I WON TICKETS TO THE CUBS PLAYOFF GAME!!!

A local department store held a drawing as a lure to get buyers in the store. My wife went and filled out a ticket with my name. Last night at bowling, I was paged for a phone call. It was my wife. She excitedly told me that my name was pulled. And, I won 2 box seat tickets for tonight's game. I will be 17 rows from the field, right behind Home Plate. Look for me on TV.

The seats are worth $750 each, on StubHub. Not bad, Huh?

Well played, Dennis. Or should I say, well played to your wife!

Sell them and buy yourself a few bowling balls

Seriously though. If I had box tickets to one of the Sox games, no way I would sell them.

Dennis, NICE!! Enjoy the game, my friend. 750 bux, yowza :-D

Congrats Dennis,

But like WOW!! Someone actually pays $750 for seats like that! That's expensive, man!

Dennis,
Nice score on the Tickets. Jock you have no idea what cubs fans would pay for those tickets. Dennis make sure you take the L down there unless your going way early. Last time we went it took 2 hours just to drive down Addison.

Yeah, I probably will go early. Parking is about $25, beers $7.50, hotdog $4.50. I have a 40 mile 1-way drive.

These free tickets will still cost me $100.

Just checked StubHub. Tickets are now $850. Club box seats, 5 rows closer, are $2000.00.

In my case (Pirates), I would definitely sell. Then again, I'd probably only get $50 for the pair.

cg, considering the Pirates don't have another game, $50 a pair is a good price.

Nice Dennis!

Enjoy the game. There is nothing like playoff baseball in the crisp October night. Go Cubs..or White Sox..or both.

Well, since my Yankees are not in the playoffs for a change, good luck to you and the Cubs! Enjoy...I had the joy of attending game 3 of the 2001 ALCS at Yankee Stadium, and it's something I'll never forget!

In the 2005 playoff, I got to see game 2 of the ALDS when Tony Graffanino (ex-White Sox player) botched a ground ball then Tadahito Iguchi hit a home run in the next at bat. The HR landed about 15 feet from where I was sitting. Being at that game was absolutely awesome. My best friend was at the game in the ALCS when AJ stole first off of Josh Paul (another ex-White Sox player). That is just what we need, to go against former teammates. Let's just hope that the Sox go against Chad Bradford in this series. He broke in with the Sox in 1998.

Congrats! I love baseball, but I would totally sell those tickets if it were me.

Nothing like watching the game at home with $1500+ dollars in your pocket.

But then, this is the cubs, so this may be a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Dennis,
Hope you had some fun last night but after seeing the game on TV I would of sold those suckers and went bowling.
Just kidding- was it cold out there or what?

Hind sight is 20-20.

Should have noticed a dilemma when the normal $25 parking lot was now $50. And, there was an entirely different crowd at the game. Instead of the Cub t-shirt, and cap crowd. People were wearing business suits. Guess they came right from work. And, instead of the wives with sweatshirts, they were manicured and had their hair done.

The normal Cub fans were replaced with Corporates who could afford the higher prices of seats. This wasn't the same type of Cubs crowd. Even in the skyboxes, where the lowlies usually get a Company perk to attend a game, now the Bigwigs were at the game, and they just don't cheer. And, they drank from Glass, not the traditional plastic cups.

Concessions held the same prices for food and beverages, but souvenirs were easily double in price.

Bottom line, had a great time, up to the 5th inning.

Cost assessment:
$50 Parking
$3.50 12 oz bag of peanuts
$3.50 4 oz of [censored-HS] Jacks (Had to get both because, as my son points out, that's what the song says to eat, "Buy me some peanuts and [censored-HS] jacks")
$14 4 beers at $3.50
$7 2 Cokes
$10 Program
$35 Memento t-shirt
$25 Dinner on the way home at 9:30

2 1/2 hour ride to the game, only 1 1/2 hour coming home.
105 miles round trip @ my SUV mileage is about $28 and 2 tolls.

Glad the tickets were FREE.

