I [Heart] Baseball
It appears that yes, great minds do think alike. Or perhaps it’s just that when pitchers and catchers report on Valentine’s Day, the true seamhead can’t help but make the obvious connection.
At any rate, hot of the heels of Nick’s post on the subject, I submit for your approval today’s Boston Metro Column: Feeling the Springtime Butterflies. Looking at the AL East as a whole, there’s plenty of reasons for Red Sox fans to be all of a-twitter about their team today.
Random note: I can’t tell you how refreshing it feels to go back to writing columns about baseball. As Madonna put it so well:
I made it through the wilderness
Somehow I made it through
Didnt know how lost I was
Until I found you
I was beat– incomplete
I’d been had, I was sad and blue
But you made me feel
Yeah, you made me feel
Shiny and new
Here’s to feeling shiny and new! Thanks, baseball!
(And here’s to buying cute Red Sox tees with hearts on them.)
January 23rd, 2008 at 9:13 pm
I think that’s just smart pricing. It’s a proven fact that Red Sox fans will pay much more for Red Sox related items than any other team’s fans will pay for that team’s items. Maybe you won’t pay more, but I’m sure some Rex Sox fan will. I bet some Red Sox fans will have a different logic, in which they say, yeah, Fenway is just better than those other parks, so it is worth paying more for a piece of a Fenway seat.
So yeah if a certain group is willing or able to pay more, why not charge them more? It’s the same reasoning behind charging regular adults more money to see a movie than seniors or students.
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January 23rd, 2008 at 10:42 pm
Nick, dynamic pricing and price discrimination are hardly new concepts, so if the Fenway pen/cuff links were twenty bucks more than the others, it wouldn’t be that big of a deal. But a whopping $80? That’s extreme.
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January 23rd, 2008 at 11:49 pm
Sarah, I was recently asked to go to a jello wrestling competition (in case you were wondering, the jello do not wrestle). But any thoughts I may have had of actually going were gone when I learned about the pricing structure:
Girls get in for free if they wrestle.
Girls who dont pay seven bucks.
A guy who brings a girl pays ten bucks for the couple.
Any guy who dares show up sans a member of the female gender pays $25.
How is that fair? I am not sure why I am choosing this forum to complain. Initially, it seemed like a good idea to mention this. Now I regret it and doubt its relevance. But I will hit the submit comment button anyway.
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February 3rd, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Sarah, I have to agree. I thought this would be an excellent gift for my Red Sox fanatic husband. But when I saw the Fenway pen was $80 more – forget. Perhaps if the Fenway pen wasn’t the only pen with a higher price I would consider. Or if it was more reasonable – $20 extra, probably. $30 extra, maybe. $80 extra – no way. It is just a pen for Pete’s sake!
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February 3rd, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Oh, my mistake… I guess the cheapest pens are $170, some are $180, some are $190. Only the Fenway pen is $250.
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February 7th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
Dear Readers,
We are the manufacturer of these products. Sorry that our retailer Red Envelope didn’t explain that Fenway is priced higher because it is of limited availibity. Yankee Stadium and other’s had their wood seats removed in the 70’s and replaced by plastic. Fenway is a small park and only 50% of the wood has been removed and swapped for plastic at this point. Therefore, there are less Fenway wood seats in the collector market, forcing the price higher. Availibility and popularity drive prices higher. Fenway seats are very rare and we could have removed them from our program, but our experience to date has shown us that Fenway has outsold all other parks but one. We hope this helps clear up the price discrepency. We appreciate your vigilance and the opportunity to clear the air.
-Tokens and Coins
1-877-558-7404
http://www.ballparkpens.com
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