Baseball Toaster: The Griddle : Just how do you get in to see the Red Sox at Fenway?

A place where a man can slow down to a walk and live his life full measure, but he has to keep his watch on Pacific Time

Hot from the Toaster

Dodger Thoughts
Kershaw XII: Kerdyshawck

Bronx Banter
Hurts So Good

The Griddle
Karl Kuehl, 1937-2008

The Juice
O Say ...

Humbug
Midnight, Cleveland

Catfish Stew
Senioritis

Cardboard Gods
Ed Kranepool

Bad Altitude
Rockies Stand Pat, Get Whacked

Cub Town
Just Like That

Fairpole
Layout Experiments This Weekend

Mike's Baseball Rants
Shades of September?

Toaster Sites
Baseball Toaster
Toaster.TV

Andrew Shimmin

2008 contest

Links

The stuff I keep track of

If the playoffs started today...

American League:

#1 Los Angeles (West) vs. #4 Boston (Wild Card)
#3 Chicago (Central) vs #2 Tampa Bay (East)

National League:

#2 Philadelphia (East) vs. #4 Milwaukee (Wild Card)
#1 Chicago (Central) vs. #3 Arizona (West)

2008 Conference Standings (8/6)

National League

Rank	Team	W	L	PCT	Division
1	Chicago Cubs	69	46	.6	C1
2	Philadelphia	62	51	.549	E1
3	Arizona	59	55	.518	W1
4	Milwaukee	64	51	.557	C2
5	St. Louis	64	52	.552	C3
6	Florida	60	54	.526	E2
7	New York Mets	59	54	.522	E3
8	Los Angeles Dodgers	56	57	.496	W2
9	Houston	54	59	.478	C4
10T	Pittsburgh	52	62	.456	C5
10T	Atlanta	52	62	.456	E4
12T	Colorado	52	63	.452	W3
12T	Cincinnati	52	63	.452	C6
14	San Francisco	48	65	.425	W4
15	San Diego	44	70	.386	W5
16	Washington	42	71	.372	E5

American League

Rank	Team	W	L	PCT	Division
1	Los Angeles Angels	71	43	.623	W1
2	Tampa Bay	68	45	.602	E1
3	Chicago White Sox	63	49	.563	C1
4	Boston	66	49	.574	E2
5	Minnesota	63	51	.553	C2
6	New York Yankees	62	52	.544	E3
7	Texas	60	55	.522	W2
8	Toronto	58	56	.509	E4
9	Detroit	55	58	.487	C3
10	Baltimore	54	59	.478	E5
11	Oakland	53	60	.469	W3
12	Kansas City	53	62	.461	C4
13	Cleveland	49	64	.434	C5
14	Seattle	44	70	.386	W4

Random Game Callbacks

Select a date:

So where is that book?

Personal favorites that I wrote

The last batter to reach on catcher's interference was ...

Lyle Overbay of Toronto by Gerald Laird of Texas on August 1, 2008

FAQs

At least I think they should be.

Cycle alerts

Yellow alert - Player needs triple for cycle
Orange alert - Player needs double for cycle
Red alert - Player need single for cycle

If a player needs a home run for the cycle, the level of the alert varies depending upon the determination of the Cycle Detection Warning System, which is headquartered in Thief River Falls, Minnesota.

Syndication

About the Toaster

Baseball Toaster runs on some experimental software called Fairpole. It's still under development.

For more information, please visit the Fairpole blog, or read the FAQ.

Just how do you get in to see the Red Sox at Fenway?

2006-03-26 10:36

by Bob Timmermann

Rob Bradford of the Eagle-Tribune of North Andover, Mass., seems to think that it's impossible to buy a ticket for a Red Sox game at Fenway Park.

The man's sign stood as a lone voice in the Yawkey Way wilderness.

"What am I supposed to do — I don't have a computer!"

===========================

"As demand grew, supply stayed the same and less and less people were able to get tickets," said Ron Bumgarner, Red Sox senior adviser to ticket operations. "What happened was that the scalpers started to gain an advantage because they knew how to hire 50 college kids to sleep outside for tickets. And when online sales started, the easy thing to do was also just open up the floodgates and let everyone get as many as they wanted. What would happen was that 10 percent of the people who wanted to get tickets would actually get them. The resellers would get as many as they possibly could and have 10 other people doing the same.

"So what we said was that we were going to set ticket limits. Ticket limits is the No. 1 thing that discourages scalping. It's a pain in the butt, and most people hate it. But if we allow one guy to get six games, that is two people who are getting zero games."

Of course, if you're reading this, you do have a computer. Maybe you can try to buy Red Sox tickets.

Advertisement

Comments

2006-03-26 10:56:33

1. King of the Hobos

It's near impossible to buy them on the computer either. I was prepared to buy some on the day they became available, using the computer, or the phone, whatever it took. I'm still without tickets, unless I want to buy some $20 seats for $400 a seat through Ebay

2006-03-26 11:08:26

2. Bob Timmermann

You can always deal with the friendly men who scalp tickets outside Fenway.

They are charming individuals.

2006-03-26 12:16:03

3. still bevens

You really have to leave it up to fate. You can login on their mlb.com site but it takes you to a virtual waiting room where the order is completely random. My Boston friend logged in in the early AM and was waiting all morning. I cast my lot around 1100 and ended up making it to the purchase site 2 1/2 hours later. Managed to get tickets in the very back of the outfield seats for an August game against Toronto for $16 each.

2006-03-26 13:07:51

4. DXMachina

I haven't had any luck getting Sox tickets, either. Apart from scalping, the only way I know of is to work for a company that has season seats, or to work for a company that the company with season seats wants to sell something to.

It's the main reason I haven't seen a game at Fenway since the day Princess Diana died.

2006-03-26 13:20:24

5. Bob Timmermann

There wasn't a cause and effect relationship between the death of Princess Diana and the availability of tickets was there?

2006-03-26 13:50:33

6. DXMachina

It's all part of the cover up. It's well known fact that Dan Duquette traded for Pedro Martinez at the request of some unknown person in the British government so as to distract the local media from the investigation.

2006-03-26 19:46:57

7. grandcosmo

As was alluded to in the article the big time ticket brokers are using hundreds of computers and have automated programs to help them get seats. Unless you have Hillary Clinton's commodities broker you cant make that kind of profit anywhere else.....$50 face value for $400-600 a ticket.....makes the investment worthwhile.

2006-03-27 23:29:04

8. coachjpark

I stood in line on gameday for about 4 hours and I managed to get standing-room only tickets for $20 in an August game vs. the White Sox on 8/12/06... that's about the best that you can do. I tried to sit in random unsat-in seats, but was kicked out about 5 times because no such seats exist.... it's PACKED!

Advertisement