Got some photos, will post them later.

Under $200 for a playoff game at Wrigley Field. To me, that isn't bad.

You have to be a REAL fan to pay all that out (especially when the tickets aren't free!).

I'm probably sounding like the original scrouge here but, come on, $50 for the parking? Now there is one good reason to use (if you can) public transport (bus, tramways, trains etc.).

I hope that (at least) you enjoyed your night out, Dennis!

Well Dennis, save for the loss, I hope you had a little fun...

Jock. They actually blocked all traffic on the major streets for a mile radius around the Park, last night. No traffic was allowed in or out of the immediate area. I don't know what the difference was between last night's 42000 people and the 42000 people from last week, except that the game time was during Rush Hour in Chicago.

All I could think of as I left the Stadium was the line of people waiting for public transportation to arrive. I walked past a line waiting for the Addison bus that was easily 5000 people long. And, at 60 people per busload, they had a long wait.

The problem around Wrigley is that there isn't a nomral parking area like at most stadiums. Comisky has a bunch of nice sized lots. The best for parking has to be Dodger stadium. The road leading up to the stadium was built just for the stadium so they did it like you would to get into an amusement park. The one issue there is that there is only 1 way out.

When I go to games at Comisky, I drive there first thing in the morning. There is a lot that they open for daily commuters who are going to the game. I park right off of the expressway in the bus parking lot. Walk the block to get on the CTA and take that to work. After work, I take the CTA back to the park and go to the game. At the end of the game, I am on the expressway within 3 minutes of getting to my car.

Dennis:

The city is trying to prevent issues when people are leaving the stadium. All they are going to do is cause more issues. Just like them banning alcohol sales in the bars around Wrigley Field from the 7th-9th inning. 1 of 2 things is going to happen. People will just buy a bunch of beer so they have enough for those innings. Or, they will drink water, sober up, and be ready for even more alcohol when they are able to buy again. Either way, problems.

I was just kidding about not going. I would of went also if I had gotten them as well. As for Parks Comisky is great for Tailgating as well as Brewer Stadium but the drive from the northern suburbs to Comisky is Hell. The drive to Milwaukee is 1 million times better thats for sure.
Wrigley is like trying to have 15 lanes of traffic squeeze into 2 lanes. Its not going to happen. I also figured the crowd would change and be all the bigwigs and families that can shell out all that money. It's a shame. I can't wait to see what happens when the White Soxs come home to play. I wonder if they will do that Black out thing again. That was impressive.
Now back to Bowling.

Have you bowled again since you found out it was a reverse block?

http://i37.tinypic.com/2z9metg.jpg
Police blocked traffic
http://i36.tinypic.com/8xv9rt.jpg
Bronze Statue of Ernie Banks, HOF, and Cub Great
http://i38.tinypic.com/2dvsvn6.jpg
http://i34.tinypic.com/35a3zb9.jpg
This is the Street, not the sidewalk
http://i36.tinypic.com/ng25uh.jpg
View from our seats
Notice the roof top stands across the street
http://i36.tinypic.com/e9hxqc.jpg
View from $200 seats
http://i35.tinypic.com/k0stb7.jpg

Hope these took OK.

Not a bad view.

One of these days, I will make it out to Chicago and go to Wrigley Field. It's at the top of my list of ballparks to see....I hope it never sees the same fate as Yankee Stadium

I agree that it is better if possible to take public transportation. The parking and traffic when headed to Yankee Stadium is atrocious. It got worse when they started building the new one. I went to 4 games at Yankee Stadium this year, and took the train to all of them. Much less of a hassle than sitting in traffic for 2 hours, when it should only be a 20 minute drive.

I also paid my last respects to Shea this year, and went out there for a game. In contrast to Yankee Stadium, there is a ton of parking surrounding Shea, even with their new stadium being built. The only problem is, some of the lots are so far away, you actually need a shuttle bus to get to your car after the game. A few years ago I went with some friends, and it took us almost an hour and a half just to get to the car, not including the drive. I will never drive out there again.