Last night’s kickball game was crucial. Okay, not really in the scope of anything important, but with first place on the line, against the undefeated team, anything less than a victory over the light blue team would’ve been devastating. Yes, sky-falling devastating.

Going into the game at 5-1 against the first-place team sitting at 6-0, we knew a victory would send us into the final week as the number one seed because we had a better run differential (+24 to +15) and a victory would increase that as well as give us the head-to-head tiebreaker.

We started the game short one girl, which means we could only field 8, taking one of our outfielders and a catcher out of the starting team. A few mistakes and well-placed kicks put our team in the hole 4-0 after the first inning, and seriously had us all thinking blowout.

In the top of the 2nd, when we were about to kick, Raina showed up, allowing us to field a full team. While we took the field down 4-0 at the bottom of the 2nd, it was pretty obvious that our confidence was back, and after an easy 3 up, 3 down bottom of the 2nd, we went to work driving in 6 runs and never looked back. During the big 3rd inning, Meadows – the self-proclaimed bad kickball player – kicked in inside-the-park homerun that was as funny as it was awesome. As he rounded third, the pitcher got the ball and tried to hit Joe with the ball, only for Joe to avoid the throw with a well-timed leap that would cause him to miss home plate completely. In the mad rush to turn around and tag, Joe slipped and ended up crawling to get the touch before the other team could retrieve the overthrown ball behind home plate. That 3-run homer put our team on top.

Some excellent awareness and base running combined with conservative, get-on-base-focused offense allowed us to continue to drive in runs through the final innings. While the other team was able to get one run in the 5th and 6th inning, our defense picked up their play and we were able to close out the game with ease, with the final out coming on a strikeout from Megan, our pitcher. Yes, it really is possible to strikeout in kickball, and last night was the second time this season that we’ve ended the game that way.

One funny note is that the other team, having the last at-bat, switched their batting order to allow their best kickers to kick. We noticed immediately, but we’re not exactly “that” team – you know, the team that constantly whines about everything – so we let it slide. Fortunately, their little unethical move didn’t work, and the game still ended 13-6.

With the victory, we’re now tied with the light blue team at 6-1, but we now have the head-to-head tie breaker as well as an improved run differential (+31 to +8) that’s 23 runs more than theirs. While we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, next week’s game is against the green team that’s currently sitting at 1-6. We need to make sure we have a full team, and we play with the same mentality as this week. A win would make our first playoff game at Armstrong, which as mentioned in my previous kickball post, is the field with the friendly right field wall. Fingers crossed.

I finished 3-4, with 3 singles, 1 RBI, and 3 runs. Last night will definitely go down as the night that Joe Meadows had more homeruns and more RBIs than me…and he’s been letting me know all day. Ha ha. I hope that happens every week.

It’s going to be a long season, but an extremely exciting one, if you’re a Ravens fan. I went down to Westminster on Monday to experience my first training camp, and I must say, it was a lot of fun.

I arrived around 8, and hunkered down for the day in my seat on the covered bleachers. I have to admit that I was really excited to see the team practice, especially the rookies. The whole “who’s going to be the Ravens quarterback” saga was something I was looking forward to with childlike excitement.

Troy Smith was the first person that I saw come out in the morning, followed by Flacco, followed by about 3 tons of offensive linemen. The defense came out wearing white game jerseys, while the offense was wearing the home purple game jerseys, and the drills seemed to begin very quickly. The whole practice only lasted for a little more than 2 hours, but it was a reasonable amount of time to get a decent glimpse at the new Ravens under first-year head coach John Harbaugh.

As far as the rookies go, I was incredibly impressed with Ray Rice, the 2nd-round running back out of Rutgers. I was really liked his speed, lateral movement, and ability to find openings. In all honesty, he looked about 50 times better than the Ravens incumbent starter, Willis McGahee.

