After 1 month what is the biggest suprise so far in the 2009 season?

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I'm going to bounce from the spot for awhile but I will be back at some point to argue with you about this hoops stuff again. Playoffs have been great this season. See ya up the road.

I'm out.

Cards

Greinke

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Toronto Blue Jays

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team Mully & Hanley
team Meatpants

Easily. They have lost an entire starting rotation to injury (McGowan, Marcum, Litsch, Romero, Janssen) and their closer (B.J. Ryan) and are 19-10 and leading the best division in baseball. Cito Gaston and JP Ricciardi have done a magnificent job.

On the bad side I'd have to say Tampa Bay. 12-16 from the reigning AL champs. Very disappointing.

Aaron Hill is in the discussion. Brandon Philips misses steroids.

The Kansas City Royals are for real, as the White Sox are finding out firsthand. The Bill Engvall-looking Trey Hillman has his team playing solid baseball atop the American League Central. Meanwhile, C.C. Sabathia really sucks for his new team so far, as the Yankee lefty is only 1-3 w/a fat ERA of 4.85, and struggled miserably in his last start vs. Anaheim at the new Yankee Stadium. C.C. went 6 innings, allowing 5 runs, 4 earned, with 8 hits, 1 walk, 5 K's and 119 pitches as the Angels beat the Yanks last Saturday 8-4. $15.2 million for that big lug?

One big surprise to me is that people honestly are not going to ball games this year. Maybe it was my naiveté about the economy across this nation, or my naiveté about people always making room in their budgets to attend sporting events, but it appears that almost every team is struggling without the spare corporate dollar to buy up seats.

Taking Wrigley and Fenway out of the equation -- how will teams do financially this year? Obviously you will sell out (or close to it) your rivalry games -- Comiskey will be packed when the Cubs visit, Miller will be filled when either Chicago team comes into town -- but the bulk of any team's season is against less than storied opponents. Will teams lower ticket prices as fewer people come to the stadium, or do they stand pat hoping the economy improves?

My second White Sox surprise is seeing Podsednik back in a black and white jersey. I never thought I would see him at the MLB level again after this spring training. Well, he's up to bat now with the winning run on third base, so I am sure I am jinxing him, but oh well.

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"All crowds boycotting football games shouldn't care who sings or takes a knee because they aren't watching." - Nas

with the way people have reacted to the swine flu, you are seriously surprised about this? doesn't shock me at all. whether it's overreacting or not, i think people are thinking they can't justify spending the $100+-$200+ it costs to take the family to a ball game where job markets are crumbling all around.

It seems even more rediculous now that it took Cito Gaston so long to get another shot...guy wins 2 W.S. and cant get another job...

$100 - $200+?

You can take a family of four to a MLB ballgame for under $40.


4 Tickets: $20
4 hot dogs: $4
2 Cokes: $2
2 Beers: $10
2 Bags of Peanuts: $2


TOTAL: $38

Where the fuck are you getting $1 cokes, $2 hotdogs, $5 beers, and $5 tickets?

Not in Chicago for an MLB game, thats for sure. And if you say Cincinatti, then between the cost of the game, and travel, you're way over $200.

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If you went to a Cook County Thunderbolts game and got all that stuff it would run 60-70$

It's Cincinnati. I'm not suggesting someone would road trip from Chicago. I was responding to Zack's comment regarding the cost of a game and attendance figures.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/press_releases/ ... p&c_id=cin

$5 Tickets

The $5 tickets are available for all regular season games except for Opening Day. The price stays the same even for Select Games: vs. Indians, May 22-24 and vs. Cubs, June 5-7.

Value Menu Concessions
$1 Menu Items (sold at two concessions stands, one in the Fan Zone and one on the first base side View Level)

* $1 hot dog
* $1 12 oz. Coca-Cola sodas
* $1 bag of peanuts
* $1 ice cream cup
* $1 Redlegs French Chew taffy

So how does that help a family in Chicago?

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newper's and Zack's comments were not about Chicago. Nor was my response.

But my comments/questions are.

I could give a shit if they are selling $1 tickets in Seattle. Not really economically feasable for me to take a family to a ballgame if I'm on a budget.

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actually, if the ballgame prices that have been stated are accurate, you could drive down there, catch a game, and drive back for less than $200. a tank of gas each way in my corolla is $70, and that would leave $90 for food and drink on the way there and back. if you ate cheap, you could probably afford a cheap room at the red roof inn if you got tired to boot.

thats all it would take to see a reds game! wow! im going!

Make sure you don't ask Lou or his coaches for directions.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

That was funny. They ended up in Pennsylvania.

The Flyers have lawn seats for 5 bucks and the food isn't that pricey, and it's the same product that Lou put on the field yesterday!

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I'm going to bounce from the spot for awhile but I will be back at some point to argue with you about this hoops stuff again. Playoffs have been great this season. See ya up the road.

I'm out.

Mariners
Kyle Lohse
Johnny Cueto

It seems like a broken record mentioning the recession, but it's the honest, painful truth! I was watching an episode of ESPN's "Outside the Lines" a few weeks ago, just before New York's new Yankee Stadium & Citi Field opened. While it only costs about $500 for a prime seat at the Mets' new ballpark, "OTL" reported that it cost $2,625 for a really good seat behind the plate and near the dugouts at the Yankees' new ballpark. Guess what? The Yankees just slashed that price in half to around $1,300, and that's for the best seat in that place. It's not just the Yankees & Mets that have had plenty of empty seats in the early going. Teams around the majors have felt the effect of this recession, not just at the box office, but sponsors have also bailed out this year. You may have noticed watching a White Sox game, for example, that Pontiac & Bank of America signs are no longer displayed at U.S. Cellular Field. Pontiac used to sponsor the "Fundamentals" deck for kids above the left field stands, while there's a really big Miller Lite sign that has replaced the B & O sign in right field. I don't know if I call it a surprise seeing empty seats at ballparks all over the majors...

Baseball attendance is down less than 5% and is projected to end the year down 3%.

You might even have a few extra coins to go sightseeing at the Creation Museum.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

well, it is the reds, so I'll call it a push...

Nas...for someone who tells people to reread threads pretty often...I gotta say Reread the thread Nasty!!

Did you guys hear that Dom Deluise died?

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man, my butt is really itchy today...

Scoreboard.