To Go or Not To Go: An Opening Day Conundrum

I've been to Opening Day for the past three years now and this would be my fourth year in a row. Basically, since I moved back to Wisconsin I have gone to Opening Day every year. I've had good times and I've had bad. I've had girls hold my hand because they were drunk (or as I like to call it, second base), I've had a fight broken up because the other person liked Kobe Bryant just a little too much, I've gone crazy for my favorite player and I've dealt with that traffic that you see in the picture. It's always been fun, but so has every Brewers game that I've ever been to. (Well, except for that one.) I guess the question I am asking is, does a good Opening Day matter? Should I even bother? I mean, as a person who is kind of crazy about baseball, a person who spends a lot of his free time writing about it for free on a website, you'd think that I'd be a shoo-in for Opening Day, but lately I've been questioning it.

For the second year in a row I spent too much money on a 20 game package. With this package you get the option to buy tickets before they go on sale to the public. Only this time I didn't do that. I think I forgot, but really I didn't care. If there's one thing I've learned it's that I can easily get tickets to any game I want to go to. This includes Opening Day. Currently on stubhub there are over 300 listings and when you add in ebay, craigslist and everywhere else there is anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 tickets available. If you want to go, you can go. Of course, if you want to go you are going to have to pay for it. People are selling tickets for two to four times face value (Marquee game face value, at that) and getting it. It's kind of crazy, really. It's gotten to the point where I am seriously starting to ask myself, is it worth it? I could go Tuesday and Wednesday for the same price or less than I can on Monday. Is that worth it? Wouldn't I rather have fun on both days?

Then again, I haven't been to a baseball game since late September and I don't really remember it all that well. According to this post, they won. Prince hit a homerun, there was Trevor Time, readers talked to me and I drank a lot so that must have been pretty fun for me. For many people their last game was the Saturday game that saw Braun hit a walkoff or the final home game that saw the Brewers lose, but Gamel hit a three run shot. No matter when your last time was, those games were a long, long time ago.

And I miss Miller Park. I miss it bad and I want to go back and do it all over again. I want to get drunk and creepily stare at the girl in the pink Hardy jersey, even though I know it's wrong. I want to eat something that I saw on Food, Inc. I want to go to the bathroom and hear Bob Uecker's voice. I want, no, I need to go to a real baseball game and I need to do that as soon as possible.

Going to Opening Day isn't really a fiscally responsible decision. It's just not. For what I spend on that day I could probably buy a four pack of tickets and still have money left over to contribute to Haiti relief, but... it's Opening Day. It's my first chance of the year to spend too much money, drink too much beer and eat too much food. What am I supposed to do, just let that chance pass me by? Are you kidding me? I have to go. It's Opening Day.