Resale ticket prices jump ahead of World Series title showdown

Resale ticket prices jumped Wednesday ahead of a winner-take-all title showdown between the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians in the final game of the 112th World Series.
The Cubs, who haven’t won the crown since 1908 in America’s longest sports title drought, and Indians, whose second-longest Major League Baseball futility run has lasted since 1948, are deadlocked 3-3 in the best-of-seven championship final.
And unless you know Bill Murray, the comic actor and long-time Cubs fan who gave a stranger in Cubs clothing a ticket for game six, the only hope for tickets was waiting among hundreds in hopes the team would release more standing room or the resale market, which had previously been a bargain in Cleveland compared to games in Chicago.
StubHub was listing tickets Wednesday afternoon as cheap as $1,100 each for distant seats and standing room with multiple listings at $20,000 each for the best seats at Cleveland’s Progressive Field.
SeatGeek offered cheapest seats at about $2,000 with many in the $5,000 range, some around $9,000 and one wishful seat holder seeking $11,000 each.
Cubs fan Karen Michel had her dream come true for game six Tuesday seeking a single ticket and as she was ready to give up saw Murray walk past and began to follow him. He turned around and surprised her with the gift of a game ticket.
“He turns around and says, ‘Here, here’s a ticket,'” she told Major League Baseball’s website. “And he kind of shuttled me into the door. I thought it was just a ticket to get in.”
No, it was a ticket to celebrity wonderland of Cubs fans and just a few rows behind home plate. She was beside Murray, a few rows behind musician Eddie Vedder and National Hockey League Hall of Fame player Chris Chelios.
Other Cubs fans came away with a great souvenir from game six, the grand slam home run ball struck by Chicago’s Addison Russell.
When the ball landed in the left-field stands, an Indians fan tossed it back onto the field, where it was retrieved by an Indians ballboy who spotted Cubs fan Joe Wright in the stands and tossed it to him.
“I’m still shaking,” Wright told MLB.com. “This means so much to me. I have two little boys at home that got to go to Game three with me so it’s very special for all of us. What an amazing moment.”