“Baseball Capitalism Alive and Well at AT&T Park!”

“Courtesy of Money Ball”

Last week I was perusing the San Francisco Giants website looking for tickets.  I  settled on two $46 tickets in the Premium Lower Box section, went through the hoops and hit the button only to find that the $46 tickets were now miraculously $150!   Here’s the Disclaimer that was shown on the page:

“Market pricing applies to all tickets. 
Rates can fluctuate based on factors affecting supply and demand.  Lock in your price and location today!”

What the heck is that all about?  I mean if you list something for a certain price shouldn’t that be the price you pay for it?   I’m just as much in favor of capitalism as the next guy, probably more so, and I’m not an attorney,  but shouldn’t this be considered false advertising?

I understand having different prices for different games.  For example,  a June 4th game between the Giants and the Dodgers is priced at $56 for a lower box seat but a game on August 3 between the Giants and the Padres is only $32 for the same seat.   I get it.  Nothing wrong with that.  But to buy a ticket advertised at a specific price and then find out “at checkout” that it’s three times the price you agreed to pay for it 10 seconds ago?  I don’t think so.  I wonder if other teams are doing this.  Ticket prices  should be published at the beginning of the season and remain the same throughout that season, or at least until you get a chance to click the purchase button.

“AT&T Park not the only game in town” Photo Courtesy of Gerald Carpenter

Needless to say, I cancelled the order I was working on and instead I’m flying down to San Diego in June to watch the Padres and Rangers at a price we agreed upon.  Okay, I realize with the air fare, hotel, meals, etc.,  it’s going to cost me a fortune.  But this is a protest purchase you know?  And it’s the principal of the thing.  I mean how many times do I have to keep paying for Zito’s salary?  Enough already.

One bright spot in the week.  We received an email from the Oakland A’s a few weeks ago offering $12 Field Level tickets on Mother’s Day.  And that’s exactly what they cost.  These were great front row seats, beautiful weather, friendly fans, and extremely friendly vendors and staff, and a beautiful pink rose to boot!  Needless to say, we’ll be back.

And we’re flying to Seattle and attending a Mariners game week after next.   If this is perceived as being disloyal, so be it.  I love my San Francisco Giants but I love baseball even more and I’m going to the games one way or another.

Like I said, it’s the principle of the thing.

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Porking out at the Ballpark on Mother’s Day!

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 Some of the above pictures courtesy of  Fox Sports MLB’s Best Food List.

I just found out I’m going to the Oakland A’s – Detroit Tigers game on Mother’s Day so I went online to find out what’s for dinner!  My search found this great website  with such tantalizing food pictures I think I’ll conjure up some ballpark food for dinner tonight!

One of my favorite ballpark foods is the Primanti Brothers Sandwich at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.  When I was there the fans were lined up around the block for this one.  The special sandwich (pictured above) includes not only the roast beef, but also the salad and french fries  stacked high and part of the sandwich.

And someday I’m going to try those Rocky Mountain Oysters at Coors Stadium.  Or maybe I’ll watch someone else try them but it’ll still be an experience.

And for dessert it’s a toss-up between those yummy looking cupcakes at Safeco Field in Seattle and the  funnel cakes at AT&T Park in San Francisco.

If you don’t have plans for your mom, your kid’s mom or someone else that’s really special on Mother’s Day why not consider taking her to dinner at the Ballpark!  You’ll get to enjoy the camaraderie of some the greatest fans in all of sports, hopefully a great game and some really terrific food.

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Ichiro At the Bat in Tokyo!

Ichiro at the Bat in Tokyo, March, 2012. Courtesy this morning of Drew Silva, NBC Hardball.

“From Jeff Baker of the Seattle Times comes this shot of Mariners outfielder and native of Japan Ichiro Suzuki getting ready to bat in Saturday’s exhibition game against the Hanshin Tigers. The Mariners lost the game 5-0 in front of a raucous sold out crowd of 55,000 at the Tokyo Dome.”   Drew Silva, NBC Hardball. 

I love this picture, probably because it’s rumored and most likely true that 2012 will probably be Ichiro Suzuki’s last year not only as a Seattle Mariner, but also in Major League Baseball.   I hear he’ll probably be returning to baseball in Japan and who could blame him?  Evidently you can mail a letter to Ichiro in Japan, addressed only to “Ichiro” and he’ll get it.  That’s how popular he is in Japan and he may be just as popular here,  especially in the Seattle area.

