Hold onto Your Wallets

 I liked sports more when they were professional but not yet bigtime.  On the wall in front of me is a “phantom” ticket for the 1964 World Series.  If the White Sox had beaten the Yankees two more times that year (to go 8-10 rather than 6-12), they would’ve been the AL representative against the Cardinals.  The ticket for an upper deck box at Comiskey Park was was priced at $12, or just under $93 today.  Reports have World Series tickets at Wrigley Field going for as much as $10,000.  And here I thought “Hamilton” cost a lot.

At some point before Thanksgiving, a report will come out adding up all the economic activity the Series generated.  People will make money, I have no doubt.  I only wish it were the right ones.  Clevelanders and celebrities will pay what the market will bear, both for tickets and a hotel room.  How much will go to vendors or the maids and janitors?  Celebrity fans will make sure to be seen eating at the hot/hip restaurants.  How much extra will the wait staff take home this week?  T-shirts and memorabilia are flying off the shelves, a very good thing for the Cubs, the Indians and MLB; it’s always good to own a copyright.  But I wonder.  How much overtime does the extra silk-screening generate?  The Cubs’ t-shirts I saw at the grocery today were from Honduras, so I doubt anyone down there is making extra cash, except for the mill owners.

My Auntie Lou reserved World Series tickets for the two of us in 1967, but the miracle that year happened in Boston, not on the South Side.  The Trib says there are some tickets for Game 3 on Stub Hub in the $3,000 range.  I don’t know if my aunt would think I was worth that kind of money.