I was also fairly impressed with rookie WR Justin Harper. He seems very fast, and looks like he’s got decent hands despite being stripped after one of his catches. Who knows if he makes the team…

There’s also been a lot of hype surrounding rookie safety Haruki Nakamura, but I think I missed a lot of his big plays when a large group of people who were too important to kneel down blocked the view of just about everyone on the bleachers. These tools must’ve been agents because they had a nice sheen of arrogance about them, yet they didn’t look like coaches or players. This caused me to move down to the endzone that the offense was driving towards. From there, I was able to get a better view of everything, plus from that perspective you can really see the quarterbacks and routes better.

Flacco didn’t look so good, but…and I hate this, all of his good plays had an air of Roethlisberger about them. That’s right, broken plays where he scrambled outside, buying time for his receivers, or simply running. I think he took one ball to the house on a 40-yard scramble up the far sideline. He’s not a bad passer, he’s just not showing me anything better than the other quarterbacks in camp.

As for the other QBs, I’m putting my money on Troy Smith being the starter to begin the year…and I’m excited about that. While he did throw a pick, which Corey Ivy high-stepped, hand behind the head Deion-style, for a would-be touchdown, Smith honestly looked the most assured out there. Where Boller plays it really safe and still messes up, Smith seems to actually move the ball. His mobility and willingness to make plays with his feet negates the talk of his height, and his ability to feel pressure better than Boller will be crucial with the patchwork offensive line the Ravens will be using. I also love how Troy interacts with his teammates between plays. He’s really a leader and seems to have the team behind him. Of course, I don’t see any Peyton Mannings on the field, but time will tell.

The defense…well, they’re banged up a bit, but you can tell which side of the ball is ready to go. Even without Ed Reed and Haloti Ngata, the defense was all over the run game, and they easily made the offense look stuck in Billick ball mode – short, safe passes underneath, and runs with little potential for a big play. I’m not sure they’re going to pose a huge threat to New England or Indy’s offenses, but they should be fine. Ray Lewis is definitely looking solid already…and that’s without Ngata in front of him.

Finally, the team under Harbaugh. This is my first training camp attendance, so I have no idea what it was like under Billick, but man, Harbaugh is working this team harder than I’ve seem some of the guys play in real games, and I like it. Yeah, there’s a lot of guys who are picking up little injuries, but that’s to be expected. Acute injuries are impossible to avoid, and they happen constantly in the game, but injuries caused by lack of conditioning and training are inexcusable at the NFL level. It seems like Harbaugh is going to weed out those who aren’t taking their conditioning seriously, and at a minimum, develop a team that’s ready to play 60 minutes every game – starting week one. Gone should be the days of a slow-starting Ravens team playing up to game speed in the first half of the season. They may not win a lot of games, but they’ll be ready to play.

My predictions at this super-early stage:
1) Ravens go 9-7
2) Troy Smith starts…all year, barring injury
3) Defense finishes top 5
4) Ray Rice scores more rushing TDs than McGahee
5) Heap plays 16 games
6) Clayton leads in TD receptions
7) Mason gets the most receptions

Late Saturday night, I decided that it would be fun to go to Ravens training camp on Monday, but why drive all the way down to Maryland for one day? With the O’s hosting the best team in baseball, it seemed like a good idea to visit Camden Yards for the first time in 3 or 4 years and enjoy a Sunday ballgame.

For $27, I got a seat in the first row in left field, which was a nice spot for me to utilize the 55-300 lens that Meadows let me borrow. It was a lot of fun being in Camden Yards again and taking in one of the best stadiums in the league. While Camden Yards isn’t the newest park anymore, the updates to the video boards are awesome, providing some of the best information layout that you’ll find in any stadium. Plus, there weren’t any a-hole ushers bothering me about my seat. I was even allowed to walk around behind home plate to take some pictures with the only thing said to me by the usher being, “be sure to not block the walkway for too long”. Wow! A far cry from PNC Park’s staff.