The Seattle Mariners are in Japan for a two-day stand to open the 2012 regular season against the Oakland Athletics on Wednesday and Thursday of this week.  Wouldn’t you just love to be there?   But hang tough. We’re almost there – to opening day I mean!

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“TOP BASEBALL PLAYERS OF PAST 60 YEARS!” A Mathematical Study.

This is the third year we’ve published this study by Dr. Don Davis.  It’s one of our most popular blogs and we’re happy to be able to share it again with you.  Be sure to link to his website  for additional information, changes and criteria he used in compiling his study.

“2011 Baseball Players Mathematical Study, written by Don Davis, Department of Mathematics, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA., and printed here with his permission.”

Pos’n	First team	Second team	Third team	Fourth team	Fifth team
P,1	Roger Clemens, 266.0	Tom Seaver, 181.1	Bob Gibson, 140.4	Juan Marichal, 107.9	Curt Schilling, 85.1
P,2	Randy Johnson, 202.1	Warren Spahn, 167.5	Sandy Koufax, 137.8	Gaylord Perry, 102.8	Phil Niekro, 84.9
P,3	Greg Maddux, 197.5	Bob Feller, 157.6	Robin Roberts, 136.5	Roy Halladay, 102.1	Johan Santana, 84.6
P,4	Pedro Martinez, 187.5	Steve Carlton, 143.5	Jim Palmer, 133.2	Fergie Jenkins, 87.2	Nolan Ryan, 83.7
C	Johnny Bench, 111.2	Yogi Berra, 92.9	Gary Carter, 75.6	Mike Piazza, 74.8	Ivan Rodriguez, 71.0

Veterans Day and Every Day ….. Thank You!

Arlington National Cemetery

“But the mainstay of the big leagues was the reservoir of 4-Fs – males of draft age who had been rejected on physical grounds by the Armed Forces. Not since harem attendants had gone out of style were men’s physical deficiencies so highly prized. Ulcers, hearing defects, and torn cartilages were coveted by team owners.” – Frank Graham, Jr. in Farewell to Heroes (1981)

This and the following list of Hall of Fame Members Courtesy of  Baseball Almanac.

Baseball Hall of Fame Members  who Served in the Armed Forces.

The Civil War
Morgan Bulkeley	United States Army
World War I
Grover Alexander	United States Army
Happy Chandler	United States Army

Randy Johnson Rookie Card for Sale! ** S O L D **

Randy Johnson 1989 Topps Traded #57T, Beckett Graded 10

Something new for my readers!  I’m offering, during the holidays, an occasional pristine card from my personal  collection of over 100,000 cards!  The card I’m promoting this week is a Beckett Graded No. 10, 1989 Topps #57T Randy Johnson Rookie Card in plastic case and in mint condition.   Sales price is $75 which includes domestic shipping.  This single card is available only through this website. Visa, MasterCard or PayPal.

Contact:  Garlicfriesandbaseball@gmail.com

1969 Seattle Pilots ~ Remember When?

I love this stuff.  What a fun way to reminisce about  baseball.  I’d almost forgotten about the Pilots since in my mind I considered them more of a minor league team than the majors.   I can’t help but wonder what the Seattle old-timers feel about Bud Selig and the Milwaukee Brewers now.  I mean do you think they’re cheering for the Brewers this postseason?  It’d be interesting to talk today with the man on the street in downtown Seattle about the subject.

I found these two great back-to-back You Tube videos  from a fellow blogger at the “Pasttime Post“.   So Seattle Mariner fans and anyone else from the Pacific Northwest who remembers ….. get yourself a beer, pop, whatever, and grab some garlic fries. This one’s for you!  (Note: Contains “colorful language”!)

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Update: 2011 MLB Payrolls & Individual Salaries.

Courtesy TTF Baseball

Here’s the 2011 update to our 2010 Major League Baseball listing published November 22, 2010.  This comes to us compliments of USA Today.  If you’ll click the individual teams, you can access the individual players salaries.  It will be interesting to note the annual salaries of the teams that make the playoffs;  in other words, did they get what they paid for?

