Going To The World Series (On a Budget)

Wealth is an extremely bizarre yet powerful human creation. It is generally agreed upon to be something well worth striving for but its exact definition is difficult to narrow down. (Put that dictionary away and let me get to my point before correcting me! :-p) Not only can it mean different things to different people but it can also mean different things to the same person at different points of their life.

Last week, I had one of those wealth turning points. I read an e-mail and for the first time in my life, I felt materially wealthy. Sitting in my inbox was a confirmation for a ticket to the 2011 World Series. I looked around in my room and smiled. This Life List experience was going to be different than all of the experiences before it.

How To Go To The World Series On A Budget:

All in all, my trip to the World Series cost me less than $500.

• Buy your tickets individually and you can get them as cheap as $100. I recommend Tickets.com. (To be 100% transparent, I splurged and paid $240 for my tickets on the ground level.)
• Get a hotel outside of downtown, prices generally won’t be affected by the game.
• Plane tickets are likely going to be your biggest expense. My advice is to pick a team during the AL and NL championships and buy a refundable plane ticket in case that team wins. If you pick the wrong team, there is always next year. Otherwise use frequent flier points. Special events like this are what they are best for.
• Follow the major airlines on Twitter. That is my favorite source of great deals. In this case, due to Virgin running a promotion, I got a ticket from LA to Dallas for $99.

So Was It Awesome? (I Want Juicy Details)

Simply put, yes it was awesome! The baseball was great but it was the people that made the experience fantastic. Let me explain.

My first thought after getting the ticket confirmation was that I wanted to share the experience with someone else. (My adventures are always much more fun when I can share them with someone). Unfortunately, when I checked the price of plane tickets, they had jumped 500% since I bought them during the promotion. Furthermore, the cost of buying a pair of World Series tickets was at least 6 times more expensive than buying just one. (Because apparently no one other than me buys only one ticket.)

Luckily for me, Mattea, the girl I am dating is far smarter than me. A little back story. (Character important is quite important!) We originally met when I was living in Argentina. She was studying latin jewelry design and I was pretending to speak spanish and getting lost a lot. (Soy perdido…) We both now live in States, but I am in California and she is in Arkansas. :-( Luckily, she is also a traveler. We are yet to see each other in either of our hometowns and instead have only met up in the US while both of us have been traveling. The first time in Napa Valley for wine tasting and now in Dallas for the World Series. Not a bad system.

As it turns out, Arkansas borders Texas. (I blame my public school education). I told her my news and she offered to drive down to come see me. Clearly, in addition to being smarter than me, she is also far nicer.

It worth noting that at this point in the week my wrist was broken but I didn’t yet know it. My doctor hadn’t yet called to tell me that the first diagnosis was incorrect and that it was indeed broken. That would happen the day before I hopped on the plane.

Fast forward a few days and I arrived in Dallas with a huge smile on my face. Before even stepping off the plane, I was surrounded by people who actually wore cowboy hats and boots. Not like a joke, they were serious. I was delighted.

Arkansas girl and I met at the hotel and immediately got started on a bottle of Argentine wine. (She also has better taste than me. She is clearly the one dating down.)

We spent the day exploring Dallas and discovering awesome Texan food. Point in case, AVOCADO FRIES. Yes, in Texas they have deep fried avocados slices.

That night, I excitedly drove to Rangers Ballpark. (I may never live it down, but I only had one ticket to the game. Awkward… sorry babe!) There was oddly very little traffic and tons of available parking. I walked straight into the entrance. (There was also no lines. Apparently, everything is big in Texas except for annoying things like lines.)

The ballpark was both packed and full of energy. All 52,000 people were brimming with the excitement of being at the World Series.

I sat down at my seat and was blown away by how awesome is was. I learned a very important lesson, when going to big events like the World Series always buy individual tickets if it is an option. They are a much better value. (You can always meet your friends in one of the standing zones to enjoy the game together.)

After getting over the shock of my seat, I met my new neighbor for the next four hours. His name was Tom and he was a with his Wife Nancy. He was evidently a simple man who made his money from oil and enjoyed working and his Rangers. He had a mustache you could wash a car with and a cowboy hat that doubled as a full sized umbrella for those sitting near him. What a character!

The game itself was fantastic. It was close and exciting in the middle and impressive at the end.

The biggest different between a normal baseball game and the World Series is that the fans are permanently turned all the way up to 11. Everything from a base hit to a bunt are ridiculously exciting. We stood for about half of the four and half hour game.

At the 7th inning stretch, I went on a mission.

What’s better than eating a Jumbo Dog at the World Series? Eating Ice Cream at the World Series of course!

Although I ate two Jumbo Dogs just to make sure.

The World Series is one of my favorite Life List items to date. It was exciting, fun and memorable. I met some great people, got to spend time with someone I care a lot about and was able to enjoy baseball at its best.

If you haven’t already, I highly recommend adding the World Series to your Life List. It turns out to be much easier to achieve than I initially thought.