Legends of the Fall: For Sox Fans, It's Time to Take One for the Team

So it's wintertime in Boston, which means if you are a local sports fan, you're relying mostly on high school and college athletics to give you your fill of sports entertainment, at least until pitchers and catchers report for spring training in February.

The professional scene has provided us with precious little to cheer about this winter, with the possible exception of Celtics head fraud Rick Pitino threatening at a press conference last week that he is really serious this time about leaving the team at the end of this season.

Tell someone who cares, Rick.

Anyway, just when it seemed like things could not possibly get worse around here, the Boston Red Sox announced last Friday that they are raising ticket prices.

Again.

The price hike in and of itself comes as a surprise to no one, seeing as how the team has made it an offseason tradition these past four years. But a spike as steep as this one--the largest ever by the Red Sox and, as far as anyone can tell, the biggest in baseball history as well--was enough to make you cough up your Thanksgiving dinner.

The price of field boxes has soared from $45 to $55 apiece. Loge seats, meanwhile, have climbed $15 from last year up to $55 a pop next season.

Most of those seats, though, belong to season holders. The people hardest hit by the spike will be the average fan. Infield grandstand seats will now run at $40 apiece, up nearly 50 percent from last year. And a lower bleacher seat will now cost you 20 bucks, up 25 percent from last season.

For those of us who rely on walk-up purchases on the day of the game, standing-room only tickets will likely rise in turn, up from last year's $14 level. Which means that the privilege of taking in the game from the upper ramps of the left field grandstand in between the beer and bathroom lines will now cost you more than an actual seat in the bleachers did just one year ago.

Ugh.

But I am not one to complain. To others in Red Sox nation, however, everything about this price increase stinks, right down to the timing of the announcement. Never blessed much in the way of PR savvy, the Red Sox stupidly sent out a press release announcing the price increase in the late afternoon on the day after Thanksgiving. Apparently their thinking was their could catch people away for the holiday weekend and maybe avoid the Saturday morning papers.

Well, they didn't. And now every country bumpkin in New England is crying poor, whining that it's become much too expensive to take a family of four to the ballpark anymore.

To those yahoos, I respectfully urge them to cry me a river because I don't care. This whole woe-is-me routine surfaces every time prices go up, and I am sick of it.

Please don't get me wrong, I don't exactly have money to burn. But compared to Boston's three other major sports franchises, the Red Sox still offer the cheapest ticket in town, not to mention the best product for your money by far.

That's why Sox fans keep coming back year after year, through thick and thin. Last season, the Red Sox had the highest-priced tickets in the majors, and still the team set a franchise record for attendance. As one Boston baseball scribe put it last Sunday, Red Sox "fans roam through the turnstiles like grazing sheep."

This is not to say that Sox fans are mindless saps. Unlike other Boston teams, the Red Sox have shown a commitment to fielding a competitive team, and for all the years of futility this organization has endured, Sox fans can now see the light at the end of the tunnel. Otherwise, these booming prices would not be tolerated, which is more than can be said for the brainless puckheads in this town who follow the Bruins in spite of that team's tightwad of an owner.

This latest price increase by the Red Sox is proof only that the team is doing everything possible to compete with baseball's best teams, and given what Boston is up against, that is no small task. Sox CEO John Harrington simply doesn't have the seating capacity or the luxury boxes that Ted Turner has in Atlanta, and he certainly doesn't have the kind of sweet television package that lines George Steinbrenner's pockets in New York.

Yet the Braves and Yankees are the very teams that the Red Sox find themselves up against in this winter's bidding war for the top free agents. The man at the top of Boston's wish list, Orioles righthander Mike Mussina, is likely to command as much as $17 million per year, and if the Red Sox cannot pay him, someone else certainly will.

For those who go to Fenway to see a winning team on the field and not simply to make day trips, a slight extra cost at the gate is a small price to pay for a shot at a World Series. Most true fans will gladly fork over a couple extra bucks per game if it means having Mussina throwing every fifth day behind Pedro in the Sox rotation.

In a letter to season ticket holders, Sox GM Dan Duquette promised that all "the money that comes into the club through your support goes directly into the product on the field."

Given that pledge, the fans must hold up their end of the bargain as well. In times of national crisis, you don't question your government for raising taxes to fund the war effort. So must it be now with the Red Sox. As long as the team keeps its word and spends everything that comes into its coffers on personnel, everyone ought pay his fair share.

Because even if the Sox do reel in Mussina, the spending won't and can't end there. Last week there was talk that at the same time the Sox were pursuing Mussina, they were simultaneously talking with free agent lefthander Denny Neagle to bolster the staff even further. Adding a quality No. 3 starter like Neagle to the mix would be nice, but pitching wasn't the problem last year--run-production was.

So even if Boston inks both Mussina and Neagle to deals, the Sox will still need a bat. The team cannot expect to field the same lineup again next year and simply hope that everyone has better seasons than they did in 2000. Recent acquisitions Dave Nillson and Chris Stynes were nice pickups, but they are platoon players at best and won't cut the mustard in the everyday lineup.

All the necessary improvements will cost the Red Sox money, possibly upwards of 25 million over and above their current payroll--which, by the way, was third highest in the majors last year.

That is where the fans come in. For us, it is time to shut up and pay up. The days of bleacher seats for a nickel are gone forever. It is time to recognize that and move on.

For those serious about bringing a championship to Boston, the window of opportunity for this team is closing fast. Pedro Martinez cannot be expected to continue to perform at his present peak level forever, and too many people take for granted that Nomar Garciaparra will be in Boston for his entire career. If the Red Sox cannot pull off a World Series title now--when they have arguably the best hitter in baseball and unquestionably the best pitcher--God help us, because we will never win.

The moral of the story is that, given the urgency of the situation, none of us can afford to consider anything sacred anymore. Even Fenway is fair game these days. Fiscal demands have forced the Red Sox to install giant Coke bottles on the light towers above the Green Monster. And just this past September, the once-hallowed right field faade, which displays the team's five retired numbers, was forced to make way for a gigantically hideous Hood milk bottle.

So it is, and so it must be.

Until the Red Sox can build a new ballpark, if they feel the need to raise ticket prices or even sell off ad space on the left field wall to the highest corporate bidder, they can be my guest, so long as they bring in the talent to field a competitive team. Thankfully, most Red Sox fans will agree on that point, and thus, while this latest price hike may spark a temporary hue and cry, all will be forgiven by opening day.

Lastly, to those holdouts inclined to sew up their purse strings once and for all, get over yourselves and quit holding back your tithe. There are free agents to be signed, and it's time to ante up.