MSM Monitor's MLB Game of the Week

Got two tickets; one for me and one for you, reader.

"Cubs beat Red Sox — on ticket prices" by Associated Press | April 9, 2010

NEW YORK — Overall, the average cost of a nonpremium ticket for a major league game is up 1.5 percent to $26.74, the Team Marketing Report said yesterday in its annual survey....

The NFL’s average last season was $74.99. In seasons still underway, the NBA is averaging $48.90, and the NHL $51.27....

I wouldn't pay that much for an NBA game when I can watch high-school kids play a better brand of basketball for $5.

And baseball is free.

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Want a souvenir?

All right, we made it into the park. Where are we sitting.

"Ex-Sox GM, mayor defend ’04 ticket deal; No link to license for park, lawyers say at ethics hearing" by Brian R. Ballou, Globe Staff | April 7, 2010

Former Red Sox general manager Dan Duquette was so touched by Pittsfield Mayor James Ruberto’s lifelong dream to take his father to a Sox World Series home game that he offered him two prime tickets to Game 2 in Fenway Park in 2004 — for face value.

That was the explanation attorneys for Ruberto and Duquette offered yesterday in a courtroom-style hearing by the State Ethics Commission on conflict of interest charges brought against the pair. At the time of the ticket sale, Duquette was negotiating with Ruberto and Pittsfield officials for a licensing agreement for his baseball club to play at the city’s Wahconah Park. The commission accused the two of violating a state law against public officials being offered or accepting a valuable gratuity in exchange for an official act....

Maybe we ought to get rid of professional sports.

Ruberto wrote Duquette a check for $380, or $190 per ticket, while resellers were getting $2,000 to $3,000 per ticket, a top executive from Ace Tickets, the ticket reselling company, testified yesterday.

WOW!!! They must be GOOD SEATS!

And I love how they call the SCALPERS a "reseller."

Oh, they are a STATE-APPROVED SCALPER -- as opposed to the guys you come across heading into the park.

At the time the Red Sox were completing a storied ending to an unbelievable season. In Game 2 of the Series against the St. Louis Cardinals, wounded ace Curt Schilling continued his dramatics by giving up only one run in six innings, and the team won 6-2. The Sox won the next two games in St. Louis for a four-game sweep and their first Series crown in 86 years....

Months after the exchange, the Berkshire Dukes, a summer league collegiate baseball team owned by Duquette, had a new home, thanks to a new licensing agreement with the city of Pittsfield to play at Wahconah Park, signed off by the mayor and other officials....

Sure smells like a quid pro quo, but it's BASEBALL TICKETS fer crying out loud! This is the corruption the state is investigating?

They CAN'T REALLY INVESTIGATE ANYTHING SUBSTANTIAL, can they?

The hearing, in Boston, is expected to continue today.

I either missed it or they didn't print it, because I never saw a follow-up (maybe it was in the sports I never open)....

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And did you know that Duquette is behind returning hardball to the Holy Land ?

No, I'm not making it up: Holy Land Hardball

Steal Palestinian land so you can play baseball on it?

And what about the wood used to make the bats?

Why does baseball hate the environment?

And right next door to Israel:

"Jordan’s Monster Deal this year? A very long shot" by Johnny Diaz, Globe Staff | April 1, 2010

“Jordan’s Furniture has always found ways to touch their customers with their corny, slap-dash humorous ads,’’ said Chris Cakebread, a Boston University advertising professor who noted that the new campaign is reminiscent of old-time minor league baseball promotions where fans won samples of products if the home team struck a homerun off a sign.

That's where we are sitting for the nonpremium $26.74 a piece, reader.

Other brands have tried similar approaches by having athletes score a hit off a sponsor’s sign. Last year, MasterCard Worldwide, in partnership with Major League Baseball, had a “Hit It Here’’ promotion at Busch Stadium in St. Louis to raise money for cancer awareness. In 2004, Taco Bell positioned a giant “Free Taco Here’’ bull’s eye sign during World Series games in St. Louis....

I don't know about you, but I'm getting down under the chair if the ball comes this way. Let those fools with the gloves try and catch it.

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Hey, somebody is a WINNER!

"Deal gives glimpse of Sox value; Times Co. made $9m profit by selling a sliver" by Beth Healy, Globe Staff | April 23, 2010

How much have the Red Sox gone up in value?

The New York Times Co. has sold only a tiny portion of its 18 percent stake, but the sales price was almost triple what the company paid for that slice eight years ago....

Related:

"NASCAR coverage was also expanded on the cable channel New England Sports Network, which is owned by New England Sports Ventures, the parent company of the Red Sox and Fenway Sports Group. The New York Times Co., which owns The Boston Globe, holds a 17 percent stake in New England Sports Ventures."

Also see: The Boston Globe's Crack of the Bat

Well, that explains all the self-serving, front-page coverage of sports.

Now about those global-warming protesters the paper is always promoting.

Never see 'em at the track or the ball park, ever notice that?

The Times Co. paid $75 million for a stake in the Sox in 2002, the year John Henry acquired the team. Two World Series titles later, it looks like the investment is working out well for everybody (this season’s early blunders notwithstanding).

Yeah, the only one not making out on investments is the American people for some reason.

The recent sale offers a rare public glimpse at the team’s potential total worth. The math, which is kept close to the vest by the owners at Fenway, works like this....

Price-gouging merchandise = Profit$

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So who won the game?