Last night, I went to the Chicago White Sox Sunday night baseball game – the first event of nine sporting events in the next eight days. The Chicago White Sox hosted Sunday night baseball for the first time since April 2, 2006 (I went to Wrestlemania 22 that night).

We arrived at US Cellular Field about 2 ½ hours early since Ultimate Dodger Fan Will was going to the ballpark for the 1st time. First, we checked out home plate from the old Comiskey Park which is in the parking lot outside of Gate 5.

Next, we went to look at the one bar I knew about in the neighborhood – Jimbo’s. Jimbo’s is similar to the dive bar that I like to go to before Cubs games. However, this is the only bar in the area surrounding US Cellular Field. Wrigley, of course, has about 30 other bars and restaurants to choose from.

Rather than eat there we ate at 35th Street Red Hots – a Chicago hot dog joint. The menu is very short. You can order 1) hot dog, 2) double hot dog, 3) polish sausage or 4) a bucket of fried shrimp. The hot dog and a drink is only $4 so a good deal compared to buying the same items in the ballpark.

Another plus of eating at 35th Street Red Hots is that most of the scalpers congregate there to buy and sell tickets. Yesterday, however, we only found one scalper who had a pair of tickets. We thought the price was too high at the time.

Instead we went to find our own extra tickets. However, there were a limited amount of extra tickets due to one main factor – we were really early. Also, the game was going to be pretty full. We started looking for tickets about an hour and 40 minutes before the game started. We did find a few extras but the scalpers were holding out for fans who wanted to pay more.

Ticket Buying Tip #6: Ticket scalpers will try to hold out to see if other fans will pay more money. There is no reason for them to sell at a low price early. Thus, if you want to save money buying tickets from a scalper you should arrive at the ballpark no earlier than 20-30 minutes before the first pitch.

We ended up buying Upper Deck tickets from the ticket window for $25 each. Since Will only had one chance to see US Cellular Field, he wanted to ensure his seat location and get into the park at least an hour early.