago White Sox
The White Sox cheapest season ticket is $974, and it looks like the cost is $2270 to sit out in the outfield bleachers. The White Sox benefits are vague and generic and list season ticket holder gifts and events as one of their top benefits.
http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/cws/ticketing/ticket_plans.jsp?loc=benefits
Cleveland Indians
The Indians offer some decent benefits, such as a Suite for free (includes 16 tickets) which is a $2000 value. They also give away a free Terrace Club Membership, and Free Club seats to one game. Their cheapest ticket is $648 in the upper deck, but you can get a left field bleacher season ticket for just $729. Right Field and Center Field seats are $1701 per season ticket.
http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/cle/ticketing/season_tickets/season_benefits.jsp
Detroit Tigers
Detroit was hit hard by the recession, and still hasn’t recovered. It looks like the Tigers had Skyline season ticket plan for $5 per game which has sold out. So, the cheapest season ticket a ballhawk can purchase now is in the upper deck and costs $1294. But get this, for only $5 more, you can buy a bleacher ticket in the outfield for $1279. Outfield box cost $3317, and RF Grandstand cost $2021, and the Comerica Park was inconclusive as to where these sections are located – its all just one color.
The Tigers have the most important benefit available this year. From their website: “Exclusive Season Ticketholder early entry to select games.” That’s important, because in the past Comerica Park has been a 90 minute stadium – meaning that they open their gates 90 minutes before the first pitch, one of the latest opening times in the majors. STH also have their own gate.
http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/det/ticketing/season.jsp?pg=full
Kansas City Royals
The Kansas City Royal host the All Star game in 2012, making their season ticket base grow. The cheapest season ticket is $648 for seats known as Hy-Vee Outfield. An Outfield box seat is $1863 per ticket. They Royals have a long list of benefits, but most of the best ones, such as taking batting practice on the field are for the big spenders. It’d be nice if they’d open their gates early to season ticket holders, since KC has the latest opening time of any stadium in the majors. The best benefit of all is getting an All Star Game strip with tickets to the Futures Game, Home Run Derby and the All Star game.
http://kansascity.royals.mlb.com/kc/ticketing/sth/sth_benefits.jsp
Minnesota Twins
Currently the Twins are only taking deposits, but they list their cheapest ticket as $11 in the upper deck. Seats in the outfield are $22 per seat. That’s $891 for their cheapest seat, and $1782 for an outfield seat. The Twins offer some cool benefits such as giveaways throughout the season. They also let season ticket holders in early on Monday-Thursday to watch batting practice from right field, but it appears that a limited amount of fans that can participate, so you have to be pre-chosen. Everything seems that way. Batting in the cages indoors? Sure, but they only select 18 season ticket holders. How about take batting practice on the field? Sure, they offer that too – to 12 season ticket holders. http://minnesota.twins.mlb.com/min/ticketing/sth/gen/benefits.jsp
AMERICAN LEAGUE WEST
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
The Angels saw their season ticket holder base jump 4,000 in the week after the signings of Albert Pujols and CJ Wilson. Their season ticket prices are $9.50 for the cheapest seat in the View All Star Upper Deck Area ($769.50 for the season), and $17 for left field ($1377) or $14 per game for right field ($1134). The Angels benefits are standard and boring.
http://losangeles.angels.mlb.com/ana/ticketing/ssh_benefits.jsp
Oakland Athletics
The Athletics cheapest seat is a bleacher seat which costs $720, that’s also prime home run territory, all the way from right to left field. The A’s benefits suck. Buy season tickets and get a pin. Whoop dee doo.
http://oakland.athletics.mlb.com/oak/ticketing/benefits.jsp
Seattle Mariners
The Mariners cheapest season ticket is $1025 for a left field bleacher ticket. Not bad. Its the upper bleachers in left field though. If you want to sit in center or right field, well that’ll be $1754. The Mariners offer nothing to get excited about benefits wise. Nothing stands out here.
http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com/sea/ticketing/sth_info/benefits.jsp
Texas Rangers
The Rangers have a season ticket plan for only $334 in the upper deck (Grandstand reserved). Now THAT’S a bargain! The Rangers have also been known to have a season ticket holder gate that opens early and lets season ticket holders in before the public, although they don’t advertise it on their benefits page.
http://texas.rangers.mlb.com/tex/ticketing/full_season.jsp#benefits
74 more days!
Counting Down to Opening Day
I’ve been rather inactive the past couple months, blogging very sparingly.
Since the 2012 baseball season is just around the corner, I’ve decided to pick up my blogging content to head full steam into the season. During the baseball season I usually would have around 200-300 readers per day, but that number has fallen drastically in the past couple months as folks have figured out that I’ve stopped blogging regularly.
Well, I’m going to start back up again.
Today is January 21st and from now until opening day, I hope to blog once a day.
