We’re Off to London!

And so begins an account of my journey almost halfway around the world to London for the absurdly extravagant purpose of seeing the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees play two baseball games. Of course—and here I am rationalizing this whole adventure—these are not exhibition games. These games count in the standings. These games matter!

Bruce, a good friend of mine from the Rail Passengers Association is coming with me and, because this was my idea, I took on the responsibility of getting the tickets to the games. 

They went on sale in December and in the middle of last week the first pair arrived in the mail. They came from Ticketmaster in London and they were sent by regular airmail. But only the first pair.

The following morning, as usual I was sent computer images of the mail that would be delivered that afternoon and, sure enough, there was the image of the Royal Mail envelope containing the second pair of tickets.

But the envelope never arrived. The following days were filled with efforts to contact Ticketmaster in London. In one phone call, the Customer Service person said I shouldn’t worry, that she would have someone email the replacement tickets to me and I could simply print them out.

Fine. Wonderful. Except that the email never came.

And so, as instructed by yet another Customer Service person, our first order of business when we get to London will be to go to the Box Office at London Stadium, present copies of the email I received confirming the purchase of those two lost or stolen tickets. The missing tickets will be replaced …no problem!

Ticketmaster sent more than a thousand dollars worth of tickets halfway around the world by regular mail . . .  no signature required.

No worries? Then why am I worried?