Sunday was fan appreciation day at the Rogers Centre, but Monday was cheapie fan appreciation day. The Blue Jays gave out a pair of 200 level outfield tickets to everyone who signed up for their newsletter and answered a few questions. Being a cheapie fan, I filled out the form and went to my 3rd Jays game this year (and 2nd free one).

I left a bit early from work, and after stopping off at home, headed downtown. How the deal worked was that you had to show up with your photo ID on the day of the game and pick up your pair of free tickets. I was a bit worried that there would be a huge lineup and they would run out of 200 level tickets, but even though I got there at 6:30ish, they still had a pile of good seats. I ended up with 3rd row seats! Along the way, I passed a ton of scalpers selling tickets at below cost, some advertising at 50% ticket price. I also saw a lot of people just giving away their tickets, because like me, they probably just grabbed two for the hell of it.

I met up with Horace, who also had a pair, and went in. Horace picked up his tickets in the morning and got 2nd row tickets, so I don’t think they actually gave out any 1st row tickets. They probably saved those for people that paid. A little while later, Rishi and Victor + friend showed up, but they were late enough that they received 500 level tickets instead of 200 level. After some phone calls, and a ticket switcheroo later (yay for extra 200 level tickets), they were able to fill some of the empty seats in our section.

The game itself was boring, but exciting in sort of a passive-aggressive way. The first half of the game was a pitching duel, with Marcum and Wakefield taking no-hitters into the 5th. This all changed when Wakefield gave up his first hit, a double to Jason Phillips, walked the next batter, and Alex Rios homered on the first pitch he saw. The Jays followed up with another 2-run homer in the next inning, but Marcum gave up a single in their half of the 6th which broke his no-hitter bid. He ended up with 10 strikeouts, which was more than enough for free pizza (yay extra tickets), but apparently the promotion finished the day before. But the 5-0 win meant that the Blue Jays is currently placed second in their division ahead of the Red Sox, I wonder if it’ll stay that way? Aside: What happened to the Bosox? I thought they had a good team, but the only standout in their lineup was David Ortiz. Aside #2: We were sitting in RF, which didn’t see a lot of action; the homers went into LF, but we saw a double (well we couldn’t actually see it due to the wall) and a huge foul ball by Ortiz that made it into the 500 level where we usually sit.

Afterwards we headed up to Burrito Boyz again. OMG why won’t people get tired of that place…

Posted by Kevin in Blogs Tags: baseball, elec2005, freebies, sports