One night after flying back from Europe, the Ultimate Sports Wife and I attended the Baltimore Orioles’ first ever visit to Wrigley Field. However, we did not attend together. Initially, Nicole decided she would skip last night’s game and attend tonight’s (Wednesday’s) Orioles at Cubs game.

Without having any tickets for last night’s game, I had planned to buy a standing room only seat or a ticket from a scalper. But, first, I walked over to our favorite rooftop to ask about attending Wednesday night’s game from the rooftop. My contact said the rooftop was full for Wednesday night’s game but that they had room last night. Of course, I graciously accepted rather than buying an SRO or negotiating with a scalper.

About 30 minutes after the game started, Nicole called me asking me where I was sitting. I said I was on the rooftop. “Are you kidding me? I just found a ticket for the game and was hoping to sit with you,” she said. Rather than waste the ticket, she raced into Wrigley Field and watched the game from the Upper Deck.

The found ticket is a mythical legend – especially for a team that has one of the most expensive secondary ticket markets in sports. It is greater than finding a $20 bill on the ground. It rarely ever happens and when it does it is hard to believe. Somebody almost always beats you to it.

I believe Nicole’s found ticket was the first I ever heard about. I personally cannot remember ever finding a ticket on the ground at any sporting event. I have been given plenty of tickets for free, but never picked up one lying on the ground. I used to be on the opposite end of the found ticket – leaving extra Oakland Athletics tickets on the ground in the mid to late 1990’s when I could not pay someone to attend A’s games with me. But Nicole found one so we attended the same game but had no way of sitting together. Good thing for text messaging.

For the first time since 2002, I saw the Orioles play. The Orioles won the game 7-5 after the Cubs made an unsuccessful comeback in the late innings. Bip Roberts tripled in the 6th inning giving him 1,000 hits on his career.