StubHub Communications Manager Cameron Papp said the Cubs-Cardinals NLDS could be the "highest-selling series for the postseason," according to Tony Briscoe of the CHICAGO TRIBUNE. Papp added of the series, which begins Friday night, "We're already seeing a ton of sales." As of Thursday morning, the average Game 1 ticket price at Busch Stadium was $140, the least expensive ticket for that game was "standing room-only, at $115, while a right field terrace seat cost $148." More customers from Illinois "were buying tickets to Game 1 in St. Louis than fans from Missouri." However, it is "impossible to know how many of those Illinois buyers are Cardinals fans." The average ticket price for Game 3, the "first Cubs home game, was $450." Prices started at $280 -- "and that was for a standing room-only ticket." The cheapest seat "was $324 in the left-field upper deck" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 10/9). In Chicago, Paul Sullivan reports the Cubs are going to "reward their baseball operations employees with a night at Wrigley Field." Cubs President of Baseball Operations Theo Epstein said, "We’ve actually invited all our full-time baseball operations staff, all the scouts and all our development people, when we host that first game at Wrigley, Game 3. They’ll all be there with their wives, which will be a really cool moment because they were all a part of it" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 10/9).
RED LIKE & BLUE: In Chicago, Rachel Crosby notes the market is home the Cubs and White Sox, but the Cubs and Cardinals "dominate the state" of Illinois. A look at Facebook data "showed the divide," but it also "revealed pockets of fans in other parts of the Midwest." The Cubs, for instance, "have a strong following in eastern Iowa." Baseball HOF Reference Librarian Cassidy Lent said a reason Iowans "may root for the Cubs" is the team's Triple-A affiliate in Des Moines. Crosby notes outside of Illinois, Iowa and Indiana, "a few hot spots exist" for the Cubs, including one in South Dakota. In Nebraska, a "handful of counties light up." St. Louis is the "epicenter for Cardinals fans" on Facebook, but the "team's reach can be seen in southern Illinois and Indiana, western Kentucky and Tennessee, northeastern Oklahoma, northwestern Mississippi and almost all of Arkansas" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 10/9).
ENOUGH ALREADY: In Chicago, Bruce Miles writes the Cardinals "have ruled the roost" in the NL Central in recent years, and there is "little reason to believe this well-run organization can't keep winning." But the big-market Cubs "have awakened, their stated goal being a run of 'sustained success.'" Cubs manager Joe Maddon said, "We're ready for some kind of a changing of the guard. But I don't expect the Cardinals to go away." Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said of meeting the Cubs in the playoffs for the first time, "I get the cool factor, especially for our fan bases. And fan base is the heartbeat of this industry" (Chicago DAILY HERALD, 10/9). The TRIBUNE's Sullivan writes this is the 12th time since '00 the Cardinals have made the postseason, and "everyone outside Missouri and downstate Illinois is tired of hearing about them." It is a "great franchise and knows how to win, but somehow the Cardinals feel the need to remind us constantly they're a great franchise and know how to win" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 10/9).
WHO'S ON FIRST? The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Matthew Futterman writes St. Louis "may be the only major market where the baseball team trumps all other sports." The players "work in a love bubble." Cardinals Senior VP & GM John Mozeliak said, "It’s an easy place to play." Mozeliak cited the city’s "combination of attendance of three million-plus, high TV ratings, a comfortably medium-size local media contingent, short flights to most opponents’ stadiums, and a high quality of life." He added, "If you like going to work, then you’re probably going to have a better time doing your job and probably be better at it." Futterman noted there are "some 75 Cardinals alumni who didn't grow up in the St. Louis area but have chosen to live their post-baseball lives there" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 10/9).