The O’s played really well, and while they’re still no where near touching a division pennant, they did break their 15-consecutive-Sundays losing streak. Pictures to come…

I went to the Pirates game on Friday and Saturday night – Friday for bobblehead night, and Saturday on a whim. While the Pirates lost both games to the Padres, it’s always nice to get out and catch a game.

Unfortunately, Friday night’s game left a slightly bitter taste in my mouth. Not for the Pirates as a team, but for ticket ushers and the PNC Park policy towards tickets. I’ve come to accept the craptastic qualities of the Pirates, but PNC Park deserves better guest relations for such a beautiful ballpark.

We have a group of 8 who purchased tickets for the bobblehead package – tickets to all 9 bobblehead giveaway nights – in the upper deck. On Friday, around the top of the 6th inning, Meadows and I decided to take a walk down to Manny’s BBQ on the walk behind center field. We took the escalators down, ate some awesome pulled pork sandwiches, and proceeded to head back to our seats where Nathaniel was waiting with our bobbleheads. When we arrived at the escalators, we realized that both sides were now going down (this must happen at the bottom of the 7th inning every game), so we saw a PNC Park employee and asked if it would be okay just to wait it out in the seats closest to the escalator as our friend was up there with our stuff and we didn’t want to miss the end of the game walking up the rotunda. That guy said it would be fine, so we proceed to sit in the last row of section 133, which is the section along the 3rd base line, lower level, closest to the foul pole (aka, not the most enviable seats).

Before we even get into the row, this old usher comes up to us, and asks for our tickets. We begin to tell him why we wanted to sit there and we’re greeted with a quick, “if you don’t have tickets here, you can’t sit here”. I ask why? What does it matter, it’s the 8th inning? He just continues to give us attitude and kick us out of his completely empty (no exaggeration) section. He tells us to take it up with guest relations, so we do. Guest relations tries to be understanding and offers us tickets in the lower level so we don’t have to go back up via the rotunda. We thank them and take the tickets, but still end up standing by the escalator waiting for Nathaniel anyway. As we’re watching the final innings from our spot behind section 133 (where you can stand, but not sit), we watch as the old usher systematically kicks anyone out who tries to sit in his section…even people who had better tickets and just sat there on their way out of the stadium.

Now, guest relations was correct in telling us that the usher was doing his job, and that stadium policy states that you can only sit in the seat that you have a ticket for. That’s understandable, but under the circumstances, I think it’s ridiculous, and the usher’s inability to be a reasonable human being made me want to punch him in the face (not a reasonable solution).

Let’s think about this. PNC Park is almost always empty. We have one of the lowest, if not the lowest attendance averages in Major League Baseball. His section was completely empty – seriously, not a single person was sitting there. It was the bottom of the 8th inning with the Pirates down, and hardly threatening to extend the game – meaning we were only going to be sitting in those seats for an inning-and-a-half barring a miracle. We were sitting in his section solely because we had to wait for Nathaniel and it was the most convenient location next to the escalators, which were only going down. With an inning-and-a-half remaining, a walk up the rotunda might’ve been long enough for the game to end and us miss the whole thing aside from watching as we walked up…or we could’ve walked halfway around the stadium to find the elevators, but I don’t know where those are other than the other side of the stadium. Of course, if Nathaniel decides to leave early, we’re stuck on either the rotunda or walking to find elevators. Either way, we would’ve missed more of the game, and most likely had to immediately leave once we reached our seats, so why was the usher such a chump?

I could see if the Pirates were drawing Yankees, or Cubs-sized crowds every game, and seats were at a premium. I could see if his section was full of people and he knew that the seats we were going to sit in were taken. I could see if it was the 1st, or heck, even the 5th inning, where we were going to be taking a real advantage of the seats. I could also understand if the escalators were working both ways. None of those scenarios were occurring, though. We didn’t have a real desire to sit in his section and just wanted to go back to our seats, but it wasn’t reasonable. It was convenient to meet up with Nathaniel to receive our bobbleheads, we didn’t want to miss the end of the game, and we were sitting in an empty section that an employee of the park said would be fine. Yet we’re greeted like we don’t matter.