 TEAM                          TOTAL P/R             AVG SALARY       MEDIAN

New York Yankees	$ 202,689,028	$ 6,756,300	$ 2,100,000
Philadelphia Phillies	$ 172,976,379	$ 5,765,879	$ 2,625,000
Boston Red Sox	$ 161,762,475	$ 5,991,202	$ 5,500,000
Los Angeles Angels	$ 138,543,166	$ 4,469,134	$ 2,000,000
Chicago White Sox	$ 127,789,000	$ 4,732,925	$ 2,750,000
Chicago Cubs	$ 125,047,329	$ 5,001,893	$ 1,600,000
New York Mets	$ 118,847,309	$ 4,401,752	$ 900,000
San Francisco Giants	$ 118,198,333	$ 4,377,716	$ 2,200,000
Minnesota Twins	$ 112,737,000	$ 4,509,480	$ 3,000,000
Detroit Tigers	$ 105,700,231	$ 3,914,823	$ 1,300,000
St. Louis Cardinals	$ 105,433,572	$ 3,904,947	$ 1,000,000
Los Angeles Dodgers	$ 104,188,999	$ 3,472,966	$ 2,142,838
Texas Rangers	$ 92,299,264	$ 3,182,733	$ 1,251,000
Colorado Rockies	$ 88,148,071	$ 3,390,310	$ 2,318,750
Atlanta Braves	$ 87,002,692	$ 3,346,257	$ 1,275,000
Seattle Mariners	$ 86,524,600	$ 2,884,153	$ 825,000
Milwaukee Brewers	$ 85,497,333	$ 2,849,911	$ 1,050,000
Baltimore Orioles	$ 85,304,038	$ 3,280,924	$ 1,425,000
Cincinnati Reds	$ 75,947,134	$ 2,531,571	$ 825,000
Houston Astros	$ 70,694,000	$ 2,437,724	$ 467,000
Oakland Athletics	$ 66,536,500	$ 2,376,303	$ 1,400,000
Washington Nationals	$ 63,856,928	$ 2,201,963	$ 1,050,000
Toronto Blue Jays	$ 62,567,800	$ 2,018,316	$ 1,200,000
Florida Marlins	$ 56,944,000	$ 2,190,153	$ 545,000
Arizona Diamondbacks	$ 53,639,833	$ 1,986,660	$ 1,000,000
Cleveland Indians	$ 49,190,566	$ 1,639,685	$ 484,200
San Diego Padres	$ 45,869,140	$ 1,479,649	$ 468,800
Pittsburgh Pirates	$ 45,047,000	$ 1,553,344	$ 450,000
Tampa Bay Rays	$ 41,053,571	$ 1,578,983	$ 907,750
Kansas City Royals	$ 36,126,000	$ 1,338,000	$ 850,000

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Garlic Fries and Baseball: The Book

Update:  Now available at Amazon as Book and Kindle.

Finally it’s here!  My book’s been in the works since February and  it’s being published today.  It’s available for sale here first, and will be available on Amazon.com early next week and in Kindle form  soon thereafter.

The book’s a compilation of some of my favorite blogs, some in expanded form, with a few little ditties added in and formatted in such a way you’ll hardly recognize it!  I have to admit ~ writing a book is a great experience, but it’s much easier writing a blog!

Let me know what you think but please be kind.   This is my debut you know ♥   Ronni

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MLB Standings vs MLB Payrolls …. How do they measure?

Okay, so we’re maybe 25% through the 2011 Major League Baseball Season.  How is your team doing?  How is your team doing in relation to their total payroll?  In other words, are they getting what they paid for?

Here’s an interesting article published by Hayes & Taylor recently.  I’m always amazed at the amount of work some of these guys put into their daily blogs;  I mean who has time for this stuff?   In any event, this is a great chart and one of the better blogs and I wanted to share it with you.

“The Cleveland Indians are in first place in the AL Central. They have the fifth lowest payroll in all of baseball. Which got me thinking, how do the other teams in the MLB rank in the standings relative to their payroll. It turns out that the Indians aren’t even the best example right now.

The Tampa Bay Rays have the second lowest payroll in the majors. The are currently in first place in the power packed AL East. Ahead of the number one payroll in baseball the Yankees, the number three payroll in Boston and numbers 19 and 24 in Baltimore and Toronto. The Royals, Marlins and A’s are all over .500, and are all in the bottom ten payrolls in the league. Not to mention all are very alive in the playoff races.

