At the World Series, outside looking in
Road Trip at Home: After determining there's no way to get in to see the games in person, CNET's Daniel Terdiman decides to check out the scene outside the ballpark.
SAN FRANCISCO--Like a lot of people who live in or near the city by the bay right now, I'm trying to figure out the answer to a really tough question: how in the heck can I get a World Series ticket?
The answer, of course, is not pretty: you must have money, and lots of it. And since I don't really have any, and wouldn't really be willing to fork over hundreds and hundreds of dollars for a single ducat anyway, I'm having to face facts: I likely won't be getting to see the World Series in person.
Last week, I thought I had the perfect idea: Since my new official Road Trip at Home page was about to launch, I would make the case to Major League Baseball that it would be a good idea to give me a press credential for the series--which starts tonight, by the way, between the San Francisco Giants and the Texas Rangers--because my ongoing project is all about highlighting local flavor that has national significance. When the World Series comes to town, as it has for the first time since 2002, it seems exactly like something I should be writing about as part of Road Trip at Home.
Alas, as I discovered, Major League Baseball expected everyone who was going to cover the series to know they were doing so well before the teams that would be playing for the crown were even selected. I was told during the National League Championship Series--when it began to look like the Giants might actually beat the Philadelphia Phillies and advance to the Fall Classic--that the deadline had already passed for credentials.
That was a problem, but I thought I had an ace in the hole: I know an executive who works for the Giants, and I thought maybe he could help. I asked him, and he offered to try--but then the word came back that Major League Baseball wasn't granting any exceptions.
So, no credentials for me.
But let's be honest: That might have been a good thing. After all, if I learned one thing while covering the World Series for a major national newsweekly in 2002--which, by the way, was the same week as my wedding--it's that cheering is not allowed in the press box. And I'm not sure I could have forced myself to hold back my enthusiasm for the Giants this time either as they fought for what would be the first World Series title in San Francisco's history--much as it was in 2002, against the Anaheim Angels.
So it looks like I'll be watching the game on TV. San Francisco appears to be negotiating to host watching parties on giant screens near City Hall--so I may have to get my fix of being around thousands of fans that way.
For the time being, I thought it would be fun to walk down to the ballpark and check out the scene a few hours before game one. (Click through the resulting slideshow also promoted above.) There were hundreds of people there already, and I'm guessing a lot of them don't have tickets either. They, like me, just wanted to take in the atmosphere.
But I'm always holding out hope that some way, somehow, a ticket might fall into my lap. If you've got an extra one, and I know you don't, let me know.