Rain Checks

We were fortunate enough to buy tickets to last night's Detroit Tigers baseball game, yet unfortunate enough to have it rained out. Typical Michigan weather: late September but more like early November as rain and cold and wind lasted throughout the day and promised to carry on into the night, forcing postponement of the game until noon today. But so it goes; everyone knows the chance of a rainout exists when they schedule a trip to the old ballyard.

At one time when this happened you were allowed what was called a rain check. It was printed right on the back of the ticket itself, and basically it allowed you to turn in the ticket for a pass to another game, the reason being that you didn't actually see a game as promised. But no more; or at least, not at this point. We were told that we had to use the tickets for today's rescheduled time. No refunds, no exchanges.

Before going further we must concede that we understand fully that we are not necessarily entitled to a refund or exchange, and as the first 10,000 attendees to last night's scheduled game were given free replica jerseys from the 1984 World Series team it would be unfair to say that we came away empty handed. Further, we understand that we are entitled to a seat in today's midday match just the same. Still, considering that many ticket holders may not be able to make it back to the stadium today due to work or school or various other scheduling conflicts, it leaves a bad taste.

Especially as in days gone by you could turn in a ticket from a rained out game for a ticket to one which better fit your personal schedule. It isn't as though the average fan did something to cause the cancellation of yesterday's match. Things happened beyond anyone's control, and at one time baseball took note of that and made an adjustment.

Why no more? It leads us to believe that perhaps, in some small way, the leftists are right. Corporate America, of which Major League Baseball and the Detroit Tigers are a part, doesn't really care about the little guy. They have our money for our tickets and that's that.

We are not disillusioned but we are disappointed. We like to think that it isn't all about money, and it may not be. Rescheduling on all fronts is difficult at this late point in a baseball season. We will not cry foul. Just the same, the old way of doing business seemed to us to play more fair.