If the season ended today, four of the eight playoff teams would come from the bottom eleven in payroll (Rays, Indians, Marlins, Reds). On the other side, only three would be coming from the top eight in payroll (Angels, Phillies and Giants).

What does this all mean? Talent wins in baseball and not always how much you pay for that talent. If money was how you win, the Yankees would win every year, but they don’t. That makes me very happy. I love to see underdogs win. I love the fact that some of the lower payroll teams won’t be trading away all of their talent this season to teams who will pay whatever it takes. Baseball is stronger than ever right now.

Click here to link to a chart that shows  where all 30 teams in major league baseball rank in payroll and where they are currently in the standings. Is your team over or under achieving?”

Seattle Mariner Fans ….. This One’s for You!

In Memory of  Dave Niehaus 

 Everytime I hear Dave’s voice I tear up. I get chills until no end. Not so much because I miss Dave the person, but Dave the spirit. I grew up watching baseball, knowing every night when I turned on the television I could hear Dave. I knew that when no one was positive about the Mariner’s chances, Dave would always have a hopeful attitude. I am going to miss the “My Oh My‘s” and the “Grand Salami‘s”. Even the simple hello, welcome to beautiful Safeco Field, with his signature grin. FLY FLY AWAY! ”   Taken from Comments on YouTube

Dave Niehaus, Throwing out the First Pitch

To be honest, I didn’t know much about Dave Niehaus except that he was a former announcer for the Mariners.  When I was researching about who he was

Top Baseball Players of Past 59 Years!

“2010 Baseball Players Mathematical Study, written by Don Davis, Department of Mathematics, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA., and printed here with his permission.”

(GFBB Note:  I found this  information fascinating and posted the 2009 study last August.  This is the 2010 updated version with a few variations.  You can view the entire study here:  http://www.lehigh.edu/~dmd1/baseball.html    It explains the  criteria used and the history behind the study as well as a wealth of other information related to it.  You can contact Dr. Davis directly for more information regarding the list@ dmd1@lehigh.edu )

Pos’n	First team	Second team	Third team	Fourth team	Fifth team
P,1	Roger Clemens, 266.0	Tom Seaver, 181.1	Bob Gibson, 140.4	Juan Marichal, 107.9	Phil Niekro, 84.9
P,2	Randy Johnson, 202.1	Warren Spahn, 167.5	Sandy Koufax, 137.8	Gaylord Perry, 102.8	Johan Santana, 84.6
P,3	Greg Maddux, 197.5	Bob Feller, 157.6	Robin Roberts, 136.5	Fergie Jenkins, 87.2	Roy Halladay, 84.1
P,4	Pedro Martinez, 187.5	Steve Carlton, 143.5	Jim Palmer, 133.2	Curt Schilling, 85.1	Nolan Ryan, 83.7
C	Johnny Bench, 112.9	Yogi Berra, 94.9	Gary Carter, 77.3	Mike Piazza, 76.6	Ivan Rodriguez, 72.7
1B	Albert Pujols, 158.9	Jeff Bagwell, 99.9	Eddie Murray, 91.6	Willie McCovey, 88.4	Harmon Killebrew, 80.8
2B	Joe Morgan, 140.6	Rod Carew, 100.5	Ryne Sandberg, 94.8	Jackie Robinson, 93.8	Roberto Alomar, 81.1
3B	Mike Schmidt, 184.1	George Brett, 120.9	Eddie Mathews, 112.2	Wade Boggs, 110.5	Brooks Robinson, 105.1
SS	Alex Rodriguez, 151.9	Cal Ripken, 121.6	Ernie Banks, 97.6	Robin Yount, 88.2	Derek Jeter, 83.4
OF,1	Barry Bonds, 270.7	Stan Musial, 208.6	Frank Robinson, 141.2	Al Kaline, 119.2	Reggie Jackson, 111.5
OF,2	Willie Mays, 243.2	Mickey Mantle, 208.3	Rickey Henderson, 138.4	Ken Griffey, 117.1	Pete Rose, 99.4
OF,3	Ted Williams, 219.8	Hank Aaron, 201.3	Carl Yazstremski, 131.8	Roberto Clemente, 112.1	Tony Gwynn, 97.1
DH	Frank Thomas, 101.0	Paul Molitor, 58.8	Edgar Martinez, 53.4

 

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