The marketing folks at Minute Maid Park have cooked up an "All You Can Eat Thursdays" come-on this year. As someone who has experience with getting distressingly fat while watching others getting paid handsomely to stay in shape, I was curious.Here's the deal: The AYCE deal is offered in a couple of specific sections in the outfield deck. These seats normally sell for $7, but for $35 you also get a wristband that gives you unlimited access to a stand giving out nachos, hot dogs, popcorn and sodas. Even with Aramark's inflated prices, you'd have to eat a quite a bit before you make up the $28 markup on nosebleed seats. Perhaps I could have really taken advantage of this during my twenties, but these days a couple of hot dogs will satisfy me now. No thanks, I'll pass.
Nevertheless, I hadn't been to a ballgame this year, so I decided on a whim to go downtown and check out the newly reformulated 2008 Houston Astros in person, as they opened a four-game series against the Phillies. I bought a ticket for an outfield deck seat on the third-base side. (I know better than to get seats on the first-base side for an evening game, unless I just happen to feel like staring directly at the setting sun for two hours.) As I looked across the stadium at the designated AYCE sections, I could see that they weren't even one-third full. I must not have been the only one who did the money arithmetic and come to the same conclusion.
It was great to watch baseball in person again. Too bad the team couldn't pull this one out. Thanks to plentiful hitting on both sides (Roy Oswalt was a sieve tonight) the game had only gotten to the bottom of the seventh inning tied at five before I decided to head home at 9:30. At least I stayed around long enough for the traditional choruses of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and "Deep In The Heart of Texas." As I drove home, I listened to Milo Hamilton narrate the breakdown of the bullpen and Brad Lidge's return to Houston, closing the door on his former team.
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