The reality is that we, as ticket holders and purchasers, pay for his livelihood. PNC Park signs his checks, but the fans make those funds available, and yet this guy doesn’t look at the situation with an understanding mind. He didn’t care that another employee said it would be fine. He didn’t care that we couldn’t get back to our seats. He didn’t care that we’re always spending money, whether $5 or $35 to attend games on a regular basis. He doesn’t care if we drove from San Diego to see the Padres win. For PNC Park to be such sticklers about who sits where is ridiculous considering how few people actually decide to sit in the stadium at all. If no one is sitting in a seat, and it’s the end of the game, who cares?

Last year, in the last two quarters of the Colts/Ravens game and M&T Bank Stadium, when the rain and blowout score caused the majority of the crowd to leave, I walked down to the lower levels right behind the endzone. No one said a word despite me standing right next to the ushers and security guys. Why? Well, because it doesn’t matter to them. I’m just taking someone’s seat who left, maintaining the responsibility of the ushers and security – not increasing it – and I’m not sitting in a seat that’s taken. The whole ordeal was just ridiculous. If the escalators are only going down after the 7th, there’s absolutely no reason why fans shouldn’t be able to sit in the lower levels…especially at PNC Park.

As mentioned in my previous post, there was a donut eating contest Friday sponsored by the new Dunkin Donuts in Market Square. I knew about the contest, but I didn’t register as I wasn’t really into the idea of downing whole donuts before going to the baseball game…especially without any idea of how the contest was structured.

Of course, my desire to compete grew as Joe Meadows and I arrived and were told that the contest involved downing munchkins instead of whole donuts, and that each person had two boxes of 25 munchkins in front of them. I mean, munchkins are delicious and easy to consume, so the task didn’t seem as daunting as the concept of crushing huge glazed donuts. Plus we were initially told that each contestant had 2 minutes per round (2) to consume as many munchkins as possible, leading to me to think that I could probably down at least one box of 25 donuts per round.

Unfortunately, the contest was a pre-registration only event, so Meadows and I opted to cheer for some people we knew, and some we didn’t. We cheered particularly hard for some dude who went with the nickname “The Boston Creamer” simply because of his awesome nickname, with Joe chanting “Boston”, followed by me chanting “Creamer”. The fact that we had a large group of observers chanting with us was hilarious, but not as funny as the fact that The Boston Creamer didn’t even make it to the second round after only consuming 12 donuts. Just like in pro sports, I always seem to cheer for the average team.

It was a small competition, but there were two competitive eaters who managed to show up and crush every one else. The guy who won ate 28 in the first round, and 29 in the final round, which was a lot more than anyone else in either round. He went by “The Lord of the Wings”. We talked to the other competitive eater, and he said the guy who won had eaten 122 wings in another contest, so knowing that he only consumed 28 and 29 munchkins, makes me think that my early estimates of 25 per round were a little high – especially after we found out that the contestants only had one minute per round instead of two.

With my donut eating inspiration in full swing, I ended up going to Dunkin Donuts and pounding 32, not timed, just to get a feel for it. I felt like sugary hell afterwards, but I might compete if they have the contest next year. I’ll need to train hard since I’m more of a non-stop eater at a steady pace, not a 29-donuts-per-minute kind of guy. Oh, and munchkins are not as good as I remember them being. That might just be a post-Krispy Kreme mentality, though.

Regardless, Joe and I made the news with our intense cheering. Unfortunately, they only show us during the countdown, but you can hear Joe’s loud commentary throughout. The Boston Creamer chants would’ve been much more enjoyable. Check it out here.

