World Baseball Classic…and Baseball Cards?

There’s no fantasy baseball content within this post, which is unfortunate. However, there is a whole hoot of a lot of regular baseball content.

A few weeks ago, I went down to the Rogers Centre (Skydome) to grab WBC tickets. The rather large lady working the counter informed me that the tickets were only available through MLB at this point, and I should check back later if I wanted to buy them at the Box Office rather than paying the stupid surcharge.

I started writing an overly long diatribe about Anti-Trust, but it was stupid. To summarize, it’s really fucking idiotic that they force you to order on-line and pay their 20% charge if you want good seats.

I was stubborn and refused to pay the ridiculous fee, so I got stuck with crappy seats.

Seats also tend to be more expensive when you’re buying for two. I did however ask whether you’d be able to sneak in down to the first level to watch batting practice like you can during the season. I was assured you could, and I’m almost certain that they lied to me. I’m assuming that the Dome, which has already sold 40,000 tickets for the first USA vs. CANADA, will be absolutely nuts during BP — I’m curious as to whether or not it’ll trump the frenzy of a Yankees or Red Sox game.

I’m pretty excited to bring my new camera to the game and curse my brains out at the terrible lighting in the Dome. I’m sure I’ll take plenty of awful photos with an awful white balance.

In Game 1 of the WBC in Toronto, Canada and the US face off. The best outfield level tickets were in row 19! So, I made a wager that’s bound to backfire.

I assumed Canada would beat Italy, and I bought tickets to game 5 and 6. If Canada loses to Italy, I’m royally screwed.

My assumptions were as follows:

Canada loses to the USA. Venezuela beats Italy. The US and Venezuela face off, and it doesn’t matter who loses. Canada faces Italy and wins. This means that Game 5 would be the winner of the Canada / Italy game versus the loser of the USA / Venezuela game.

So, I assumed it’s Canada vs. Venezuela. Then I bought tickets to Game 6 which should be Canada (or Venezuela) vs. the USA. If Venezuela beats the USA, then I’ll get to see Canada vs. USA in game five, and the winner of that game vs. Venezuela in game 6.

Of course, if Italy beats Canada I’ll get to watch Italy take on Venezuela — and I’ll kill myself.

I’m not sure which side of the fence I fall on with regards to purchasing tickets in a NO-ALCOHOL section. I’m somewhat curious as to whether or not the folks at the Rogers Center will raise the prices of booze. Could 14oz of liquid gold set you back 10 DOLLARS instead of 9 DOLLARS? We shall see.

More Baseball! Cards!

On the walk back from the Sky-Dome, I stopped at “Legends of the Game” which is a nifty little card-shop alongside a Tim Horton’s. I’ve been there a few times, and the guys always seem nice — nicer than the prices, at least. It’s a bit pricey, with a pack of Topps ‘09 running almost 4 bucks and the Upper Deck pack of 20 coming close to 8 bucks, OUCH!

Needless to say, I did something I haven’t done in 15 Years: I bought a retail pack of baseball cards. I bought one pack of Topps, and one of Upper Deck. Nothing fancy, no Spectrum or Chrome — Just plain old base set, series 1.

The upper deck look like nicer cards, I think. I’m really not sure which cards I enjoy more. The Upper Deck cards are a bit flashier, but the Topps cards are a bit more “baseball-card-ish”. They just look like a solid baseball card. Either way, I’m glad that Topps removed their stupid assed printed black signatures.

In my first pack of Upper Deck, I got an autograph. I sat around earlier watching people do “box-breaks” on youtube, and it’s ridiculous.

They just fly through 15 packs looking for hits. Someone pulled a Brady Quinn autograph jersey card, and an Adrian Peterson Autograph Jersey card in the same box. They blew there load, I guess I would too.

I’m sure they popped up on ebay pretty quick-fast. I think they go for well over a couple hundred bucks each.

Either way, I’m pretty high on David Murphy and his fantasy value this year so I was pretty pleased when I pulled an autograph. Apparently they’re only 6 or 7 bucks on ebay, but I’m still excited.

In the Topps, I got a Turkey Red Cole Hamels card which was very lack-luster. Those cards should have been a lot nicer — alas, they weren’t. I was thinking of buying a back of Upper Deck Spectrum at some point, but I’m not a fan of celebrity-rock-band autographs.

If there’s any recommendations for packs under 10 bucks, I’ll probably go and buy one at some point next week. I definitely prefer sharp looking cards over the possibility of crazy-awesome inserts.