Baseball the business. A sad story.

[yeszir]

From http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05087/478631.stm

By Bill Plaschke, The Los Angeles Times

 

Aisle 25, first row, seats 1, 2, 3, 4.

 

Numbers to anyone else, but a life's work for Irving Zeiger, who has had the best seats in the house for as long as there has been a house.

 

Zeiger mailed his initial deposit for Los Angeles Dodgers season tickets while the team was still in Brooklyn, reportedly the first check Walter O'Malley received.

 

When O'Malley built Dodger Stadium, he rewarded Zeiger by renting him the cornerstone.

 

His seats were in the first row directly above the Dodger dugout. He was so close he could smell the resin and spot the tobacco stains. He wore a glove not for souvenirs, but protection.

 

For 43 years he has sat there, placing his diet soda on the dugout roof and autograph-seeking kids at his feet and embracing this town's last bit of unchanging real estate.

 

"It may sound funny, but to enjoy these seats with my family, to share them with others, I really had an emotional feeling about them," said Zeiger, 86.

 

Then, this winter, he received a phone call.

 

It was a strange woman from this strange new organization known as, well, the Dodgers.

 

The voice was cheery. The news sounded good.

 

The Dodgers had moved the dugout closer to the field and installed four new rows of seats behind it. But Zeiger need not worry, he could retain his four stadium-best seats directly above the new dugout.

 

It would cost him only $120,000.

 

You read that right.

 

It would cost him only $120,000.

 

Irv Zeiger has cheered for Koufax, screamed for Gibson, pumped his fist for Piazza.

 

But no Dodger has ever blown him away like that woman on the phone.

 

"I thought she was joking," he said. "She wanted $120,000 from me to keep those seats I've had for half my life?"

 

Zeiger was scheduled to pay $20,000 for his four seats, so the new figure constituted a 500 percent increase.

 

To move up four rows.

 

To watch a team that has won one playoff game in 16 years.

 

To support an owner who spent the winter breaking up a division champion while slashing the payroll.

 

And, oh yeah, the Dodgers would throw in parking and a pregame buffet.

 

"I eat one Dodger Dog every game, with relish, mustard and onions," said Zeiger, shrugging. "I told the woman, 'You want $120,000? Are you kidding me?' "

 

He said the woman laughed and said no.

 

Zeiger, a retired Navy pilot and aerospace executive who long ago built his Hollywood Hills home for less than $120,000, did not share that laugh.

 

He declined the offer and kept his four original seats.

 

But for the first time since the stadium opened, he won't be sitting there for the home opener.

 

In a protest that nobody will see, in a message that will change nothing, Irving Zeiger will watch the game on television from his family room chair.

 

He will pull a diet soda from the refrigerator while Bea, his wife of 60 years, turns on the stove and makes him a hot dog.

 

With relish, mustard and onions.

 

To him, it's not that his seats are no longer special, although they aren't, what with a wall and waitresses and four rich rows now separating him from the field his money helped build.

 

To him, it's the organization that is no longer special.

 

"I just don't feel like the Dodgers are my team anymore," Zeiger said. "I doubt that they are even L.A.'s team anymore. It's no longer about a relationship. It's about a business."

 

The Dodgers regret that Irving Zeiger no longer has the best seats in the house.

 

But, financially, they're not going to miss him.

 

They added about 50 seats in the first row directly behind both dugouts and sold every seat at $30,000 per season.

 

They added a total of 250 seats in the other three rows behind the dugout and have sold every one.

 

There will be a total of 1,600 new seats at the stadium this year, and most have been sold.

 

The increased revenue supposedly will help McCourt sign players, although he must have forgotten about the renovations when he was dismissing Adrian Beltre.

 

"There is obviously a demand for these seats," said Marty Greenspun, executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Dodgers. "We are trying to serve all the fans."

 

Meanwhile, pricing for 80 percent of Dodger Stadium seats remains unchanged, a kid can still walk up and buy a $4 pavilion seat, so it seems they're not trying to bleed the average fan.

 

Except, well, Irving Zeiger and other longtime ticket-holders consider themselves average fans.

 

"I've never met a player, I don't care about any of that, I'm just a guy who likes to watch baseball," Zeiger said. "I've worked hard all my life, made a better-than-average living, and I just like to watch the game."

 

He still has the stubs for the initial home opener April 10, 1962.

 

Those are the same seats he has today.

 

Zeiger knows his one-game walkout will have no teeth because, indeed, he probably will be back the next night.

 

He doesn't care. He won't apologize for being a baseball fan. He doesn't want the Dodgers to apologize for being businessmen.

 

He simply longs for the days when they were watching the same game.

[RedSoxRooter]

It’s funny how you lose perspective. Irving will actually have better seats for the game in his own home.

 

I pay close to $250 a year just to watch the Sox from where I live, and I’m not even sure I’ll get to see the rings handed out….

 

Just this week I convinced a friend of mine to take his wife up to Boston to see a Braves game at Fenway next month and hang out on Cape Cod. I found him seats to the game on Ebay. They are really good seats for the price. Two seats together (I guess that’s a big thing nowadays), first base side, on a line with the third base line about 30 rows up for only $300. I told him he wasn’t going to find a better deal anywhere but he was shocked at the price. To me, it seemed like a good deal. But he had to convince his wife so they turned it into their anniversary vacation.

 

A week’s vacation on Cape Cod, probably Martha’s Vinyard, and the most expensive thing they’ll do that week is see Fenway for the first (and probably only) time. Pretty sad, really. Baseball is starting to lose me.

[CalvnHobs6]

That's pretty depressing. But it is a business, as we're learning more and more through free agency and ticket prices.

[Sox fan in Tex]

Sad story.

[yeszir]

The guy may get a better view from home on his television, and some may deem it wasteful to pay the thousands needed for front row season tickets, but this guy has been supporting his team since before baseball turned overly commercial. I bet in the 60's he didnt need to break his bank account just to support his favorite team.

[element1151]

That is unbelievable.

[Phantasmo]

Hey, at least they still have $4 seats at Dodger Stadium. I object to the notion that this guy is the average fan. The real average fan would kill to have the seats he still has, or seats anywhere close to them. Of course I respect the guy's devotion, but front row seats have never been a necessary part of being a baseball fan. That said, $120,000 is pretty damn ridiculous.

[Sizzlin22]

It's scary what happens anyone noticed that the playoff tickets are impossible to get because all these big buisness men who want those tickets and pay extra to get it it's not right what about the people who cared about the team all year. What about the average joes who sat in the bleachers every game that they could. It's sensible what baseball has done but at the same time not....