Mon/Tues/Weds BP: Giants selling spring training tickets, despite lockout

Good morning, sports fans!

Yes, I opened up that greeting a little bit because what a weekend of sports it was, even if there was no baseball. I’m only a casual football fan, but man, what a weekend for it. There was game after game of heart stopping football in which we, as a society, got to see Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady defeated and got to witness the entire country (and even some folks in other countries) briefly become huge fans of the San Francisco 49ers.

But that’s not why we’re here. We’re here to talk about baseball. Which is, admittedly, a lot less exciting than the prospect of yet another San Francisco/Los Angeles playoff match-up, but it’s my job so here we go.

In petty news from the weekend, Friday was the birthday of both Brandon Crawford and Mike Krukow. Except the teams aren’t currently acknowledging that players exist. So the official San Francisco Giants Twitter account posted a tweet wishing Krukow a happy birthday. To which Crawford responded:

As Brady posted on Saturday, MLB and the MLBPA are set to meet again today to continue negotiations, but it’s only the second meeting since the lockout started. That does not inspire much confidence for this to be resolved before spring training.

And yet the Giants have the absolute gall to begin selling tickets to spring training games. Brady touched on this as well, but as it’s a slow baseball news weekend, and also the fact that Brady is ever the level-headed professional, thus limiting the amount of disdain he expressed, I would also like to discuss it.

As Alex Shultz of SF Gate posted on Friday, if the games do not happen, you have to request to have your money refunded. Which is an absolutely indecent scam.

I didn’t think The Audacity could get worse, but here we are. This is like textbook scam stuff.

If you can’t guarantee that an event will happen, you note that and say that if the games do get canceled, refunds will be issued automatically. What you do not do is put the onus on the ticket-buyer to facilitate a refund. They didn’t cause the game not to happen. But there will surely be some fans who won’t be able to navigate that process, and it seems that the Giants are happy enough to shrug their shoulders and pocket that money.

Needless to say, I don’t think you should give your money to anyone who can’t, within reason, guarantee you that the event you’re paying to attend will actually occur.

(Also looking at you, “When We Were Young” tour.)

Old, random MCC article for you to read

I wrote for this site when this was posted and I somehow missed this and am currently kicking myself for not having the Lou Seal on the iron throne miniature featured in this post. So let’s share in our disappointment.

Game of Thrones will be everywhere for its final season, including on the Giants’ logo (March 31st, 2019 - Bryan Murphy)

How many days has it been since the owners locked out the players?

It has been 55 days since the lockout began. And as Brady noted over the weekend, that’s a number with good vibes in these parts. So let’s hope today’s meeting is actually productive.