Virtual Waiting Hell: Now With Improved Hell-Bagels

Part of the fun of being a Sox fan is to disprove the theory that it's impossible to get tickets. It's not impossible. Not at all! But it is hard.

I will not go to scalper sites. Can't afford to do that. I won't buy from scalpers at all, actually. Not even the dirty ones at Kenmore Square asking everyone if they're buying or selling tickets. I get all of my yearly tickets through the virtual waiting hell. That's why it's hard. No, waiting around on the internet isn't hard. It's not any harder than what I do during the week. The hard part is strategizing. The average fan isn't thinking about baseball in December or January. They don't sign up for the mailing lists. They don't know when tickets go on sale. You know who knows when tickets go on sale? Diehards and scalpers. I fall into one of those categories, I guess.

I know. For some people, trying to figure out when you can go to a game is hard. You don't know what you'll be doing in June, or even September. How can you buy tickets now and expect to be free? Especially for parents, I hear this is hard to do. People get sick. Things come up. So picking games in January? Ridiculous. That's where I have an advantage. I don't care if I'm sick. I'll go to the game anyway. If something comes up, I put off taking care of it until after the the teams walk off the for the night. If I can't do that, well, guess what? I know plenty of casual fans who are usually willing to buy the tickets off of me for face value... and plenty of people that I don't mind just giving tickets to. Hey, I try to spread the love of baseball.

So anyway, I've had to cut my ticket fund a little this year due to some upcoming expenses that I'm looking forward to, but I still managed to secure tickets for seven games in Boston and one game in Baltimore. Granted, I didn't get the exact dates that I wanted, but I won't complain. I get to be at Fenway.

But, I will complain about the process. I HATE the virtual waiting room more than I've ever hated any virtual thing ever. There have been years where I've waited in that thing all day and never got through. Usually in those situations, I get through on the phone, but I hate calling in because the busy signal frays my nerves. Don't know why.... it's just one of those sounds that I despise. Why does that shit have to be random? I click in at ten AM. How come, theoretically, someone who comes into the VWH at 2 PM has an equal chance to be the next person chosen by the ticket Gods? Logically, I know the answer. They do it to prevent the scalpers (one of the groups of people who are aware of ticket sale dates) from getting all the tickets before the average person can. Still don't like it.

My second item to whine about is obstructed view seats. I know, I know. My complaints are neither interesting nor original. I bitch about the same thing other people bitch about. I just don't get how they can justify charging the same price for a seat where you can see everything as they do for a seat where you are literally right behind a pole. I got obstructed view once. It, for a lack of a better description, sucked. Flat out sucked. I had absolutely no view of the catcher, the pitcher, the second baseman, and the occassional outfielder. If I can't see half of the team, the half that is actually in motion the most frequently, why am I paying full price? Not this year, though. It wasn't worth it. And considering that I didn't actually see a single game sell out this year (granted, I may have just missed seeing it. Perhaps there were sell outs), I think more and more people are starting to realize that they actually want to see what is going on in the game.

Well, either way, I am out of virtual waiting hell for at least another year. Another successful trip to the underworld, if I do say so myself.