Here's a dilemma (a nice one for a fan to have, I guess). The Rangers are going to make the playoffs, barring multiple improbabilities. I have never been to a postseason game. I really like this year's Rangers; I go to quite a few regular-season games. My budget is limited, though, and playoff tickets will be expensive.

So: do I try to buy a ticket for the "LDS" or whatever the first round is called, realizing that there may be no tomorrow? Or do I save my money in the hopes of attending a World Series game? What would you do (or for fans of actual good teams, what have you done in the past?)

I think you buy tickets for the sure thing. Buying tickets for the LCS or WS seems to be just begging for a repeat of '98 and '99.

This is kind of an obsecure question, but it was bothering me last night at the Yankee game: at what point did teams begin allowing fans to keep balls hit into the stands? I once found a newspaper article about two guys who were arrested for running off with the game ball, but I figure by the time Yankee Stadium opened, it must have changed because there is no way people were waiting for the ball to come down from a third deck.

So, anyone know?

In both 2001 and 2003 I saved up for the World Series with the Yanks.

But that was partially because I was traveling up from Philly and DC respectively for the games. And of course Josh Beckett kept from getting to game 7 in 2003.

It's a very tough call. As a Yankees fan, I'd tell you not to bother waiting for the Series because they won't be going, but that would just be mean.

Here's a dilemma (a nice one for a fan to have, I guess). The Rangers are going to make the playoffs, barring multiple improbabilities. I have never been to a postseason game. I really like this year's Rangers; I go to quite a few regular-season games. My budget is limited, though, and playoff tickets will be expensive.

So: do I try to buy a ticket for the "LDS" or whatever the first round is called, realizing that there may be no tomorrow? Or do I save my money in the hopes of attending a World Series game? What would you do (or for fans of actual good teams, what have you done in the past?)

Are the postseason tickets really that much more than regular season prices? Seems unless your budget is really, really limited you should be able to afford tickets to two games.

Sell your Cowboys tickets and buy both.

Have you checked into what the process is for getting tickets? Last year, the Rockies had three separate online lotteries for each of the three possible postseason series. I won the lottery for the LDS, which I guess was good, although it would have been nicer if they had won one of the games I attended.

I also had to buy tickets for three games, since at the time of the lottery, it wasn't clear whether the Rockies would have had two or three possible home games in the opening round. The other problem with the LDS is that, since the Rangers are not the Yankees, MLB will schedule the start of the game with no concern for the fans and maximal concern for whether it conflicts with the scheduled start of a potential Yankees game or with an NFL game. So you may end up going to a game that starts on Sunday night at 9:30.

The other problem with the LDS is that, since the Rangers are not the Yankees, MLB will schedule the start of the game with no concern for the fans and maximal concern for whether it conflicts with the scheduled start of a potential Yankees game or with an NFL game.

Given that the Yankees and Rays are tied and neither teams seems significantly better than the other, I would say there's a 50% chance the Rangers end up facing the Yankees in the ALDS.

Given that the Yankees and Rays are tied and neither teams seems significantly better than the other, I would say there's a 50% chance the Rangers end up facing the Yankees in the ALDS.

And the Rangers and Twins are separated by 1 game, so the second-best division champion mark is equally up for grabs (not that it ups the chances at the moment, though it does further cement them as a toss-up).

This is kind of an obsecure question, but it was bothering me last night at the Yankee game: at what point did teams begin allowing fans to keep balls hit into the stands? I once found a newspaper article about two guys who were arrested for running off with the game ball, but I figure by the time Yankee Stadium opened, it must have changed because there is no way people were waiting for the ball to come down from a third deck.

Fans used to give the ball back, when they were using baseballs until they basically fell apart.
I'm thinking the just-keep-it rule kicked in at the same time they started keeping fresh baseballs in the game: so, 1920 or thereabouts.

I would save up for the possible World Series game.

Bob, I don't want to suggest something that is just completely impossible, but if I were you, I'd buy a LDS ticket, in order to guarantee one playoff game and then at least get in the lottery for a WS ticket. I mean, put it on a card or something, how many WS games does anyone get a chance to go to (outside of Yankee fans who had to sell their souls?). With this plan, you get at least one playoff game and, on the off chance that they make a deep run, you get to see a WS game. That has to be worth giving up something else.

Again, no offense intended if it is just completely undoable. If that is the case, I'd go for LDS.

In 1884, the Boston Union Association team was the first to use two game balls, so that one could be put in play while the other was retrieved (Ed Achorn, Fifty-Nine in '84, p. 44). Achorn's book (about Hoss Radbourn and the Providence Grays) is excellent, BTW.

Also, to the Rangers fan from an A's fan:

PHHHHBLT!

Thanks for the tip on the Achorn book.

Thanks for the insights, too, on the ticket issue. Folks raise factors I wasn't considering. Lasorda's does get at the heart of the matter. To be sure of a ticket I'll have to go through a broker and pay a premium. But there's probably acceptable risk in joining a lottery for face-value World Series tickets, which probably cost about as much as standing room in preseason at the Cowboys Stadium ...

With my luck I'll win a ticket for a night when I teach and thus face a new dilemma, how to suddenly get "sick" in midsemester :)

If you go to the LDS, they'll make you wear that underwear, though.

I'd go for the sure thing. If they make the LCS, you can always re-assess your options and find a way to get tickets if you're really willing to. And you can always offer services in exchange for tickets.

I'd mortgage my house for Royals World Series tickets, which I guess is like saying I'd pay a million bucks for a unicorn.

how many WS games does anyone get a chance to go to

Damn you, Francisco Cabrera! Somewhere my ticket for Game One of the '92 World Series in Pittsburgh sits alone at the bottom of a drawer in a box office.

how many WS games does anyone get a chance to go to

Damn you, Francisco Cabrera! Somewhere my ticket for Game One of the '92 World Series in Pittsburgh sits alone at the bottom of a drawer in a box office.

This has been on my fridge since 1996. Sigh...

Rox acquire P Manny Delcarmen from the Sox for P Chris Balcolm-Miller.

A happy 75th birthday to Frank Robinson.

I won the lottery for the LDS, which I guess was good, although it would have been nicer if they had won one of the games I attended.

I didn't win for the LDS, but won for the NLCS...which of course the Rockies did not make.

Tom: were you at one of the games in the freezing cold? That's one thing a Texas fan surely won't need to worry about.

Puck, I was at the Sunday night game, which didn't end till well past midnight. I think it was about 35 at game time, and dropped from there. I was at the Monday afternoon game, too, which was a lot better - temps in the mid-40s, and it was nice to have the sun for a little while.