This notice will serve as my first in a series of 75. Yes, there are 75 days until opening day. How am I going to come up with 75 different entries, well, check back tomorrow and see what I come up with!
1/21/12 – 75 more days until Opening Day.
I’m excited, Amy’s excited, Olivia is excited!
PNC Park Batting Practice
One of the perks that the Pirates offer is the opportunity to take batting practice inside of the PNC Park batting cages. The Pirates usually have an outdoor field day, where fans take batting practice on the field – I participated in that in September. In the winter, they invite the fans to take BP in the cages.
I took two rounds of BP of 10 pitches each. I went 20 for 20 hitting every ball that I faced.
Here’s a video of my second round:
There were two cages, one for grown ups which was set to fast speed, and one that flipped balls up there at about 30 mph for the kids. I went into the fast one of course.
The only thing I didn’t like was that my follow through kept hitting the net, making it a bit awkward.
After hitting Amy, Olivia and I went up into the hall of fame club to eat some light refreshments. Daniel McCutchen and Brad Lincoln were there, but I didn’t go up and say anything to them, especially since McCutchen seems to dislike the serious ballhawks.
Olivia was very well behaved and wasn’t phased at all by the crack of the bat.
New Year’s Resolutions
With the New Year upon us, I’ve decided to set a few goals, or resolutions for myself for the upcoming 2012 ballhawking season.
So, here are my resolutions, listed from easiest to accomplish to hardest:
1) Snag 400 balls
I have snagged at least 400 balls in the past three seasons. (412 in 2009, 544 in 2010, and 422 in 2011). According to mygameballs, no ballhawk has ever had four consecutive 400+ seasons.
2) Snag career ball #2,000
I would need to snag 456 balls in 2012 to achieve this goal. Two thousand career balls would make me the third ballhawk to reach that plateau behind Zack Hample and John Witt.
3) Snag 500 balls.
Its only been achieved by two people, Zack Hample in 2008, 2009 and 2011, and myself in 2010. A lofty goal.
4) Attend 100 games.
It looks like if I really pushed myself that I could attend 107 games between Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Baltimore and Cincinnati. However, once the dog days of summer roll around, I know I’ll feel like taking some time off before catching a second wind in mid August. A lot will depend on the weather as we lost about fourteen batting practices last year due to rain at PNC Park. Most of those times I just went home rather than toil for hours in the rain for a ball or two.
5) Hike up my career average to 5.00
Currently, I have a career average of 4.80 balls per game. That’s 1,544 balls in 322 games. Let’s just say for example that I attend 78 games – the same number that I did in 2011… I’d need to snag 456 balls in 78 games, or average 5.85 balls per game to bring my career average up to 5.00 even.
6) Set a new career record in average per game.
In 2010, I averaged 6.18 balls per game. I’d need to average 6.19 to break that obviously, but that won’t be easy. 2011 brought larger crowds to PNC Park, jamming the already small area in left field. (We only have six rows to work with!) Obviously, numbers took a hit. All of the PNC ballhawks averages tumbled in 2011 except for Zac Weiss. The only way I’d average more than 6.19 would be for the Pirates to be awful once again, and I don’t see that happening. Sure, they may not have a winning record, but they’ll at least be respectable. It’d help if PNC opened their gates at 4:30 like Cleveland, Washington, Cincinnati (bp tour)…
7) Have fifteen double digit games.
In 2011, I had only six games in which I snagged 10 or more balls. In 2010 I had 14. Opening Day 2011 at PNC Park was my best game of the year, where I snagged 13.
8) Snag 15 balls in a game.
I’ve never done it. I’ve had some opportunities where I’ve snagged 13 here and there but didn’t hang around for the game and left right after BP (such as Cleveland on 5-13-11 last year). My career high is 14. The PNC Park record is 16 – however, I was coaching the day that Nick Pelescak set it and wasn’t there to defend the previous record that he and I shared.
9) Snag 600 balls in a season.
I’ve never done it before. Only one other ballhawk ever has – Zack Hample in 2011 when he broke my season record that I had set in 2010.
10) Set the PNC Park record with 17 in a game.
It would take a perfect storm. I’d need low attendance, about four easter eggs, four toss ups, four glove tricks, and five hit balls to do it. It sounds easy, but it won’t be, in fact, I’d list this as the hardest of all goals to achieve, because PNC Park isn’t as easy as people think it is.
So there you have it, a long list of 10 goals. The last time I set published goals was for the 2010 season, and I reached 3 out of 4 of them. The only goal I failed to reach that year was 90 games, and I missed it by two.
Last year I decided to not publish and goals, I had them in my mind, but they kept changing throughout the season. First I wanted to finish first on mygameballs for the second year in a row, but I abandoned that after seeing Zack Hample snag 200+ balls in 25+ games in April. Then I decided to snag 545 balls, to set a personal high, but that changed too when PNC Park crowds began to swell and ballhawking became doubly as hard. From there my goals dropped to 500, 450, and then eventually I settled on beating 412, my previous 2nd best effort in 2009. I ended up finishing with 422 last year.
