As a sales representative, I guess this was generous of the Orioles to hand these tickets out to employees. I rode a bus up with fans from our Washington DC office to go to the games.
Through these Orioles Nation columns, I found out that the village manager of Lincolnshire, Illinois is also an Orioles fan. And he made a scan of tickets he had back when the Orioles were regular guests in World Series.
I’ve sent these tickets off to my friends and the same response pops up with all of them. Look at those prices. It’s the stinking playoffs and World Series games and they are charging peanuts. In 2009, the average World Series ticket cost $1,650. That seems fair as it is the one and only World Series.
A closer examination of Mr. Bob Irvin’s ticket stubs shows that his upper reserved ticket in the nose bleed seats cost him $10 for game one of the 1969 World Series. That’s the one game the favored Birds actually won over the New York Mets.
Please glance at the World Series ticket from 1971. It’s game seven between Baltimore and Pittsburgh. It’s the match-up between Steve Blass (how come he didn’t forget how to pitch before this game?) and the O’s Mike Cuellar. Mr. Irvin was sitting in section 35 row AA seat four.
That’s the front row. Heck, he could have screamed at Boog Powell at first base or try and rattle Roberto Clemente in right field. The price tag for that priceless seat was 15 bucks.
Granted money was different in those days. But you would think someone in the front office might have thought that you might be able to charge fans a little extra for World Series tickets.
It was just a different era in baseball. I once was stunned to see that Cleveland Indians backup infielder Jack Brohamer was making $100,000 a season. He was a decent player but didn’t he realize that he was making the same money in the early 1970s that it took Brooks Robinson a decade to attain in the sixties.
The most expensive ticket in Mr. Irvin’s collection is the 1983 terrace box. It was 12 years after the O’s had lost to Pittsburgh in seven games. And the terrace box seat went for $30.
What’s this all about? Should Brian Matusz, Jake Arrieta, Zach Britton, Wei-Yin Chen and Tsuyoshi Wada all pitch great, look for those World Series prices to jump up radically.
