None of this would have happened if Disney Sports President Paul Pressler would have let Bill Stoneman begin a rebuilding in December of 2001 by trading Darin Erstad to the ChiSox for John Garland and 2 scrubs. The permanent rebuilding of the franchise would have continued. Salmon would have been traded to the D-Backs, Percival traded at the July '02 deadline, no wild card, no division titles, no postseasons.
We would still be the Winged-logo losers selling 17,000 tickets weeknights and 28,000 on weekends - and that is assuming the franchise would not have been contracted outright. Remember all the talk about contraction? It is inconceivable now, but we were on the short list after Montreal and Minnesota.
Vlad would be a Dodger. We'd be ruing the impending free agency of Frankie. The notion of a bandwagon would apply to the Dodger fans who hopped on the trend with their '04 division title.
Season ticket Holders received notice of the price increases this past week. Tickets that cost season seat holders $6 in 2001 will cost $13 for the 2008 season. A similar seat in Fenway Park has it's face value listed as $23 on that team's website.
Since the 2001 season, this team has produced 1 Wild Card, 3 Division Titles, 4 ALDS appearances, 2 ALDS Series victories, 2 ALCS appearances, 1 American League Pennant and 1 World Championship. And that is after 14 seasons of being out of it pretty much every April, which followed the dissapointing decade (1977-86) of almosts and might-haves... well, the increase in ticket prices is absolutely reasonable.
It was just over 2,200 days ago that the Winged Logo uniform saw its final game. Since then, this franchise has been transformed entirely, almost beyond recognition. And nearly all of that change has been great. The controversies have only been over what was best for the future, never any entanglements with a tame, dull past.
It is OUR team, and we are being given an opportunity to pay for future success. Pitch in.