Guess What I Spent Five Fifty On

It set me back five fifty but it was worth it. In fact it was a real bargain!

If you've been following me for a while, you might have figured out that I'm an economy collector. I don't like to spend big bucks. OK, I'm cheap! But I was thrilled to get this deal for only five fifty.

Not five hundred fifty dollars; five dollars and fifty cents. So what was the bargain?


Three tickets to yesterday's Cubs game! That was $5.50 for all three, not per ticket. In some ways I'm thrilled to get such a bargain. On the other hand, only sucky teams have tickets available at that price.

The seats were in the upper deck on the third base side, even with the bag. The upper deck is divided into two main sections with the aisle dividing them. My tickets were in the third row above the aisle. The were really nice seats for the upper deck. Only a small corner of the left field line was out of view. Otherwise, we could see everything.

The face value of the tickets was $15.68 each. I picked them up on ebay last Sunday for $5.50, meaning the seller lost $41.54. The tickets came on Thursday and the seller even included a nice writeup about the seat location, where the bathrooms were, and tips on concessions. I thought that was a nice touch from someone who was taking a beating in the wallet.

With tickets in my pocket, at 9:30 a.m. yesterday morning, me, WW Jr., and a friend of his hit the road. Our theme for the day was, "That cost more than the tickets." Our first chance was with the tolls on the Indiana Toll Road and the Chicago Skyway. Between the two, they cost more than the tickets.

We took advantage of the shuttle service the Cubs have for weekend and night games. We parked at the remote lot and took a CTA bus to the ballpark, avoiding having to drive in all the ballpark traffic. And the cost to park and ride was very reasonable, only $6, though it was more than the tickets!

We got to the game about 45 minutes early and decided to have lunch on the rooftop patio behind the pressbox. The cost of the hotdogs, beer and pop was well above the price of the tickets. In fact, just the beer alone (Old Style of course!) was more than the tickets.

Then it was time to settle in for the game. Rodrigo Lopez started for the Cubs and gave up a run in the first. I thought we were going to be in for a long day. But the Cubs got the run back; actually Tony Campana got the run back. He walked, went to second on a fielders choice, stole third and then scored when the throw went into the outfield. One run, no hits.

Then both pitchers settled down. The only other run in the game was on a homer by Cubs September call-up Bryan LaHair. Lopez went six, the bullpen worked out of some jams, and the Cubs won 2-1.

It was their 4,000 win at Wrigley Field, and they became the third franchise to win that many in their home park (the Red Sox at Fenway and the Yankees at Old Yankee Stadium were the others).

Though it was a bit chilly in the upper deck, it was a beautiful day and a nice win for the Cubs. On the way home we stopped at one of the rest areas along the Indiana Toll Road. After finishing our supper, we had ice cream at the Dairy Queen. The two cones and a blizzard cost more than our three tickets!