Of course many of these goals will hinge upon family, finances, and health. We’ll see what happens.
Piratefest Day 1
Amy, Olivia and I headed down to the David L Lawrence Convention Center on Friday for the season ticket holder only portion of Piratefest.
The general public would have to wait until Saturday and Sunday to attend. As an added perk, since I had paid for my three season tickets in full, I was granted early access at 4 PM, two and a half hours before the rest of the season ticket holders are allowed in.
Therefore, when 4PM came, we walked in, and the few season ticket holders that were paid in full flocked to the autograph lines and the clubhouse store to take advantage of their 40% off coupons. It made the hall eerily empty.
By the way, Jeff Karstens was working scanning our tickets:
And Andrew McCutchen, James McDonald, and Neil Walker were working passing out the calendars to fans:
Our first stop was the Pirates Clubhouse store.
There I purchased a Pirates 2011 style BP hat for $14 with the VIP shopping coupon that was sent to me. The second stop was the authenticated merchandise area. There were lots of game used jerseys, balls, bats, line up cards, etc there.
Some of the merchandise was rather pricey. An Andrew McCutchen game used road jersey?
$850.
I considered buying a Herbie Andrade game used jersey to hopefully get the guy to like me again after seeing me switch shirts to the visiting team, but $125 seemed too expensive.
I did end up buying some game used merchandise. First, I bought a bag of four game used baseballs:
The balls were in a grab bag. Each ball was game used and has an authentication sticker on it with a hologram. I got a ball from Opening Day 2008 in Atlanta, a ball from the 2008 home opener, a ball from 2011 when Joel Hanrahan set a save record, and a Garrett Jones RBI base hit baseball from June 20 2011 vs Indians. Pretty cool, they’ve got to be worth more than the $5 each that I paid. At worst I was planning on peeling off the stickers and giving them away as decoy balls throughout the 2012 season.
Also, there were lineup cards from every game from the 2011 season. They were all in chronological order, so I flipped through and bought one from the day Olivia was born. She was actually born as the game was going on!
So, it will get framed and hang in her bedroom. It was only $25 by the way, not too bad.
There was a large Christmas tree in the middle of the convention center, but besides that, there weren’t many Christmas decorations. It was all black and gold everywhere.
We took advantage of the low crowds to head over to the MVP zone, which is a season ticket holder only area with short lines. There we got autographs from:
Daniel McCutchen and Michael McKenry.
McCutchen recognized me and asked how many balls McKenry had thrown me. I told him ‘none.’ I also told him he threw one to me in 2011, albeit by accident, as it was a random flip up into the stands in Cleveland.
There was Alex Presley and Kevin Correia:
and Clint Barmes, Jose Tabata and Chris Resop. Joel Hanrahan was at the table too, but bailed about two minutes before I got up to the table.
We also stopped by the 2012 Promotional booth, where many of the give aways from the coming year are on display. There was a wall of shirts from Free Shirt Fridays:
And a closer look at the 12 shirts that will be given away:
First is a plain looking white tee shirt that’s kind of boring, followed by a rather sharp black shirt.
There is a camo Pirates logo shirt and a generic gray shirt.
Two weird design shirts, one of silhouettes of Pirates players past and present, and another silhouette of Andrew McCutchen on a white shirt:
A gold Pirates shirt, which is great for ballhawking because it makes you stand out, and a gray shirt with the Pittsburgh skyline on it, as seen from PNC Park:
Two really weird shirts for rappers:
And a Roberto Clemente shirt along with a snazzy gold Pirates shirt to conclude the season:
Other items were a Pirate Parrot doll and Pirates bowls:
A Joel Hanrahan bobblehead and Neil Walker mom and kid jerseys:
A Pirates umbrella:
A Pirates floatation device, sunglasses, and hat:
A kids necklace, visor, cooler bag, and gym bag:
The promotions didn’t get me very excited. It seemed to be the same old stuff except with a different design. The Pirates gym bag and a couple of the shirts are the only promotions that I would be interested in actually keeping for myself.
Piratefest also features game shows that fans can participate in. There was deal or no deal, which is so boring because its old and the prizes have been the same for years:
And Jeopardy, which was painful to watch,
mainly because the three contestants were idiots.
The kid on the left didn’t know Andrew McCutchen’s number. I missed one question: Bob Friend let the league in what category in 1955? There was one other question I didn’t know: What is the Minnesota Twins’ mascot? Every other question I answered aloud to Amy correctly.
Before leaving at 6:40 pm, I played three games. I ended up winning free tickets on two of them. Not bad.
Piratefest is always something I look forward to every year, and its usually the same stuff every year, but it still breaks up the offseason a little bit and gets me looking forward to baseball again.
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