We're In This Thing

Oftentimes, the anticipation leading up to an event is even better than the event itself.

It's the reason Christmas Eve is even better than Christmas. It's the reason the hours before a first date are better than the date itself. And it's the reason the weeks leading up to your favorite sport's season are among the most exciting of the year.

I could be just hours away from getting the Red Ryder carbine-action, two hundred shot Range Model air rifle with a compass in the stock and a thing which tells time for Christmas. This girl I'm about to see could be my soul mate. My team might win it all this year!

Hope springs eternal the day before.

We're only 13 days from Spring Training and with it enter a month-long Christmas Eve. We've all been hoo-ing and ha-ing about the Super Bowl, but at the end of the day, we're like race horses lined up at the starting gate of the Kentucky Derby BSing about who can take the longest pee. Baseball is back!

It's back in a big way this week with the release of regular season tickets for the Giants and A's. Eric has proudly pulled the trigger on over a dozen A's games and I've blown half a paycheck on 4 of the Giants' first 6 home games.

For all of you chomping at the bit for your own tickets, I offer you some advice after spending a few days scouring the Internet for the best ticket deals:

-Giants Regular Season tickets go on sale to the general public on Saturday, Feb. 5th at 9am -- HOWEVER, if you pay with a Visa card, you can begin purchasing your tickets Thursday the 3rd at 10am. Here's the details: http://sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com/sf/ticketing/visa.jsp?affiliateId=1N7112W1XI-36

-I discovered today, however, that you cannot purchase Opening Day OR Opening Night tickets during either of these times. In order to secure tickets for these games, you have to either buy season tickets or those egregiously priced 6-game packs in which they make you pay $30 face value for a Wednesday night game against the Diamondback which would otherwise sell for $6 on StubHub.

- StubHub appears to be the way to go at this point. I found tickets to both Opening Night and the Sunday game against the Cardinals for less than $30 per ticket. Face value for Opening Night is $50 for the same seat, so if you want Opening Night tickets, I suggest you snatch them up from StubHub.

http://www.stubhub.com/san-francisco-giants-tickets/?osid=hp_bb_geo81san-francisco-giants-tickets

- Furthermore, tickets for the first Series against the Dodgers are remarkably cheap on StubHub right now. Tickets range from anywhere from $14-$20, which would be cheap if they Giants were coming of an 80 win season. As defending World Champs, it's a steal!

We've reached the end of innocence for Giants tickets. They're big shots now, and us loyal fans used to grabbing a few $5 seats a few hours before a Rockies game on a Wednesday night may be in for a rude awakening.

The Giants are like Henry Roengardner in Rookie of the Year and we're Clark and George left to build the boat all alone. We're Ms. Vaughn's 3rd Grade Class when Billy goes off to hike school.

But you know what? Henry came back and helped build that boat. And Billy, well that, my friends, was a revolution. The Giants still belong to us. Sure, we'll probably see more hipsters on road bikes wearing the orange-billed cap because it's, well, hip. AT&T will likely be filled with even more suit-clad businessmen checking their Blackberry in the 9th inning. But a larger bandwagon, higher ticket prices and a Showtime series are part of the cost of being a champion. But it's a small price to pay for the team, and sport, that we love. For the love of God, cherish it!

So get excited! Giants tickets are on the market and we're only a few weeks away from enjoying a sunny three hours at AT&T Park.