Enjoy Great Cheap Seats Behind Home Plate to Watch Your Favorite Baseball Team This Season

Good morning, Live Better than a Billionaire-a-Holics!

Are you feeling motivated this morning? I certainly hope so.

A lot of you must be already heading off to Newport for a mansion tour this weekend based on the enormous readership that yesterday's post received. Thanks for your support!

Today, we turn to the pennant races in baseball. Here in Boston, we have pennant fever as the Red Sox lead the American League East.

I don't know about you, but I've watched a lot more baseball games from the bleachers than from behind home plate. Those tickets behind home plate are always tied up by long-term season ticket holders. When those seats do become available, scalpers and ticket agencies often want hundreds of dollars for them.

If a billionaire wanted those tickets, no problem. They have all kinds of money. But they may not want to sit in the crowd.

How can you enjoy such premium seats for your favorite team?

I've learned several ways to do so over the years.

The first time I sat behind home plate in Fenway was when my college roommate offered me two tickets for a game he could not attend. Yes, he had season tickets. We sat behind Wade Boggs's wife and child. They were great seats and it was a wonderful experience. Why did he share those seats? Well, I swapped him two tickets for the Celtics who were then a tough ticket where I had season tickets.

The next time you go the ball park, wander around behind home plate and see if you recognize anyone. Then ask your friends and acquaintances there what they would like to swap in exchange for two tickets to a game. One time when I took a friend of mine to the World Series in Fenway, he found another friend behind home plate . . . and was able to move away from our seats at the foul pole in right field.

The second time I sat behind home plate was in the club that's perched atop Fenway where you can enjoy drinks and plush seats in air conditioned comfort. Our company used Verizon as its local telephone carrier, and Verizon offered bonus gifts based on how much money you spent. My wife shrewdly noticed that you could swap your bonus points for two tickets to a Sox game. We did and had a ball. We definitely felt like billionaires that day as we enjoyed the comfort and exclusivity of the club. While I was there, I got a telephone call from a reporter at Entertainment Weekly to ask me about my favorite books (I was and still am the #3 book reviewer on Amazon.com). The article came out a week later. All I needed was for someone to ask me for my autograph.

How can you do the same? Ask those you do business with if they ever provide tickets to customers and clients. You might be surprised. My brother-in-law has been getting great Yankees tickets for years that way from his accountant.

The third time I sat behind home plate was in Cincinnati. One of our clients had agreed to host a number of our other clients for a visit. The client was a rabid baseball fan. He wanted to take everyone to the ballpark for dinner. We said that sounded good. Our client arranged for one of the local banks to borrow their luxury box for the night. We had a gourmet dinner with three bankers who sat unobtrusively amongst us.

Banks often have such boxes and use them to entertain current and potential customers. Ask your friends who do a lot of banking business if they can take you to a game in a box.

My son taught me the best trick though. Every league has a few teams that don't draw many fans to their home parks. In the American League, Tampa Bay comes to mind. In the National League, it used to be Montreal and now it is Milwaukee. Your team will undoubtedly play some games in either Tampa Bay or Milwaukee before the season is over. You will find that you can buy inexpensive seats (at least compared to what your local ticket broker would charge) to those away games for your team. If you fly to the city on a discount airline (Southwest goes into Tampa and Chicago -- which isn't too far from Milwaukee), you can enjoy a great trip, have wonderful seats and still save lots of money. I suggest planning to see each game in the series.

Here are some of the teams that will be going to Tampa before the end of the season:

Red Sox -- July 25-27 and September 19-21

Yankees -- August 15-17 and September 13-15

Orioles -- July 22-24 and September 30-October 2

Royals -- July 28-31

Rangers -- August 19-21

Indians -- August 22-25

Angels -- August 26-28

Here are some of the teams that will be going to Milwaukee before the end of the season:

Cardinals -- August 8-10 and September 23-25

Reds -- August 12-14 and September 26-29

Giants -- July 28-31

Braves -- August 26-38

Pirates -- August 30-31

If these cities don't work out for your team, just look into which ball park your team will be visiting that averages the smallest attendance . . . and travel there.

Advance fares on Southwest Airlines are much cheaper than last minute fares, so plan to buy at least a month ahead. Sometimes Southwest offers "friends fly free" specials so look out for those as well. If you can go to a city that Jet Blue flies into, Jet Blue is often cheaper than Southwest these days, and you can watch baseball highlights on ESPN while you fly.

You can usually buy a hotel room through price bidding on Priceline.com for $55 or less in either Tampa or Milwaukee. You can usually rent a car through price bidding at the same site for less than $20 a day.

Now, what are you waiting for? Play ball!

Tomorrow, I'll describe how you can write and publish a book on the subject of your choice and make your book an Amazon.com best seller for less than five dollars a day . . . and make over $20,000 profit in the process.

On Saturday, I'll tell you about Jack Canfield's upcoming Success Principles seminar in Lake Las Vegas and how you can benefit from his billionaire secrets on less than five dollars a day.

On Sunday, you'll learn how to remove unwanted emotions, anxiety and stress to live your full spiritual potential through the Sedona Method.

Those who are selling mansions or real estate agents who represent mansion owners should pay attention on Monday. I will start my search for mansions I can live in and write about to help all my readers learn how to enjoy mansion living more.

On Tuesday, I'll describe insider secrets of how you can gain fame that's more positive than any billionaire enjoys.

Please feel free to let me know what else you would like to learn and I'll do my best to help in future blog entries.

May God bless you.

Donald W. Mitchell, Your Dream Concierge

Copyright 2005 Donald W. Mitchell