PUMP (the Pittsburgh Urban Magnet Project) has been putting together “Stay & Play Fridays” all summer long in Market Square, which consists of live music, curbside beer vendors, and other fun activities – like a Dunkin Donuts-sponsored donut eating contest, for example.

Since I was going to be walking over to the Pirates game around 7, I figured I would utilize our early-out Fridays at work to just head across the bridge to Market Square around 5 to see Ten (Pittsburgh’s Pearl Jam tribute band), grab a few beers, watch the donut eating contest, and walk back across the bridge for the Buccos game. The plan went smoothly, and the night ended up being a lot of fun.

First, Ten. I’ve been reluctant to go see this band because I knew that it would be really annoying to see a tribute band for a band that I can still go see live…and a band that I’ve seen 20 times…and a band that owns live performance as much as any band out there. Plus, I had met the singer on the way back from a Cleveland PJ show in 2006, and I knew any dude with a voice like his was going to really have to reach into his fake vocals bag to mimic Vedder’s baritone – one of my biggest pet peeves. Dude, if you don’t have a deep voice, just sing the song with your voice, please. I have no problem with someone playing a Pearl Jam song – hell, we do – but I don’t use a fake Vedder voice. I use my voice with some Vedder inflection…big difference.

Of course, I’ve never seen a tribute band, so I didn’t realize that “tribute” meant…do everything exactly the same. The singer’s attempt at being Eddie Vedder was distractingly annoying – from the side-to-side hop/dance, to the way he held the microphone, this guy proved that he was a little too obsessed with Vedder and Ed’s stage antics. I’m surprised he didn’t climb something and jump into the large, but sparse crowd hoping for a crowd surfing moment during a solo, ala Evenflow or Porch, circa 1992. Of course, most of the people at this free performance wouldn’t even notice the singer’s vain attempts to be Vedder.

I will give the band credit for a few things, though. For the casual Pearl Jam fan, Ten rocks. The band is really tight and talented – which confuses me as to why they’re playing other people’s music. They incorporated a fairly long drum solo into one song, and the guitar solos were pretty good. For the bigger fan, Ten broke out some more rare cuts, like Lukin and Hunger Strike – which they actually pulled off well with the keyboardist rocking Cornell’s screaming vocal lines quite nicely. I might add that he looked like he stepped directly out of the early 90’s.

If you don’t look at the band, and just listen, the experience is good. I just can’t get over the singer trying to be Eddie. I actually felt embarrassed for him getting in front of people and trying to be someone else.

Of course, I always struggle with the concept of cover bands, and now tribute bands. You will never, ever, be Pearl Jam, Ten. You will never leave a musical imprint as a cover band or tribute band. Also, why go out and be a tribute band for a band that I can still see? I just saw Pearl Jam a month ago, so there’s no value in seeing another band try to be Pearl Jam. I definitely wouldn’t spend any money to see them. The crowds aren’t into it – which is one thing that really makes seeing PJ work – and they’re not offering me anything new. The only saving graces are that they’re at least covering music I enjoy, and the band is seriously musically talented. Also, the sound quality/mix was decent.

So, if you’re a casual fan and don’t care if you ever see the real deal, Ten’s your cheap solution, and worth the admission price. If you’re a serious fan, just wait until Pearl Jam’s new album and go see them. The authenticity is worth the money, as well as the crowd. Or better yet, go see Eddie Vedder in a town near you on his small solo tour. I’m sure you’ll run into Ten’s singer there while he’s taking notes…shake head…roll eyes back…raise brow…hold mic with left hand and hang your head down like your hanging from a cliff and looking down while shaking your head like you don’t know how you got up there…write my own amazing songs…use fake deep voice to compensate for not having a comparably deep voice…

Our kickball team barely won last night in a game highlighted by errors more than anything else. Going into the bottom of the 6th, our team was up 8-2, and rolling pretty comfortable until to our inability to catch and throw allowed the other team to score 5 runs and force a tight 7th inning.

