Your top investigative story of the day -- above-the-fold.
"Red Sox sellout streak a real numbers game" May 04, 2012|Bob Hohler and Seth Lakso, Globe Staff | Globe Correspondent
At
9:35 p.m. Wednesday, in the seventh inning of a game against the
Oakland A’s, the Red Sox cut off ticket sales at Fenway Park with an
estimated 300 seats unsold, according to a Globe gate-by-gate review and
interviews with team executives.
I'm wondering when they are going to start poring over the fraudulent foreclosures.
At 10:19 p.m., the Sox announced
the game was sold out. Seconds later, they said they had extended their
sellout streak to 723 games, the longest in the history of Major League
Baseball.
But had Fenway Park really sold out all 37,495 seats?
The answer, it seems, depends on how you define “sellout.’’
In
a sequence of events that raised questions about the authenticity of
the prized streak, the Sox stopped selling tickets for the game first at
the ticket office on Yawkey Way when the game began, then at Gate E an
hour later, and finally at Gate A deep into the game, with a sales clerk
telling a Globe correspondent at each closing that tickets remained
available.
I stand corrected. This is a compelling piece of journalism. It's just the kind of hard-hitting and inspiring piece of incisive investigative reporting for which I've been waiting.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a sellout as “something for which all tickets are sold.’’
The
Sox embrace an alternate definition that permits them to declare a game
sold out even if hundreds of tickets go unsold but others are
distributed for free.
“I can understand the confusion,’’ said Sam
Kennedy, the team’s executive vice president. “But we operate by a
definition that is commonly practiced throughout Major League Baseball
and professional sports.’’
We live in a land of lies -- even at the ba$eball park.
************************************
Using
their own definition of a sellout, the Sox are closing in on the
longest sellout streak in the history of US major league sports - 814 by
the NBA’s Portland Trailblazers from 1977 to 1995. The Red Sox are on
track to break Portland’s record early next season, despite nights like
Wednesday when the temperature was 47 degrees, the climate clammy, and
the opposition the weak-hitting A’s.
I guess this really is an important story that should be investigated -- for history's sake.
Ron Bumgarner, senior vice
president of ticketing for the Sox, said it is only nights like those in
April and May when “my ulcers flare up’’ over the possibility of the
streak ending. He defended the team’s definition of a sellout, saying
the Sox need to hold back complimentary seats to accommodate families of
teams, players, and umpires, among others.
“No team can ever sell every single seat to every game,’’ Bumgarner said.
??????
Demand
for tickets to Wednesday’s game was so weak that good seats were easy
to purchase on the team’s official online sales site, www.redsox.com.
Various blocks of 10 adjoining seats - the most a customer can purchase
in a single transaction - were available on the site until the Sox ended
online sales 2 ½ hours before the game.
At Fenway, a Globe
correspondent was assigned to buy the last tickets sold for the game and
determine whether additional tickets remained available. He began at
the general ticket office on Yawkey Way as the game started at 7:10 p.m.
There, he was directed to Gate E on Lansdowne Street, where the Sox
make several hundred tickets available on the day of each game.
The
correspondent said he wanted to buy as many as six tickets but needed
to wait until the last minute to see how many of his friends would
arrive. He was the last person to consult the clerk at Gate E before it
closed and was told there would still be tickets available at Gate A,
which would remain open until the seventh or eighth inning.
At
Gate A, he was told sales would end at 9 p.m. At that time, he asked for
a pair of tickets and was given adjacent seats in the infield
grandstand section 15, row 13. He tried repeatedly to pay, but was told
to take the tickets for free.
“We try to take care of our loyal customers,’’ Bumgarner said.
The
correspondent saw the window clerk give away four more tickets moments
after he received his. He then checked with the clerk just before the
booth closed at 9:35 p.m. and was told that tickets remained unsold.
Overall,
Sox tickets remain among the hottest in baseball....
Not for long judging by the pos team being promoted in one of the country's best sports sections.
--more--"
Yeah, that's called "investigative" reporting in AmeriKa's journalism circles these days. That and going to a mall or two, or standing out on a street corner and watching traffic.
