"Sellout" streak officially over

As awful as it was to watch last night's meltdown from Joel Hanrahan, there was a kind of poetic justice about the whole situation. It was the first officially un-soldout game in nearly a decade, and it somehow seemed to mirror the tendencies of the Red Sox over the last couple of years.

Things started off pretty evenly, as the Orioles scored, the Red Sox evened the score, and then the Red Sox pulled ahead by two runs - but the Orioles closed the gap heading into the rain delay. I know I came into the game with high hopes, after seeing the Sox dispose of the Orioles on Opening Day.

The first part of the game was like a microcosm of the 2011 season: the Sox got off to a 0-6 start, but managed to pull themselves out and back into contention by midseason, just as last night's squad fell behind but stayed within reach of a win by the rain delay. Post rain delay, Daniel Nava and Jarrod Saltalamacchia hit two home runs, resulting in jubilation among the Fenway faithful, much like the incredible summer we enjoyed in 2011.

And then Hanrahan came on to close things out. After Koji Uehara, Junichi Tazawa, and Andrew Bailey each pitched a scoreless inning, Hanrahan came in and couldn't close the deal - like the September 2011 meltdown of the entire Red Sox pitching staff (and, even more specifically, then-closer Jonathan Papelbon's personal meltdown against the Orioles on the last day of the season).

Andrew Miller managed to come in and get the last out, but then the Red Sox could not score in the bottom of the ninth - an exercise in futility that resembled 2012 in its entirety.

And so whether you buy my metaphor, last night was the beginning of a new era for the Red Sox. Hopefully the end of the "sellout streak" (which was fraudulent by the end, let's be honest) can be a clean slate for the Sox. Even after last night's loss, the Red Sox are still in first place in the AL East. Alfredo Aceves takes the mound tonight for the series finale, and while I wouldn't have chosen him as the tone-setter, he definitely has something to prove.

Cheap seats in April

The Red Sox are absolutely desperate to get fans into Fenway this April. After the home opener on April 8th, ticket prices on Aceticket.com start at $9 for the very next game. Sure, it's for crappy bleacher seats, but you'd pay $3 more to buy them directly from the Red Sox.

The team fully expects the record-setting sellout streak to officially end this month - though, let's be honest, there were swaths of empty seats by the end of 2012.  It's hard enough to entice people to shell out for night games in April when they're optimistic about the team's prospects, but after the disastrous 2012 season, expectations are much more subdued.

Recognizing this, the Red Sox are offering all kinds of incentives to fans who show up to one of their seventeen games in April. To start with, they're offering free meals to children 14 and under (a hotdog, a juicebox, and Goldfish), which is a particularly cunning ploy, because how many parents bring their young kids to midweek night games?

For the adults among us, they're offering 2-for-1 Fenway Franks, half priced hot chocolate, and, perhaps most exciting, $5 beer.  According to the Red Sox website, they haven't sold beer that cheap since the 2004 season, and if you're the sentimental type you might say they're trying to recapture the magic of the Championship run. If you're cynical, you're probably assuming that they're trying to get fans so drunk that we won't notice if the team gets off to a poor start.

Either way, I fully intend to score some bargain-basement seats. It's been a long, cold, snowy winter, and I'll watch the Red Sox for $9 any day.

Sellout sham

Apparently Larry Lucchino and the rest of the Red Sox brass are ready to admit that the record-breaking sellout streak at Fenway Park is about to end.  Of course, anybody who was watching the last few weeks of 2012 knows that there have been empty seats at Fenway for quite some time, and it was obvious that the PR people were fudging the numbers to make it stand.

Lucchino has now predicted that the "streak" will end as early in the season as the second game of the year, citing lowered fan expectations and, of all things, April weather.  The chilly Boston springs certainly never stood in fans' way when we expected the team to perform, but these days our hopes are somewhat more measured.

I'm cautiously optimistic about this team: I think that if all kinds of things go right they could certainly be a contender - but if a few key things head south we could be looking at a second straight losing season, especially in a division like the AL East.  I do plan on taking advantage of fan disillusionment (and my recent relocation to Boston) to get to Fenway more often in April and May - after all, I'm a native New Hampshirite, and a little chilly weather won't keep me away, even if it successfully dissuades other fans from filling up Fenway.

Red is the new black?

I opened my email this morning to see the above graphic. I don't know who in the Red Sox front office thinks that most Sox fans are also fashionistas, but I giggled.  They're desperately trying to sell tickets, waiving fees on all Sox Pax today in an effort to extend that sham of a sellout streak.

The Sox have been relatively busy so far this offseason, signing, among others, Ryan Dempster, Shane Victorino, Koji Uehara, Jonny Gomes, and (presumably) Mike Napoli.  It remains to be seen whether this flurry of signings will influence fans or increase on-field performance.

The Red Sox were notable absent from the Josh Hamilton race, which was an excellent choice, in my opinion. Hamilton would likely have struggled under the baseball microscope in Boston, and the Red Sox are trying to stay away from long expensive contracts.

Will any of this affect the ticket-purchasing of fans? Will you be staying away because of a lack of Josh Hamilton? Will you wait and see how the team looks out of the gate? Or will you buy tickets as usual, and hope for the best?