Fortunately, we were able to get one more run in the 7th, and get out of the final inning without allowing another run (although they had the game-tying runs on base). I didn’t have to do too much in the field since the other team continuously kicked towards right field (I play third), so I didn’t have to add to the error total, but I also didn’t do much with my foot, either. I’m going to blame it on the ridiculously oblong ball we were playing with as we only had one big kick the entire game courtesy of Gary – who was filling in. People on both teams struggled with kicking and fielding grounders thanks to the unpredictable roll of “the egg”, as I kept calling it.

I went 3-3, with 2 singles, a double, and a sacrifice fly. I also scored two runs. It wasn’t a great game, but we managed to get the “W”. We have two more regular season games before the playoffs, and we need to win both to land the top seed and the first playoff game at Armstrong field – the field where I’m actually able to clear the fence on a consistent basis. Hopefully we’re able to stop making so many damn errors and allowing teams to win or fight back in games. Yesterday was simply ridiculous. Big thanks to Eric for buying the rounds after the game.

On Saturday, Meadows and I took a two-hour drive out to Altoona to catch the Pirates AA affiliate, Curve, play the Harrisburg Senators. It is sort of strange that I never went to a game up there when I lived in Johnstown, but oh well. Joe’s a big baseball fan, and he’s all about checking out minor league parks, so I figured I’d ride along since he had planned on going.

The game was pretty cool. I took a few photos, but as usual, I haven’t put them on my computer yet. There was over 7,500 people at the game, which is more than a lot of Pirates games, though it seemed that 5,000 of those people were kids who were there to watch the Curve get bested by the Senators 5-1. The fielding was actually pretty good, but the Curve had no offense whatsoever. I was actually amazed to see these minor league pitchers throwing 90+ mph pitches, as well as some dude crack a homer (Osorio for the Senators, maybe?). The stadium was pretty nice, though, for my first minor league experience.

Some cool things to note are the low ticket prices – with the most expensive seats being $14, and the roller coaster beyond the right field fence. A large beer was also only $6, but I opted for the delicious pulled pork sandwich and a Pepsi (especially after we missed Clem’s on the way out), which was like $8 with homemade chips. After all, we all go to ball games for the food, right? Ha.

Meadows did have to get his picture taken with the one Curve mascot – Steamer, the steam engine. He has a tradition of getting his picture taken with mascots, but it was funny to see him avoid getting his photo with the mascot that looked like a dog. Why? Well, he said the dog looked too much like a furry costume. Ha ha.

I definitely had a pretty good time. The small town vibe was everywhere, though, and while simplicity is fine, I was really glad when we got back to Pittsburgh. If I’m going to watch piss-poor minor league baseball, I prefer being able to walk from my house to the Pirates game.

Our AE kickball team got back to its winning ways yesterday with a 6-1 victory over the indigo team. We played relatively solid unlike a week ago, and our team took control early and held on with 4 or 5 3-up-3-down innings. We were playing at Armstrong field again, which is the field with the short fence, so I couldn’t resist kicking for the fences. I ended up with two homeruns, with the second homer hitting the fountain in the park and almost taking about some lady and her kids who were playing in the water…sorry.

A funny exchange occurred before my third time at bat. After my second homerun over the fence, my teammates overheard the other team plotting to intentionally walk me if I got up again. With a new pitcher in, he tried to throw 3 bad pitches, but I almost connected on one to send it out, sending it foul. With the pitcher’s team telling him to intentionally walk me, the ump said, “if you want to intentionally walk him, I can just let him go to first”. I wasn’t into that at all. I mean, whether I hit a grounder, get thrown out at first, or hit a lazy pop fly, I want the opportunity to kick, so I told the ump that I wanted him to pitch.

