Ticket Quest Part 2

So, I realize alot of people either LIVED or heard about this drama already... But those that haven't, have requested the rest of the story.
So after my beautiful plan of getting tickets at Wrigley went up in smoke (or more accurately froze to death), phase two had to be implemented. A little background, 3 years ago, the Cubs started by adding some amazing seat on areas that were previously considered ON the field, 280 behind home plate (stretching from dugout to dugout) [DUGOUT BOX] and 70 (stretching from the visitors dugout to the bullpen) [BULLPEN BOX]. Last year, they added a special section in the bleachers called Bleachers Box which is in the outfield, but have reserved seats (as opposed to the general admission of the rest of the outfield bleachers) and real seats. The beauty of these three sections, is they go on sale individually, through an internet lottery system... giving a time to purchase tickets and there are NO season tickets available for these seats. So HA on all those rich and coporate people that suck up all the good seats. That said, this online lottery is no gimme. Additionally, they are PRICEY. Although I would definitely say largely worth the the price. The first year I entered and of course got nothing. The second year, I entered, and won the FIRST time slot. That meant ANY game I wanted, any seats... This was right before the election at Valpo and should of have been an indicator of bad things to come. In any event, on May 22, I sat in Row A behind home plate for in my opinion one of the best interleague rivalries in the best baseball cities in the country. It was a glorious day complete with a Cubs victory. The next year, I had friends and family enter and I had 3 times, but none of those first slots, so I got tickets to the three different sections, to various games (I had already bought Cubs Sox tickets in the regular stadium from a season ticket holder... The cubs won again, clearly, the cubs beat the sox when I am there, thus highlighting the importance of my presence. At this point, I've now sat in all the sections and know the pros/cons and price value for each. The bullpen seats are unbelievable, but for $255 it's alot. The dugout seats are almost as great, ESPECIALLY if you're a fan of the visiting team as you are practically IN their dugout and can talk with the players in between innings, and cost only $155. The bleacher box really are nothing special, and while they cost significantly less $65, they really aren't better than any other seat. The slight advantage is since they are reserved you don't have to to camp out in line for your seats liek you do for the rest of the outfield, but for the $$ not worth it. Although, they are definitely better than nothing.
So fast forward to this year. Since in the past year I've bought a condo in Chicago and am trying to adjust to a salary that is not all that high I decided in like February that I would forgo the lottery and the amazing seats... especially since I planned to go to Wrigley and get all the tickets I needed. Since I've got to Cubs Sox the last 2 years (with the same guy) it's become a tradition (a winning tradition for me!) that I really wanted to continue. So when I didn't get the tickets at Wrigely due to some major miscalculations, I turned to the only place left (before scalpers): The lottery. The scalped tickets would cost about the same and not be as good so it was worth it. Plus it's Cubs Sox. It's worth it. However, that first time slot can be really tough to get. Only one entry per email address/real address is allowed. Due to my moving and various email accounts I had 3 personally, and 9 total from all of my friends/family that I could persuade to enter on my behalf (and not be tempted to steal the tickets LOL). The lottery results come out: My three entries of course: Nothing. The others' responses slowly trickled in. Unfortunately, this occurred while I was in DC. All in all I had 3 people who won first time slots!! How incredible is that?!?! Let me answer: very. The moral of this story is while I am not a lucky person, I'm lucky to have the friends and family that I do. Of course, that is NOT the end of the story! Nothing is simple. So, initially I thought to myself, great, now I can go to the Cubs Sox again, behind home plate. But with these repeated opportunities, perhaps I should go to both weekend games?! Obviously that's not a super fiscally responsible move, but you only live once and I really believe that it's unusual to get these repeated early time slots. Plus it's not like I go out every weekend and flush tons of money drinking/partying/etc. This sort of temptation was one reason I didn't even want to get into the lottery to begin with. And of my 9 entries, I did get 2 other later time slots, but it's these FIRST time slots that are SO incredible. So after some discussions with many different friends who either share my passion for baseball or my fiscal irresponsibility, I finally figured out what I was going to do. I was going to go to 2 games, 1 behind home plate with the same guy continuing the tradition and 1 in the bullpen with a group whose exact make up would be determined at a later date. I should say that you get 2 days from when the times come out to when the tickets are actually bought and of course, my laptop died while in DC so I had to keep going down to the public computer and wait in a long line and coordinate via cell phones which I forgot my charger so it was definitely losing power towards the end... The actual time to purchase tickets was while I was literally in the air between DC and Chicago so I was forced to leave my credit card # and such with two trusted individuals while conveying how incredibly important this was to me. They knew but it's hard for me to let go of such a critical part. I get off the airplane and have 3 messages. Unfortunately apparently just because you have the first time slot you STILL have to compete to buy tickets and my saturday person could not get through before the Cubs Sox was sold out. My Sunday person did so I am going to one game, just as I had hoped before I succumbed to the allure of the lottery system. So while I was disappointed, it's definitely fiscally better this way and I know she did her best so it's ok. Still alittle disappointed, but I'm focusing on the fun that will be had on Sunday. The tickets arrived on Thursday and I now have them at the Condo so that's exciting. The net result: the tradition continue and now all I need is a Cubbie win (some nice weather would also be nice...)
Also in full ticket disclosure, a friend was organizing a group to come to Wrigley for Memorial Day and got a group of bleacher tickets so I'm going with them and I didn't even have to stress about those AT ALL! :-)
Overall: 1 cubs sox, and 3 other games during the year. Not as many as last year, but much more responsible and high quality. Plus in the summer we'll probably slum it and go to a few games at the Cell for the fun of it.
God I love baseball.