A Golden Ticket

This morning I received an MLB email with some headlines.  First one was NL East favorites add Schrezer so their goes another top arm to the Nationals for the Mets to deal with. Another one was how Wainwright couldn't open up kids on jars and had to have his wife do it. And there were some others but the below email promoted as staff pick their top destinations to use their timeless ticket really got me thinking. 

What game would I pick. First one to pop into my head after reading the article was of course the Mets World Series game, but then I got thinking. What would it be like to see the greats of the game play like Ruth, Wagner, Cobb, Robinson, etc play the game. 

So I still have yet to pick my game and thought it would be fun to see what fellow bloggers say. So leave a comment long or short on what game you would pick past or future. Go into detail if you want. 

But first here is a new card added to my trade bait. A relic of Nick Markakis from UD Sweet Spot.  I stumbled across this in the back of an old binder from a purchase years ago from a Walmart blaster. 

This week, the Brewers revolutionized the world of baseball ticketing when they released the "Timeless Ticket" offer for fans. Basically, for $1,000, Brewers fans can purchase a ticket to nine games in 2015 (including Opening Day) and one to a Game to Be Named Later. Any game. Opening Day 2016, future All-Star Games, Game 7 of the World Series. Everything is fair game.

That got us (the Cut4 staff) thinking about how we'd use that GTBNL ticket. And, more importantly, how we'd use that ticket if we could hop anywhere on the space-time continuum.

1. You can go to any game -- past or future -- but attending would not alter the outcome of the game (i.e. You can't use your ticket to take Steve Bartman's seat at Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS).

2. You can use your total knowledge when deciding which past games to attend. Basically, you'd rather go back to see Game 6 of the 1975 World Series because the game was incredible, even though you wouldn't have been privy to that information when actually choosing to cash your ticket in for the game in '75.

3. You can't pick your specific seat. So no garbage like picking the seat of the fan who hauled in an incredibly valuable souvenir ball. (No, you can't just pick a different seat and walk to the one where the ball landed. Don't make this more complicated than it is.)

Now, get your DeLoreans up to 88 mph and cash those puppies in.

Here are the picks from the staff. 

Mike Bertha - Game 3, 1932 World Series - The '32 Series featured the Cubs, a 107-win Yankees club and a record 13 future Hall of Famers, including the Yankees' Game 3 starter Lefty Gomez. It was Babe Ruth's last Fall Classic and the first ever in which players wore numbers on the backs of their jerseys. Ruth and Gehrig put more than a dozen balls into the then-temporary bleachers at Wrigley Field during BP before the game. In the actual game, Ruth homered in the top of the first and then he and Gehrig went back-to-back in the fifth. The Yankees won 5-2 en route to a four-game sweep.

Oh, and Babe Ruth might have called his shot on that homer in the fifth.

Michael Clair - Game 1, 1903 World Series - I would head to Game 1 of the 1903 World Series -- the first one ever held. I want to see Honus Wagner in his prime, coming off a season in which he hit .355 with 19 triples. I want to see a not-quite-in-his-prime Cy Young, but still a pitcher who won a league-high 28 games with an also league-high 341 2/3 innings. I want to see just how loudly the Boston rooters chanted "Tessie," instead of the modern, please-don't-make-me-ever-hear-it-again "Tessie" by The Dropkick Murphys. I want to be there for history being made. 

And, if possible, I would like to strap a Go Pro to my head so that we can watch this game in sparkling HD forever

Benjamin Cosman - April 2115 - I want to see the first MLB game played between teams composed entirely of robots. I'm not entirely sure how this will come to be -- if sentient robots form their own league that eventually merges with MLB, or if MLB teams slowly begin drafting robots, or if it starts with cyborgs and then slowly trickles down until robots have replaced every human player -- but I am confident that sometime in the next century, there will be at least two professional robot baseball teams.

And I want to see them play. Because let's be honest, humans are great and all, but our bodies age and decompose and are all-too susceptible to injury. Robots are eternal. I want to see a robot baseball game that never ends. I imagine it will be the San Francisco Iron Giants versus the Houston Astrobots and I imagine it will go something like this:

Dakota Gardner - Game 6, 1975 World Series - That game had it all: an iconic location, absurdly high stakes, lots of offense, and one of baseball's most memorable and lasting finales.

With the Reds on the brink of winning the 1975 World Series, Game 6 at Fenway Park was a must-win game for the Red Sox. And, to that effect, it started out well -- Fred Lynn clocked a three-run homer off Gary Nolan in the first inning, giving Boston an early lead. But then, in the fifth inning, Sox starter Luis Tiant gave three runs back, kickstarting the back-and-forth finale. With the game tied going into the bottom of the 12th, Red Sox catcher Carlton Fisk stepped to the plate and launched a deep fly ball off the left-field foul pole atop the Green Monster, waving it fair the whole time. If aliens landed on Earth, and we were forced to explain exactly what makes baseball so magical, this game would be the perfect place to start.

Gemma Kaneko - First female MLB player - As much as I'd like to catch the 1968 Tigers, if this is a truly timeless ticket, I'm headed to the future. Reserve me a seat at the first Major League game featuring a female player. It might not happen for decades, or maybe Mo'ne Davis will be starting for the Phillies in 2027. But as long as Jennie Finch is striking out the likes of Albert Pujols, I'm confident the day will come. 

Matthew Monagan - "Game 162" Rays vs. Yankees, 2011 - Sure, I could've picked Bobby Thomson's game-winner, Babe's Called Shot, Mookie's roller down the line or Bartolo Colon's day of birth, but instead, I'm going to see Dan Johnson play Major League Baseball on Sept. 28, 2011. The 31-year-old first baseman who'd been out of the Majors entirely two years beforehand. 

The player with just two home runs and a .119 batting average.

The man they called "The Great Pumpkin."