Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for August 29, 2015

Not a genius, just cheap.

When the Rat’s right, he’s right.

Hey, unless you can get a skybox filled with supermodels, highly expensive (and hopefully very good) catered food, a masseuse for when you get tired of watching he game, and several hi def TVs that let you see the game from every possible angle when you don’t feel like looking out the skybox, who bother going to the stadium at all? Rat’s right, and not just cheap.

I’m cheap like Rat. I’ve never paid to watch a sporting event. Tickets, parking and food are all too expensive, and the lines are too long. Not a fun experience.

I’m a pig person with season tickets.. all my friends are rats!

Good luck looking for HD in that wooden-cabin Magnavox

I like going to the Amvets to watch the Steeler games, good food, good friends and no line to go to the bathroom :-)

To me, baseball, football, and ice hockey are worth going to see live. basketball, not so much. Maybe if you could afford courtside seats.

On the plus side, though, no commercials. Honestly, it seems as though every time I watch a football game on TV it’s two minutes of the game followed by five minutes of commercials.

Try to go to one baseball game each year; the atmosphere is great. And I usually come away with one pretty good story about the crowd.

For me, no worries. I don’t watch sports! :D

When I was a kid a looong time ago, the best seats in Ebbets Field in Brooklyn were $1.25. Bleacher seats were 25 cents.

I’m so with Rat on this one. I can’t stand crowds, and it would be just loud, and obnoxious. I would rather watch the game on my 32" smart television

When you yell at your TV, the players can’t really hear you. Crowd noise, on the other hand, can affect a game. Home is a better place to watch a game, if that’s all you’re going to do; going to the stadium allows you to be a part of the game.

Having had the experience of sitting on the sidelines makes watching an event on TV more enjoyable. Even Nascar. The smell of the burning rubber, the feel of the rubber particles clinging to your skin, the extreme sound and speed of the vehicles. None of that can properly translate over a TV screen. The memories make watching “constant left turns” on TV much more enjoyable.

Why be rolled by the stadium when you can be rolled by the cable company for less?

I also dislike crowds, to the point of a mild phobia. But I enjoy minor league baseball games, and a WNBA game I went to wasn’t so crowded (alas) that I was uncomfortable, and good seats were inexpensive.

Sporting events these days are like science fiction or comic book conventions for non-nerds to get together. Too bad Pig isn’t going because the team could use the very specific “Go team” pennant he has.

I used to attend lots of major league sporting events in Seattle but the hassle of getting to the venues and the skyrocketing cost of everything once you get there has made it a ridiculous proposition. Now I watch minor league, small college and prep sports; just bought an all-season pass to home games for ALL of our local college’s teams (volleyball, basketball, baseball, fastpitch) for $50…and the parking’s free.

When I lived in L.A. I went to a Dodger game 4 or 5 times a season for 20 years – until that dingbutt from Boston bought the team. Got so disgusted with the whole operation that I transferred my attention to the D’Backs.

A true genius would have charged pig half price to watch his tv

Nothing is higher def than reality.

If one discounts some small-time stock car racing once when I was about ten years old, with my former-Marine uncle and my cousin, I have never been to a professional sporting event of any kind, despite living in an area with an abundance of such. That said, I do occasionally watch some on TV, mostly football. Like Rat, I find it much more comfortable, not to mention hundreds of dollars per event cheaper, to watch and snack at home. So, today, I side with Rat!

Sporting events are only worth paying for when you can see the players’ names and numbers on their uniforms without having to squint or use binoculars. …. and if they think I’m going to pay $2 or more for 12oz(or less) for a f-ing bottle/ cup of cheapo water, they are f-ed in the head….

That’s the way, Rat!

xxx

Not to mention easy potty breaks.

I’m not sure if it’s true anymore, but it use to be that a game wasn’t broadcast unless the stadium sold a certain number of tickets. If they didn’t have a full stadium no broadcast (at least no local broadcast).

He’s wearing green and gold so I assume he’s seeing the Packers and if so, those prices are actually cheap for Packer tickets!

I’m with Rat. It’s even better when you pause the game 20-30 minutes, then you can skip the commercials. Or pause it even longer and skip the half-time too.

The flag changes!

Exactly, Rat.

It’s not just sports that’s ridiculously expensive. Want to see a concert? You will probably be able to buy every CD the artist ever released for less than what one ticket to the concert cost. There are exceptions, of course. Back in 2011, I saw a double show, Chicago and The Doobie Brothers, at Concord Pavillion, for only $20 for seats in the bleachers. If you bring binoculars, you’ll be able to see the musicians as good as the people in the front row, and the sound system is good anywhere, even up in the lawn area above the rearmost bleachers. That concert was worth every penny of the $20.

Love how the flag switches from “go” to “team”

If you are going to waste time watching a stupid sports’ game, better do it on the cheap (with better food) and to actually be able to know and see what’s happening.

Huh. Who knew Pig was a Packers fan.

That’s why I don’t go to the movie theatre any more. It costs too much, it’s too noisy, I’m too short to see the screen unless I stand up, and I have better snacks at home.