The pitcher was like, “Nah, you can go”, and my retort: “Nah. Come on”. He did, and even though it was bouncing and fast, I connected. Unfortunately, it went out to center field on a line instead of right field. Had it gone to right, I would’ve been gone, but instead it went over the center fielder’s head and I was left – with my team telling me to round for home – racing for an inside-the-park homerun. The pitcher, who I egged on to pitch to me, managed to throw me out at home with a ball that hit me so slightly that the two teams were debating whether or not I was out. I knew I had been hit, though, so my dreams of a three-homer night went out the door. I was still able to get the person at first home before I got thrown out, which allowed me to finish 3-for-3, with two two-run homeruns, a triple (2 runs, 3 RBIs). I was also proud of myself for not making any errors this week despite not wearing a finger splint.

Even with all of the fun and excitement of the game, my favorite part of the day occurred during our pre-game warm-up. In the outfield there’s a whole in the fence where people can walk through to the playground, but there was a bench blocking the opening. These two guys were chilling on the bench during our warm-up kicks, with the one guy laying down on his back with his legs up on the fence and hands behind his head looking up, and the other guy just sitting up. The one time I kicked the ball, it went high and towards the fence with the potential to clear it, but it starting dipping early and ended up hitting the guy laying down right in his belly. The sound of ball on gut, his surprised reaction, and the odds of the ball hitting squarely in the stomach and him not knowing it was coming, was classic. It definitely defined a fun night.

Mundis and I are heading to Chicago to see Eddie Vedder next month!

I was fortunate enough to land one pair of tickets through the fan club for night one, but no one had any luck grabbing tickets through the fan club or Ticketmaster for night two. I’m not sure if it’s the huge rush of people trying to purchase a small number of seats or if it’s some shady business practice of Ticketmaster teaming up with it’s subsidiary, TicketsNow.com, to make extra money by sending most of the tickets to the online ticket reseller and selling them for 2 times the cost, but every show sold out in approximately 20 seconds. Now, I know Vedder will draw a lot of people, especially in his hometown of Chicago, but 20 seconds? If the Auditorium Theatre only holds 3,929 people, and approximately 10% goes to the fan club for presale, there should be about 3,500 seats available for general sale. When you have three people on the phone all hitting “find tickets” about 2 seconds after they go on sale, and you don’t get any, something just doesn’t seem legit, right? Ticketmaster conveniently sends you to a screen telling you that “there are no tickets that match your criteria, but you can find tickets at TicketsNow”. Thanks. It’s a shame that Mr. Vedder can’t find enough venues that don’t use Ticketmaster.

The fact that StubHub, TicketsNow, etc. had a ton of tickets already for sale before the tickets actually went on sale to the public says a lot about how ridiculous the whole online scalping thing has become as well. I’m beyond sick of people buying tickets to events that they have no intention of going to just to make an extra couple of bucks. I watched the StubHub listings jump from 90 right before the tickets went on sale, to over 200 within an hour of the general sale. People were literally flipping the tickets immediately after purchasing them. Each refresh of the StubHub page would show another 5-10 listings. Am I the only person who wants these people to have a bit of bad luck smack them across the face?

It’s not like we’re talking about a lot of money. Most people might make 200% on each ticket. That’s not really a lot of money when the tickets are only $75 a piece. It’s just greed, and it’s extremely frustrating for those people who actually WANT TO GO. Unfortunately, a lot of people won’t pay the exorbitant prices, and the tickets will probably go to waste. It won’t be the first time that I’m at a “sold out” event and can look around me and see empty seats.

Whatever. While I have a personal ethical issue with scalping, our capitalistic greedy culture – constantly looking for any way to get rich quick without having to really work for anything – isn’t going anywhere. I guess I’ll just try to get used to it – and give up on mankind in the process. Well, after I buy a set of tickets to night two in Chicago and feed some pathetic scalper’s family for a night.

Regardless of all the frustrations that finding tickets was, I’m really excited to get out of Pittsburgh for a week, see the Silvers family, eat at the Bongo Room, and hang with Mundis. I even hope to catch a Sox game while I’m in Chi-Town! I can’t wait!