ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) – Scott McIlroy extended his left hand when a batting practice race sounded from a railing and hit him in the palm, the ball leapt into the air before grabbing it again while holding a mobile phone in his right hand.
Count texas residents and Los Angeles Dodgers fans among the first of the shortened season of the 2020 pandemic to capture a pre-game reminiscence, and among the first buyers of price tickets to watch live baseball in the first game of the National League Championship Series on Monday night.
Major League Baseball said it would promote 11,500 game-consistent tickets at Globe Life Field for the series between the Dodgers and atlanta Braves and plans a similar assignment at the same stadium when it hostes the first global series at a neutral site starting October 20. McIlroy got a call from a friend knowing that the Longtime Dodgers fan would have to drive the two-hour trip to the Dallas area.
The advertised attendance was 10700, not counting those who did not pay. Ticket costs ranged from $40 to $250 for the NLCS and $75 to $450 for the World Series, which is already sold out.
About 75% of enthusiasts gave the impression of meeting the requirement to wear a mask when eating or drinking “actively”. Some of them didn’t cover the nose or mouth.
“We wondered what the combination of enthusiasts would be,” McIlroy said. “In this new era we are going through, we were curious. When we arrived, we saw a lot of Dodgers blue there.
There were many Braves logos, and the tomahawk’s voice was audible when Ronald Acua Jr. intervened as atlanta’s first hitter opposed to Walker Buehler.
“They brought him in safely, and they were definitely given the adrenaline, especially behind in the game. It’s intense,” Austin Riley of Atlanta said of enthusiasts after his career from home to ninth sparked a four-point rally in a 5–1 win.
It is the first MLB game of any kind with enthusiasts since March 12, when five Toronja League games ended in Florida when the new coronavirus stopped spring education there and in Arizona.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in June that professional and school stadiums could operate at 50% of their capacity, and that MLB would sell tickets from the NLCS after a normal season in which attendance rose from 68. 5 million to 0. have sold about 31% of their capacity at AT Stadium
There are no tickets to the American League Championship Series between Houston and Tampa Bay at Petco Park in San Diego.
“It was strange to enter the area to be in a position before the game and see others in general,” said Kiké Hernandez of Los Angeles, who controlled the Dodgers’ home run only in a 5–1 loss. quite shocking to see everyone, at least for the first few minutes. This definitely added more to this game. I missed the roar of the crowd.
The last time enthusiasts attended a major league game that also mattered in Texas: Game 7 of the 2019 World Series in Houston, a sale of 43326 when the Washington Nationals beat the Astros to win the title.
This time, the seats were sold in teams of 4 in the new 40,518-seat retractable roof stadium, with empty seats between the price ticket sections secured with bras to prevent others from sitting there.
“It’s something new because of the new box and there were never any enthusiasts in it,” said Jeff Wood, a Braves fan who drove about 4 hours from Little Rock, Arkansas. “And with all this COVID, I have an idea about what I think exciting.
In March, Claudia Magallanes, her husband and two children drove from Carlsbad, New Mexico, to spring games in Arizona, and never noticed one due to closure.
When they learned that enthusiasts could participate in the NLCS, they recalled that they made the decision not to attend World Series games in Los Angeles a few years ago, it was a simple call to watch their first postseason game in Los Angeles. Angels, even though Claudia Magallanes was traveling to the airport on Tuesday morning for a recreational past to Nevada.
“Friday morning gives me the news, and I think ‘yes, yes’. So we’re all in favor,’ said Claudia Magallanes, who said those four tickets were paid in component through the cash they recovered. “I told him two years ago that we haven’t bought the tickets yet. “
Justin Farris, from the Dallas suburb of Dallas, had his Texas Rangers cap, with two children dressed in Rangers jerseys. It was clear why they were on their way to the new ballpark that enthusiasts hadn’t been able to see what was supposed to be theirs. inaugural season.
“I wanted to see him before anyone else,” said Farris, who said he would go to the Dodgers for the local Clayton Kershaw in Dallas. “And it’s going to be cleaner. It’s the cleanest. “
Eli Dills has subscriptions for the Braves and lives a few hours north of Atlanta. He says he hasn’t missed a playoff game at home in the two years, so he had to convince his boss to give him a day off.
Dills on his way home, and to paintings, after the first game, but the 21-year-old Walmart manager is already thinking about the World Series.
“I’ll be here a doubt, ” said Dills. ” I’m going to tell my boss, “Hey, man, you can come with me. “
___
More AP MLB: https://apnews. com/MLB and https://twitter. com/AP_Sports