Chapter 4: Play Ball!

I WAS SERIOUSLY giving that vacation to the Cayman Islands some consideration. In fact, anyplace where there was sunshine, white sand, and bikinis. I’d about reached the point where I’d give up the sunshine and white sand if there were still bikinis.

Well, sometimes dreaming things seems to preface them happening.

I’d done a minor job for the Mariners a year ago when someone hacked their ticket system just before the playoffs. I didn’t have any time to spare on the job. There was a significant threat of counterfeit tickets being sold that looked like they came straight from the team’s box office. There wasn’t time to mobilize the FBI. I found the hacker and totally destroyed his operation. Not only did I take down his website, I found all his original files, financial information, and bank accounts. I wiped it all.

The stupid punk actually tried to complain to the Mariners.

He came in. This time the Feds were waiting for him. He went to jail.

You can screw with the government, but don’t mess around with the American League.

It was the Twins that called this time. They had just completed major renovations to their facility in Fort Myers and wanted a full security review of the computer network. Spring training games would start in two weeks and players were onsite. It was a preseason test of their systems as well.

Florida in March. Baseball and bikinis. What could be better?

Ticket scalping is a huge business in Florida during March. The first thing I did when I got to my hotel was go online and get a ticket for that night’s game against the Orioles. There were only a dozen tickets left and I was glad to get one, even though it was $30 plus a $5 delivery fee. When I got to the stadium and paid my $10 to park in a field, I dialed the number I’d been given. The guy said to meet him on the main concourse where the flags were and with a description of me, he flagged me down immediately. He handed me my ticket and I went into the stadium, impressed that the box office delivered tickets out on the mall.

Of course, the stadium was only about two-thirds full.

I’d paid twice the box office price for the ticket I bought and a service charge to boot. But the website had looked official. I thought I was buying direct from the Twins. I’d used a VISA gift card to buy the ticket through a secure verified site that I recognized. But like thousands of other rubes rushing to Florida to get into a game, I’d just bought from a scalper.

Well, at least the Twins beat the Orioles.

I met Dave Henry, the director of corporate security, at the Twins office the next morning and got teased no end. He looked at my gray suit and tie and shook his head.

“Not in Florida, man. Are you sure we want you as our guru on this?” Dave asked. He was dressed in khaki shorts, a golf shirt, and sandals. “I left you a ticket at the box office. Instead, you go out and pay double to the people we’re worried about. And you show up in a suit and tie.”

“I just wanted to test the competition,” I said weakly. “Dave, that site made it look like I was buying directly from the Twins with a special concierge service. These guys must take a huge bite out of your business.”

“Well, no, they don’t. That’s not the problem. The tickets are all legit. They buy them, sometimes get a group rate for a block of seats, but still it’s a regular sale. Then they resell them. We made the same amount for that seat that we would have made if you bought the ticket at the box office. And the scalper makes just as much.”

“It doesn’t seem right to let the fans get ripped off like that, though,” I said.

“That’s where the problem is. Scalpers are responsible for anywhere from ten to twenty percent of our seat sales. That’s a sizable chunk of change, even in pre-season. These guys might get a small discount when they buy bulk. That’s business. The heavy hitters even buy up blocks of season tickets for the home stadium in Minneapolis. We think of them the same way we think of corporations and radio stations buying up blocks or season tickets and then giving them to employees or listeners. It’s a rare executive that actually attends all the ballgames they buy tickets for,” he said.

“You’ve got me there,” I said. “I can’t imagine shelling out that kind of money and not using the ticket.”

“Oh, they use them. They reward employees, have give-away contests, even auction them off for charity. Four tickets in the concierge section to a home game against the Yankees went for two grand at a charity auction last season. The corporate sponsor wrote the cost of the tickets off as a charitable contribution.”

“So, the corporation gets a write-off, the buyer gets a write-off for the same amount, and they get to go to the game, too? Doesn’t sound right.”

“Well, it’s not quite right. The corporate sponsor gets a write-off for the cost of the ticket. The buyer at the auction gets a donation receipt for the amount of purchase less the declared value of the tickets. So technically, they pay the cost for enjoying the game. Scalpers work the same way. As far as we can ascertain, they are a legal business and can buy and sell. That’s how scalpers end up with high price tickets for the playoffs and World Series. Season ticket holders have first rights to post-season tickets. It’s people believing they’re buying from us that creates the problem,” Dave said.

“Tell me what you want,” I said.

“Well, the commissioner is coming down on the individual franchises for ‘allowing’ the unauthorized use of Major League Baseball logos and images. We can be fined for it. Owners don’t like to be fined. Our lawyers have sent cease and desist letters to all the known sites. Most of them are ignored. Some get a response that says ‘sure,’ and then are ignored. In general, no change. We need to show the commissioners that we are acting in good faith to stop the unauthorized use of MLB and franchise look and feel.”

“Reminds me of the IOC trying to get Washington to change the name of its mountains because it was in violation of the Olympic trademark,” I mused. “Okay. I’ll need to do about a week of research and hacking before I advise you on an approach. Let’s say a week from today.”

“Your room is paid for and you have tickets for all the games in the owners’ suite here at the Hammond Stadium during March. Fort Myers Beach is twenty minutes away and this is Ivy League week. You should probably go down there to give your eyes a rest once in a while. I hear you work mostly at night.” I grinned at him. That was the bikini side of the equation.

I had an idea but it really was going to take some research to see if it would work. You can copy just about anything from the Internet, so getting images, logos, and even the color specifications from the team site or MLB was really no problem for the scalper sites. Of course, I could amp up the security for the Twins to prevent that, but that created problems for the webmaster and made legitimate use more complicated. I went to the afternoon game against Tampa, which the Twins lost handily, and then headed back to my hotel to start investigating. I hadn’t recognized a single name on the Twins’ roster, but that’s what spring training is for.

About four o’clock in the morning, I called it a night and crashed. At least the bed was as long as I was. If I wasn’t hosted by the Twins, I’d never have found a room in Florida in March. I’d heard some colleges were including a shared room near the beach during spring break as an option in their campus housing program. Everybody wants a cut of the action.